11 ms·
Ask HN: What would you put on the wall behind your desk?
The wall behind my desk at work is bare. What would you put on yours?
I'm currently debating between the Tufte "Information Design in Outer Space" poster
https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/posters
or, the xkcd map of the internet poster:
http://xkcd.com/195/
Ideas welcome!
- tom_rath 18y agoI find a Sword of Damocles helps.
- HeyLaughingBoy 18y agoHa! I have a replica of Sting hanging on the wall behind my desk at home :-) I'd put one of my katanas there instead, but I have a 7 year old who sleeps next door...
- cmos 18y agoA big sign that says "I rock this world"
- brk 18y agoI would put something that is non-obvious and hopefully marginally unique. This would likely mean nothing with a Dilbert, xkcd, or space theme. My walls tend to have unique artwork, and/or framed versions of my own photographs. I like when my office wall art can inspire a conversation vs. a "heh heh, funny" sort of response.
- qhoxie 18y agoI actually have the map of the internet poster in the room where I do most of my work. I get a kick out of it as do visitors.
- asp742 18y agoGenealogy of Rock/Pop Music http://www.historyshots.com/Rockmusic/index.cfm http://www.historyshots.com/Rockmusic/index.cfm DNA Portrait http://www.dna11.com/ http://www.dna11.com/ Fotoflōts of your own pictures http://fotoflot.com/ http://fotoflot.com/
- Morieris 18y agoI had this up over my desk for quite a while: http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~mjuric/universe/ http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~mjuric/universe/ People always asked what it was; my standard response was "The universe. All of it."
- tstegart 18y agoA map of the world. It reminds me that one of the reasons I'm trying to do the things I'm doing is to be able to travel more often.
- CaptainMorgan 18y agoI got this for the exact reasons you describe: http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/posters/6a93/ http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/posters/6a93/ The night effect just seemed really cool to me... I love this poster... it's also much better seeing it in person - I don't think the TG site's picture does it justice. I also like the Linux distro time line poster that used to be linked from here to KDE.org: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000842.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000842.html Not sure what happened to it, but if I could get it I would.
- rwiser 18y agoThe Linux distro time line may be here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/LinuxDistroTimeline.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/LinuxDist...
- maxklein 18y agoI usually put a picture of George W. Bush, sometimes I put David Hasselhof. It's great to be free to do what I want.
- vaksel 18y agoa picture of a window looking out on some exotic location
- Alex3917 18y agoWhen I get an office I'm planning on framing the covers of books that have inspired me and putting them on the wall. It would say something about myself, be a good conversation starter, and also make people who use their degrees as a crutch uncomfortable. An all-around win.
- mrtron 18y agoPeople with degrees don't read books? I would say anyone with a degree should use it to help them, that is why you spend 4 years attaining it. So you want to make everyone with a degree uncomfortable (somehow). Some misplaced resentment?
- Alex3917 18y agoI have nothing against degrees, I just disapprove of the (large) subset of people using their credentials as an excuse to remain ignorant and disengaged.
- maurycy 18y agoThey have a good excuse to not read books, actually. (interesingly, one can reversely say that lack of degree encourages you to read more because you have more to prove)
- carl_ 18y ago"It would say something about myself" If I walked into your office and you gave me a "conversation starter" along that line, I'd think you had a chip on your shoulder. It's one thing to be proud of your achievements, a different one to use them as a crutch for your inferiority complex. Been there, done that.
- Alex3917 18y agoI don't see how you equate social objects with an inferiority complex. By that logic everyone who owns a teapot or board game has low self-esteem.
- maurycy 18y ago
- misterbwong 18y agoCurrently have these printed and posted on the wall for fun: McCarthy - Programming: You're doing it completely wrong http://lemonodor.com/images/mccarthy-youre-doing-it-wrong-s.jpg http://lemonodor.com/images/mccarthy-youre-doing-it-wrong-s.... Djikstra - Quick and Dirty: I would not like it http://flickr.com/photos/mando/1591358554/ http://flickr.com/photos/mando/1591358554/ Picard - Facepalm: Because expressing how dumb that was in words just doesn't work http://www.forumammo.com/cpg/albums/userpics/10071/picard-no-facepalm.jpg http://www.forumammo.com/cpg/albums/userpics/10071/picard-no...
