First

"In Chess, the pawns go first"
- Magneto (X2)

This quote is from the second X-Men Movie, it was said by Magneto and it expresses a sentiment that is rather dark - although not strictly true if you want to get bogged down in the technical aspect of Chess.  The sentiment of the quote quite simply put is that you let those you are willing to sacrifice go first, and keep those you want to protect until the right time before you bring them into play.

When I was younger I wanted to be first.  I wanted to do everything I could, as soon as I could.  I wanted to be the first to play games, listen to music, see movies, see TV shows and all the rest.  I was the first to volunteer for things, partly because I didn't think anyone else would, and partly because my anxiety would grow if I had to wait so I preferred to get it over with quickly to take the edge off and then sit back and watch others try.  I still maintain some of that mentality mainly in regard to anxiety, but as for the desire to be first in general, that has pretty much died with age.

With video games when I was younger I wanted to play them first.  Whenever I heard about a game in development that I thought looked good or promising I would want to pre-order it with the hopes of playing it on the day of release.  After more than one bad experience however, I've come to realise that, those who go in the first wave are those who meet the most problems.  The worst example of this was the release of Sim City, the modern remake.  When it was released I had a copy on the day of release and what happened next was history.  Electronic Arts [EA] the company that developed the game was wrecked with problems.  The game had restrictions coded into it in an attempt to prevent piracy, these required the game to connect to servers run by EA to play the game.  Those servers suffered greatly in the first few days and even into the first few weeks.  They crashed regularly, they instituted queuing systems where you had to wait, sometimes hours before you would be connected and you would finally get to play the game.

The Sim City debacle taught me that being first to experience something new means you're the first to experience the rough edges, to encounter the problems, and above all else the first to have your patience tested.  With age I've come to realise it's better to let those who have the energy and the patience to weather that go first, and to wait until most of the bugs and the issues are fixed before jumping in.

Staying with technology to use another example this time an Operating System, when I was at University I had access to the Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance [MSDNAA] - among other things this give me access to thousands of pounds worth of Microsoft software completely free.  In amongst the software was a copy of Windows Vista Business Edition.  If you know anything about computers, you can probably guess how that went.  For those of you lucky enough to have never experienced Windows Vista, it was a train wreck - that's putting it kindly.  I could write a ten thousand word post about everything that went wrong with it.

The sentiment remains, as you age and the novelty of being first begins to wear off, you soon come to realise that those who go first should be those who are most resilient and are able to withstand everything that will be thrown at them in the fray.  Those who have learned the value of patience will be rewarded with stability, refinement, and the free experience of those who went before you - as those who go first will be more than willing to share their experience and tell you everything about it, good and bad.