How many times when we want to do something do we stop and think that
maybe what we are attempting to do is futile because we do not have
what the pros have ?

maybe it's because you don't have that cutting edge climbing shoes, or
that expensive camera, or that fancy guitar.

Most of us have some thing that we would like to get better at, be it
any particular sport or mathematics or computer programming or
trekking for that matter and in most of these fields there are certain
people who are at the very top. These are the inspiring people, these
are the people we look up to and often we imitate the habits of these
people, believing that imitation would help us get there. Now this
imitation can often take a bad turn. I'll make my case below.

What follows below was very true for me in certain aspects. YMMV. I do
not claim that I have the fundamental truth. All I know is that at
this point in time and space, this is true for me.

All Imitation is not the same

I think that there are two very different forms of imitation. In one
form you look at a prolific programmer and you start
studying/practicing how they practised. Or you look at the footsteps
of a developer that you admire and study what they did etc etc. I
believe that this is a good model to imitate.

On the other hand you have the kind of imitation where you look at
what possessions a person has or what tools that person uses and you
conclude that the possession/tool is a part of the reason why they are
so prolific. Case in point, it's the fancy Mac Book Pro that makes
prolific programmer so prolific and maybe, if you also use a Mac Book
Pro you would be equally closer to being prolific.

It might seem that these are small examples that I have cherry picked,
but I have seem myself do it a lot of times and I have seen other
people do it too.

The scene in Tech ?

Have you seen a popular Youtuber do a setup tour. Have you seen
questions like which text editor does use (I
have googled this myself multiple times). There are multiple varieties
of this. Which window manager, which standing desk, which headphone,
etc etc.

Now, I am not saying that everyone who watches these videos are people
who want to get these gadgets so that they get better at whatever they
are trying to do. However, there are certain people who are trying to
find answers in the wrong places.

In tech this often happens in the form of someone explaining that
buying a good laptop is the way to get started. Believe me, this
sort of advise is very common on the internet. I used to think this
too for a long time and I used to hate my current laptop which I
bought from college. It was a low-end device but nevertheless it was a
device that actually worked and it was the best I could afford at that
point. It took me quite some time to see that point.

I have seen inspiring people do inspiring work is shittier laptops and
I can tell you (and myself) that the choice of laptop does not
matter. It's a good to have, not a necessity.

A word about Isomorphic Mimicry

I heard of this term first time In episode 138 (12 dream reforms) on
the Seen and the Unseen podcast.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacity_building#Isomorphic_mimicry

This method is used by governments of developing countries which try
to mimic other government success's by replicating methods and policy
designs deemed successful in other countries. This does not work in
certain cases for it ignores all ground level realities.

Now, when I heard it for the first time, I could immediately see how
this could apply in a personal way.

How did I fall into this trap ?

For a decent amount of time I used to believe that I needed a good and
powerful laptop to do good work. Which is not the case.

I kind of like cycling, and for a long time I used to believe that I
need a very fancy bicycle so that I can do "proper" cycling. I enjoy
thinking about "bicycle touring" and it's a sport where you need some
amount of gear. I quite like the gear too. But, for a lot of time I
used to believe that having the gear will make you an expert
tourer. Which is false. There are lots of people who use non-fancy
bicycles to tour.

The fact that the bicycling industry has come up with various
different types of bicycles each designed for a specific form of the
sport does not help either. There are mountain bikes, road bikes,
hybrids, commuters, gravel bikes, touring bikes, TT bikes etc
etc. Now, there are different specialized sports that need these
specialized bicycle variants, but the point is that for the kind of
riding I do, all of the differences do not matter at all. So, the
bottom line for me is not that these differences are unnecessary, but
that they are unnecessary for me.

The same logic applies to programming and nay sort of exercise that
requires some gear. If you are just getting started, the kind of gear
that you have does not really matter. This is mainly because the gear
plays a very small part when you are just starting out with
something. Often when you are starting out, you yourself are the
biggest bottleneck, and the only way you can get better is to becomes
less of a bottleneck. The equipment (bicycle, computer) that you own
beings to matter only when they begin to become the bottleneck and not
you.

How did I get out of it ?

I don't think I have fully managed to look byond the BS in most fields
when it comes to arguments like these, however I have come a long way.

It was a blog post on the website
of
Surly Bikes. Read
it. It is amazing. Surly makes amazinf bikes and are known for their
steel framed touring bikes. People have travelled around the world on Surly Long Haul Truckers. <3

Also, outside of cycling I have seen people do great things on not-so-great equipment, the equipment does not really matter. :-)

Where else does this happen ?

There is a similar narrative in almost all forms of sport, where we
are sold the idea that in order to become a pro or in order to
participate in that sport, you need to have some specialized
equipment.

You need running shoes for running.
You need special climbing shoes for climbing
You need a good laptop for programming.
You need a Gaming PC for gaming.
You need a Kindle (or any e-reader) to experience ebook properly.
You need a mechanical keyboard to experience typing joy.
You need a audiophile headphone to experience good music quality.

All of this is just shit advise tbh.

As Sheldon Cooper said

You only need to breathe. Rest everything is optional.

What's the Tl;DR ?

If I were to sum everything up for myself, it would be this.

If there is something that you want to do, and you are waiting for
that perfect equipment or that perfect time or someone told you that
you need to master something else before doing that; they were lying
or they didn't know better themselves. All, you need is to just get
started. Get the ball rolling with whatever you have. :-)