[segmondy]

How many people will spend that money today? I see folks refusing to spend $10/$20 of their own money to get better. It's the weirdest thing. I told someone to spend $100 and run an experiment this past weekend, they looked at me like I lost my mind.

[fiblye]

Most people wouldn't have spent that money during that time either.

The reason this story is told is because it's pretty unusual. Carmack's success is a result of him doing fairly exceptional things.

[shams93]

Developers outside of the machine learning PHD world don't make that huge an income, especially if you live in a high rent area and are single they tax the heck out of you in california today. Back then people could afford to drop these large amounts on projects because rent was like $125 a month and taxes were very low compared to say modern california. It actually goes to show how an economy that benefits the rentiers has a way of shutting down innovation and experimentation as all resources go to cover the basics.

[encoderer]

There is a pervasive idea that developer salaries in sf and other tech cities only cover the rents, etc. Not at all true. Thousands and thousands of career developers making great wages. It’s not VCs driving real estate prices.

[phendrenad2]

It is true, the salaries keep going up and the rent goes up to match it.

[rhizome]

There's a saying that wage increases are absorbed by landlords.

[kridsdale1]

Not everyone has rents that can rise.

[spannedtheusa]

Rent in SF has been going down a little last I checked.

[spannedtheusa]

My rent is high, but my cost of living isn’t that high relative to everything (not that different from pricier parts of the Midwest). My salary is high to keep the cost of living maintainable, so I don’t become tempted to move back to the Midwest where my rent was medium and my salary was high, and the cost of living was similarly medium.

[kalleboo]

Well he was the founder of the company. People are more comfortable doing this stuff if they feel like they have a stake in the company/their work. If you're just a code-money in a megacorp you don't care.

[valuearb]

I spent $6,000 on a Mac back then, when I only made $60k. Spending on better tools for developers is a no brainer.

[selestify]

What was so good about the Mac back then?

[valuearb]

Well, I was a Mac developer for one.

[onion2k]

Most young people today are either massively in debt due to student loans or they don't see themselves earning high wages because they don't have a degree. Either way it's understandable that they're averse to speculating with the little money they have.

[Volt]

John Carmack is a very specific kind of person. You should be asking if he'd spend that money today.

[gitgud]

I too fall victim to the don't pay for learning or improving skills. What was the experiment? if you don't mind.

[rypskar]

> I see folks refusing to spend $10/$20 of their own money to get better.

And still many buy iPhone and Macbook