You're a Tool if You Revel in Your Tools (In Software, At Least)

Despite your hard work and effort to persuade everybody otherwise, the tools you use say nothing about your talent. In this case, I'm talking specifically about software.

People love to revel in their tools. "I use ProTools!" or, "If you're a real power-user, you're on Linux!" or, "OsX/Windows is sooooooo much better than Windows/OsX."

If You Suck, You Suck

There's really no way around it. If you're a hack designer, or a copy-and-paste-from-the-web coder, or a tone-def audio engineer, then even the world's most powerful software won't be able to bail your ass out.

If you suck, you suck.

Uh ... You're Not Talking About Me, Right?

If that was the first thought that popped into your head, yeah — I probably am. While I can't ask you to stop sucking, I can ask you to think twice the next time you open your mouth to shit out an unsolicited string of fan-boy-biased brand propaganda.

Flipping that mirror around, I'm also talking about me.

I'm gonna try and quit it, though. I'm gonna try and roll my eyes at the next iPhone VS. Android conversation I hear. I'm gonna try and roll my eyes the next time I hear somebody blubbering on about how Apple is changing the world. I'm gonna scoff and snicker at the next Firefox VS. Chrome or ProTools VS. Cubase or Dreamweaver VS. Coda drivel I come across.

I'm gonna try and just keep my head down and keep making cool stuff; that'll talk volumes louder about my quality as a creator than reciting specifications from product packaging and the latest keynote or press release.

Tools Don't Make You Anything

You work exclusively in Textmate? Bully for you; I bet a 12-year-old girl in the Ukraine works exclusively in Notepad ... and she's probably building the next YouTube. Make something cool with your tools instead of trying to convince the world of their virtue.

It's not what you use; it's what you do with it.

To all of us guilty of the above: Stop sucking,
/phil