Don't Be Eager to Buy Stuff

I’ve met a couple of incoming students this week (Yes, people show up at odd times with family in tow, wander around and get the lay of the land and they’re not even local. It’s cool.) and e-mailed a handful more, well their parents that is. All of them were interested in what kind of computer or camera they should buy to come to school.

My answer is always the same. The first year of college is the worst time to buy a fancy computer. Anything that will turn on is fine. The IT people hate it when I say that. They have their “minimum specs” that HAVE to be met. OK, Maybe Windows 4 is too old and weird, but hey, all versions of Windows are weird. Anyway, the point is don’t buy stuff in a vacuum of knowledge, wait until you actually know the answer for yourself. If you have to rely on “others” to tell you what you need, no matter what they say it’s really for them, not you.

As for cameras - don’t buy any. But wait, don’t filmmakers need their own equipment to turn out the best work? No. You don’t know what we really work on so therefor you don’t know what you really need. Really. Honest.

We’ve got lots of cameras you can sign out from Media Services in the library, and you should. Then, after technology churns under you (ie. time passes), after you’ve got some work under your belt, after you’ve worked in the labs and see how the workflow runs, then, maybe, you might want to buy a camera, or not - maybe even wait another year.

Knowledge, personal knowledge, is always the best advisor and allows you to speak for yourself with confidence and authority. That’s the goal at Hampshire. It doesn’t come overnight, not maybe even in a semester, but we all work at it daily - all of us. Keep your eye on the goal, relax, experiment, have fun and only worry about the really important stuff: What’s the infant mortality rate in the US, how many women start businesses, what’s all that dark matter really doing, etc.