A basic principle of ancient Chinese Feng Shui is that you should not sit with your back to a space. In other words, you need to have your back against a wall, not your face facing a wall. I believe there is a reason for this. When there is a space behind you, human instinct forces you to pay a subconscious attention on that space (we are very alert to danger from behind), making it harder to concentrate on what is in front of you.
I do the same thing but with two physical desks, not just partitioning one desk into two logical desks.
Aside from the obvious advantage of more space it really helps put your mind in a different context when you are at a different location. In his example just moving over slightly would do nothing for me with the computer just arms length away and still in full view.
Having just moved house, this is fantastic inspiration.
To be fair, the huge window by the desk in the article makes it a naturally more appealing space than my own. But it’s enough to make me rethink the layout we have here so far. Especially since we want space for non digital projects too.
I also just moved to a new house, and am very happy this showed up.
I'm trying to do a complete furniture refresh for my office, declutter, and reorganize.
I'm lucky enough that there is a large window in the room, and I also only use one monitor. While I think my room is not as large as his, I can still make it work.
The one thing that was stopping me was cable management - but with clever furniture placement, I think the cables can mostly be hidden.
The non digital side makes total sense and I would love to mimic this
When you have two monitors, is your head always turned to one side? That always hurts my neck, so I wind up with the second monitor relegated to the side, where I never actually look at it.
I mean I love this kind of stuff but honestly the answer here is "have a huge honking office." I have a digital/reading split and there's actually a technical term for it: a mess.
What I like to do is think of the office less as a discrete space and more like a colonial, expansionist government - if I have sat in a chair for any amount of time, anything in a five-foot radius starts accruing stacks of books, paper pads, that kind of thing. My wife loves this! Sometimes it gets cold in a room and I leave it for a while and when I return months later it's like discovering an office from the past
It's not mentioned in the article but one thing I constantly struggle with when laying out my office is facing the desk toward the wall (like he originally had it) vs. facing toward the room (the "digital" side of his desk now). I don't like facing the wall but I find when I face the room the monitor totally blocks my view and it kind of looks like ass from the other side. This guy did way better cable management than I have done but still, you're looking at the back side of a monitor like a huge 2001 style monolith, especially if your monitor is black.
I still don't have a good solution for this, and curious what others are doing.
I place mine against the wall. It is most convenient this way because the Ethernet and power outlets are against the wall. In addition it means that the remainder of the space is large enough to be used for other things. My wife and I sit in the same room with a table with the 3D printer, home servers, and our various shared workbench tasks in between us. I sit by the window because I like sunlight and looking over the city, and while my wife does too my mood is more mercurially related to it than is hers.
Overall, power and data management dominate this entire arrangement. I have far too many devices each of which draw very little power but demand their own massive power connections. In the end, I will likely just rack most of them to make room for the second child we plan to have.
Walking into my office, you definitely see the backside of my dual monitor + audio interfaces + studio monitor speakers (I dabble in music production as well as tech) from the doorway.
I just live with it. I'm on the good side. The few times a day my wife needs to talk to me she just comes around to my side of the desk anyways.
A few scattered thoughts but a board with decoration or art of a similar size could be a nice cover, the other (more building required) would be to look if there’s a way you can fold down/away the monitor when not in use.
Adding another desk isn't "rethinking the desk". It's adding another desk with a slightly different purpose to the first desk. It's maximalism under the guise of insight.
A basic principle of ancient Chinese Feng Shui is that you should not sit with your back to a space. In other words, you need to have your back against a wall, not your face facing a wall. I believe there is a reason for this. When there is a space behind you, human instinct forces you to pay a subconscious attention on that space (we are very alert to danger from behind), making it harder to concentrate on what is in front of you.
I saved my desk from curb side collection. My chair idem. My laptop battery died two years ago so my desk cannot be too far away from a wall socket.
Maybe one day I could face my desk away from a wall.
I do the same thing but with two physical desks, not just partitioning one desk into two logical desks.
Aside from the obvious advantage of more space it really helps put your mind in a different context when you are at a different location. In his example just moving over slightly would do nothing for me with the computer just arms length away and still in full view.
Having just moved house, this is fantastic inspiration.
To be fair, the huge window by the desk in the article makes it a naturally more appealing space than my own. But it’s enough to make me rethink the layout we have here so far. Especially since we want space for non digital projects too.
I also just moved to a new house, and am very happy this showed up. I'm trying to do a complete furniture refresh for my office, declutter, and reorganize.
I'm lucky enough that there is a large window in the room, and I also only use one monitor. While I think my room is not as large as his, I can still make it work.
The one thing that was stopping me was cable management - but with clever furniture placement, I think the cables can mostly be hidden.
The non digital side makes total sense and I would love to mimic this
Will there be a follow-up when that Ikea tissue-paper lamp catches fire and burns his flat down?
You have one monitor yes, but what about second monitor?
When you have two monitors, is your head always turned to one side? That always hurts my neck, so I wind up with the second monitor relegated to the side, where I never actually look at it.
I mean I love this kind of stuff but honestly the answer here is "have a huge honking office." I have a digital/reading split and there's actually a technical term for it: a mess.
What I like to do is think of the office less as a discrete space and more like a colonial, expansionist government - if I have sat in a chair for any amount of time, anything in a five-foot radius starts accruing stacks of books, paper pads, that kind of thing. My wife loves this! Sometimes it gets cold in a room and I leave it for a while and when I return months later it's like discovering an office from the past
Initially thought one desk was facing the room, the other desk would be behind facing the wall (where there is bookshelf space instead I guess)
I have considered that as a dual setup (a desk towards room and a desk behind you up against wall)
What is the lamp, the one that‘s like a paper globe?
That was everywhere in my childhood.
Japanese lantern
It's not mentioned in the article but one thing I constantly struggle with when laying out my office is facing the desk toward the wall (like he originally had it) vs. facing toward the room (the "digital" side of his desk now). I don't like facing the wall but I find when I face the room the monitor totally blocks my view and it kind of looks like ass from the other side. This guy did way better cable management than I have done but still, you're looking at the back side of a monitor like a huge 2001 style monolith, especially if your monitor is black.
I still don't have a good solution for this, and curious what others are doing.
I place mine against the wall. It is most convenient this way because the Ethernet and power outlets are against the wall. In addition it means that the remainder of the space is large enough to be used for other things. My wife and I sit in the same room with a table with the 3D printer, home servers, and our various shared workbench tasks in between us. I sit by the window because I like sunlight and looking over the city, and while my wife does too my mood is more mercurially related to it than is hers.
Overall, power and data management dominate this entire arrangement. I have far too many devices each of which draw very little power but demand their own massive power connections. In the end, I will likely just rack most of them to make room for the second child we plan to have.
Walking into my office, you definitely see the backside of my dual monitor + audio interfaces + studio monitor speakers (I dabble in music production as well as tech) from the doorway.
I just live with it. I'm on the good side. The few times a day my wife needs to talk to me she just comes around to my side of the desk anyways.
A few scattered thoughts but a board with decoration or art of a similar size could be a nice cover, the other (more building required) would be to look if there’s a way you can fold down/away the monitor when not in use.
Adding another desk isn't "rethinking the desk". It's adding another desk with a slightly different purpose to the first desk. It's maximalism under the guise of insight.