Stop hacking your tools!
The best solution is the simple one. So if you’re constantly fixing the ‘hacks’ that are supposed to make your life easier, then what’s the point? You’re only ’Sellotaping’ a fix and not fixing it permanently. Right?
Transcript
Summary
I started in music tech in the 90s and learned the hard way that hacks always break. That lesson stuck with me, so I avoid hacked software, sellotaped solutions, and automation hacks now. Simple is always better because less goes wrong, whether it’s software or cars. I’ll take my old Chevy Blazer next time because I can fix it myself.
Raw
As you know, my computer tech career started when I was really young. When I got into the music scene when I was setting up studios for big studios, in London, it was a long time ago. It was like the mid to late, mid, yeah, mid to late 90s. So I’ve been at the beginning of all the music tech setup, kind of. of things computers when it came to recording audio and stuff.
Obviously there was computers way before that. But so I started off really young and at an early age.
What I found out what I learned, I should say, from that time, was not to use any hacks. There was lots of free, not free, but paid software people hacked to be able to use for free. We all did it. I’m not going to say that I didn’t do it. I did it as well.
But I soon found out that there was always bugs in it and you couldn’t upgrade and the software companies became more aware of it. And they kind of did keys in a different way, in a different way. Like, I remember logic and logic audio were two different keys that you had to connect to each other. Yes, you could still get hacked versions and stuff. But again, they kept crashing and you had to keep finding more and more hacked versions.
What that episode taught me was never to use hacks. And since the early, or sorry, the late 90s, after a few years, years of all that crap that I had to deal with, with studios, big studios, little studios, producers, they were all using hacks. But that basically taught me never to use hacks in anything.
So I never sell a tape solutions together. I never use any kind of hack to do any work. And I don’t mean hacking now necessarily in hacked software. software, but hacks in the way that I use my software and I use tools. And what I mean by hacks, yesterday’s video about automation, automation in a way is a little hack. It’s a hack for you to get stuff done.
But there are hacks that if they go wrong, just like in the mid-90s, late 90s, you had to find someone to be able to help you fix that hack that, initially fixed what you were trying to do. So you’re kind of going around in this cat and mouse in this cat and mouse situation where you’re trying to fix things, but they keep breaking.
And I find automation, especially with Zapier, all these APIs and web hooks and stuff, they’re fantastic. They’re great ideas. But when it comes to actually using them and when they go wrong, It’s the biggest pain in the ass possible. And I call them the hacks in a way that I used to deal with hacks in the past. I just stopped using it because, firstly, I don’t think it’s necessary.
Like I said yesterday, if you’re too busy to use these hacks, you’re too busy and you’ve got to change the way you’re working. But if you need to use these hacks, you’ve got to put time aside to be able to fix those hacks. hacks or hire someone. And it costs a lot of money to hire people to do all this. So why do it in the first place? Why not get organised in such a way where you’re not using these sell-a-tapped solutions and hacks just to get by in your day? I mean, it’s crazy.
So the simpler things are, the less things will go wrong.
Very quick story. I have a small Mercedes A class. It’s a very old one. It’s great. I love it. But I was in Spain. I couldn’t fix it myself because there are computers. So I couldn’t do it. So I wanted a simpler way.
So next year, when I go away, I’m going to go with my big Chevy Blazer. Yes, it’s going to cost more petrol because it’s a bigger engine. That’s crazy. But I don’t drink or smoke, so that’s my vice. But I can fix that thing myself because there are no computer so it’s much simpler so the simpler is the better it is better it is for you when you’re doing whatever you’re doing for me travelling with the car anyway i lost my breath then anyway that’s the episode have a great day if you have any questions let me know there’s a comment section below and i’ll see you in the next one. Caio.