Yet there’s melancholy too. Software is ephemeral; versions march on and old comforts are left behind. A beloved keyboard shortcut can disappear, a favorite effect can be deprecated, and in that loss there’s a reminder of impermanence even in the tools we treat as extensions of ourselves. Patches are both balm and reckoning — they heal and they change. They force adaptation, and adaptation, oddly, can be invigorating. New constraints shape new habits, and new habits coax fresh work out of familiar hands.