- We live in an era of upgrades.
Every year companies come out
with new versions of their products
rolling out improved features
with each release attempting to provide something
irresistibly better than the last.
This is a good thing but it's also a bad thing.
It opposes challenges for those looking
to make more intentional purchases.
In this video, I'm gonna break down my approach to upgrades
and how to decide when is the right time to buy in.
I'm someone who calls himself a minimalist.
You are a minimalist.
Okay I don't actually look in the mirror
and call myself a minimalist,
now that I've implemented it into my life
it's kind of in the background.
It's not something I really think about too often
besides when I'm making videos like this.
But I do realize that people have a lot of misconceptions
about what it means to be a minimalist
or what it means to live an intentional life
especially as it relates to technology.
But here's the truth.
I'm not a big fan of caves. I like being connected.
I wouldn't be very productive if I never upgraded
from my 2006 HP Pavilion desktop computer.
And my films would look like shit,
if I decided to stick with my original Sony handy cam
that I started out with in college.
So upgrading to me isn't just a convenience,
it's not a nice to have,
it's a necessity for the work that I do.
And this constant improvement is also vital
for the companies that are making the products as well.
There's fierce competition
when it comes to personal technology, smartphones, laptops,
cameras, and even headphones have multiple companies
vying for your income and attention.
This means they've got to actually deliver.
They need to make real improvements to their products
to deliver a better experience, improve technology,
or new features to the end user.
If they don't, they risk loosing customers
and potentially even killing their company entirely.
RIP PalmPilot.
But this constant upgrading can also be a bad thing.
Apple has released a new version
or variation of the iPhone every year, since 2007.
- What we're gonna do is get rid of all these buttons.
- It's hard not to get excited
about the hype around these product releases.
It's like a gender reveal on crack
except people actually care about the results.
Rachel, nobody cares about your baby.
There's a lot of theatrics to these releases
and companies do as much as they can to prove to you
why it's worth making the upgrade.
- We are on an incredible pace of innovation.
- [Matt] And as people are upgrading their phones
less frequently than years past,
manufacturers are looking for new ways to get you to buy in.
- Like, I think there is this issue right now
of upgrading to new devices or not upgrading to new devices
because you don't feel that all that much has changed.
Slap another camera on,
and then people are gonna look at the new device and say oh.
- It's upgraded. - It's new.
You need a way physically for people around you to know
when you place it on the table or hold it to your head,
that it's newer, better and you had the money to buy it.
- They purposefully reinvent the look of the phone,
add more cameras, increase the screen size,
eliminate the bevel, make it thinner, make it bigger,
make it smaller, matte finish, polished coating,
new colors, sometimes because it makes the phone better.
But many of these changes are completely arbitrary.
They want the phone to look different.
In the past your vehicle
was one of the biggest status symbols you could have.
And while they still hold a place for those looking
to reveal the true size of their ego,
these days it's much easier to show your status
with what's in your pocket, your penis.
It's not, it's not your penis, it's your phone.
Technology is the new status symbol.
From our headphones to our laptops,
it's a message to those around us, the kind of person we are
and the kind of money we have.
It's also worth noting that it works in the reverse.
I'm thinking about the people that refuse to upgrade,
and brag about still using a flip phone.
- Wanna see my phone?
- See my phone. Look at this.
- Look, look, we got matching
but I don't even know the number they had it right.
- Can you believe this? Can you believe this guy?
No if you're like Larry
and you never wanna upgrade your phone,
you want that same flip phone you've had
for the past 10 years, that's great, we applaud you.
We commend you for your bravery,
but for the rest of us who are really into technology,
and who enjoy and upgrade every once in a while,
things are gonna be a little bit challenging.
It's difficult because we do need to upgrade our phones
every once in a while,
but not at the rate at which phones are being produced.
For myself personally
whenever I'm thinking about making an upgrade,
I have a very short and simple checklist that I follow
to make sure that I'm making the best decision for my needs.
Can I afford it?
This is really the bar you should be setting for yourself
anytime you're making a non-essential purchase.
