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Comment by selfhoster11 | Hacker News Reader

I know that you are writing in jest, but the very concept that any amount of slouching is tolerable to someone in this profession should be outrageous. We spend decades deforming our backs to sit in chairs. The least we can do is to promote the idea of an international "Insufficiently Ergonomic Office Chair Bonfire Day".

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You don't want to burn all that plastic, not without a gas mask at least. But hey, recreational axe throwing by the hour is apparently a thing and so also are places where you literally go and pay to break stuff, I think there's a niche in the intersection of those where angle grinders and shitty chairs both fit. Just want to make sure your PI and liability cover is good.

Thinking "axe" and "break stuff", there is nothing like going to split some firewood for a while to limber up away from the desk.

I've got plenty of split wood in the shed, but Beat Saber in VR has been great for this same purpose lately. The problem, I find, is stopping when I need to - it's engrossing enough that I have to set a phone alarm, and not only when I need to be back at my desk by a given time.

OK, this does look like stupid amounts of fun.

It is! Good exercise, too, I'm finding.

edit having just finished a session: And as rhythm games go, I've never played anything else quite like it. The sheer sense of immersion makes it a unique experience, and that's before you realize each map is designed to teach you to dance your way through it. As you practice a song, you learn the dance, and the process of improving your execution on every runthrough feels amazing, especially once you know the song well enough to start attaining a full-body flow state that I honestly can't find words to describe. Like programming can be, sure, but where that's purely cerebral, this has a kind of sensual physicality that programming flow just doesn't match in my experience.

It's a little like back when I was young and used to dance in clubs, and a little like playing a musical instrument really well, but mainly it's its own thing that I can't really describe but can unreservedly recommend to anyone who can afford a Quest 2 and find 10x10 feet or so of clear floor space.

There's a lot of other things you can do in VR too I guess? I haven't really bothered with them yet, though. :D

Sit with your butt on the edge of your chair (don't use the back rest at all) ... Your back will be naturally straight and your core muscles will gain endurance. I learned this by using an exercise ball as a chair for six months.

That's nonsense, I'm perfectly capable of slouching without the assistance of a back rest.

Op must have an iron rod for a spine. I naturally slouch lying down. Cats are less fluid than my posture at 4pm-second-wind, two-screens-of-code-and-one-of-data full-crunch-engaged mode.

Get a standing desk and put on something with a beat. Same style, but it's better for your spine and you don't need fidget toys for when you're pegging your CPU.

the only solution appear to be a reverse standing desk. you get one of those reclinable planks to hang yourself upside down at an incline and have gravity fix your posture

Ok, we found a graduate of Tom Cruise's programming school (Mission Impossible) .

As a musician coder, I always sit that way in chairs.

Off-topic

> but the very concept that any amount of slouching is tolerable to someone in this profession should be outrageous. We spend decades deforming our backs to sit in chairs.

Would you be interested in a tool which reminds you to take a walk at regular intervals without any action from you when you're seated and immersed with work?

I'm trying to validate the need to refine and make my 'Butt Pomodoro'[1] more accessible.

[1] https://abishekmuthian.com/butt-pomodoro-a-butt-triggered-po...

I was literally just thinking about something like this yesterday evening. Normally I let my empty tea/coffee/water/"need to go to the bathroom" remind me to get up, but that is super unreliable, of course. I was contemplating some bracelet/rfid reader that didn't let me stay in my desk chair for too long before alerting me.

I'm surprised that the button-switch under butt pillow worked as well as it did in my setup, I've been using it for over a year but I've made the software-setup unnecessarily complicated and so I'm rewriting it to be a single module with some bells and whistles.

RFID bracelet would work too, But I wanted my setup completely unattended. Please send me an email if you'd like to be updated about rebuild of Butt Pomodoro.

How do you tackle the problem of “alarm blindness”?

The moment I think about a ‘Butt Pomodoro’ I picture myself being 90% disciplined and 10% saying “ok yes but not right now: I’m (doing something with a critical deadline/in the zone/especially lazy)”

And after a few of those, the reminder becomes background noise.

Good question.

That's why I integrated pomodoro framework and didn't make a plain butt triggered alarm and so Butt Pomodoro is a time-management + health application not just a activity alarm.

I was already using Pomodoro schedule for time-management/productivity albeit triggering it manually now Butt Pomodoro helps me to trigger it automatically and pomodoro breaks are now for walks.

chairs are the past. couches are the future. slouch away.

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