Comment by yomismoaqui
8 hours ago
The fetishization of tools is one of the things that mark a dilettante mindset.
You see it on all hobbies, e.g. when the someone sees a photograph and their first question is about what camera and optics were used. No question about composition, light, the moment, creativity... they only care for the tools.
The technique and knowledge is the important thing, not the tools. They forget the good practitioner can do a great photo with a $200 phone than they with the best Canon DSLR.
I have seen this in all hobbies I have practiced, be it musical instruments, kolinsky brushes on miniature painting, montain bikers, running apparell...
As I'm getting older I care less about editors, terminals, Linux distros... and after seeing what can be done with agentic coding tools less so.
I don't feel like this is a fair argument because different tools help different workflows. Since there is always a continuous growth of new people learning new things, it would make sense that tools change over time. Especially in a realm that is digital, not physical.
FWIW once I found my workflow (vim + tmux) I stopped caring so much about chasing "new" tools. Now have the luxury to wait 3-5 years and see what's worth adopting, most of it isn't only because I already found a workflow that works for me; but if you're new or still finding what works best, you'll always be experimenting.
Dude we are literally talking about a single text box in a window in this case.
Yes and people feel very strongly about this text box. Some people like multiple text boxes, others just like one single text box.
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I have no idea why I am responding to someone who flippantly uses a phrase like "dilittante mindset", but here we go
there is definitely a tendency for noobs and amateurs in any hobby or industry to obsess over expensive gear and things that don't matter (I love the term "buyhard" for it). you're out of your mind if you think the professionals in literally any industry do not discuss the specific technical tradeoffs of tools they are using among themselves.
When art critics get together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine.
-- Pablo Picasso
His art is bad
They don't discuss tradeoffs of every tool, just the ones that offer the most leverage
This is not about it being a hobby, ghostty is the sanest terminal emulator currently available for MacOS where you can just install and start using it. Customising your terminal doesn't need to be your hobby anymore.
Yes, and one of my favorite anecdotes like this: at one of the greatest jazz concert ever recorded, Charlie Parker played a cheap plastic saxophone because he hadn't brought his own.
https://jazzfuel.com/charlie-parker-the-plastic-saxophone-th...
I agree to an extent that tools are not important.
But, for me, there is a certain threshold that a tool must pass to be useful. A tool that is below this level is only slowing you down or limiting your abilities.
You wouldn't use a knife to tighten screws if you have a perfectly good screwdriver lying around. And there's little to no advantage of buying a new expensive or over-engineered screwdriver.
I believe, plain vi is the lowest I can go for writing code. That doesn't mean that I can't use notepad or nano, but they fall under the level of being useful and only cripple and slow me down.
Ghostty passes this level of usability for me, but personally I'm fine with st - no gpu, no cpu spikes, uses barely any ram and still feels snappier. So, what's the point?
Composition, lighting and creativity are no more than tools either.
From one old man to another it's tough when you lose that spark.
This is a very weird take. For people who spend their entire day in the terminal, having the right terminal is incredibly important. Like saying track athletes shouldn't spend money on running shoes if they own a pair of slippers.
I mean, it's all about what works for you, right? I use Cursor's built in emulator and Hyper.sh just because I like Cmd T to work in my terminal. But my workflow is a lot different from a lot people's. Hence, I'm not sure why there's so much debate about people's workflows in this thread. Lots of "you should care" or "you shouldn't care" about your terminal.
This isn't directed at you, of course. Just a weird observation where people are prescribing their workflows to others and telling them what they should or shouldn't care about when the only thing they know about their workflow is that they use a terminal at least once a day.