That morning my laptop froze during a client call and I had no backup plan

I was working from my usual spot at the kitchen table in Austin when my laptop just went black. The client was in the middle of explaining a revision request and I had to say hold on. I spent 15 minutes panicking before I remembered I had an old Chromebook in my closet. It took another 10 minutes to boot up and get Zoom working again. Ever since that day I keep a cheap backup laptop charged and ready. Has anyone else had a tech failure that made you rethink your whole workspace plan?

3 comments

3 Comments

smith.lee8d ago

That's interesting because I actually had the opposite reaction after my own laptop died mid-year. Instead of keeping a backup ready, I figured if my main machine can't handle a simple Zoom call maybe I'm overcomplicating things. I switched to doing everything out of my phone with a clip-on keyboard and a hotspot from T-Mobile, and honestly it works better for the kind of quick calls I do. The Chromebook idea seems like it just creates more stuff to charge and update (and eventually fail too).

river_thompson8d agoProlific Poster

Wait, you seriously do everything from just a phone with a clip-on keyboard? That's wild.

henryr458d ago

Phone only setup is minimalist and smart.