Do you know about the placebo effect? That's where someone (hopefully a doctor), gives a patient a sugar pill, and tells them it's a miracle pill. Because they think this pill will do something, it does something, although there is no medicine in it whatsoever. The same thing happens with computer updates, especially for the Mac OS. This has never been so evident to me before the Mac OS 9.2.1 update.
We all know how Mac users are so adamant about their platform of choice, and this just fuels the fire. The minute after a Mac OS update has been released, all of the news sites have it, and the frenzy begins. Bulletin Boards go crazy, instant messages are sent out at lightning speed, and e-mails start overloading servers. All about the newest update, and what it fixes or doesn't fix.
But have you ever wondered if these updates don't really offer as much as their hype suggests. If that speed boost many people are reporting is really there, or those bugs others uncover actually came from that update? Could the Mac OS update really inflict the placebo effect on millions of users? I say: definitely!
One of the largest things you here about with new updates, especially the latest 9.2.1 update, is the bug fixes or creations. Message boards go wild with reports from users finding errors between something and the new update. But was that conflict really caused by the new OS? Or was it caused by people expecting to find errors, and trying their oldest, buggiest software just to find it? And who's to say that conflict wasn't there before, and just turned up because of some external reason?
On the other side of the boat, we have those "major" speedups that the latest OS provided. In most cases, this is a perceived speedup, caused by the user looking for more speed, just because they installed newer, hopefully better software. In fact, most minor OS updates contain little or no speed boost, no matter how many users argue otherwise.
Does all of this mean we Mac users are dufuses, looking for another way to beat our PC counterparts into submission? Of course not. It just means that we should keep our focus when applying these updates, and not fall victim to the age old placebo effect. Remember, the mind is stronger than the software.
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Arbitrary Quote - I finally came up with a punishment for the boy. First, no leaving the house, not even for school. Second, no egg nog. In fact, no nog period! And third, absolutely no stealing for three months!