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Comment by ogre_codes | Hacker News Reader

The word "screen" here is a poor choice. You could just as easily be "multi-screening" by watching a picture in picture video while reading a web-site. Or the reverse, in their frame of reference, web development where you have one display/ output screen and one code screen is not multi-screening.

Poor word choice because it's not as catchy as saying "Trying to consume two types of media at once" which is what they seem to be pointing to.

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Exactly. I clicked through because I thought; "oh, shit. I cannot even get work done without two. Sometimes I use three!". I've been had!

I've heard some anecdotes that multiple monitors do reduce focus though[0]. I'm still on the fence though, the alternative to multiple monitors is often lots of workspaces, and switching between those can often feel just as jarring as looking to my left or right. Using i3, I often forget which workspace I left something on and spend 2 or 3 seconds cycling through every open workspace.

[0]: https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2020-05-23-desk-setup/

I think it depends on the task. If I'm writing something I only have cursory familiarity with (which is very often) It's kind of indispensable to have another screen, because to rapidly implement code, test if I actually got it right, and refer to both the output and the docs i need at least:

1. Browser (sometimes two, one for docs the other for stack overflow / googlin') 2. Execution shell 3. Editor (also frequently doubled - if there are imports or more than one file involved) 4. (occasionally) utility shell - for traversing the project directory and assessing changes

...having these split up by workspace just feels super clunky. Having them 10deg of eye rotation away is way better.

Personally I'm very fond of three screens, it lets me split information by level of attention required: the center one is for what I'm focused on, left screen is additional information I might need (like documentation or console output), right screen for things I don't really need to pay attention to (given my peripheral vision isn't as strong on the right).

The positions are set in such a way that I can glance at the left without turning my head, whereas the right side requires me to switch focus / turn my head to give it my full attention.

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