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The desks of 37signals
- cromwellian 15y agoWhy does 37signals show up at the top of HN everyday, no matter what they blog about?
- ceejayoz 15y agoWhy does someone always whine about it, even when it's just an algorithm doing what it's supposed to do?
- chrislo 15y agoBecause people up-vote the submissions.
- RyanMcGreal 15y agoI suspect cromwellian's underlying question is: why do so many people on HN upvote a post with nothing more than pictures of some people's desks?
- jasonfried 15y agoBecause people like looking at other people's desks/setups? It's not much deeper than that.
- j_col 15y agoWell if that's the case, can I have photos of my desk on the front page of HN also? I've got two monitors and phone and everything.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- Omnipresent 15y agoBecause they are not merely a product company anymore but a brand name.
- clebio 15y agoCame here to ask the same parent comment myself. Yes, they're an iconic brand within this sphere and they do great work, but these articles are part of their blog. Every page of their blog has a link to the RSS feed. I don't need help keeping up to date on a syndicated blog that I care about. I need HN to show me things I -don't- know about yet. Maybe HN needs a 'best off' page, so brands like 37 Signals can be found even when they don't have any breaking news.
- seanmccann 15y agoThey are preparing for a major product launch (Basecamp Next) and are doing a great job at staying top of mind leading up.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- odiroot 15y agoI wonder how many people scrolled impatiently just to see dhh's desk.
- qrush 15y agoI actually randomized the order, to get rid of any bias I may have had in choosing :)
- dcope 15y agoGuilty. Interesting to see so many people working remotely.
- hugs 15y ago"... so many people working remotely." I think that's the subtle point of the post. A huge part of their world view is "work where you want, when you want". And of course, they just happen to sell tools that help people work remotely from wherever and whenever. I applaud how much the Signals practice what they preach.
- shingen 15y agoI like the stand-up desks. The first time I remember reading about such a thing was Michael Dell having a custom built stand-up desk in the early 1990s. I up vote the expansion of life expectancy.
- mike-cardwell 15y agoIs there any evidence that using a standing desk increases life expectancy? I would expect people who use them take health more seriously in other aspects of their life as well thus increasing their life expectancy anyway...
- shingen 15y agoThe evidence is that sitting down for hours per day is extraordinarily destructive to various aspects of your body, including your metabolism, circulation, oxygen distribution, and that it increases the risk of diabetes (and cancer due to consequence of fat gain from a slower metabolism). I believe (per what I've read on the subject) that it also significantly increases the risk of heart attack and stroke due to a collapse in normal / healthy function of the cardiovascular system. The data on it is rather common these days, a quick google will turn up several high profile write-ups from sources such as the NY Times. And if we're just talking logical extrapolation - it makes sense that humans wouldn't benefit from sitting down all day, as it wasn't common to our evolution / how our bodies are designed to work. Caveman Joe didn't sit on his rock for 12 hours typing.
- RyanMcGreal 15y agoCorrect, but the evidence does not indicate that standing for hours a day is any better for overall health than sitting. What I really want is a walk-around desk ... but I'll grant that I might be more likely to move around periodically if I'm already standing.
- shingen 15y agoPerhaps, but there are only two possibilities (that I see). 1) Standing is radically more healthy than sitting, or 2) Being upright and walking / moving, is what is radically more healthy than sitting I think that part of the problem with sitting is the blocking of the circulation system through slightly crimping the arteries in your legs. It strikes me that just standing up alone would relieve a lot of that stress and assist the free flow of blood and oxygen. So if you want to play it safe, stand up, and move about regularly. If you're standing at your desk, I'd argue it's far more likely you'll move about regularly as you're working on problems throughout the day. I've read previously that the average American used to walk three to five miles per day a hundred years ago, and that's down to a small fraction of that now.
- citricsquid 15y agoI've always found working from a laptop to feel very cramped, I find it so much easier to work with more space, is there an unknown advantage to using a smaller display or is it just personal preference? (My setup: http://i.imgur.com/uKpyV.jpg http://i.imgur.com/uKpyV.jpg)
- evoltix 15y agoNice setup. I think it depends on your line of work and personal preference.
- oinksoft 15y agoWell, seeing that you're a Starcraft player, it's not as though a laptop really would be an option ^^ More seriously, I think that your setup would hurt my eyes. Having a dedicated monitor is far nicer than using a laptop, but you have screens dominating your peripheral vision. One decent-sized screen is much nicer in my opinion.
