Which Mac Mini and large monitor to buy for remote work?

Carl Bradbury wrote:

So what kind of monitor do I need to buy?

Pretty much any monitor out there will work, including the ones you already have. 40" may be impractical when you're sitting less than 1 foot away from it, but that's entirely up to you.

And do I buy some kind of docking station for my Macbook Air M2, or buy a Mac Mini to give me better connection?

A docking station won't magically make the MacBook Air support 2 monitors. But it will support a single 40" display just fine. So no need for a docking station, unless you need the extra ports and connectivity provided by it.

I’ve done a lot of reading but I’m totally confused about how to connect everything together. There’s a lot of options, it seems!

The MacBook Air has 2 USB-C ports which can be used to connect an external display directly if the external display supports Thunderbolt / USB-C directly or via an adapter if it supports some other connection.

If you go the Mac mini route, it has an HDMI port which makes it even easier to connect a display.