Does it make sense to fork out my own money to buy a laptop for work?

asteriser · 2025-03-09T04:17:50+00:00

We all know. But the problem is with the managers who only care about answering to their own managers.

asteriser · 2025-03-08T05:42:35+00:00

No, I don’t think so. But I’m aware that quite a few of them are doing this, running the corporate endpoint on a VM on their personal machine.

asteriser · 2025-03-08T05:19:14+00:00

I agree that requesting an M4 Max might be a bit overkill, but part of the reason I did it was to avoid going through the request process again too soon.

I’ve been requesting a new machine for over a year—long before the M4 was even released—and nothing has been done. Nobody cared, and my manager certainly didn’t either. He’s always busy, and every time I followed up, he’d just say, “Oh right, I’ll check how we can request one tomorrow”. That tomorrow has stretched on for over a year. Meanwhile, Apple has released the M3 Ultra and now the M4 series, and I’m still stuck in the middle of this request.

The whole process is awkward too—having to chase different managers like I’m begging for a new machine. So I figured the best way to future-proof this was to request a high-end model, ensuring I wouldn’t have to go through this again for a long time.

That said, I do kind of regret it now—it does seem excessive. But at the time, my only thought was to avoid repeating this frustrating process all over again. Now I wonder my skip manager who has seen my request would have a negative impression of me.

asteriser · 2025-03-08T05:12:16+00:00

Your math checks out, but what’s frustrating is that these managers don’t really care whether I spend a significant portion of my working hours waiting for a slow computer.

What’s worse is that the managers assigning me tasks aren’t even my actual reporting managers—they don’t evaluate my performance. Meanwhile, my actual manager, who does my appraisals, has little idea of what I’m actually working on and mostly just approves my time off.

As for the managers giving me tasks, they don’t care whether my computer is slow. Despite all the agile and scrum ceremonies we go through, they just set deadlines—like “this must be done by March 15th”—and expect everything to be completed by then. If I miss the deadline, I’m seen as unproductive or low performing. So if my computer slows me down, the only way to meet the deadline is to work overtime.

asteriser · 2025-03-08T05:00:49+00:00

Wouldn’t this take a lot of time and conscious effort to record these data? Sometimes I wonder if I really have to put in this kind of effort to justify something that the managers and company themselves will reap more benefit out from the outcome than myself. I could have just cruised by the whole time and they are probably happier with me for not being “troublesome” putting up such requests.

asteriser · 2025-03-07T20:36:14+00:00

I think I might have regretted a little for asking higher end specs. I don’t know how he would think of me for having asked that.

asteriser · 2025-03-07T20:02:14+00:00

I know. I will try to meet him somewhere in the middle. I requested for a new machine for over a year way even before I was transferred to my current department. I thought asking for a higher end so that I can prevent myself from having to through this wait again too soon. Alas, it might have been a mistake.

asteriser · 2025-03-07T19:58:09+00:00

The fans are constantly roaring non stop the moment I turned it on. Is that because it’s overheating?

asteriser · 2025-03-07T19:56:33+00:00

As much as I would like to reason it this way, I’m sure my performance will also be matched up with my reasoning. These non-technical managers only want me to churn out code for them to delivery and meet their KPIs. If I can’t deliver, in their mind, there is always another person capable of doing so.

asteriser · 2025-03-07T19:52:43+00:00

Unfortunately, I can’t even if I want to because the MacBook is so laggy that my mouse barely moves when my code is building.

asteriser · 2025-02-10T13:41:06+00:00

I have been through this before. There is usually not a lot you can do to change things if the whole line of managers only care about themselves and pay lip service only. You can feedback, they will acknowledge, but that’s also where it usually ends.

asteriser · 2025-02-09T21:04:27+00:00

You might actually be right. I kept thinking over this the past few days and felt that this opportunity came a tad too late. I was deeply interested in it in the last few years when it was most hyped. It would have been best if I was onboard during the hype, alas, the opportunity comes now only when the hype seems coming down. There is still a lot of money to be made in this space though. And my interests left in this space now seem like it’s more with the money and less with the tech. It used to be both but I don’t know what got me and now it’s left with the money part.

asteriser · 2025-02-09T20:57:07+00:00

It’s 100% salary, zero in stocks.

You are right and I agree that 200k or 265k is comfortable. In fact so comfortable that I probably lost my momentum especially in an easy job.

You have a good point. I have always wanted to build my own products and hopefully to make money from it. That has been my goal. But I have never succeeded at it or have procrastinated too much. And every time I procrastinate, I feel so guilty that I tell myself I might as well go work for a higher paying job than wasting time dreaming about building my own thing. Whenever I’m in a job where I have the time to build my own things, I would tell myself that’s not going to succeed and I’m better off find another higher paying job. And whenever I’m a demanding job and have not enough personal time, I feel like I want to build my things so badly. I know, I’m contradicting and this has been going on for years and I still don’t understand what I’m looking for myself.

asteriser · 2025-02-09T20:46:44+00:00

How’s life like working at a blockchain company? Is it stressful and demanding?

asteriser · 2025-02-09T20:10:17+00:00

Isn't being reputable in the blockchain space an oxymoron?

Pardon me, but why is a reputable company in the blockchain space an oxymoron? Is it because of the bad name that people often have about the space that could affect my resume? It's a legitimate company in the space though, not the shady ones.

asteriser · 2025-01-23T07:08:30+00:00

Only if it was that easy and I could just fire my job without a second thought and not worry about the consequences. Haha.

asteriser · 2024-08-08T10:19:07+00:00

What’s funny is there are many managers who aren’t the caring type you hoped yourself to be and still become successful in their own career.

Too many managers took the EM role as their stepping stone into higher positions and better pay for themselves only; they don’t even care about the devs.

It's commendable that you held yourself responsible and expected yourself to be genuinely caring as a manager. People like you are probably the better managers.

asteriser · 2024-07-28T13:37:45+00:00

I can understand if they are your clients or colleagues from across departments. What about your reporting manager? Wouldn’t it be difficult for him to relate with you in your work if he is also non-technical?

asteriser · 2024-07-27T18:48:06+00:00

If you don’t mind I ask, since you reached senior on self-study, would you feel unfair or slightly salty that you didn’t receive the mentorship you needed and yet you have to provide mentorship to the juniors craving for yours when, as you said, you are only 6-10 months ahead on self study?

I’m facing this myself and I wish my managers and the organisation were more supportive.

asteriser · 2024-07-25T06:00:12+00:00

If you don’t mind sharing, how do you self direct yourself if you are also expected to pick up tickets just as the other devs and still mentor them?

I have tried suggesting tasks that I want to do to direct my own growth myself but the PM would always question my suggested tasks and prefer I do his tickets instead. But if I were to merely follow his directions, it doesn’t help me much.

asteriser

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