It might be better to interpret in the context of the subtitle: “Advice for myself around leisure activities.”
If my advice is to myself, I don’t see how it is condescending. It seems by definition that it can’t be. I cannot pretend to be above me.
My summary of the sentiment would be “don’t allow the weight of imagined judgmental eyeballs to steal your joy in trying or pursuing your personal creative endeavour”
There is an irony in the blog now being seen at HN scale and judged.
Seems fair to say “we aren’t going to let web developers cripple the user experience”. A bit like the inane fight over autofill and passwords a few years back - web developers don’t always know best, don’t always have the users’ interests at heart, are often subject to foolish and outdated requirements from their bosses/organisations etc
Where this policy falls down is in assuming that video content consumption is all Netflix or YouTube. The absence of an API makes certain experiences that use video in different ways.
The UK driving test has a hazard perception part where the examinee has to click to indicate a developing hazard - if there are hardwired buttons on the video player that popup a new window, you can’t build something like that safely.
Half the point of JavaScript in the browser is that the browser development team cannot predict all the possible meanings of a click in a rich web experience.
Challenging the premise of the question:
Is it possible that you could do what the company is asking with the machine they’ve given you, but it is just slower and more frustrating than you’re used to? One problem with developers (particularly web developers) always having the fastest laptops is that they can develop websites and features that perform poorly for the average user without realising.
Accepting the premise:
I would try having a really gentle and discreet private chat with my line manager.
Mention that you’re a bit worried because the machine you have is not fit for purpose and ask them what it means. Does it mean the company is in financial trouble? Or is it a hint that they don’t value your work/expect much from you?
This reframes the question from being seen as “we have a junior developer who is entitled” to “our attempts to reduce costs are making us look bad as a company”.
My worry from your question is that the relationship has a mismatch of expectations - you are working from home because you believe it enables you to work more effectively, but your boss (presumably?) sees it differently. They wouldn’t ask you to stop working from home if you were seen as “getting the job done”.
However the advantage of working in an office is that you can bug your coworkers to use their machines for the bits your machine isn’t up to - like loading figma. Again the importance of doing this nicely is key - moaning gets old quickly and is then seen as a reflection of the person moaning rather than their circumstances. But if you’re “sorry to bug you, but it just won’t work on my machine, so if you could just screen shot all the relevant bits in figma and share them via Slack that’d be awesome because I’m currently blocked” then you’ve made it someone else’s problem. And in a way that expects the company to pay the price, while allowing you to remain positive and focused on getting the job done.
If my advice is to myself, I don’t see how it is condescending. It seems by definition that it can’t be. I cannot pretend to be above me.
My summary of the sentiment would be “don’t allow the weight of imagined judgmental eyeballs to steal your joy in trying or pursuing your personal creative endeavour”
There is an irony in the blog now being seen at HN scale and judged.