The Inexorable March Of Progress

I had my first computer when I was about eight (a Commodore 64) and later spent many months saving my pocket money so I could afford my next (a Commodore Amiga). I was so deeply in love with technology and it's enormous potential that I went on to study computer science at university (badly as it happened, but I'm still hoping to make amends). I've now spent several years working in the technology arena and my friends are amongst the most techno-literate people I've had the good fortune to encounter. I own a not inconsideral array of gadgets and still have a deep interest in new tech.

So why am I afraid of falling behind on the technology curve?

One thing I've noticed in my daily computing habits is that I've become much more (please forgive the dilbertesque turn of phrase) results oriented, in that I'm actually using my computer more as a tool than a toy. Whereas I would once have studied intimately the ins and outs of whatever system I was using, optimised it, tinkered with it and installed all manner of whizzy accessories on it, these days such things don't hold quite the same appeal as they once did. That's not to say that they don't appeal at all, but rather that the effort/reward ratio doesn't seem to stack up as it once did.

I worry slightly that this may be a trend which ends with me many years from now trying to program my 3-D holographic digital image recorder whilst muttering curses against the new-fangled technology, all the while remembering those halcyon days of my youth through rose tinted memories when everything was simpler and better.

Is this a natural progression that other people have gone through? Or is it just me?