I'm a weird computer nerd. When I'm working in my frugal environment (with links, i3 and whatnot) and I switch to something mainstream (e.g. Windows 10), I get a feeling of relief.
However, when I switch back from the mainstream to the frugal environment, I also get the same feeling of relief.
In the frugal environment, I feel very productive and creative. In the mainstream environment, I feel that I have more cognitive bandwidth to just get stuff done.
Perhaps you can analyze this a bit more, I have no idea if you also tile in windows or if you have a bunch of random window sizes floating around the desktop or if you full screen every window etc. Or is it a difference in font quality, scaling, resolution? Or is it a difference in things just working, less time spent tweaking config and dealing with issues?
Tiling in i3 must feel somewhat constraining after a point, maybe experiment with switching between two different modes/WMs?
I don't do anything to my Windows. It's mostly vanilla.
I think it has some thing to do with the loneliness of having a very customized environment. It's good, but when you work in a mainstream environment, it feels like there is a lot of energy being put by others into the same environment, which (sometimes) will get you high quality defaults and save you some time.
However, when I switch back from the mainstream to the frugal environment, I also get the same feeling of relief.
In the frugal environment, I feel very productive and creative. In the mainstream environment, I feel that I have more cognitive bandwidth to just get stuff done.
Anyone out there feeling the same?