Friends,
 
Don’t want to clog up the respected forum with thread worn topics, but just to share a progressive change in perspective.
 
Was making an easy six figure income as a clinical pharmacist. Anything to buy, upgrade was pocket change, so was always seeking the latest and greatest. Upgrade, buy, use the toy for a couple days and then have the temporary thrill drop off into oblivion. Forgot everything I was buying and even tried to buy duplicate licenses for what I forgot I already purchased.
 
Chose to retire from the rat race in good grace. Now living in old age on a vegetable social security check, me and the wife. All is too much well, even if the norm says we are living below the poverty level and should be suffering without the ability to do an E. coli Bahama cruise.
 
But then the real thing hit. Have to be more restrained on vst and vsti purchases. Can always go back to work if the fever sets in again, but getting more comfortable into the retirement identity. Have to thus be more careful in the face of the GAS disease.
 
Three months out and have upgraded Revalver for $49 which I had planned since it first came out once I secured the warez crack. Got two of the fire sale one dollar libraries, Air something and a Sonivox something else dragging down hard drive real estate.. Makes the total credit card drain at $51 for 3 months, and even this too much in retrospect.
 
This may sound obscene, but receding from the newest latest and greatest, the ultimate fire sales if you act now, the once in a lifetime 20% off upgrades. New to die for reverb or echo. Starting to lose interest. Already got the effects, and in retrospect, too many of them that only obscure the primordial goal of making music.
 
Got all the synths and vst effects any human deserves or can use in a lifetime.
 
Crossed some maybe intellectual or practical brink. Realized that I don’t need nothing else and even the sense of needing something else is a defective mask obscuring native creativity. That latest real vintage accurate modeling compressor of some iconic hardware thing that will make your creativity soar to new heights for a mere $100. …Meh… So much Maya as the ancient Hindus advised.
 
Love to all of you,
John

Watch out, John, you're about to make ... music.

Oh crap...scary thought...

I agree John but the truth of the matter is I can not retire until they close down the deals forum. That's reality for me.

Gotta watch it...
My reality check bounced due of insufficient funds. 
 
I was listening to something I mixed 10 years ago - sounds damn good for something made with stone age software & equipment.
Now I've got 10 times more audio software & plugins and probably 10 times the CPU power (if not more) - am I 10x more productive?
Wish I could say I was 2x.  

TheSteven
Gotta watch it...
My reality check bounced due of insufficient funds. 
 
I was listening to something I mixed 10 years ago - sounds damn good for something made with stone age software & equipment.
Now I've got 10 times more audio software & plugins and probably 10 times the CPU power (if not more) - am I 10x more productive?
Wish I could say I was 2x.  

Exactly! Listened to something I created in PA 8 & 9. Clear and clean. Not overly done.
 
 

I truly believe that a moratorium on new plugin acquisitions can result in a huge boost of creativity.
 
At least, that's been my experience. In the early days, pre-software, I almost never added new gear. My musical productivity was at its apex, an album's worth of material every 2-3 months. Then I started using a DAW.
 
For a long time I could only make new acquisitions once or twice a year, and only bought things on sale at deep discounts. My musical output was still high during that period. Not as high as when I was recording to tape, but still acceptable. Poverty kept my creativity alive.
 
(Spend some time in a poor country where wages are $2-$5 a day and witness just how creative people can get!)
 
Nowadays, I am awash in new software. Overwhelmed, even. This past week I added four more sample libraries, three of which are huge and will require many hours to grok them. Projected musical output over the next 3 or 4 weeks: likely zero.
 
 

Yep. I've also found that the more VST's or VSTi's I get, the more time I spend preset scrolling and knob tweaking, and the less time actually completing a song.

It's weird but it's true. Make things expensive and I don't buy them, meanwhile using and appreciating what I have. It's a crazy world. Take higher education in Europe for example, incredibly low cost when compared to the Ivy League. As a result, students are less active and just wait for things to come to them. So the solution would be to raise prices in order to make people more appreciative? Nah, I don't want to go with that kind of reasoning. Take museums as another example. Should we ask a higher entrance fee to make people appreciate culture more? To the contrary, I would say. Don't rate good things with money, 'cause their value will plummet.

John, that was one of the BEST posts I have read in a long time. I am planning to retire from my less-than-six figure, but decent, income in two months. Since I have been planning this, I, too, seem less interested in continual upgrades or collecting the latest VST Rhodes (I have so many), etc.  And in fact, I totally agree that creativity, while it can be sparked by new tools, can also be stifled by the continual learning curve, spending sprees, etc.
 
I am so thankful you wrote this, it really hit me right where I live (and am going to live).  We'll see what happens to me as I edge fearfully into retirement (and joyfully focusing on making music!), but I believe in what you are preaching (or suggesting) and appreciate this thread more than you will ever know.
 
Thanks.