- mickt 18y agoA window.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- Erwin 18y agoVisiBone have some very nice quality laminated reference charts, booklets etc.: http://www.visibone.com/ http://www.visibone.com/ -- their JS/CSS references have very high information density.
- truebosko 18y agoI wish I could put a poster up but I fear the customers. See, since we are a retail/online shop (guess which part I handle), we have one big warehouse that we turned into a pseudo office/showroom. The office is nicely away from the show room but there's no walls, so customers can easily see me, and everything behind me. It's a nice setup, very open, but I guess that restriction kind of sucks. :/ Of course, I could always put up an appropriate poster..
- weegee 18y agoThe 'Photographic Truths' poster by Ted Orland
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- felideon 18y agoThe History of Programming Languages poster from O'Reilly. http://oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/news/languageposter_0504.html http://oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/news/languageposter_0504.ht...
- sspencer 18y agoI have Edward Hopper's "Two On The Aisle" behind me. It's one of my favorite Hopper paintings, and people often comment that they think it is a nice change from everyone's maps of the internet and automotivators. http://www.toledomuseum.org/Images/Art/Modern/1935_49.jpg http://www.toledomuseum.org/Images/Art/Modern/1935_49.jpg
- shadytrees 18y agoA Foe-Glass. I've said too much.
- noodle 18y agoi have a bunch of personal stuff. my diploma, some of my more difficult certs, some black belt certs, pictures, and stuff.
- asnyder 18y agoI would put the Richard Feynman "Think Different" poster behind my desk. There were 2 different versions made, either would do. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.artiges-hfp.de/struktur/giffsnstuff/appleCampagne/apple_feynman.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.artiges-hfp.de/projekte/apple_campagne/appleCapagne.html&h=283&w=438&sz=56&hl=en&start=1&sig2=klb6UmE0FkjkjAMvOQc8LA&um=1&tbnid=YCLUj_OUQ40FtM:&tbnh=82&tbnw=127&ei=VW6sSI_IKKbCwwHg5JRG&prev=/images%3Fq%3DRichard%2Bfeynman%2BThink%2Bdifferent%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.artiges-hf...
- gills 18y agopaint.
- mattmaroon 18y agoI have a really awesome hand made metal clock. The time is still not adjusted for daylight savings.
- sanj 18y agoFingerpaintings from my kids.
- gaius 18y agoA giant mirror. For the Feng Shui.
- pyroman 18y agoI would put a picture or paining of myself sitting at my desk. It would be like the Colbert painting.
- Locke 18y agoI've always wanted this: http://despair.com/limitations.html http://despair.com/limitations.html For some reason I find it inspirational even though it's not supposed to be. My brain must not be wired correctly.
- maurycy 18y agoActually, nothing.
- viggity 18y agoI have both an actual United States Flag (not a picture) and a portrait of the Iwo Jima Memorial at sunset.
- manvsmachine 18y agoright now have a print of Nature's "Relationships Among Scientific Paradigms": http://informationesthetics.org/node/20 http://informationesthetics.org/node/20 and xkcd's "Dreams": http://xkcd.com/137/ http://xkcd.com/137/
- gtani 18y agolinux kernel poster http://www.makelinux.net/kernel_map_poster http://www.makelinux.net/kernel_map_poster OR the one that looked like the milton Bradley Simon game
- Zev 18y agoI've been debating about getting an Ork poster (http://orkposters.com http://orkposters.com) of Manhattan, but there are a few other cities that there's posters for as well.
- rms 18y agohttp://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/posters/ http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/posters/
- Ardit 18y agoThe magnificent painting, I think from Michelangelo? Of god and man almost touching their index finger.
- stevedekorte 18y agoIf you want to show your appriecation for design, then nothing would show it better than a bare wall and a debris free workspace.
- aupajo 18y agoThe Web is Agreement: http://www.flickr.com/photos/psd/1805709102/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/psd/1805709102/