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Here is how a good boss would rationalize it. Boss: Hi new Employee, what laptop would you like to use as your daily computer? Employee: A $700 Dell. Boss: A
by jyap 14y ago
Here is how a good boss would rationalize it.
Boss: Hi new Employee, what laptop would you like to use as your daily computer?
Employee: A $700 Dell.
Boss: Are you just saying that to save the company money? Because it's not about the money. I'm paying you $80k a year and I want you to be productive and happy. I want you to pick something you feel good about every time you use it. You will be using this laptop 40+ hours a week for the next 2 years. Don't forget, this is your job and career.
Employee: Hmm. Well, I do prefer Mac to Windows. Is a $2200 15" MacBook Pro retina OK?
Boss: You tell me. The purchase price is a tax write off. I really don't give a shit.
- mitjak 14y agoThere's an inherent assumption here that $2200 gets you a significantly better machine. It's true, but you can enjoy a massive jump in quality for probably around $150-1600. I believe that's what lubos is alluding to.
- insom 14y agoIf you're being paid professional programmer rates you should get the best machine, not the one where price-performance hits some sweet spot. If the cost of a developer who wants a Dell is $80,750 and a developer who wants an rMBP is $82,200 (year 1), that developer needs to be 2% more productive over a year to justify it. Hard to measure these things for a lot of folks but I've definitely saved over 2% of my work time from switching from spinning disks to high-end SSD on unit tests alone. Never mind the reduced boot times, how fast 'brew install' is and the general responsiveness. If you're buying it yourself, be cheap, if you're paying someone's massive wage bill, get them the best thing you can.