Hacker News Reader

Comment by bartread | Hacker News Reader

I didn't know I wanted to know the answer to this question but having now looked at that picture I reeeeaaaally do.

You touch on a more serious point though: one of the issues that's apparent, at least here in the UK, is how suboptimal a lot of peoples' home setups are. Even mine, which I consider to be otherwise decent, is in a tiny little room that imposes considerable constraints.

Moreover, loads of people don't have a massive budget to create an awesome setup, so I think some sense of showing how to make the best of a small budget or very limited space (many - probably most - people don't have a dedicated room, for example) would be incredibly helpful.

View on HN

I've highlighted many "minimal" spaces that are mostly just a Macbook.

https://www.workspaces.xyz/p/032-teresa-man

https://www.workspaces.xyz/p/172-pat-walls

https://www.workspaces.xyz/p/168-samiur-rahman

https://www.workspaces.xyz/p/048-leah-fessler

https://www.workspaces.xyz/p/036-mike-slaats

https://www.workspaces.xyz/p/workspaces-020-devin-bramhall

I really like the articles overall and you've done some great work!

I'm coming from a different approach to my workspace etc but it's funny, the first two just seem pretentious to me. And I know its a 'workspace' but seems more like 'look at these books I've read'.

I liked the booze present in some setups. I've never realized that you could drink and work from home at the same time :-)

Some of those look absolutely dreadful. I need a place to work, not a staged photograph from an IKEA catalog.

What works for them may not work for you, that's why it's their workspaces, who are you to judge them for how they like to work? If you want to compare, submit your own workspace then.

I didn’t read any judgement in the parent comment. It just states that those setups wouldn’t work for them.

“I need a place to work, not a staged photograph from an IKEA catalog.”

Not sure how that isn’t judgement… but parent comment is more than welcome to share their space with the community so we can get a more diverse catalog of how people work. :)

That quote is a personal opinion of the commenter and holds no judgement against those people who prefer to have workspaces that look like “staged photograph from an IKEA catalog”.

“Absolutely dreadful” is 100% a judgement.

That's a personal opinion that holds no judgment against people who prefer to have those “absolutely dreadful” workspaces.

Sorry, but if you ask anyone on the street if you are judging them after calling them or their possessions or their lifestyle "absolutely dreadful," they will absolutely say you are judging them and moreover are deliberately insulting them. Perhaps you don't see it yourself but it is absolutely how it comes across to others.

> who are you to judge them for how they like to work

Generally speaking, publishing a deliberate, intricately staged (like a doll's tea party), museum exhibit-like workspace, which looks more like a Jony Ive wet dream rather than where actual humans produce, in a public venue, is a tacit invitation to criticism.

This attitude is how we ended up with things like the MacBook butterfly keyboard.

It's interesting that you're assuming all these workspaces are staged and not how they actually work, with maybe a bit more cleanup like today's lunch bowl not on the desk, or water bottle / coffee cup and a few papers.

I know many people who are neat freaks and these "staged" workspaces are exactly how their lives are daily.

Everyone works and is productive in different ways.

Would love to include your ideal setup if you’re up for it.

I'm not such a narcissist to think that complete strangers would be wooed and amazed at what my desk looks like.

It's a table. With stuff on it. And a monitor or three. When resting I use a device called a chair on which I place my bottom. Amazing I know.

This was a curiosity when COVID hit and many people shifted to WFH en masse, some for the first time, but the novelty has worn off I'm afraid.

Newsletter is growing faster than ever!

Ryan I love your ways of just letting these people's words slide right off you.

I don't know who hurt them but this guy is legitimately salty because people take pride in having a workspace that makes them happy... Weird flex if you ask me.

Haha I appreciate it!

Weird flex indeed. Some (most) people are probably more productive in a clean and thought out workspace vs a laptop on a couch sort of deal. I think the spaces and the people behind them sort of proves that.

These all look very on trend, with only one that looked remotely like an engineer's setup (a front-end dev, IIRC).

It would be cool to see some tech professionals' setups. I'm looking for lots of hardware, server innards hanging about, NVMe drives on the desk, and arduino nano with some blinky LED display, a nest of cables on the desk, and a lot less macbooks to boot!

Maybe some Dell or Framework machines running Sway or i3 or some such...

The Linux Foundation made a series of videos a while back which has what you're looking for.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbzoR-pLrL6rsb1bc3En9...

That playlist doesn't have them all but you can search their YouTube channel for more.

Talk about constraints, i work in the back of my ( albeit long ) pantry, with very little ventilation, and an adhoc light setup for now. The desk and chair are nice, and the desk can raise for the very few times i want to stand for a while.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com