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Comment by sramsay | Hacker News Reader

> [If you’re the kind of person who loves programming on your smallish laptop, you can stop reading now.]

I was all about big monitors until . . . my eyesight started to go south. I'm not going blind or anything like that, but it slowly dawned on me that I was having a lot of trouble bringing all of that real estate into focus with progressive lenses. Switching back to a laptop made it a lot easier just to see what was going on without constantly moving my head around to bring things info focus.

Middle age sucks . . .

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Oh, wow. I'd feel like I was sea sick if I used progressives to code. If you can swing it, I suggest to get a pair of single vision intermediate just for programming. Have someone help you measure the distance from your eyes to the screen when seated comfortable. Bring those numbers to your eye dr. It'll help figure out the best Rx.

Dedicated reading glasses is the proper solution.

If you need progressive lenses and spend a lot of time in front of a screen do yourself a favor and invest in some "office lenses", preferably "premium" office lenses: https://www.verywellhealth.com/progressive-lenses-3421915

When I first needed progressives I quickly developed severe shoulder pain. I was unconsciously tilting my head up to view the top of the screen through the middle of the lenses. It took two or three years to realize that my shoulder pain was caused my head tilt pinching a nerve in my neck.

"Office" progressive lenses have the middle of the lens focus at screen distance and the bottom of the lens focus at reading distance. Premium lenses are even better in that their region of sharpness is larger. When ordering glasses I also specify how far up on the lens I want the screen distance to be set so it's at my preferred screen distance.

Since I started using office progressives my shoulder pain has vanished.

I'd go one step further and say dedicated computer glasses. They're designed for about twice the distance as book readers, and they have more expensive coatings (anti-glare and blue light filter) that are unnecessary for book readers. Since I invested mine (they aren't cheap), I can actually get through an article without printing it out to read it.

I actually used a large screen for a while but have enjoyed the focus that my Mac Book Air requires. Just sublime on full screen. Also, your setup is then uniform if you travel a lot for work (as I do) so there is no context switching overhead.

I wish I could buy laptop displays as standalone monitors. Instead of 23" lumps with fewer pixels than a 15" laptop.

The selection isn't as big, but there are small external screens around, you should at least find 13.3" and 15" 1080p screens. There's also kits to run iPad screens over DisplayPort.

Don't forget, laptops are supposed to be closer to your eyes, monitors sit farther back, the bigger the farther I suggest

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