Arrogance Is Not Befitting of a Fool....

e·lit·ism or é·lit·ism     Pronunciation Key   ( -l tzm, -l -)
n.
The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources.
The sense of entitlement enjoyed by such a group or class.
Control, rule, or domination by such a group or class.

ar·ro·gance     Pronunciation Key   ( r-g ns)
n.
The state or quality of being arrogant; overbearing pride.


Well we all have a face
That we hide away forever
And we take them out and show ourselves
When everyone has gone

-Billy Joel

Or sometimes when the right moment occurs. For me, there are three occasions (that immediately come to mind) in which without the proper restraint, I have the very real potential of taking out the face and becoming a truly arrogant S.O.B. The first, you have all had a taste of: Michigan Wolverine football season. Believe me when I tell you it can be far, far worse than what I have already done here. The second, you will have a taste of when the Red Wings start up.

The third occurred today. The situation is called "Apple Superiority Complex," or ASC as it is called. Well...as I call it. It is the (rightful (oops, there I go again...hey, nested parenthesis!)) belief that Apple Computer products far exceed the usefulness of anything put out by Microsoft and their cronies Dell, Gateway or Compaq.

Today's trigger: a co-worker's new iPod that she brought into the lab. Upon first seeing it, I had to restrain myself from drooling. Then ASC kicked in. My next thought was that aside from the owner, there is no one else who truly understands or appreciates the power and simplicity of this piece of technology. And actually, maybe not even the owner. Thirdly, the idea that the iPod could even be adapted to a Windows environment, thereby destroying the inherent ease and simplicity of the machine, annoyed me, but it makes good business sense for Apple. (There's a great corporate paradox right there: what makes good business sense does not necessarily mean it's helpful to people.)

Is anyone out there throwing up yet?

So anyway, in a little afternoon session with the iPod and our wonderfully awesome computer support person (to call him an I.T. person would be an insult as he is way better and more understanding than your usual corporate help person), we managed to A) accidentally reformat the iPod, erasing everything she had on it (thankfully it was only a few days old and didn't have much) and B) spent a few hours attempting to download new mp3's on it. In fact, I had to head home before any real progress was made.

Allow me to become arrogant again. This time, I've given you warning so that you may leave if you like.

Neither A nor B should ever have happened with an iPod, even one based in Windows. And yet somehow, it did, thanks to the magic of Microsoft. As I stood in the background watching this unfold and throwing out just enough suggestions to make it seem like involved (not helpful, just involved) all I could think was "This is not supposed to be happening." My full Apple Elitism was bubbling close to the surface. I wanted to yell and scream "Hey, stop applying your Windows logic to this machine." But for all my Apple knowledge, I really hadn't gotten to play with an iPod much myself, so I really had no other alternatives to offer. Therefore, the rational part of my brain wisely full-nelsoned the Apple Superiority Complex and kept my mouth shut.

Well...almost. Words to the effect of "this wouldn't happen on a Mac" occasionally slipped from my lips. Well...more than occasionally. Actually, enough to really annoy people. I would have smacked me.

Let's face it. It's exciting for me when a new Apple product is released into a mostly pro Windows environment, and that excitement tends to manifest itself like this. Just watch the reaction of any Apple person and you'll see. It's like Christmas. Apple people want to share the Appleness of it all. They are downright passionate about Apple products. They are convinced it's a better way, but also secretly thankful not to be the "majority," mainly because it's cool to be a niche market and it's great to not worry about most computer virus outbreaks. But one thing is fairly certain when it comes to the Apple/Microsoft feud: Apple people really enjoy using Apple hardware.

Have you even seen a Windows user smile at the joy of using a computer?