The truth about cake, computers and compromises

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Written by Jesse Stanchak.

I’ve always hated the phrase “Have your cake and eat it too.” As if anyone, anywhere, ever would consider having cake around, just for the pleasures of cake ownership. It’s not an investment opportunity; it’s a cake. Eating is the point of having. That’s how cake works.

It’s easy to laugh at people who don’t understand the basic precepts of cake acquisition. But we all fall into these little traps sometimes. Life is full of moments where well-meaning people give us false choices based on outmoded, useless ways of thinking.

Any of these sound familiar?

  • You can work hard or you can play hard.
  • You can have a career or you can have a family.
  • You can have a job that puts food on the table or you can do what you love.

The good news is, we’re getting better at resisting those non-choices. Consider that 96% of people who own tablets also own laptops. We don’t want to choose between work and play, or power and flexibility, or touch and type. We’re rational beings. We want both.

The trouble is that we think that ‘having both’ means carrying around a laptop bag filled with two bulky, expensive pieces of equipment. We think it means switching between devices based on what we’re doing, juggling multiple versions of programs as we go. We think it means having to always worry about keeping two devices charged.

But what if there was another choice? What if you had an option that seamlessly did everything a laptop does and everything a tablet does? What if it was lightweight and had a big screen? What if it was able to run all the most popular programs and still had battery life to spare? What if you never had to switch? What if you never had to choose? Wouldn’t that be better?

You should be able to work hard and play hard. You should be able to make your passion your livelihood. You should be able to have a career and a life. You shouldn’t have to compromise.

The real choice you face each day is whether you’re going to accept the options presented to you – or if you’re going to have it all. It’s not a hard choice, really. The point of “it all” is to have it. That’s how “it all” works.