If you're in credit card debt,
if you're living paycheck to paycheck,
it's probably not the best time to spend
a thousand dollars on a phone.
Your phone upgrade is not an essential
getting out of debt, paying off your credit card bills,
starting a retirement account, those things are.
So if you're not doing great financially right now,
just be like Larry, pull out that flip phone,
suck it up for a couple more years,
until you get yourself a better financial standing.
If you've got the money the next question I'd ask is
how is my current device holding up?
This sophisticated graph
shows the time frustration correlation.
The amount of time I can deal with
a slow functioning highly frustrating device
is pretty limited.
If I'm constantly having trouble with Bluetooth,
software bugs, slow responsiveness,
and shortened battery life,
I'll start to think about making an upgrade.
- Apple is apologizing after admitting a software update
deliberately slowed some older iPhones.
- That happened. Apple said they did this
to extend the battery life of older phones.
It sparked a lot of controversy online
about whether Apple was intentionally making you
wanna buy a new phone out of frustration.
They probably could have avoided some of this blow back
by giving an option for the user,
or at the very least being transparent about it upfront.
Either way you might wanna think
before updating the software on your older phone.
The new software is designed for faster processing power
and yours might not hold up.
There are some things you can do
to get more mileage out of your device.
You can have the battery replaced,
you can repair the screen,
you can use a case so it's safe against slips and falls.
So I've got these bows headphones, they're great,
noise canceling, works really well.
I use them for travel and I use them for video editing,
and whole lot of stuff. Hours and hours every day.
And as you can see, there's some noticeable
wear and tear of the cushion right there
but the fix is actually really easy.
It's a replacement part that cost a few bucks online.
You can pop this off, replace it yourself,
no need to replace your headphones completely
that would be ridiculous.
I do these little things as much as I can
for most of my technologies
just to make sure I get a little bit extra wear out of them.
And the last question is the difference worth it?
So when I'm upgrading from one device to the next,
the last thing that I really think about
is are the features worth it?
Is there an actual difference between one phone and the next
and from a year to year basis,
that has never been true for me.
But over the course of three years,
you can really start to notice
some significant improvements.
The two features that I really look for
and that impact my purchasing decision the most
are the screen as well as the camera.
As a filmmaker running around LA
oftentimes I'm not allowed to bring
my pro camera into a grocery store, or into an office,
so I'm always getting yelled at and told to stop filming,
which can be very frustrating,
but they never stop you from filming on your phone.
At least most of the time they don't stop you
from filming on your phone.
So for me to be able to have a nice running gun camera
that has a good lens, that's a big selling point for me,
and that's a big motivator for me
to re-up every two to three years.
Other than that though,
the other features don't really make a huge difference.
To me face detection, thumbprint, technology,
I just don't really use my phone that much
for it to be worth it for other reasons.
So obviously your decisions
may be completely different than mine,
depending upon how you use your phone.
- So this is the new iPad pro. It is an incredible tablet.
Still an iPad though.
- And that's something that I've been saying
more and more lately.
There's a new phone, but it's still a phone.
There's a new computer, but it's still a computer.
It still does the same thing that it's always done,
but it's just a little bit nicer, a little bit bigger,
a little bit better pixels, that little bit,
I try not to let get in the way of my own wellbeing.
I try to make it a daily practice
to be happy and grateful for the things that I have,
and not always so hyper focused on the next thing to come.
Thank you guys so much for watching this video.
If you wanna help support this ad free YouTube channel,
and also get exclusive videos
that I don't release anywhere else,
you can go to patreon.com/mattdavella.
For $12 a month ,
you can get access to extended interviews from this channel
personal vlogs, videos about growing your audience,
and building habits.
All right so things are a little bit crazy
in the bedroom right now.
This is what the bedroom looks like.
My next Patreon exclusive video is gonna be
on the Importance Of Journaling For Productivity.
If you sign up today,
you'll get access to 18 videos and six AMA podcast episodes
with new content coming every month.
Thanks for your support,
and I'll see you next week.