John Dvorak said many, many decades ago (80s/90s) that the computer you want will always cost $3000. That statement has been more/less true for some time periods than others, but with some wiggle room I’ve found it to be accurate enough.

Care to guess the approximate price of the MBP I bought earlier this year?

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ahknight 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

My heavily-upgraded M1 Max came in slightly over that when I got it five years ago. (Still going very, very strong.)

This new Studio? Can't find a config under $5k I'd bother with. But for the MBPs that number still mostly tracks for the average Pro user. (I buy large and run it into the ground so long I mistake the ground for the computer's remains.)

	▲	mikestew 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I buy large and run it into the ground so long I mistake the ground for the computer's remains. My still-being-used 2012 MBP (which cost me about $3K) says, “hi”. And, as you point out, the new computers I want blow Dvorak’s hypothesis out of the water. Never would I have guessed 30 years ago that Dvorak would be wrong the other direction on price.

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seanmcdirmid 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I bought my refurbished M3 Max MBP with 64 GB for $3k a couple of years ago. Before Ethan I never spent more than $2k for a computer.

	▲	mikestew 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The “spend” and “want” number might differ, depending on one’s financial state. I know I’ve purchased plenty for less than $3K. But the one I wanted…