It was time to say embrace the future, and I got my first iPhone (of course, the goal is to be more productive, have a test device, and keep more effectively in touch with the family – Max has a lot of grandparents who want to see his chubby cheeks). And lo and behold, I might actually get a Mac for myself for Christmas (mainly so that my colleagues stop poking fun at me).

After about a decade of using Nokias (which I am still very affectionate towards) and a lifetime (okay, okay, I started some time in middle school) of PCs, there is quite a bit to learn. I’m test driving my lil’ sista’s MacBook Air, and I pretty much have to look up every single thing. How to switch the keyboard to Russian: ask Google (it was something in the System Preferences which makes sense). How to type a comma on the Russian keyboard: ask Google (to have it in the usual place in the bottom right, I had to switch to the Russian PC layout – it’s at the middle top on the Russian Mac layout, which was just too weird). How to switch between keyboard layouts: I already looked it up twice but both times got distracted so I still switch using the language icon.

Nothing to teach you humility like learning a system you never encountered previously. Yeah, yeah, tell me about how intuitive Macs are – they might be sleek and simple, but still require practice. Whenever I get frustrated, I remind myself that all this looking for answers and finding solutions is building new neural connections and helping my brain stay flexible.

Some cheering on would be appreciated! Or you can tell me about the last new thing you were trying to figure out, and what you learned in the process.