Hacker News Reader

Comment by spiffytech | Hacker News Reader

In my early teens I had 20/15 vision. By the time I went to college I was wearing glasses for nearsightedness.

I'm pretty sure it's because I got interested in computers, and started spending all day staring 3ft ahead instead of glancing around outdoors.

Some friends in my computer science program passed around each other's glasses and found we all had nearly the same prescription. That didn't seem like a coincidence.

View on HN

That may just be lucky coincidence. I've been a computer nerd spending way too many hours in front of my computer since I was a teen. Last eye exam I had was a few years back when I turned 45. 20/20 in one eye, but after I made a remark about having been 20/15 when younger, the tech said "let's try!" and I could still do it. Barely. In only one eye now. But still, after all these years.

But really it's presbyopia that's bothered me. I'm glad my distance vision is great, but the loss of close-up focus is massively inconvenient. Reading glasses make me want to throw up within a matter of minutes. Not sure what my long term plan is aside from suffer.

You get used to the distortion pretty quickly. Otherwise you can invest in more expensive exams/glasses that correct for it.

Use a large screen TV as your computer monitor, placed far away from you.

I still have 20/15 vision at 35, despite probably averaging over 8 hours a day staring at computer screens for over 2/3 of my life... But maybe I'd have superhuman vision otherwise?

I spent 10 hours a day on computers when I wasn't at school during middle school. Started at the end of primary school and continued until now. I pass the letter-reading tests at the GP when I'm not too tired, so I think I have pretty good vision.

Maybe that's because I didn't always have a computer nearby and had to spend time outside too as a kid.

There are also theories that the cause and effect are actually in the other direction: kids with poor distance vision are more likely to spend time reading and studying rather than be outside playing sports.

Mudslides cause rain

Gross generalization, but my suspicion is that it’s not the all day staring at computer (that’s most adults these days) but also many CS types spend their free time in front of a screen as well…

C types, not CS types.

I wonder how much that might be explained by variance around the mean

I got my first computer at 10, was 20/40 vision at 16 and am probably around 20/80 right not.

Honestly I'm glad that I am now that I'm in my 40s. Without glasses or contacts, I can read something right up against my nose. Makes it so much easier to work on electronics and other small items - I just take my glasses off and I see up close perfectly well.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com