I Finally Reached Computing Nirvana. What Was It All For?

I have been searching for the perfect computing system for a long time. I wanted a single tool that would allow me to write programs on all my devices, and that would allow me to search my email in a few clicks. I wanted to summit the Mt. To achieve the enlightenment of a computer. I wanted calm textuality, where the software industry offered notifications, little clicks and dings, and messages jumping up and down on my screen like a dog begging for a treat. Seeking it, I adjusted. I configured.

To make the to-do list work with the email client, or the calendar work with the other calendar, is the purpose of configuration. It's an in-depth study. As simple as checking a box, configuration can be as complex as programming. Everyone talks about it, but it is not taken seriously because there is not much profit in it. Procrastination is indistinguishable from configuration. Too much is embarrassing.

I have been configuring my text editor for almost 30 years, amassing dotfiles that make one acronym or nonsense word concordant with another. I3wm, org-mode, not much, and tmux are bound together with git, syncthing, and tailscale. I would start down a path, but there would be some bugs I didn't understand, and I didn't have time to deal with them.

I had a problem with where to put my stuff. I tried different databases, folder structures, private websites, cloud drives, and desktop search tools. Everything in my life was turned into emails. I wrote programs that turned my calendar entries into jobs. Emails are terrible, messy, and decrepit, but they are understood by everyone. You can attach them to something. You can tag them. You can add any amount of information to them. They work, even though they suck. There was no higher praise.

It took a long time to get all these emails into place. I was able to see more of the shape of my data. Software and computers got faster as I did this. Other people started sharing their config files.

Something strange happened on January 31, 2022. I wrote a glue function to make my emails easier to find in my text editor. I ran that tiny program. It worked. I felt a click in my brain. I was done. No longer configuring, but configured. The world was going to give me what I wanted. I stood up from the computer and went for a walk. Is this happiness? Is it freedom? Would I return tomorrow with a whole new set of requirements?