The way I’m wired as a person is that if I come across a better way of doing things — not just new for the sake of being new, but objectively better — I’m motivated to help others who are still doing things the old and worse way. Sometimes “better” is about perspective and preference, but sometimes it’s objectively better based on facts, physics, and numbers. I want the person to benefit from the better way.
I try to do this kindly and patiently, though sometimes if I’m in a discussion with a particularly intransigent defender-of-the-old-worse-way, I can get a little…strident. But I do honestly try to understand where people are coming from and not try to be aggressive about sharing why the new way is better. Most people don’t like change and I accept that’s part of human nature.
Things that fall into this category of “better ways I feel passionate about” include EVs, solar power, battery back up power…and power bricks (chargers) that are only as big as they need to be, and no bigger (see a theme here? 🔋 ⚡️).
A memorable example of that last category occurred back in 2024. I was at an AWS off-site meeting where the whole community team had come in from around the world for meetings. A group of us were sitting around a table, and there was a power bar in the middle. Each person took their charging brick and plugged into the power bar.
The difference between what was plugged in was so visually surprising, I took this photo:
The large white power brick on the left was used by my co-worker. It was a 100 watt charger, the kind Amazon’s IT department gives out to employees from their free “IT Vending Machines” (which is a really cool concept and something more companies should do). She had her Windows laptop (an HP) and phone connected to it.
The little blue charger to the right of it was mine. It was a Voltme 30-watt charger, and I was doing an experiment to see whether such a small, relatively low-powered charger was enough to keep me going all day. Given that my work M2 MacBook Pro, with its screen at medium brightness, consumed a meager 5-7 watts of power at idle, this was more than sufficient to keep me going all day since I wasn’t doing anything more strenuous with it than typing.
I remarked to my coworker on the hilarious size disparity between our two chargers, and we had a little good-natured back and forth ribbing where she informed me that I was “brick shaming” her for her choice of the large charging brick. 😂 We had a good laugh about it.
To this day, whenever I see a large charger with something connected to it that doesn’t need anywhere near as much power as it can provide, the term “brick shaming” pops into my head and I am reminded of my co-worker and that moment we shared.
If I could wave a magic wand and save everyone the weight and bulk of carrying chargers bigger than they need to be, I would. But until then, I will continue my quest to gently encourage people to use chargers only as big as they need to be. 🙏
Further reading on my obsession keen interest about optimized charging. 😉
