The Online Photographer

[UPDATE Wednesday Oct. 30th:] I need to walk back this post (the original post below) and admit that I actually AM sorry I bought the M2 Mac Mini Pro just before the M4 Mac Mini arrived. Actually, this computer purchase might be the worst example of bad timing in my entire life as a consumer! My timing was exquisitely bad—as bad as it could have been. Today is the last day I can return my new M2 Mac Mini Pro, but November 8th is the first day I could possibly get an M4 Mac Mini, which was announced yesterday. That would, obviously, leave me without a computer for nine days, which is not possible in my line of work. All the more galling in that I traded in not one but two old computers when I bought this one, either of which would have been a perfectly serviceable stopgap for those nine days.

O the pain! I could have had a newer, better computer, with ports on the front and twice as much storage, that would hold its value longer because it's more recent...for $300 less than I paid. And all I had to do was wait a measly two weeks longer. To add insult to injury, the computer I just bought also just depreciated a lot more because it's suddenly no longer current. [Insert inarticulate strangling noise.]

To pile on another missed opportunity, a reader yesterday offered me his older M1 Mac Studio, with lots of RAM and storage, for a good price. But I can't return the Mac Mini I bought for cash...only for credit. So to get cash back for the Mini I bought I'd have to reimburse Apple for the $290 I got in trade, without being able to get the trade-ins back (they've already been shipped off for recycling—I asked).

All this amounts to the exact opposite of optimizing. As a wannabee optimizer, it stings.

Only good response: grin and bear it. I made a bad decision, and burned myself as badly as I possibly could have under the admittedly fairly benign circumstances. But: it's a relatively small amount of money as such things go; my new computer works fine and will serve me for years; and I think the best thing to do is just admit that I screwed up, be happy with what I have, and forget about it and move on.

My friend and old studio partner Paul Kennedy had a number of expressions he used all the time, one of which was, "you know what they say: oh well." I hear him saying it every time I think about it.

So: "Oh well!" That is, after all, what they say.

Blows and blessings
It does bring up one spiritual issue, which is: what do we do about small everyday defeats? How do we handle them? Human nature is to be more sensitive to defeats than to victories. What I try to do when I suffer a minor loss like this is to try to remember some minor victories, and tell myself that the victories and the defeats actually balance each other out pretty well. And I think they do. There have been lots of times that I got great deals, windfalls, gifts—all examples of good luck. Heck, just the other day, a friend gave me a beautiful camera he doesn't want any more and knew he wouldn't have the time and patience to resell on eBay. As with every human, I have bad luck, but also good luck; things that worked out badly for me and things that worked out well; defeats, but also victories; blows to my ego and wallet, but also blessings. Our competitive brains urge us to focus more on the defeats. But we are thinking beings, and if we are in control of our own minds we can be equally mindful of our blessings. At least equally mindful; hopefully a little more so. Because after all, gratitude and self-pity are mutually incompatible. You cannot be in both states of mind at once.

So when self-pity is getting the better of you, turn your mind willfully to gratitude. It is a proper use of the will.

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[Original post:] To forestall the inevitable questions: no, I'm not sorry I bought the M2 Mac Mini Pro before the M4 Mac Mini arrives. (The M4 Mac Mini is rumored to be radically smaller, more powerful, and to have only USB-C connector ports, including two on the front. And the base model will have 16GB of RAM.) Yes, the M4 Mac Mini appeals to me. But the M2 Mac Mini Pro is working fine (it's nice that it turns on so quickly), it's fast, and it runs quiet and very cool. I'm happy.

Also, I don't think I want to invest in the shipping version of any all-new product in this space. Let them have till the first refresh to work out the kinks, and let other people discover any kinks, problems, or weaknesses before I get there.

The fact that I use a USB mouse and keyboard doesn't really pertain. A simple Thunderbolt-to-USB-A hub would solve that in a second.

Finally, my dream computer isn't a Mini anyway. It's a base Mac Studio with 32GB unified memory and 1TB of SSD storage, with an SD card slot on the front, $2,199.

And one more inevitable question: am I just rationalizing here? Sour grapes? It's quite possible. But I've been thinking about this for three days, and I think I'm happy enough where I landed. A computer to me is an appliance, like a dishwasher. Still and all, I'll be watching the upcoming M4 Mac Mini launch with great interest.

I had a nice day yesterday. Got to see lots of work and lots of books. I'll tell you about it when I have a minute.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2024 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

ChrisC: "Well, the new Mac Mini has landed and certainly looks like a nice little device. Whilst each new generation of M series chip seems to be a decent step up from the previous one, I think it will be a while before my current M1 series computer needs replacing. Even now, I’m not doing anything that will stress the system and I suspect the driver for me buying a new one may well actually be when I end up filling the hard disk! Now what I would really like is for you to go out and treat yourself to a nice little secondhand Fujifilm X-E3 or -E4 😉 . "

John Krill: "I too have a Mac Mini M2 Pro and will not move to the new M4 version. I mean where is the SD card reader slot? Even professional video people need the SD slot. Also I don’t need all that so-called speed of the M4. My M2 Pro doesn’t appear to any faster than my previous Mac Mini, a basic one with 16GB of memory. And I didn’t need all that memory because I rarely run more than Lightroom Classic. So still no SD slot. I don’t get it.

"P.S.: I’m 80 so I think I will die with the M2 Pro."

Mike replies: May you need two or three more computers, John. You've been one of the best commenters here for years, and that's saying a lot, as blessed with great commenters as this site has been.