4 ms·
It's a breath of fresh air to read of someone that - cut his resources burning in half, - is more productive with a smaller screen than before, and - sleeps
by keyle 3y ago
It's a breath of fresh air to read of someone that
- cut his resources burning in half,
- is more productive with a smaller screen than before, and
- sleeps like a log at night
(his 3 last blog posts!)
- tannhaeuser 3y agoI can totally relate to the screen post. Mine is even 24" (after having messed around with 27" and 32"). I think it's something not talked about enough (ie manufacturers mostly producing crap monitors when it cones to small diameters, with the exception of LG/Apple and Dell AFAICT), and deserves an extra post.
- thom 3y agoDo you just use a single screen? I've noticed a trend that people seem to be moving to one giant screen (and now apparently one small one), instead of dual monitors. I don't think it should be forgotten what an enormous productivity boost multiple monitors are, whatever the resolution.
- loup-vaillant 3y ago> I don't think it should be forgotten what an enormous productivity boost multiple monitors are, whatever the resolution. Or tiling window managers with virtual workspaces. When most applications I use are two keystrokes away, the need for more than one screen seriously lessens. Besides, looking at a screen on the side hurts my neck.
- steve1977 3y agoNot OP, but multiple monitors don’t work well for me. Primarily due to ergonomic issues, but probably also because I don’t really multitask.
- thom 3y agoI've never really seen it as multi-tasking, just that a lot of knowledge work involves inputs and outputs (edit web page/ previous web page, edit code/view test results, read requirements/write spec etc). Those can often be separate windows and being able to focus on either at will works well for me.
- steve1977 3y agoI guess that’s where the ergonomics kick in and break it for me. I gotta mention that I wear glasses, so everything not in the center of my vision is basically blurred. Which means lots of head turning with dual or wide screens. I found something with an effective resolution of about 2560x1440 to be a sweet spot, where I can fit windows needed for a single task in one screen. Provided those windows don’t waste too much space with unnecessary stuff of course.
- thom 3y agoGotcha. I must admit on Linux especially where I just have Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3 mapped to virtual desktops, I'm not unhappy on a single screen. I'm just aware that 20 years ago when it started to become more common, it was one of the few completely black and white productivity gains you could get as a programmer (alongside solid state disks). Seems odd if that doesn't hold in general today.
- _0ffh 3y agoIt just doesn't work for everyone. Never did. I quickly realized I absolutely hate setups with multiple monitors, when I was given one at work. I quickly gave back my second monitor, because it just made it worse for me, and additionally wasted space on my desk. If you want to improve my circumstances at work, give me a bigger monitor, not more of them.
- joeyh 3y agoI've never used multiple monitors. I've also never talked about that fact, because why would I? Only people who use multiple monitors have reason to talk about them, so discussion is biased in favor of seeming like people use them. (I've never even tried multiple monitors. I could immediately think of several reasons why they would not be an improvement for me, so made a quick decision in 1998 and moved on.)
- tannhaeuser 3y agoMBP + 24", where the monitor is from Apple/LG and a pretty good match to the MBP's screen in terms of color, dot pitch, and glare. I've tried but a giant screen doesn't cut it for me; I'm just messing it up with hundreds of windows, have to move the mouse and the head a lot, etc.
- thom 3y agoYeah, I'm not arguing for humungous screens. It just seems like window managers aren't up to scratch for that much real-estate, and the traditional "two full screen windows side-by-side" setup enabled by dual monitors is simpler. I am just skeptical that a single (especially 1080p as in the article) screen could possibly be the most productive environment for a programmer - that goes against what everyone experienced when multiple monitors started to become the norm, albeit with worse resolutions back then I guess.
- PaulHoule 3y agoMicrosoft Windows has keyboard shortcuts to snap a window to half of a screen that work really well.
- thom 3y agoThey do, and PowerToys also has some additional functionality in FancyZones, but it's still not perfect. It's hard to express "I want exactly this window alongside exactly this other window" purely via the keyboard, it's hard to cycle between multiple layouts, it's hard to launch a new window and have it appear exactly where you want etc. I'm not very interested in VR personally, but I am hopeful in the long term that eye tracking, gestures, and voice control make interacting with computers spatially a lot easier, just with the already-quite-good 2D paradigm we've already got.
- alpaca128 3y agoI tried multiple screens but realized I always tend to use just one of them and the others can be replaced by virtual desktops. In terms of size I use 28" and that works well for me, 14" on the laptop is fine too but feels a bit limited now and then. In the long term I'll probably go for something inbetween with a size ratio closer to 4:3.
- FpUser 3y ago>"I've noticed a trend that people seem to be moving to one giant screen" I've had 3 monitors at one point on my main dev box of which 2 were 32" 4K. It became tiring very fast. I went to a single one. First it was 40" 4K but it proved to be too much neck bending to look at. So I've finally settled to a single 32" 4K and am happy (I use it at 100% scaling). Smaller monitors - no thanks, not my cup of tea. I know it is possible and I used to program on tiny ones in my young days but fuck it. Do not want to go back.
- skydhash 3y agoI'm using a 24" (4K, I wanted the DPI). I don't even use the laptop screen (either clamshell mode or I just turn it off). It's enough for having two windows side by side (docs + code). Anything else is a context switch, so I don't mind Alt|Command+tab or using virtual desktop (when I need to preserve the context).
- FrankyHollywood 3y agoI also liked this recent post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37207791 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37207791
- keyle 3y agoThat was great, thanks!
- namaria 3y agoI believe we all suffer, in technology and society at large, from excess resources. Too much processing power, too much memory and storage. Too many data centers, bandwidth. We lost all sense of traction and we're running wild trying to fill up all the extra space and burn up all the extra resources. Software is currently way more complicated than it needs to be, and it makes it overall excessively insecure as well. I've said this before, and it's becoming official this fall. I'm getting out of the wheel. I wish I had the competence of Marginalia's author to brave this storm. But my vessel is making water fast and I need to make landfall. Next month I embark on a new stint in academia hoping to change direction for good.
- checkyoursudo 3y agoGood luck! I went back to university research after building websites for 5 years and then being a lawyer for 10 years. It was 100% the right choice for me. I hope it is for you, too.
- namaria 3y agoThanks! Very similar trajectory here so far. I did 5 years of web and cloud, and now I want to do something much more policy and strategy oriented.
- IggleSniggle 3y ago