- mark_l_watson 15y agoI would bet that most developers who use laptops as their primary development box sometimes tether to a large screen - that is what I do in my home office. I often work in other places around the house, rather than my office, but then I tend to do tasks that don't require a large monitor. Having your whole working life on a single laptop (with multiple types of backups) is a real convenience and time saver.
- rglover 15y agoI hope everyone is catching on to what 37signals is doing: building significant brand awareness before the launch of a new product. Notice that they've been posting more frequently, with varying content (and of course a bit of Basecamp Next peppered in). Really subtle, but it puts them in the minds of a lot of people.
- victork2 15y agoYep... Having never been a fan of their work myself, I do not check anymore their posts on HN. Still I enjoy reading some of the comments associated with the post, it can be enlightening. To add to your point, being a (self proclaimed) nerd and not a geek: I don't care about new technologies, I do not own a smartphone, hell, I don't have anymore Facebook or Twitter, I found what's posted on 37signals very boring and devoid of interesting information. I am, however, surprised by the huge number of people that upvote these kind of posts. To answer the article without really reading it, and again it's because of my nerdy side I don't care on what I am working as long as I have a desk, an OK mouse, an OK screen, and OK keyboard, that's it, I am happy.
- rimantas 15y ago> I don't care on what I am working as long as I have a desk, > an OK mouse, an OK screen, and OK keyboard, that's it, I am > happy. I think with attitude like this it is very difficult to build a GOOD product. "Meh" most likely. But other nerds may consider it to be OK though. OTOH, I don't think that being nerdy should necesarry mean "not caring how good something is".
- victork2 15y agoI tend to disagree: from what I have seen having a lot of "pluses" is more a distraction from actual thinking that a plus in terms of productivity. Same goes with a lot of things in life, the amount you invest (in time/ money) for the extra luxury generally outweighs the benefits of a simple and effective solution. Also I can't really see the correlation between building a good product and a desk or its organization. What build a good product is a good team, a good organization, good and proven tools. It reminds of a story with a friend, this guy was quite rich and was trying to learn guitar, so when he started he bought a $3000+ guitar (Martin D20 or something approaching), but given his skills a 1000 or even $500 dollars guitar could have suited his needs for the next 5 years. He didn't play better than somebody else with better tools, maybe worse because of the complexity of repairing the guitar. What drives the product is the skill of the programmer, the tools are secondary. But I might be wrong!
- evoltix 15y agoI think the one major thing that sticks out in these photos is that all these people work from home or some other remote location. Everyone's work space has a relaxed and zen-like feeling to it.
- jasonfried 15y ago13 people work in the Chicago office. ~20 people work out of their homes in other locations. Although, some Chicago people work from home a few days a week, too.
- bradleyland 15y agoOur Chicago JV partner says your office is "right around the corner" from their office at 1000 W Monroe St. So, having used Rails since 0.7, and being a fan of 37Singals work, I naturally got kind of excited at the prospect of stopping by. Is the 37Signals open to visitors (even with no specific purpose)? Just curious :)
- tdavis 15y agoHaving spent many hours of my youth on technology forums, I feel I am qualified to say: this is the most banal "show your setup" post, ever. Save Noah, it's just an Apple Store. Sam's apartment/house looks great, though.
- yawn 15y agoMy take was this: here's a company that is showcasing the fact that they are building products that people love, and most of them are not even in the same room. Look beyond the hardware religion bait and you will see different landscapes through the windows, different desk setups, and the personalities of individuals as opposed to gray cube walls.
- pilgrim689 15y agoNoah and Sam's setups are the only ones that stuck with me too. Noah's setup is nice because it allows you to code without worrying about switching windows and moving stuff around. It's optimized for speed. Sam's setup is awesome because I feel like I could focus in that room. It's zen, free of clutter, probably free of distractions, perfect to get in the zone. Ideally I'd combine both... but just a small Macbook on a kitchen table as a setup is pretty uninspiring.
- ForrestN 15y agoI think that's part of the statement. It's riffing on the "show your setup" post, but instead of focusing on the gear (something 37S have eschewed for a long time) they're focusing on the environment, and, by extension, the people. All the signaling is about peacefulness and happiness: look at my dog, look at my kids, look at my lovely pitcher of water. It's effective in my opinion for a few reasons. One, it's personal/voyeuristic, which will make at least some people interested and also, if you have a positive response, connected to the fact that there are real people working on the big product they're about to launch. Making a company feel human and intimate is an important branding goal these days, and something they talk about a lot. Second, as someone else mentioned, it emphasizes their "work-from-home" message. When I look at those desks, I see comfort. Every day is like staying home from work. Gee, it sure must be nice to work like that! There's even a subtle power/wealth signal, I would argue, in DHH's setup and the fresh flowers on all the office desks.
