# The Soul of an Old Machine


I recently got an M2 MacBook Air to replace my 2014 MacBook Pro. Apple offered
to recycle my old machine (and give me a token $90 off my new laptop as a
trade-in), which I gladly opted-in to.

However, when it got time to actually wipe my old laptop and trade it in, I
couldn't help but get a little sentimental about it. I've used this laptop for
nearly a decade -- and it was a (perhaps _the_) formative decade of my life. I
did all of my college work on this laptop, studied computer science, wrote
essentially all of the posts on this blog (from its inception until ~2021),
traveled internationally with it, took it across several moves, used it to
secure my first job post-college, et cetera, et cetera.

![](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2023/04/15/The-Soul-of-an-Old-Machine/macbook_pro.jpg)

It was, and is, a great machine. If not for its woefully aged processor and
now-insufficient memory, I'd happily keep using it. And I did keep using it,
well past its point of obsolescence. I've used it for years in both laptop and
"clamshell" mode, and the only nontrivial issue I had with it was a swollen
battery (which I was able to fix for a reasonable price). But nearly everything
else -- the keyboard, the port selection, the screen -- was basically my
favorite hardware that Apple has yet released.

That's not to say there weren't some frustrating aspects of it -- the worst
being that it only had 256GB of internal storage, so I had to juggle external
storage for its entire lifetime. I usually kept an additional 256GB SD card in
it, using a micro SD card and an adapter that kept it flush with the port. Of
course, this wasn't the best solution, as SD cards aren't really meant for this
type of access pattern. But it worked!

Unfortunately, a couple months ago I realized my MBP was struggling to manage
even a single Chrome tab, and noticed that is just _was not pleasant_ to use
this machine anymore. I never checked to see if I _could_ update its macOS
version past the Mojave that I parked it on, but I wouldn't trust any of the
more recent releases to run well on it. Also, as more tools are optimized for
M1+, Intel macs just aren't long for this world.

I strongly considered keeping the old MBP as a momento of this now-closed
chapter of my life, but ultimately decided on recycling it. One less piece of
old hardware sitting around, and hopefully Apple actually is able to salvage
some materials from it.

I have a fairly strong tendency to become attached to the tools I use over time.
One practice that tends to work for "releasing" sentimental objects is taking a
picture of it, and being intentional about what value it brought me, and
allowing it to go (in a fairly
[Kondo-esque](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Kondo) fashion)

Well. So long and farewell, to my 2014 MacBook Pro. Thanks for your many years
of stable service. 👋🙏

_Cover: Snowshoeing @ Mt. Rainier, March 2023_