Comment by FirmwareBurner | Hacker News Reader

Comment by FirmwareBurner | Hacker News Reader

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>Have you ever tried using more than one monitor? It helps productivity.

I have and I haven't been delivering code/tasks 50% faster when my monitor count increased by 50% from 2 to 3. Then went back to one monitor with virtual workspaces as that made me more productive than having to constantly move my neck eyes across a sprawl of windows. Plus having to manage windows around and tile them "just right" across several monitors always interrupted my flow, and worse, was costing me even more time when those windows were moving around and they weren't in the place where I remember I left them last time.

>Imagine [...]

But I'm not asking what you imagine it might do. I'm asking if it actually measurably improves your productivity, not if you imagine it could, because those are two very different things.

I also imagined that having as many monitors as an operator from The Matrix would make me more productive but it hasn't. My coding and task delivery speed has stayed the same or even gone down inversely proportional to the number of monitors.

1 to ultrawide or 1 to 2 is a huge jump, because you can keep two full windows open at a time and not need to task switch. Think documentation and code, code and running example, etc.

2 to 3 is a bit of a jump because now you can keep slack or teams or email on the third monitor (rotating is great for this).

But my other two monitors after that really don't give me that much more.

>1 to ultrawide or 1 to 2 is a huge jump, because you can keep two full windows open at a time and not need to task switch.

Depends, for some people switching windows/workspaces is less intrusive than moving their head to the sides all the time. Personally I had all kinds of multi monitor setups and the best one for my neck and eyes is a single one that fits in the center of my field of view. Even when I have more monitors, I usually end up using one in the center 90% of the time and the second one on the side is mostly a waste.

> 2 to 3 is a bit of a jump because now you can keep slack or teams or email on the third monitor (rotating is great for this).

In my personal experience, having Teams or Outlook visible whilst I'm trying to work is a negative impact on my productivity. Most messages/emails do not require my immediate attention, having them open is an unhelpful distraction.

For some people, it's just more comfortable. I'm probably just as productive on a trip with my 16" MBP, but I still feel some sort of relief when I sit back down on my multi-monitor setup at home.

"I like it more" is a good-enough reason to do it!

Consider another example--I sleep alone on a king-size bed. If I swapped it for a queen bed, I bet it wouldn't even show up in any sort "measurably improved" metric: Time to fall asleep, total time slept, time to wake up, maybe trying to measure physical fitness numbers, etc.

But I still prefer the king bed. Maybe some people wouldn't care, and would rather save the space/money, and that's totally fine too.

If you ever end up with a bed partner a king size bed is more practical.

I love falling asleep alone on our king size bed. I put my head on the female side where it smells like my wife does (hormones etc). My legs then half sideways. But I also think the weight is better there given matras is 8 years old. Caveat is a queen size is easier to turn around than a king size (weird cringe terms TBH). And you need to do that every other week to preserve the matras.

If moving your neck and aligning your windows were major impediments to you, then you probably are better off with one monitor. But I think you are in the minority that doesn’t find at least a dual monitor setup beneficial.

I don’t have a Vision Pro, so I can only imagine how much nicer a virtual 27” 4K monitor would be compared to my tiny laptop monitor. I think the benefit should be obvious to anybody with an open mind about the idea, though.

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