Tag: Stress

Why I use Apple products as a minimalist

As a minimalist, it’s all about living your life according to a certain set of values.

One of my values is quality. The things I output or consume has to have a certain quality. In most cases, I buy higher quality stuff, spending more money in the process, to replace the lower quality stuff that I have to get rid of.

Most of the metrics I use to define quality are subjective while some are qualitative. It is usually the subjective ones that make me happy, bring me joy or reduce stress whereas the qualitative ones primarily reduce stress.

This is why I am more than willing to spend the kind of money I do getting Apple products, becoming a fan in the process. Their products have really good build quality, provided convenience due to the tight integration across the products, and simplicity.

Majority of Apple products are well built and well designed. The attention to details given to each product by the Apple’s design and engineering teams is rarely found in other products from other company. The solid feel, simple and clean aesthetic of the exterior, and being highly functional combined bring me joy. With their products, I don’t feel like I’m carrying with me a cheap piece of item that I get from a discount store.

The highly functional aspect of their products bring about convenience for me.

You see, inconvenience is a major stressor for me. All I want to do is to solve more pressing problems with the tools I got and not wanting to deal with the hassles before I even get started on solving those problems. Going through multiple steps to enable an option in a piece of software, the need to install and update device drivers that has no guarantee that they will work 100% of the time, the software not doing what you expect it to do, or it takes a while for you to even understand how to use a piece of software or application are such inconveniences. They stress me out.

And I’m sure everyone knows what stress does to one’s creative process, how stress prevent one from doing their very best.

Unlike Microsoft products, Apple products mostly just works out of the box. I don’t really have to deal with all the hassles I described earlier. Their products are also intuitive and simple to use. With that, the tools get out of my way and I can focus on solving the more important problems. When tools get out of my way, my time is saved, allowing me to do more things within the same 24 hours everyone else has. Time saved is the qualitative metric that I use to judge the quality of something. How much inconvenienced I am is the subjective metric I use to judge the quality.

Other than quality, the other value that is equally important is security. I feel safe when my data is well-protected and private enough. If my data is not well-protected and private enough, it means criminals and the government can use my data against me if they do get their hands on it.

That strips away my security, which increases my stress and unhappiness, which is not what being a minimalist is about. At least in my view.

Now, before bashing me about the naivety of my subsequent statements, I will state up front that I recognize Apple may change their privacy and security model that completely expose the user and make them less safe and private, and get to keep a plaintext copy of whatever your store or send but that’s another topic for another day. When that day do come, then I will re-evaluate again.

At least for now, I do feel safe with storing personal data on Apple devices and their cloud storage and trust that my data is not readable by anyone. Their devices like Apple Watch and iPhones come with built-in encryption that protects your data, including your fingerprints and credit card information. The MacBooks and iMacs with latest Mac OS support encryption through APFS and/or FileVault. Their software services like iCloud uses end-to-end encryption with keys that only you own for the data you choose to store there, preventing unauthorized access or views.

So this is why buying stuff and using stuff from a company such as Apple as a minimalist isn’t wrong. It is not wrong either to be fan. If it helps you to live in accordance to your values, then you shouldn’t feel guilty about the whole thing. You just have to be very intentional about it.

10 Science News Roundup #14

Here are 10 science news that I find interesting and important to take note.

First brain training exercise positively linked to dementia prevention identified – Aging research specialists have identified, for the first time, a form of mental exercise that can reduce the risk of dementia. Science Daily

Heavy drinking, smoking linked to visible signs of aging – Heavy drinking and smoking are linked to visible signs of physical aging, and looking older than one’s years, suggests research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. Science Daily

The brain’s helper cells have a hand in learning fear – Helper cells in the brain just got tagged with a new job — forming traumatic memories. When rats experience trauma, cells in the hippocampus — an area important for learning — produce signals for inflammation, helping to create a potent memory. But most of those signals aren’t coming from the nerve cells, researchers reported November 15 at the Society for Neuroscience meeting. Science News

Scientists Have Confirmed We Had Our First Ever Insterstellar Visitor Last Month – Astronomers have released the first results from an in-depth study on the suspected interstellar object that flew into our Solar System last month – and the findings are fascinating. IFLScience

Here’s What You Need to Know About That Mysterious Radiation Cloud Over Europe – After weeks of silence and denials, Russia has confirmed that it too has detected evidence of a mysterious radiation cloud floating above much of Europe, observing a dramatic radiation spike above Russia’s Ural Mountains. Science Alert

Deep in The Ocean, There’s a ‘Shadow Zone’ Where The Water Is 2,000 Years Old – The oldest water in the ocean didn’t reach its advanced years by accident. Science Alert

Earth Is Getting Hit by Too Much Anti-Matter, And Nobody Knows Why – Amid the high speed cosmic rays raining down on us from the depths of space are a handful of antimatter particles called positrons. Science Alert

Simple electrocardiogram can determine whether a patient has major depression or bipolar disorder, study finds – A groundbreaking Loyola Medicine study suggests that a simple 15-minute electrocardiogram could help a physician determine whether a patient has major depression or bipolar disorder. Science Daily

How Asian nomadic herders built new Bronze Age cultures – Nomadic herders living on western Asia’s hilly grasslands made a couple of big moves east and west around 5,000 years ago. These were not typical, back-and-forth treks from one seasonal grazing spot to another. These people blazed new trails. Science News

New Study Reveals Stress Can Affect Sperm – Stress is never good for anyone, especially if it is ongoing. It affects various parts of our lives and can eventually become unhealthy. Signs of stress can include symptoms such as sweating, sleepless nights, and even nervous twitching, and can prevent us to from getting on with day-to-day tasks. IFLScience