It is very tempting to dress up your Mac to the nines. I know that I certainly want to change a Mac to my Mac. It can make your workflow much simpler, but there is much peril in customizing your Mac too much.
I might very well be the only person in the world that uses Mac OS X’s hot corners. I have customized search functions in Safari thanks to SafariStand. Google Quick Search Box and Typinator have both slowly crept into my workflow. These all make my life much better when I am on my own machines, but that isn’t always the case. Sometimes I have to use other computers. Stock installs of OS X seem just as foreign to me as Windows is. I’ll incessantly fling my cursor to the corner, and try to search Wikipedia in the URL bar. I can’t stop myself. It is second nature to me to use my customizations all the time, and that really slows me down on other computers.
If you only plan on using your computer with your setup, then by all means tweak away. However, if you plan on using other computers AT ALL you need to curtail yourself before it is too late. Don’t go crazy with the customizations on Friday when you know you’ll have to use the plain ol’ Mac lab at school on Monday.
Photo Credit: Per Ola Wiberg (Powi)
