Developer Spending Priorities

Ah, the sweet delusion of the elderly PC builder. Remember when $1000 could get you a beast of a machine? Now that same budget barely covers a decent graphics card after you've sold a kidney on the black market. The chip shortage, crypto miners, and "gamer aesthetics" tax have turned PC building into a luxury hobby that requires a financial advisor. Meanwhile, the younger generation just pats us on the back and humors our ramblings about the good old days when we weren't choosing between rent and a new CPU.

Forget fun-size Snickers, this programmer's handing out Logitech G502 mice for Halloween! The G502 is practically the unofficial mouse of programmers everywhere - that infinite scroll wheel has saved more carpal tunnels than ergonomic keyboards. Ten years from now these kids will be thanking this house when they're crushing leetcode interviews while their peers are still using trackpads like animals. The real trick-or-treat is deciding whether to use all 11 programmable buttons or just stick with the defaults because who has time to read manuals?

Finally, a VR headset where you can't see Half-Life 3 not existing. Valve's strategy is brilliant - build hardware to distract us from the games they'll never finish. It's like putting on noise-cancelling headphones so you can't hear the community begging for sequels. Truly innovative.

The AUDACITY of modern game devs! Back in the golden era, we had absolute LEGENDS writing entire rendering pipelines IN ASSEMBLY like some kind of coding demigods! Meanwhile, today's devs are just throwing 999 dynamic lights and a MILLION blades of grass into their games, then having the NERVE to wonder why their masterpiece runs at a pathetic 20FPS on a $1500 graphics card! But don't worry, sweetie! DLSS will magically fix your horrifically optimized code! Because who needs actual optimization when you can just let AI upscale your disaster?! The optimization apocalypse is upon us!

Spent your entire paycheck on that "developer-grade" laptop only for it to transform into a jet engine the moment you hit compile? Nothing says "money well spent" like a machine that's simultaneously melting your thighs and preparing for takeoff. The fans spin so hard you could probably generate enough electricity to power a small village. And yet somehow, despite sounding like it's about to achieve liftoff, it'll still take 45 seconds to compile your "Hello World" program. Aerospace engineers should study programmer laptops—they've mastered the art of maximum noise for minimum performance.

The "future of autonomous vehicles" in a nutshell. Companies hype up their "AI-driven" robotaxis while quietly outsourcing the actual driving to some guy with a gaming steering wheel in a cubicle halfway across the world. It's the tech industry's version of the Wizard of Oz – "pay no attention to the underpaid contractor behind the curtain!" Next time your self-driving car makes an unusually human decision like slowing down for a squirrel or taking that shortcut through the alley, just know there's probably a dude named Rajesh getting paid $5/hour to make sure you don't crash into a tree. Silicon Valley's dirty little secret: most "AI solutions" are just humans in digital disguise.