Inspired by talks at 2025's DevConf.cz, I returned home and promptly bought a second hand workstation, and then a GPU on Prime Day. The plan was not to spend a lot of money. It was not to buy the latest and greatest hardware. It was to see could be achieved on hardware that is abundant and affordable. Results have been, mixed, and at times I've asked myself if I was doing it wrong, if the hype about certain technologies (such as OpenClaw) were deserved, and whether the whole endeavour was misguided. Whilst everyone else is raving about M4 (now M5) Mac's, Framework Desktop, Dell GB10's and more, I wanted to see what I could do with US$500 and tech that there's no waiting list for. This presentation distils for everyone what I've learned, the pain points, the successes, and ultimately whether I'd do it all over again. (Spoiler - I would!)

Ever shipped a "simple fix" at 4 PM on Friday that took down production? Felt like a genius after making Kubernetes work, only to realise six months later you understood nothing? Welcome to the beautiful, chaotic feedback loop of technology work. This talk explores how our brains betray us in the most predictable ways. You'll discover why dopamine hits from solving problems make us addicted to complexity, how the Dunning-Kruger effect means we're most confident when we know the least, and why the tech industry's rapid change keeps us perpetually cycling through peaks of "I've got this!" and valleys of "I know nothing."