I'm not quite sure I understand slide 48 which talks about constraints. Does a text editor have more or less constraints than an IDE? I would argue that it has less constraints, however I assume he is arguing that text editors are better which implies that they have more constraints. The same goes for Pen&Paper vs digital notes. Surely being able to write in any direction at any size with any style as well as draw means there are less constraints than simply typing a digital note. Am I misunderstanding which side of these examples he's actually advocating? How does OSX v Linux enter into this whatsoever?
I was at the talk, and the way he explained it was that the first column allows for less customization. Kenneth said that if he would use Linux he would spend all day tweaking it, and not getting work done. The same goes for pen & paper notes over digital notes, once they're written down, you're not tweaking them anymore. A simple text editor does not have all the fancy functions to play with that an IDE does. So he is indeed advocating the first column, with regards to them being tools that are not as configurable as the second column.
> he would use Linux he would spend all day tweaking it
That is a fatigued point. I use Linux and store the few tweak I have to do manually in a install_note file. Next time I want a fresh install I just follow the doc and in 10 mn I have a fully adapted environment. Then I do not tweak anything more at this level. All subsequent tweaks are vimrc and bashrc modifications that are pushed to bitbucket, and I guess I would do those on MacOS anyway.
Being able to fiddle the config do not mean you have to, and the days are gone when Linux was not that stable.
The thing I actually spend a lot of time tweaking for the few days I have a new device or OS version is my phone (Android). On these little big guys I get back the tweaking excitment I got with my first PCs (Oh! Look, you can change the prompt! Look, you can move the start bar to the top!)
I think what is actually interesting with mobile phone is that they are not stabilized, a lot has to be invented for them, and each new OS version or even some apps really add new possibilities.
But for Linux, Windows or Mac, no new exciting thing is in sight, and spending too much time tweaking the config just mean you have time to spare.
