I have been meaning to write this post even before I created this website. Every time I think about it, my thoughts go in a different direction. But every time the main theme remains the same. It only proves that this is a truly universal idea. Perhaps even one of my life’s leading thoughts.

This idea isn’t new — it has been around for ages — and I don’t say that it is my own.

We all know famous sayings, like:

Nothing lasts forever.

Change is the only constant.

This post is just my take on it.

How I use things

Let’s take technology as an example. There is no universal measure of value. Therefore, it’s impossible to say that something is objectively the best. What works for me at home is sometimes the last thing I would want to use at work.

There are many examples of similar products and projects that compete with each other. One year I use Ubuntu, the next year I switch to Arch. One time I buy a Windows laptop, other time it’s a Mac. Using any given technology is temporary.

Why is it so?

First of all – the products themselves change. I have no control over whether a given company will exist in a few years, I don’t know if they won’t change their terms of use, or I don’t control a million other things that will affect how I use a given product.

And this brings us to the second point: usefulness, or in other words – how well it fits the problem I’m trying to solve. As long as the product fulfills its purpose, there are no issues with it, and it allows me to achieve the set goal, everything is fine.

And finally – the goals I set for tools keep changing. Often, I find myself expecting more and more from products. This is natural as technology progresses. The thing is how quickly these goals change. The world wants me to want more and more, so that manufacturers can sell their products. This is a trap that I need to watch out for.

How to deal with that?

I start by determining what I need. This is sometimes difficult, and it will become even more difficult. As an engineer, I take the approach of breaking down the problem into smaller pieces and dealing with them one by one. However, technology seems to be going in a different direction — products are created to solve all problems at once. So I face the dilemma of either buying several products, one for each problem, or buying one that solves the same problems but not as well as dedicated products. This fuels endless discussions on the internet and my constant thinking not about how to solve the problem, but what to solve the problem with.

How I create things

This part is about me on the other side—creating things that others will use. So most of what I write here is just the opposite of what I wrote above.

Essentially — by creating, upgrading, modifying, or fixing things, I only delay the moment it is replaced by something else.

Things wear off, technologies get outdated, and ideas in life pass. That’s how it is. Everything is created to be deprecated.

It does not mean that there is no point in doing anything. It is exactly the opposite — what I create today may tomorrow replace something I use now. The next day it will be replaced by something else, but there is time. We need it here and now. That’s the point.

Navigating the Change

Personally, I find joy in solving problems, setting goals, and searching for solutions. In life, I will never run out of them because, as a human, I’m good at coming up with new problems. What’s important is to tackle increasingly significant problems over time, because that’s what growth is all about.

In saying this, I’ve paraphrased the maxim that it’s not about the destination, but the journey.

Some things don’t change

When I think about requirements for products, problems I need to solve, or expectations in life, there is a small subset of essential needs that are present all the time.

Love, happiness, health… These goals never change. Life is only about deriving other goals from those basic ones, but they all will be temporary.

After all, life is temporary.