I have no idea why I am responding to someone who flippantly uses a phrase like "dilittante mindset", but here we go

there is definitely a tendency for noobs and amateurs in any hobby or industry to obsess over expensive gear and things that don't matter (I love the term "buyhard" for it). you're out of your mind if you think the professionals in literally any industry do not discuss the specific technical tradeoffs of tools they are using among themselves.

I don't feel like this is a fair argument because different tools help different workflows. Since there is always a continuous growth of new people learning new things, it would make sense that tools change over time. Especially in a realm that is digital, not physical.

FWIW once I found my workflow (vim + tmux) I stopped caring so much about chasing "new" tools. Now have the luxury to wait 3-5 years and see what's worth adopting, most of it isn't only because I already found a workflow that works for me; but if you're new or still finding what works best, you'll always be experimenting.

Yes, and one of my favorite anecdotes like this: at one of the greatest jazz concert ever recorded, Charlie Parker played a cheap plastic saxophone because he hadn't brought his own.

https://jazzfuel.com/charlie-parker-the-plastic-saxophone-th...

This is not about it being a hobby, ghostty is the sanest terminal emulator currently available for MacOS where you can just install and start using it. Customising your terminal doesn't need to be your hobby anymore.

Some people fetishize tool curation over results. But also, the true high-efficiency creators prioritize their tools over everything. To be truly efficient and to get in the flow, you need tools that work with your particular style and approach. This is why there are lots of idiosyncratic tools and opinions about tools out there. Since not everyone works the same way or has the same preferences, there’s a natural market for unique tools that work differently to suit all those people. The “religious wars” over editors are really just people missing the point and arguing for no reason. Emacs is better for some people. Vim for others. Vscode for others. Notepad++ for others. Nano for others. This is a good thing.

If you don’t care about your craft or workflow enough to care about what tools you use, I wonder what level of quality you can achieve.

I agree to an extent that tools are not important.

But, for me, there is a certain threshold that a tool must pass to be useful. A tool that is below this level is only slowing you down or limiting your abilities.

You wouldn't use a knife to tighten screws if you have a perfectly good screwdriver lying around. And there's little to no advantage of buying a new expensive or over-engineered screwdriver.

I believe, plain vi is the lowest I can go for writing code. That doesn't mean that I can't use notepad or nano, but they fall under the level of being useful and only cripple and slow me down.

Ghostty passes this level of usability for me, but personally I'm fine with st - no gpu, no cpu spikes, uses barely any ram and still feels snappier. So, what's the point?

Composition, lighting and creativity are no more than tools either.

From one old man to another it's tough when you lose that spark.

This is a very weird take. For people who spend their entire day in the terminal, having the right terminal is incredibly important. Like saying track athletes shouldn't spend money on running shoes if they own a pair of slippers.