I think a laptop is all you need to get started. I think people have this idea that they need the 2 monitors and specific keyboard or certain office chair before they build the next great thing.

Really all you need is a laptop. It has a keyboard, monitor, mics and camera for video calls or recording demos. Also a full OS is important because you’ll need to learn where files live, how to use version control, etc.

In fact having less can actually improve your technical ability. It can force you to problem solve.

Maybe your laptop struggles building some docker container or something. Guess what you can do? Learn AWS. Run it on a VM. Get to know IAM and tunneling. Suddenly you have a better understanding of how apps are actually built than most developers.

And in 2026 when LLMs seem to be taking over the brains of many, you’ll know and have used the actual tools.

This is kind of how I started out. I built a PC around age 17. As I was just a youth with a low paying job I had to figure out how to make things work. Wow I can install games on an external drive since I ran out of space. I can use tools on websites that won’t run on my desktop PC.

Having less can be a super power.