Sticking with it

Contrary to what many people seem to be doing, especially in the digital world, I don’t often change the tools and services I use. When I find something that works, I’m happy to stick around for the long run. Well, at least unless something major happens that forces me to reconsider my choices.

And I can’t really tell you why I find that approach appealing to me. Maybe because it spares me from constantly having to reconsider my choices. It’s probably the same reason why, for years, I was wearing the same set of clothes: when all you have are white t-shirts, you don’t have to waste time thinking about how to dress; you just get dressed.

I started my career developing sites on WordPress back in 2011. Around 2016 or 2017, I found myself spending so much time fighting against the CMS (and the new Gutenberg editor was coming) that I decided it was time to look for an alternative: I found Kirby and never had to look for alternatives since. I coded this blog on Kirby back in 2017, and it’s still on it, 8 years later.

I’m writing this blog post using IA Writer, an app I’ve been using since April 2012. That’s more than 13 years ago. And the same story applies to pretty much all the apps I use the most: I’ve been using Sublime Text since 2013, Transmit since 2016, and Codekit since 2014.

And the thing I love the most about sticking with tools for the long run is that you get to know the people behind them, and you learn to appreciate those individuals and what they do. That is especially true in my case because most of the tools I use are built by either small teams or single developers.

When I have an issue with Buttondown, a service I’ve been using since 2019, I don’t open a ticket inside a soulless Zendesk portal and get an automated email: I email Justin. When I stumble on a bug inside Codekit, I email Bryan. And I absolutely love it, I love when I know who are the people on the other side, doing things that allow me to be creative and have fun doing my job.

I also love when I get to be involved. One of the things I love the most about Kirby, for example, is how amazing the community is and has been throughout all these years. It’s also why I was so stoked the other day when I got a message letting me know I got accepted as a Ko-fi Ambassador because I love when I have the chance to give my contribution and help improve the tools I use.

Sticking around is fun, it’s enjoyable, and seeing products evolve and improve over time is both exciting and rewarding, which is why it always makes me happy when I get to contribute something back to the products I use. It’s why I’m happy to pay for good software, it’s why I’m happy to support creators I enjoy. I want good and quality things to exist in this world, and doing my small part to help that cause fills me with joy.