better tools, lower quality

Recently i have been thinking about how sometimes getting better technology actually means lower quality performance. I guess part of it is from looking at work I did a year ago (see my edge of water post). I had to put forth a lot of effort in order to get even ok results due to a basic camera and crappy editing software. Now I think about how much work I would currently put into something like that. I don't think it would be quite the same. I know that part of it is there is so much more stuff that's bidding for my time now, but I think part of it is the technology factor. When I didn't have a good camera or editing software I had to try really hard to make my work look nice. Now, I have to put a lot less effort forward to get adequate results. This makes lowering my effort level a lot more appealing.

In some ways I suppose that's ok. I mean, not having to slave away for an hour to white balance a shot in post is nice. But I feel like for me this ease produced by technology can keep me from trying really hard to make my stuff good. I look at my work, and since it looks so much better than my past stuff, it's easy to loose sight of a need to keep pushing myself. That's the point i'm at right now. I need to make sure I keep pushing myself and my tools to give me the best result possible. Anyone else have similar feelings?