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sneaktoday at 2:51 PM3 repliesview on HN

Most tech jobs could be done on a $25 ten year old smartphone with a cracked screen and bulging battery.

That’s exactly my point. Underspending on your tools is a misallocation of resources.


Replies

pqtywtoday at 4:30 PM

That's a bizarrely extreme position. For almost everyone ~$2000-3000 PC from several years ago is indistinguishable from one they can buy now from a productivity standpoint. Nobody is talking about $25 ten year old smartphones. Of course claiming that a $500 laptop is sufficient is also a severe exaggeration, a used desktop, perhaps...

jermaustin1today at 4:02 PM

Overspending on your tools is a misallocation of resources. An annual $22k spend on computing is around 10-20x over spend for a wealthy individual. I'm in the $200-300k/year, self-employed, buys-my-own-shit camp, and I can't imagine spending 1% of my income on computing needs, let alone close to 10%. There is no way to make that make sense.

antiframetoday at 3:52 PM

Yes, you don't want to under spend on your tools to the point where you suffer. But, I think you are missing the flip side. I can do my work comfortably with 32GB RAM, but my 1% a year budget could get me more. But, why not pocket it.

The goal is the right tool for the job, not the best tool you can afford.