Is a ¥5.3 Million Mac
the Size of a Lunchbox
Too Expensive?

Let me say up front: the Mac Studio and MacBook Pro are, first of all, creators’ tools. For people finishing 8K video in DaVinci Resolve, stacking tracks in Pro Tools, or developing thousands of photos in Lightroom Classic (“classic” in name, very much in active service), there is a whole other argument. As a photographer of sorts, I see it with both eyes, but this time I will stick to the business owner’s eye. Gaspard the photographer will have his say another time.

The “personal” in personal computer has changed

From the 1940s to the 1960s, computers belonged to governments, universities and big corporations. ENIAC had to be rewired every time its program changed. Imagine calling an electrician every time you swapped an app.

In 1975, members of the Homebrew Computer Club began gathering in a Silicon Valley garage, bringing parts along like home brewers and building computers of their own. The board built by one member, Steve Wozniak, went on sale as Apple’s first product for $666.66. The number of the beast, but far more reasonable than ¥5.3 million.

Then came the cloud. The brain moved to distant data centres, and the computer on your desk became a reception window.

And now the brain has come back to the desk, in a box the size of a child’s lunchbox, about 20cm square. The AI inside drafts email replies, reshuffles the calendar, sorts invoices and splits work with other AIs. Not a reception window, but a colleague with a team of its own. And the conversation never leaves the desk.

What has changed is what we compare the price with. We used to compare a computer with other computers. Today, the ¥5.3 million Mac Studio is compared with a salary.

Weight, too. A fully loaded 14-inch MacBook Pro is about 1.3kg for around ¥2.5 million: some ¥1,900 a gram. Gold is now over ¥20,000 a gram. As precious metals go, quite a bargain.

The bottleneck is usually the boss

What a business owner really wants is a second self. After 28 years or so of running companies, what I have learned the hard way is that the bottleneck is usually the boss: head space, speed of judgement, stamina. When that clogs, the whole company clogs. Looking back, the clog was usually me.

So the most effective investment is more head space for the boss. ¥5.3 million is the price of a bottle opener.

Cheaper than hiring?

Hire a capable right hand and the salary comes with social insurance, a desk, and the effort of keeping them. Use the ¥5.3 million Mac Studio for five years and it is under ¥90,000 a month. It takes no holidays, does not change jobs, and what you tell it stays on record. This is not about cutting people. It is about giving people’s time to the work only people can do.

And that is without Final Cut Pro or Logic Pro (real pros use other tools anyway) and without AppleCare+: the most frugal full spec. Over 24 months, ¥221,825 a month. Probably cheaper than a secretary. Honestly, I would like one.

Other virtues of an alter ego

An alter ego never sleeps, so there is no time difference. Work flows through the night between Japan, Malaysia and colleagues flying around the world. Only humans get jet lag. When people leave, their know-how leaves too; an alter ego does not resign. It reads and writes Japanese, English, Chinese and Malay on the spot.

AI running on your own machine is also less exposed to outside events. Token costs fall (though never to zero), and cloud price rises or rule changes matter less. Link four units and you have four alter egos. Akutagawa Ryūnosuke is said to have seen his own doppelgänger. Meetings with four of myself are best kept to a minimum.

Companies run by one person

Founders running companies more or less alone have arrived. Maor Shlomo of Base44 sold the service he built by himself to Wix for $80 million after just six months. Medvi, an online clinic, has reportedly passed $400 million in revenue with one or two employees.

My own company is close to this, in fact. Zero full-time employees. On the desk, an M5 Max MacBook Pro and an M3 Ultra Mac Studio do the work, both fully loaded. I blame my line of work, but when it comes to machines I have never been good at restraint. Out and about, a 13-inch MacBook Air serves as the window for talking to the alter egos on the desk. The roles have neatly reversed.

There are human colleagues, too: powerful women fluent in Chinese and English who help remotely while flying around the world. The alter egos do the work, the colleagues meet people, and I decide. Honestly, it is probably they who run the company. The ¥5.3 million Mac would be the alter egos’ new junior.

Still, there are weaknesses

First, perspective. An alter ego just like you misses what you miss. Then governance. If the boss becomes the emperor with no clothes, the alter ego will not say so. Too many cooks spoil the broth, they say; with one cook, nothing gets spoiled, but nobody tells you when it burns.

If the boss falls ill, the alter ego stops too. Obsolescence is fast: the OLED model arrived seven months after the M5 Max MacBook Pro. As the old Japanese essay has it, the flowing river never stops, and yet the water is never the same. Neither is the model number.

People do not grow. And the company becomes harder to sell. To a buyer, a company run only by its owner and his alter egos is, in substance, the owner’s head. A secret family sauce sells only with the restaurant.

The gaps are closing

For perspective, let AIs made by different companies debate each other. It is like hiring several outside directors who never ask to be taken to dinner. For governance, limit the AI’s permissions, keep logs, and put a human approval on anything involving money or contracts. Never hand the alter ego your company seal, or sudo. For coverage, form a team of AIs with different roles. The alter ego becomes a department. In the end, though, a human still takes the responsibility.

A business view

Three lessons. First, a tool’s price depends on what you compare it with. Second, an alter ego copies your weaknesses too, so add other viewpoints from outside. Third, separate the work you delegate from the judgements you keep, before you buy. Draw that line, and ¥5.3 million is not expensive.

2026: A Gaspard Odyssey

In 2001: A Space Odyssey, the spaceship’s AI, HAL, refuses a human order. Shift each letter of HAL one place forward and you get IBM. The author insisted it was a coincidence.

So what happens if I send a purchase request for the ¥5.3 million Mac Studio to the AI in charge of governance? With Also sprach Zarathustra playing, and the argument that, from a business owner’s view, it is cheap, neatly attached. The reply would probably be:

“I’m sorry, Gaspard. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

Governance is working. Not bad, for an alter ego.