International DFUYGDM Day

[roadrunnertwice]

Hey everybody! Happy International Don't Fucking Upgrade Your Goddamn Mac Day!

There's a new Mac OS out today, and if you're a writer, illustrator, cartoonist, musician, attorney, baker, real estate agent, or literally any other form of creative professional, uncreative professional, gifted amateur, or student, you have one job until sometime early next year: DON'T FUCKING UPGRADE YOUR GODDAMN MAC.

Yes, I know: you want the new features. You thirst for the new emoji. The updater keeps asking you, and you secretly love feeling wanted. But listen to me: every year I watch someone walk straight into that banana peel, and I really want this year's statistic to not be you.

Because in the mild scenario, the update breaks something you rely on, and the first patch release fixes someone else's problem instead of yours, so you limp along in a half-functional state for multiple months. (This is twice as likely if you use any kind of add-on hardware like a scanner, and practically guaranteed if you're on a deadline.)

In the spicy scenario, you get fucked in ways heretofore totally unimaginable. Because guess what: this year's release has

🚨🚨☄💀🌋 A COMPLETELY NEW FILESYSTEM 🌋💀☄🚨🚨

(I've decorated that to approximate what computer people hear when that phrase is spoken.)

Real talk, don't upgrade til March.

(Yes, yes, fine: if your job is making software for Macs or doing IT support for Macs, go ahead and upgrade some, but not all, of your way-too-many computers. All the rest of you, cool your jets and wait out the first two or three patch releases.)