Haha, I appreciate the skepticism for my apple praise. :) For what it's worth, I don't care much for the rest of Apple's offerings.

It's only 2013 - I get another six years for my macbook investment to play out. In April 2007, AAPL sold for $90/share, which works out to profit of $36k over the same length of time, four years.

Have I made $9k/year more than I would have had I not bought the macbook? Not likely. But it's helped me to work and learn efficiently and productively, and $9k/year is inexpensive tuition.

Could I have done the same with a different laptop? Maybe. But my point is that it's important to invest (judiciously) in yourself, too. Whatever tools you need to learn and become the best at what you want to do may be different, but don't underestimate the utility of that investment.

Not only this, but the laptop was a guaranteed increase in earnings being that it was the tool you needed to get the job done, were the stock could have plummeted. These comparisons while crazy to think about, are rather pointless.

I'd call $9k a year average tuition cost where I am from (at the time I studied). New Zealand. This figure excludes living costs, includes uni fees only.

of course, you are both comparing the difference to... zero?!

(you should compare the price difference to an equivalent laptop (however defined) if you're talking "marginal")

I'm not comparing the difference to zero. Note my convoluted phrasing which I wrote specifically to forestall your objection:

> you've made a marginal $55,000 a year since 2009 which you would not have made with any cheaper laptop?

Of course I don't think he actually has, and that he would have gained pretty much whatever he has gained with a much-cheaper-than-$3k-laptop.