Were you using an Apple adapter when this happened?
1 work-provided laptop
1 personal laptop
1 gaming desktop
1 backup laptop (old, like 10 years old)
1 closet server desktop (also old, but runs terraria servers just fine)
On my desk, I use 2 HDMI switches and a USB 3.0 switch to use the same peripherals and monitors for both my work laptop and gaming desktop. At the end of the day, I just hit the buttons on the switches to toggle to my desktop.
I have a USB-C dock that the work laptop plugs into. If i ever want to do work for my side project, I can unplug my work-provided laptop and plug in my personal laptop, and have the same setup as before -- just with a different machine.
Do you have a machine for SQL? Machine for mobile? Machine for web?
* Personal workstation/gaming machine
* Employer provided work laptop (MBP)
* Surface Go Tablet used for reading around the house, light travel, etc.
* Personal Dell laptop used for longer travel
* Old desktop converted to a server for running services I always need up.
* A rpi 3b used for running services I want to physically separate from the internet accessible main server.
I've considered repurposing some old hardware I have laying around into a htpc type thing for gaming/emulation on my TV, but that's on hold right now due to GPU pricing.
So I'm not far off 7. Other tech-heavy users may have seperate devices for their spouse/kids, or dedicated devices for specific OSes (my main workstation is a dual boot, my laptop is linux only and the tablet is windows only). So I can see a path to 10 for others.
Those machines are getting old, and I've been considering upgrading my server and using a VDI solution instead. Or maybe it's time to switch to a more mobile option...
That's my take, although I don't own $1000 worth of computers all added together.
I'm always surprised when people use laptops for professional work as I've always had great honkin' company-supplied desktop machines. Generally, if something breaks (which is super rare) the main cost is the time to rebuild an environment.
If you're actually serious about it, consider Qubes OS [0]. This should be much more secure and convenient than handling ten devices.
> I have long since used a single device [...]
I'm not sure which you're suggesting then?
I understand the desire to compartmentalise... I just think real life's too blurry, and then it gets annoying at the edges - oh I had this problem on my other one, how did I solve it again? etc.
But I don't travel much, and if I did I would probably only have one primary system.
Looks like they use their Mac a lot judging by all the projects they're working on.
I have a strategy that is common to all hackers / nerds / technophiles and that is: having multiple devices for different things.
It's common to see in hacker circles: This laptop is for gaming. This other laptop is for freelancing & business. My other laptop is for toying / tinkering etc
You can extend that list to probably 10 devices if you're serious enough about compartmenting your digital life. I have long since used a single device for everything that I work on.