This past week, I got my email invitation to buy my first Raspberry Pi. I had read the article a few months back about the $35 computer that would be for sale "soon." Demand was so hot, they crashed at least one server on release date.
After I read through my invitation with excitement, I followed the link. What fun I am going to have learning Linux and all the goes with it. Let see, 35 for the computer, 20 for the mouse and key board, 08 for the power supply, .... Okay, so the $35 dollar computer is really 75 to 100. But still, that's cheap by any accounting. Then there is the opportunity cost. To learn how to use my $100 toy, I would need to expend large amounts of my most precious commodity, time. I remember back in the day (the early 1908's), I spent hours and hours learning to program in BASIC on a Commodore 4032. For those who remember, that was before the Commodore 64. Not being much of a typist (Suzanne still cringes to watch my self taught method), it took me hours to type the sample programs from the book. Then it took many more hours to find the typos that kept my copies of the programs from running. Thankfully the 4032 did not use the horrid tape drives of the Tandy computers. I could use a 5.25 inch floppy disk. Yes, this was pre-hard drive.
Looking back, I can trace a very clear path from my experience with those early computers to my job today as a system applications architect (read: programmer/analyst). Unlike those early years when I did computers on the side and education during the day, I now do computers all day long and do other stuff on the side. What would I give up to have time to learn a new computer system? Would I give up time with our growing gaggle of grandchildren? Would I take time from my Course of Study plans, equipping me to serve as a local pastor. Would I take time from Suzanne and our relationship? Would I tell God at 4:00 a.m. "I wish I had found time to prepare for the upcoming message I need to delivery, but you should see the new subroutine I finished to handle data from a 3dimensional matrix?
Having a new computer for less than $100, enticing. Choosing to turn aside from the temptation, priceless.
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