MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012)

As I say goodbye to this MacBook Pro, erasing the disk, peeling off the stickers, sanitizing the enclosure, a few disjointed reflections.

The majority of the work of my career I did on this computer. Purchased summer 2013, 12-year-old Lachlan used it just as 17-year-old Lachlan used it. I learned most of what I know about coding on this computer—a 2006 white plastic iMac taught me my first HTML, but every app since from Noodles to Hack Club Bank, projects from Call to Action to finally Gasp! flowed through this machine.

I could have done the same work using tons of other devices; there’s nothing inherently special about this MacBook Pro. But it captures a period of deep empowerment in my life, where I learned the skills to build myself a platform, a voice in the world. If I have an idea now, I can create something, I can put it out, & there are people that listen. (Still getting used to that last part.)

Building tools to empower people, especially young people, especially beginning people, especially underrepresented people, is one of the most powerful things you can do. I hope that my work using this created/creates far more value than the cost of producing it.

As the final sticker is peeled off, I think of the many apps I’ve built with it, the dozens of cities it’s traveled to in my backpack, the people I’ve met through it. This might have been my first real computer, but it’s just the first bit of my work. Farewell, & onward.