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Comment by sangnoir | Hacker News Reader

> Also, given that this is the author's work laptop, what's the economic justification for not investing in the primary tool you use for work?

Shouldn't the burden of proof be on the obverse - Why should one buy a new laptop when an old one will do? Your framing sounds to me like a post-hoc justification for consumerism. Why not "invest" in getting the absolute best in the primary means of transportation, or couch, TV or random product category?

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Come on now, even the author is pretty clear they're making compromises. Whether that's slower internet speed, lower quality display, worse battery or inability to run modern apps/web apps. There are a lot of ways in which this is making a trade off to priortize cost vs productivity. Sure, you can say all the ways in which the old laptop is inferior are unimportant, but I would atleast like to see some serious consideration of it.

I have my doubts you'd take any such arguments seriously, if you are set on the idea that productivity universally requires a 14-hour battery and a 2.5k screen.

I was traveling recently and got a lot done on an 8-year old tablet. I was very productive, I suspect the combination of being offline (no 5G modem), no random notifications, just me, the terminal and a Bluetooth keyboard. The compact size & weight, and not having to worry about losing or having an expensive iLaptop stolen made for a worthwhile trade-off. Any productivity gains would have been marginal at best, and not worth the cost.

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