It may seem like flexing to you but to me it is a carefully thought out business decision.

I’m very well-off now but in the early part of my career we were very frugal except in computer hardware. I did a lot of freelancing, and the logic was simple. Anything that makes it easier for you to spend extra time doing work is worth it. I have never ever regretted hardware purchases made on those terms. If Troy makes a conservative hundred dollars per hour and works an extra hour or two a day because of the ergonomics, he makes out like a bandit.

Conversely, if inadequate hardware leads you to a repetitive stress injury or simply not feeling motivated to work, the resulting cost can be substantial.

When you spend 15 hours a day in front of a computer every day, you want the best experience for yourself. It’s the one place where I’m totally happy to be a bit extravagant rather than fancy clothes, cars, home location etc

When I was a teen working on my car, I had very little money. I always had to make do with whatever could be scrounged for a tool. It's amazing what you can do with a screwdriver :-/

As an adult working on my car, I get the right tools, and that sure makes for both a much easier time and getting professional results.

If you're into electronics, spending $$$ on a quality soldering iron is night and day in terms of time and money saved on the project. I discovered this because that was my side job in college, assembling circuit boards, and they gave me a pro soldering iron and what an amazing difference that was.

If your business is your video blog, getting a professional quality mike and camera is a good investment.

I suppose it's maybe a matter of understanding what will get you a decent return on your investment.

To the car example, I've done a moderate amount of work on my car in the past year. When I started, I had a junk set of sockets and wrenches from Walmart. I had a socket split in half when I was trying to loosen a bolt. Obviously the tools I had weren't up to the task. So I went to the hardware store and bought Crescent brand tools. They work great for a hobbyist like me. I don't do nearly enough mechanical work to require SnapOn or similar professional-grade tooling.

So I guess my critique is more, does this guy do things that require the top of the line tooling, or is he doing it just to showboat?

From other things I've read here, I'm reasonably convinced that he is probably justified in spending on the things he did. I didn't have any of that background when I read the article and made my initial comment.

> does this guy do things that require the top of the line tooling

If his business is video blogging, yes, he does.

I can buy that I guess.

Probably the main philosophical disagreement I have with the article is summed up by (and probably the rest of the article was tainted by) the opening line:

> I was searching around for a quote along the lines of you only being as good as the tools you use

I personally (fully aware it's a quirk of mine that others don't seem to share) feel that fancy tools are often a crutch for a lack of understanding.

Granted, this guy looks to have a long list of accomplishments, so good for him for wanting a fancy set up. If it brings him joy then more power to him.

I feel you, In several areas of my life (computers, stereo, photography, old truck, etc) I go overboard in building whatever it is I’m working on not because I strictly need that amazingness but because I enjoy having constructed it and the feel of using a fine instrument.

Building and using it sparks joy.

I also am irked by people who buy and use amazing things and display said amazing thing from a position of “I am amazing therefore I need amazing things” or vice versa. I dunno, it seems really inauthentic or something. I’m getting a little of that vibe from this article but OTOH I’m also getting a lot of the “Building and using great instruments sparks joy” vibe too and I think the former may just be coming across by virtue of writing a blog post to share the latter so, oh well :)

I've always felt you are only as good as you are when your tools are taken away.

I think it's bad to let your tools become a crutch to avoid gaining a deeper understanding.

That being said, if you take a software developer's CPU away what are they supposed to do - build their own foundry? Same for electrical engineers - can they really be faulted for an inability to design a modern chip without the help of extensive tooling?

(I'm certainly nowhere near being capable of implementing my own C++ compiler from scratch.)

> I'm certainly nowhere near being capable of implementing my own C++ compiler from scratch.

It's not that bad. A couple months and you're good to go.

I doubt even you would be that keen to write a C++17 compiler from scratch :P

I did write a C++98 compiler from scratch. I then was consumed by writing a D compiler, but the later C++ versions aren't hard from a compiler perspective.

For context, the person you replied to is the author of the D language.

Video editing and streaming would be the main things driving his hardware needs - the computer, camera, lighting, etc.

I edit video on the side and without touching much 4K, I already need a new laptop ($5k or so). I am self-employed and have three screens at the office and three at home. I looked into the same 49" he got but ended up getting a colour-calibrated 24" instead. I have a curved 34" at the office which is great. He's included some of his recording gear which pushes out the cost. If I included drone, two gimbals, camera, GoPro, etc in my list it would ramp up as well.

He also explains that tax write-offs are a factor. Plus, I imagine he has some cash stockpiled and burning a hole in his pocket. Upgrading his tools for the first time in years isn't that outrageous if he'd been running into issues with much of his gear just prior to that.

He does blogging and stuff. So this seems like a combination of unboxing, business expense tax deduction and simple expensive toys.

An honest setup could be had for much less. I think he could save quite a bit on his PC with custom built, screens by going smaller and more numerous, camera by going 1080p instead of 4k. That would be a perfectly good work from home setup but he wanted to go max and blog about it.

but tbh from the invoices i have seen for business 'expenses', 10k for a critical part of your work flow is forgiveable.

He explained that shifting from more smaller screens meant that he could remove the bezel from right in front of his face. Those big, curved screens are brilliant to use IMO. He might have passive income from Pluralsight courses, have his mortgage paid off and figure he might as well use the surplus cash to treat himself. Others might spend more than that upgrading a car they're suddenly using less than ever before.

You can read about Troy on his Wikipedia page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Hunt

tldr; he’s a security researcher and the creator of Have I Been Pwned?