[1996]

I have laptops with 64 and 32Gb of RAM, but I found my best work happens with 8Gb of RAM.

I can't exactly explain how or why, but it seems to enforces discipline by reducing task (and context) switching - so much that I got myself another laptop with 4Gb.

[ATsch]

This reads like an apple user parody.

[xwdv]

I feel there’s some rationale to it. I used to have a lot of sprawling monitors, but I found I’m just much more focused with a single laptop screen and being able to just switch panes.

[TheOperator]

I know exactly what he's talking about as somebody who ran a win7 and Linux VM on a 4gb MBA. I had to be incredibly choosy about what I kept open at any given time or my system would keel over. It enforced discipline that I just didn't have normally which helped keep me organized.

[fortran77]

https://www.reddit.com/r/LOLHackerNews/comments/jrrz46/not_a...

[1996]

This is serious. A constrained environment helps me focus and think more creatively.

The only think I'll never skimp on is storage. In 2018 I standardized on 2Tb SSDs in raid0.

I'm currently upgrading to 4Tb (as I can't find much larger)

[ratww]

My favourite development machine is still my 9 year old Air with 4GB. I mostly do frontend, a bit of Rails and some of GameDev with C++. It forces me to use lightweight tools (like Sublime) and it works like a charm.

One advantage of having it is that the company I work for has a very international and diverse user base, but gives us developers super modern machines. Some developers tend to overgineer and cause performance issues on slower computers. With an older laptop I can understand better how the app will be perceived by users.

[1996]

> Some developers tend to overgineer and cause performance issues on slower computers. With an older laptop I can understand better how the app will be perceived by users.

Exactly this. It forces me to optimize instead of taking shortcuts.

But the #1 effect is on focus: I can't have many tabs open and procrastinate.

8Gb is ideal for me. I'll see how it goes with 4Gb.

[throwaway888abc]

Offtopic, but same apply to internet usage. Limit your self and you will be more productive.