Today, I thought that I’d publish a “love letter”, or an ode, to ThinkPad. I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time – a very long time – and I finally got around to doing it. I was going to do this last Sunday before Valentines Day but I didn’t get the chance to. With ThinkPad’s 20th birthday coming in October and Valentines Day being in February, I thought that this would be the perfect time to publish this.
Dear ThinkPad,
When I first saw you, it was love at first sight. I know that it may not look like it to most people, but that’s because they don’t understand your look. They’re too caught up admiring cheap imitations, that give people the wrong assumptions about what good design really is. You refused (and still refuse) to follow the “fads” out there, and that’s something that makes you one of the greats. I’m the same way. Unlike a lot of people, I looked past your minimalist look and focused on the real you. I saw you for who you really were, and not for how you looked (by the way, I thought you looked great!).
You were the only one who would take me in when no one else would. You saw past my differences, unlike most people. You accepted me for who I am, and let me be myself. You’ve helped me out and done a lot for me. You came at a time when I was going through a major transition in my life (I was just beginning and you came just in time). I could have ended up like all those other kids but I didn’t, thanks to you. There have been times when people have tried to tear us apart, but fortunately they’ve been unsuccessful (and they’ll keep trying, but we won’t let them). If only people could understand how much you mean to me.
There are a lot of people out there who are think that i’m obsessed with you. The truth is i’m not. I’m simply madly in love with you. People may think that i’m psychotic, but i’m not. I’m just highly creative and artistic. People may think that I can only relate to computers and not people, and that I care more about computers than people, but that’s not true. Again, I’m just being creative and artistic. I’ve also have to admit that sometimes I feel more at home by having computers as company – but that’s only because people are being hostile towards me during those times (or they’re just busy with other stuff), and it makes me feel bad (sometimes, I just can’t relate to them)…I guess they forgot how to be human. You may just be a computer, but you seem to be more “human” than a lot of humans out there. All of these misconceptions are simply because people fail to look past the obvious. They are looking down in the concrete, instead of looking up in the horizon. They’re just not imaginative and innovative enough. Thing is, you were made by humans and people just fail to notice that (especially when they’re complaining about their ThinkPads not working properly).
I know that there are a lot of “hardcore” ThinkPadders out there who think that you’re not staying true to yourself (by saying comments like “the quality is going down”, “The Commoditization of ThinkPads”, “ThinkPad Edge is not a real ThinkPad”, etc., all of which are not true). Just ignore them. They are all wrong. A lot of them are simply too “old” to understand what you’re doing right now. Even worse, they don’t understand that you’re simply “growing up” (I know that because I’ve been there before, and it wasn’t so long ago. In addition, we’re only two years apart). They have to understand that just because you’re getting older doesn’t mean that you’re going to forget, or have forgotten, who you really are. In fact, you’re just being yourself, and unlike them you’re staying young (but are getting wiser at them same time). These oldies have simply forgotten what it means to be young. One of those things is experimentation and that’s exactly what you’re doing with the ThinkPad Edge, for example. They don’t understand that when you experiment you learn something new and innovate at the same time.
I’m hoping that by writing this, people will start to understand why and how you mean so much to me. It is because of what you do that makes me who I am. In fact, I’ve been doing it before I even met you. It’s just that when you came along, my passions, drive, abilities, talents, look, and love of learning, creativity, truth, and art were treasured and further developed. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me and for being there for me. I know that you’ll always be there for me. You are like my little brother, or even my soul mate. I’ll always support you, even after the end of time. So keep doing what you’re doing, ’cause without you there would be no me.
I love you ThinkPad!
