Hacker News Reader

Comment by tapanjk | Hacker News Reader

No offence, but this sounds expensive and stressful.

I used to obsess over things like "good design", minimalism, perfectionism, etc. Since I stopped obsessing, I feel better: less stress, fewer expectations from my environment, better focus on what I need to accomplish (rather than by what tools) etc. Don't get me wrong, I still clean out my desk once in a couple of days, but am no longer distracted by small stuff every minute. For e.g., I love a good mechanical keyboard and bought one a few years ago and never looked back. I am happy with this keyboard and will use it until it breaks down. I love fountain pens and bought one 7 years ago, and now I don't think about pens anymore. Not that I do not care about a good pen or a good keyboard, but because I am happy with what I've got.

View on HN

Discussions and showcases like this always remind me of the business card scene from American Psycho, "subtle off-white" etc., more so than a tradesman selecting their tools - or even better, showing their tools after years of usage.

It's all so ephemeral. The Macbook du jour. The thinnest screen you can get. Designer mice. Trying to get some kind of individuality with allusions of ergonomics with a more specific mechanical keyboard.

That's "creativity flowing in the air"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHt01D6rOLI

Well he also has a houseplant.

Another thing I notice is that all these desk setups look unnaturally tidy and uninhabited. Show me your desk setup after an 8-hour workday with two overlapping deadlines, then we’ll talk.

Sterile design is a problem in general. I feel like these kinds of designs serve to be photographed than used.

Mine looks exactly the same because I clean it. I work paperfree anyway, since I can do engineering on the PC. I ruthlessly move everything out of my visual periphery and in a storage or a cabinet away from my eyeline.

Whether that makes me a deadened robot, or even marginally more effective than the next guy, is of course not entirely clear. It's just a compulsion. But the point is that people who are fastidiously tidy with their workdesks aren't mythical unicorns, but everyday people.

You didn’t say your computer desktop was tidy! I think there’s a place for in-person documents. Perhaps I’ll have a nice tablet at some point, but I haven’t yet replace pencil and paper for creative doodling.

For sure. I love writing, and it's less screen time, plus cognitively better. I have an armchair for reading research papers etc. But I just clean up afterwards. I think Tablets are an unnecessary environmental cost. I bought a 32" 4k display and optimized my PDF reader with shortcuts for margin notes, highlighting etc. to not need to print paper out. But when I do, I'd rather do a paper print-out than stare at another portal of distraction. Even a Remarkable tablet or something sounds excessive to me.

I keep a clean desk so that I can handle those stupid days when everything goes wrong. My desk on those days looks like some of my workmates after they clean it.

Being paperless, having a nearby bin, using regular cups (as opposed to disposables), and storage for things like extra usb cables, batteries, usb keys, stylus, etc; isn't hard to achieve (paperless being role dependent of course) and makes a huge difference

My desk has to stay tidy because my mind does not. Clutter (in the physical realm) will distract me and spill into my brain.

Exactly, where’s the dirty bowl of mostly eaten oatmeal, the three empty cups of tea and the plate with sandwich crumbs. Add to that two cell phones, three laptops (one for each of your clients) and cables everywhere because the only tidy ones are your KVM cables for your personal PC and your employers laptop.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com