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Eating the Apple

By Ophelia Chong
May 11, 2010
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Did perpetual happiness in the Garden of Eden maybe get so boring that eating the apple was justified? - Chuck Palahniuk

I love apples, but there are times I love oranges, grapes and cantaloupes.

We are walling ourselves into gardens of Paradise by buying only one product line, or using only one or two social media sites - we promise to buy our phone, cable and internet from one company to save money, to belong to a certain clique so we stay within one flavor because its comfortable, exclusive, easy and "safe".

What if that flavor became toxic?

I believe in using more than one system to cover myself if one of them goes "down". I rather have several parachutes instead of relying on one. Also it makes me learn different systems of order and flow. I don't dress in only one color or only buy bread from a certain bakery at a certain time, why would I only use one brand of hardware and software?

Real discoveries come from chaos. - Chuck Palahniuk

One interface differs from another, one can be intuitive, another can be falling down the Rabbit's Hole. As a user interface designer, I need to know how others think, not just one. As a human, I need to understand how the world is evolving. From chaos, we learn to use other tools to hold us over until stability is restored. Using only one line of thought leaves you a vacuum unable to function.

How often I found where I should be going only by setting out for somewhere else. - R. Buckminster Fuller

I set myself on a definitive path over a decade back, and that path was straight and narrow - now I have veered off the path and found new ways of traveling and I am not looking back. Eating the Apple allows you to become human, to leave the Garden to experience the World as it really is, imperfect.

No garden is without its weeds. - Thomas Fuller

My hardware:
Mac Powerbook - Apple
iPod - Apple
Kindle - Amazon
Droid phone - Google

My Applications:
Parallels
VMware Fusion
Adobe
Chrome
Safari
Firefox
IE
Microsoft Office
iWorks

Image: Ophelia Chong / Milk

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