Go talk with a group of bloggers or programmers for a few minutes and you’ll end up talking about the tools you use or the specific workflow. Some people in that conversation are going to go dump what they are currently using to try out the tools that others suggested in the quest for a perfect workflow.

I’m certainly not against reducing the friction between ideas and words on a page (or code written) but most people I know aren’t changing tools because of friction. They change tools in some quest for a workflow/tool that will suddenly make them as good as the programmers/writers they look up to. Instead of producing lines of text/code they’re hunting a tool that will magically make them good.

Many of the people I know that are changing tools all the time are actually doing that in a quest to hide their lack of skill. They try the next great IDE or text editor and once they’ve got the right one they’ll work on that big idea they’ve been talking about for months. If you can always put off the big project you can talk about it without having to pony up. Talking is way easier.

As an example lets look at bicycles. I recently participated in a race of 160km (100 miles). I ride a bike that cost me $600 1 year used. The original bike retailed around $1400. I spent a bunch of the ride passing guys on bikes that cost $8k+. One guy had wheels that were more than $3k. All those fancy parts and money spent did not make them faster than me. One local rider I know swore that his new $2k wheels would gain him 15 seconds on a local hill. He bragged about the hours he spent researching them and how far ahead technically they were than anything else. He’s still the last one up the hill. It’s all about the engine, and I spent all his research time training.

Using the writing tool your favourite writer uses will not make you a better writer. Using a more expensive writing tool will not make you a better writer. What will make you a better writer/programmer is getting out there and doing it, not dicking around with a workflow tweak.

Go write a blog post or deploy some code, put out.