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Comment by lb1lf | Hacker News Reader

A door I can close when I need to concentrate.

Adjustable lighting so I won't need sunglasses. (My current employer got a bit carried away; I have modded my overhead lights with a warm yellow gel film to make it more agreeable.)

Coffee (or the means for making such) within easy reach.

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There was a recruitment drive by Microsoft back in the late 1980s or early 90s that included a radio commercial campaign in Silicon Valley trying to recruit from the local Silicon Valley talent pool to go to Redmond.

Part of the monologue was the guy promising (from memory, may be paraphrased) "you would get an office! With a door! That you can CLOSE! So you can THINK!"

That's fantastic. How can such a sentence be so dated, yet SO RELEVANT at the same time.

I prefer natural light, when the time of year allows for it.

A decent chair, a high res monitor and quiet go a long way.

I don't know why the importance of natural light in building design took so long to come into vogue. Lockheed (of all places) in Sunnyvale California built in the early 1980s its state-of-the-art Building 157 around an atrium core that meant that during daylight hours, over 70% of needed light was natural light from the outside.

Because of screen glare, maybe? In Masters of Doom, the author describes how Romero created his perfect office environment with lots of natural light. The employees then stapled dark felt over the top of their cubicles because the screen glare was so bad.

Agreed on the natural light, but my office is at 62 degrees latitude with the window facing north... :-/

That just means you get to bask in the ample natural darkness.

I guess the scenery you can go see at the weekend makes up for it.

I'm going to mount an umbrella in a few days to block the overhead lighting. I requested that the lighting be turned off, and it was, but another employee (who only comes to the office once per week) had it turned back on a few days later.

People in my office use something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Ikea-Lova-Canopy-Green-Leaf/dp/B001QS...

edit: one of the comments says it's 1/4th that price in the actual store

Yes, with regard to the prices for IKEA stuff that you'll find on Amazon. In a hurry to fill an immediate basic need, I bought a minimal IKEA torchiere lamp for circa $20 on Amazon. I think Prime shipping was a factor in my decision. I didn't even visit the IKEA web site.

A few months later, errands took me near the not-close-to-me IKEA and I popped in for a couple of things. I was a bit shocked (more at the absolute price than the difference) to see the same lamp being sold for $7.

(Something's wonky with the world when this whole thing can be manufactured and then shipped -- including its heavy base -- halfway around the world, and then sold retail, at a profit, for $7.)

If they were just shipping that lamp, it wouldn't be. But that lamp ships basically for free when you have a container ship full of other stuff.

If the cost of a trans-Atlantic freight voyage is $150,000, that's basically $150,000 as a fixed cost. If you only have one thing on that boat, it will still cost $150,000. If you have two, it's still $150,000 but now you've halved the transport cost per item. And so on. Now if you put $150,000 worth of merchandise on there, the trip is paid for. Every additional item you stack on is pure profit, essentially. So that (relatively) little lamp just gets balanced on top of a Svorgbøg sofa and ships for free. The only thing they pay is the cost to manufacture, which using the same principles on the assembly line, is almost effectively just the cost of the raw materials. And those raw materials only cost $2 for some plastic and a tiny amount of metal, so there we go. Profit.

Amazon has something similar in their add-on items. These are items that would not be able to be sold or shipped by themselves as it wouldn't be cost effective, but if you purchase them with something else, now it's worth the shipping for them.

> These are items that would not be able to be sold or shipped by themselves as it wouldn't be cost effective

Based on the add-on items I've seen I'm not convinced that's true. I needed to buy thermal paste a few months ago and there was a 4g pack for £3 as an add-on item, or a 20g pack for £3.50 with Prime delivery. Other times I've needed something buts it's only available as an add-on item - I don't mind paying for delivery as it's still going to be cheaper and easier than buying in a brick and mortar store.

I agree and I almost hesitated to put that in there. I bought from AAA batteries on Amazon recently and it was an add-on item. I would have gladly paid to have them shipped, but I was not given that option. Instead I hit the "subscribe and save: button, placed my order, then canceled the subscription at no cost.

