Life & Me

If you’re closed to me like my sis and my Steph, you would have known that I have been very vocal of my support of the Android platform since purchasing the HTC Desire. That, of course, made me a few enemies in the Apple camp.

If you’re a tech enthusiast, you might have known that there is an ongoing war/debate/flame throwing between the two camps of Android and iPhone about who is the best and who sucks.. you get the idea.
The iPhone fans, being a little more “passionate” in their support, have been given a label of Apple fanboy. I’ve been thinking about this and realize that this is not a unique situation. In fact, there are many other examples of “fanboyism” in our life. Among the few that I have witnessed are

a) Manchester United against the rest
Well, all fans of other clubs would vehemently disagree, but Man Utd has been THE club for the past two decades. So naturally, two camps were formed in the process – the Man Utd fans and the Anti Man Utd fans. Every weekend, fans of both sides would cheer for their team and curse the other teams. They (I/We) would proclaim the merits of the team and why the others just downright suck. In the mid 90’s, the main opponent was Liverpool, then Arsenal slowly camp into limelight. After that, Chelsea came with their millions. So the fight rages on.

b) Microsoft Word and LaTeX
This is quite an obscure one if you’re not in the academic world. Let me explain. LaTeX is a word processing language (not a program) that many claim to be superior to Word. I first came into contact with it while working as an intern in Bosch. In my department, Word documents were not accepted. So I have to learn to use it from scratch. There are many merits of it, but not without its share of flaws. In the academic world/universities, LaTeX is also accepted as the de facto standard of word processing. Perhaps someone has brought it into the industries as well.

So, what’s the war? Surprisingly, users of LaTeX hate Word to its bone. They would proudly declare themselves as LaTeX users and truly believe in their superiority. As someone who loves a good argument, I quickly learnt how to start a good fight during lunch hours, simply by proclaiming that inferiority of LaTeX against Word. But as I said, it’s obscure, you won’t know unless you’ve used it.

c) Android against the iOS/iPhone – more generally, Apple against the rest of the World
Finally, the war that I’m currently fighting (albeit imaginary) is the OS for mobile phones. For the past 3 years, iPhone is acknowledged as THE smartphone in the market. Many flocked towards it and have since then transformed into true fanboys. Of course, they made some enemies in the process with their closed ways of development. Along came Google with their Android platform and the war began. For many of those who dislikes Apple but couldn’t find anyone else to root for, Google’s entry into the market provided them a solid platform to support.

But can this war be won by any party? In this post, I say, very hard indeed, for two reasons.

a) Fans are irrational
It is very common for both sides to convince one another to jump camps. But that could only work if the assumption that fans are logical about their decision, but they are not.

But being rational is one of the deep rooted needs of human. We want to know that we are rational and logical. How often have you heard football arguments that circle around the style of play? “I support them because they play attacking football…” and so on. But if that fan is shown a team with better attacking football, would he switch? No, probably not. He would most probably find other reasons for supporting the team.

Many of us like to believe, we have reasons therefore we support. Truth is, we support, therefore we find reasons.

In my quest of being the Android preacher =P, I like to ask iPhone owners why they like it. When I show them that Android can do that particular thing better and faster, I’m often met with disbelieve, i.e. “no lah, where got?”. This is also common from the online discussions and debates that I read (ok, ok, I have no life). If pushed harder, the irrationality will slowly surfaced with statements like “It’s just better, it looks nicer”. Well, if pushed even harder, I’d probably get punched, so I stopped.

b) Fans are close-minded
We are vain humans, all of us are. We have selective hearings, only allowing in things that we like. My dad is very good at that =)

Same as fans. When we align ourselves towards a product, team or cause, we feel integrity is linked with it. When the thing is criticized, we feel hurt and insulted as well. So, consciously or not, we don’t allow the “foreign object” to come into our minds.

When I was arguing (again) about the merits of Word, I am always surprised by the closed mindedness of hardcore LaTeX users. The last version of Word used by them stretched back to the days of Word 2000 or even 97. So many arguments against Word were towards that era. Never mind the improvements of 2003, 07 or 10, Word sucks, period. Once an opinion is formed, it’s hard to change them. Marketing lesson 101.

Surprise, surprise, the same is valid for iPhone users. Since I like a good fight, and since I have been fighting with my bro since I have any memories, I might as well bring him as an example. =)

When I first showed him my phone a month back. He took it, turn on the display and try to unlock it. Well iPhone slide is horizontal so he tried a horizontal slide. It didn’t work so he asked, I told him it’s a vertical slide. He did it, looked at it, probably flip left and right once. He then gave the phone back to me and said “iPhone is still better”.
I was a little angry, of course, but more mind boggled. How could a judgment made so swiftly? Thinking about it now, it made sense. The mind was closed.
******

Before this turn into a ranting post, the question remains, what about me? Am I not just another fan? Well, I agree. I am. So I can be irrational and close-minded as well. The biggest danger of being a fan is when you don’t acknowledge it.

When you’re in love, you’re a fan of your partner. If you don’t acknowledge that, you might be in trouble. Your mind would try to rationalize your decision, but it won’t work. I like you because you’re humorous/smart/pretty. “So you won’t like another girl if she’s more humorous/smarter/prettier?”, comes the reply.

So if you’re a fan of something, just admit it, and save all the time creating invalid reasons for it. If you really think you’ve made a purchase decision out of logic, then make sure you remain rational and open-minded. We often don’t realize it.

And next time you’re asked, “Why do you love me?”, just answer, “I’m a fan”. Period.