In the past few years, CPUs have gotten really fast. Shockingly fast!
Yet most people are stuck on previous generation mobile chips (whether by choice, or by their companies choice), at a huge detriment to their productivity.
Meanwhile, AI coding subscriptions like Cursor are all the rage these days.
I'll skip the debate on exactly how useful these tools are, and focus on the pricing.
Cursor is $480/year for the team plan (the cheapest corporate plan), and other providers are around the same, setting a clear price point: engineering productivity is worth at least $500/year.

Hacker News is a community-driven platform for sharing and discussing technology news, startups, and programming-related topics. Through user submissions and comments, Hacker News offers insights into emerging technology trends, industry developments, and entrepreneurial ventures. Readers can participate in discussions, share their insights, and stay informed about the latest advancements in technology and innovation.

Hacker News

Modern CPUs have become dramatically faster, with desktop processors offering up to 10x performance improvements over older laptop chips. The author argues that investing in top-tier CPUs like the AMD Ryzen 9950X ($500) provides better value than AI coding subscriptions ($480/year) for developer productivity. Benchmarks show desktop CPUs are roughly 3x faster than laptops, and current generation processors are 3x faster than models from 3 years ago, making build times significantly shorter and development workflows more efficient.

You should buy a faster CPU

It’s no surprise when you compare the highest-end desktop PC processors to an “economical” laptop processor.

This must be the most unfair (if not stupid) comparison ever, both for the CPU tiers and the build time vs develop time.

Honestly, comparing old vs new vs ai to measure developers productivity = SMH.
To me, what makes a developer productive is… Passion. If a developer has Passion for the craft, you give them no tools or all tools and they will be productive.

For an impromptu test, that caught me by surprise. Most CPU releases have felt incremental for the past decade.