To be completely honest, I have no idea how their "add on" program actually works. That's just the excuse they give on their site.

It might surprise you to know that the cost of a trans-altantic freight voyage for a standard 20 foot shipping container is down under $2500. I find that startingly inexpensive (given the scale of the infrastructure required to make it happen...)

http://www.chinaimportal.com/blog/shipping-costs-when-import...

That is surprising. I pulled a number out of my ass with no basis in reality, so that $150k I quoted was completely made up. But yeah, $2500 for a container is actually really low.

Ikea is possibly The most efficient manufacturer/distributor in the world.

I used a gel similar to this[0]; cheap and effective. (Though the hue chosen is probably open for debate; I am somewhat chromatographically challenged.)

[0]http://www.stagelightingstore.com/15-Deep-Straw?sc=25&catego...

CTS (Color Temperature Straw) is just about right, actually. The other alternative, CTO (Color Temperature Orange) is, in some senses, "more correct", but the heavier red bias makes some people feel like they're working by candlelight - even in brighter light, it feels a bit dim and closer to bedtime.

Depending on where you are you probably don't need to order this! Many areas have theater supply stores, for example in Santa Clara, CA there is a great one: https://www.musson.com/

If you are trying to achieve a more neutral or less noticeable 'natural' light, combining 'No Color Pink' and 'No Color Blue' can be very effective.

http://www.stagelightingstore.com/33-No-Color-Pink

http://www.stagelightingstore.com/60-No-Color-Blue

If you're happy with the color, there are also neutral density filters in a variety of transmission levels: http://www.stagelightingstore.com/Rosco-Supergel-398-Neutral...

Come in early one day before everybody else gets there, pop open the panel over the overhead light above your desk, and unscrew the lightbulbs/florescent tubes. Best thing I ever did when I was in an office suite that had one switch for all the lights.

But what if you're next to someone who does like light?

Buy them a lamp?

Only half kidding - talk to them about the problem and see if you were to go in on a lamp they'd be willing to let the overheads stay off.

Weird. I'm the exact opposite. I can't stand dark rooms. I love giant windows everywhere, preferably floor to ceiling.

Epoxy a burned-out bulb in its place. Done!

My company just announced (with fanfare) that they will be providing the equiv of a nespresso machine (the type with cartridges). Cartridges are on sale at $1.50.

God I just checked the price on amazon.

Whooopy dooopy dooo.

Hey, if the machines are Keurigs, your company can (conceivably) receive custom machines which will only accept corporate-branded capsules - thus making it impossible for you to undercut their business model by shopping on Amazon... (While I believe Keurig gave up on DRM capsules for the consumer market, I wouldn't be surprised if they offered them as a 'service' to the corporate market...

My employer retrofitted our coffee machines with credit card terminals (at astronomic expense) to charge the equivalent of $.65 or so for a cup of fancy (that is, anything other than black) coffee.

Problem was, in addition to this charge, we'd be charged another $1 for card processing, which really ruffled everyone's feathers (Debet cards are huge in Norway, typical use charge is less than $.20, most often $.00 - so getting charged $1 seemed like theft!) According to the tech who removed the terminals after a year, they had recorded only one - 1 - sale...

Gee, I'd rather just use my 4-cup drip coffeemaker at my desk with my coffee of choice than drink anything out of a Keurig.

Aeropress and a kettle.

Lee Filters has an online color shift calculator to help select filters to convert light to the desired temperature. It even gives suggestions on filter combinations to get to the desired color.

http://www.leefilters.com/lighting/mired-shift-calculator.ht...

The Lee Filters color shift calculator proved handy when I recently found an LED work light stand [0] that I thought would make for a nice looking lamp in our living room if I could figure out how to convert the light to a color that was more normal for a home.

[0]: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Utilitech-Pro-1-Light-40-Watt-LED-S...

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