I've been trying to think this way about replacing my primary computing hardware. I hate my 2019 intel MBP, but it doesn't slow me down in a way where buying a new one would make me more money, not yet. It would be nice if the fans didn't spin up just to run xcode, but whatever. If I was running arbitrary docker instances for clients and didn't have an issued M1 max with 32gb or more of ram && by buying a new one I could either do more work or complete work faster, then the $5k on a new laptop would be a no-brainer. I'd have hit a wall, the other side of which has greener grass.
At my last job, we were refactoring a bunch of Angular 1.x code for a variety of reasons. It took way way more time than anyone was anticipating, and it was tech debt that had low interest and probably shouldn't have been paid off much earlier than it was. People had chipped away at some components gradually over the years, much like mortgage payments, but after Angular 1.x fully reached EOL, and (imo) we entered a new level of efficiency with build tools, that interest rate started increasing.
At my last job, we were refactoring a bunch of Angular 1.x code for a variety of reasons. It took way way more time than anyone was anticipating, and it was tech debt that had low interest and probably shouldn't have been paid off much earlier than it was. People had chipped away at some components gradually over the years, much like mortgage payments, but after Angular 1.x fully reached EOL, and (imo) we entered a new level of efficiency with build tools, that interest rate started increasing.