- z0r 15y agoI dig the vertical monitor. Using one of those as a second screen plus switching to xmonad has been the most positive change I've made to my own working environment in the last year. Code, websites, anything text oriented - shorter lines are easier to read and comprehend
- paddy_m 15y agoHow does a vertical monitor work with sub pixel rendering? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subpixel_rendering http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subpixel_rendering . Does linux do sub-pixel rendering? Does OS X turn it off when a monitor is rotated to vertical?
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- mistercow 15y agoNo beds? Am I alone?
- nazar 15y agoIs it just me, but despite all nice things 37signals are doing I find them arrogant and feel like they exaggerating more than they actually doing.
- drats 15y agoI always get the feeling that they are really trying to prove to themselves, through proving it to others, that they didn't need to get acquired and that ruby webapps are way more interesting than working on self-driving cars or new crazy startups to change the world. Let's face it, their products look like they are very high quality (although I haven't used them) but none of them are going to change the world in a meaningful or lasting sense.
- fidotron 15y agoThat seems slightly unfair. Their direct products, maybe, but the introduction of Ruby on Rails and the philosophy of it did cause a radical advancement in expectations regarding web frameworks and applications for everyone, in the same way that non-iPhone users have benefited from Apple coming into mobile and mixing things up.
- j_col 15y agoI completely agree, for me they are the ultimate embodiment of the hipster/brogrammer/ninja/guru culture that has become something of a running joke in the industry (at least in my little corner of it).
- jasonfried 15y agoTotally agree.
- mhartl 15y agoI see what you did here. :-) P.S. I'm the official "please spell 37signals right" Nazi here at HN. Keep fighting the good fight.
- 15y ago
- Omnipresent 15y agoNot sure where David works from but the view outside that window is grand.
- olozano 15y agoAccording to his twitter feed, that's Spain.
- edw519 15y agodhh, do you really work that way or did you clean your desk off before that picture was taken? If so, I salute you. I'm still 14 purges away from that level of minimalism.
- anujkk 15y agoWhile coding I need only two things to be perfect - a)My laptop b)A comfortable desk/chair. Everything else - surroundings, noise etc doesn't matter. I don't even notice these things.
- bengl3rt 15y agoWhat I noticed was that only two or three of them use desktop computers - the rest are on laptops with external displays. No laptop on the market today has enough storage capacity or RAM (save for the MBPs that can take 16GB I suppose) to be my only computer. I do a mix of iOS and web and systems development - not too different of a workload from these guys, I'm sure. I've also noticed laptops slow down a fair bit when you plug in an external display and make the GPU work overtime pushing all those pixels. So, what gives? Have these guys just never tried working on a maxed-out desktop machine so they don't know how good it is, and they just assume that waiting around for your computer to do stuff is normal and acceptable? Another nail in the coffin, I suppose...
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- swah 15y agoThe experience I've been reading is the opposite: that folks can do web development in a Macbook Air and love it. What do you use 16 GB of RAM for?
- bengl3rt 15y agoI'm always running Redis and Mongo and Memcache and Postgres and Xcode and the iOS simulator and Mail and Skype and etc... Local server stack + dev tools + collaboration tools, essentially. SSD helps, as swapping fast is better than swapping slow, but best is not swapping at all.
- FireBeyond 15y agoGranted, you did mention iOS work, which limits your choices, but there are several laptops there that absolutely can compete as desktop replacements, including one I've used: Dell Precision M6600, Core i7-2820QM 2.3GHz,16GB (can take 32GB), graphics cards up to Nvidia Quadro 5010M 4GB, 1080p resolution display, SATA 3 SSDs
- psb 15y agoFor me there is way too much light/sunshine there to make a comfortable work environment. I like to be in a reasonably dim (not pitch black) spot so the contrast from my screen is comfortable to look at. At least pull the blinds down.
- fallenhitokiri 15y agoI don't really see the problem with "show your setup" posts. I like looking at great designed workspaces. Inspirational, at least for me. What I just do not get is how they all can only work with a laptop, sometimes an Air. I think the screen space would be to limiting for me to stay productive. Favorite: Sam's desk. Clean, minimalistic, lots of light,...