Throughout 2024 I stopped on multiple occasions and wondered why I hadn’t been trying new stuff anymore, specially tech-related. Around a decade or two ago, I installed new stuff all the time, be it on the computer¹ or on the smartphone, and that habit just vanished.

For the phone I remember switching launchers as I switched clothes, as well as installing new games and a multitude of apps to change every little aspect of my life: finance, habits, notes, tasks, alarm clock, file managers. For the desktop computer, it was mostly about keeping my system shining, at first: things to clean registry, to defragment memory, to make copies faster. Later on I also had the craze of installing browser plugins for everything.

None of these happen anymore and it bothers me to some extent. I think tinkering and fiddling with new stuff is a great tool to learn more, to experience fresh takes on already consolidated ideas and maybe find something that is a lot better than what I currently use. Here are a handful of reasons I thought about to explain why I am not drawn to this experimentation any longer:

1. Consolidated Experiences: Maybe the stuff today is just providing good enough value and I don’t feel like needing to switch. The smartphones already come with plenty of good enough first party apps, why would I learn the ropes of another one if there is no annoying shortcoming on my current use?
2. Lack of time (AKA adulthood): It might be that I was just struck by the weight of being an adult, therefore having to juggle work with new hobbies and a myriad of other things leaves little room for “wasting time” trying stuff that might not get anywhere.
3. Being too locked-in: Perhaps the app just has me shackled due to one or more of these motives:
   1. It dominates my attention and swallows my spare time, like constantly swiping on Instagram or even going at a few more lessons than anticipated on Duolingo².
   2. Everyone else is using it, like WhatsApp for messaging in Brazil.
   3. It will be a lot of work to switch due to the volume of data or pervasiveness, such as letting go of my gmail e-mail address.
   4. Because I can’t switch, for instance standardized software at work.
   5. There really is no good alternative (?)³

Some of the above mentioned justifications are beyond my control, in particular the ones on the third topic⁴, but the first two are within my reach to change and that’s what I’m going after this year, not so creatively named “The year of experimentation”. Here are a handful of fields I’ll be testing, in no particular order:

• Browsers
• Task Managers
• Board Game Apps⁵
• Android Launchers

I have a couple of these under trial and others on my backlog. My goal for the year is not to merely test them, but to come back and report what it was like and whether any alternative was able to displace my previous go-to choice. I would love to hear from anyone who is out there reading this whether you have a new category proposal or a suggestion within the existing ones 😁.

Let the trials begin!