So . . . I have been forced to go through a major change in my life recently. It has altered the way I work, the way I perceive information, and cast a pall over everthing last week. I was happy with how things were before, and then one minor glitch and I had to wipe the slate clean and start all over with a new way of doing things. That's right, I was upgraded to Windows 7 against my will. The traumatic story after the jump.
It all began when my work computer wouldn't start up last week. I asked the IT department for help and they tried to solve the problem, to keep things patched together for a few more months before my computer's change of life would need to be done. But the band-aid solutions didn't work, and the only remaining course of action was a new operating system. As a result, here I am bitching about it.
To say that I am averse to change is like saying Heidi Montag is vain and self-interested. I like things the way I like 'em, and I would rather use a less technologically advanced system (I was actually on Windows XP, having skipped one set of updates to Vista entirely). It is irrelevant to me that I might be able to do more on a new OS - I didn't want the change to the interface, the few days of work updating files, Outlook, iTunes, etc., and the general hassle of it all.
The odd thing is that I embrace the idea that there is constant uncertainty, volatility and variance in the world, and that the only constant is change. But those tend to be small, incremental changes; big change (depending on one's context, this could be viewed as "big" change; obviously, in the larger, more global sense, this is less than a drop in the bucket, but to me it has implications) is more disruptive and is therefore more resisted. It's kind of like earthquakes: tectonic plates are in constant motion, and most of that motion is undetected by us. It is only when change is resisted (i.e. the plates are stuck) that you have the danger of a severe earthquake, as the pressure builds up over time. When said pressure is released, damage can be done. If I had been updating small parts of my system every week over time, I could have had an even bigger change to my computer, but I wouldn't have noticed or cared.
And I know, rationally, that within a few weeks I'll have gotten used Windows 7 and I would then be equally resistant to change away from that system. I remember that I hated the idea of switching to Windows XP at the time (8 years ago?), and look at me know, clinging to it for dear life. And three or four (or, if I'm lucky, 15-20) years from now, when I'm forced to change to the next system, I will complain about having to leave Windows 7 behind.
After all, that's what we do with most things. I drink Pepsi, and if I could no longer get it I would be very upset. We stay friends with people that maybe we don't like so much, because they are familiar. We remain in a job we hate because the prospect of change, even when relatively risk-free (i.e. if another job prospect is lined up), is scary. A change away from my norm incurs mental switching costs, makes necessary a new search and possibly new learning, and requires acceptance of a substitute. So it isn't so much that my current selections are superior, but rather that the fact that they are my current selections makes them superior. The old "the devil you know" argument.
Again, the system change is my personal beef, and it pales in comparison to some of the other changes going on in the world (explanation of this qualifier - I almost didn't want to write this entry because of the changes going on in Egypt, which makes my complaint look extremely petty and egocentric; then I remembered that most of you probably already think I am extremely petty and egocentric, so I went along with it anyway). But the times they are always a-changin', and a change is gonna come, so roll with the changes, as Bob, Sam, and REO so wise told us.
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