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Someone who has never thought about off roading or 4x4s may be very surprised that the dirt matters so much because they have never thought about it. So it sounds like an important topic to address for the audience of the New Yorker.

I have to question how "surprising" the significance of hardware configuration is. The characteristics of CPU and mobo (and the RAM sticks themselves) will affect all aspects of how the computer behaves and handles. How is it surprising that one who enjoys the activity would be deeply invested in the very silicon on which everything happens?

Replacements in italics mine to demonstrate that we aren't that different from the wine and dirt lovers.

> I have to question how "surprising" the significance of dirt composition is

It's surprising to people who have never thought about it before. So about 99.9% of the population.

And if you disagree with that characterization of the average person ... how strongly do you feel about the difference between a 7-speed automatic and an 8-speed automatic car? Or the importance of wood grain orientation in your picnic table? Or the exact type of steel used in your cutlery? How about the difference between a cavendish and a manzano banana?

These details affect "literally everything" about those items. Yet most of us never think about it because we already have enough other things to nerd out about.