I haven't read the article and I balked when they exclaimed the bit about 18 GB of RAM. That'd be an unusual number but, more importantly, is well below what I'd expect for a minimal amount of RAM in a designated 'professional' system.

These days, I'd want 64 GB as a minimum but I suppose 32 would suit for some tasks. I still muck about with some modeling that hasn't been shunted off to the GPU, so I'd even find a use for 128 GB.

A few browser tabs, email client, IDE, and Slack are going to eat up a goodly portion of 18 GB.