Friday Notes #79 — The Joy of Waiting

I read somewhere, I can’t find it anymore, that people who prioritize patience over immediate pleasure could live a happier life in general. I often remember a phrase that one of my computer science teachers once told me: people anxiously waiting for something are dead. I tend to think it’s true. Albeit a plethora of new and exciting features spread across all Apple platforms, I won’t be installing any of Apple’s beta releases this summer. I’ll wait for the official releases when they are ready for the public in September.

In previous years, not long after Apple’s announcements, I would jump in and get in the betas cycle as soon as the first signs of relative stability appeared. Not this year. I don’t want to feel the pain of running betas just for the kick of experiencing cool new features. These will come in due time. In August, I’ll be travelling to Italy, and I don’t want to risk having a non-working device stuck at installing a new beta version. It’s far too risky. So I’ll wait until my return in mid-September.

Pleasure often comes while waiting for something. Waiting is an opportunity to let imagination flourish and project ourselves into the future where the expectation becomes a reality or not. Remember when your parents put Christmas gifts under the tree a few days before Christmas? I do. I would spend hours in front of the Christmas tree, staring at the gifts, imagining what they could be. Then, when the time finally came, it lasted maybe half an hour on Christmas Eve to unpack them. I was overwhelmed, sometimes wondering what was the most enjoyable: waiting or unpacking? Only when we got older could we finally say because we learned that pleasure is most often found while waiting for something.

Dear readers, thanks for being there. 🙏