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 know that one of the main patterns in Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language was "Light From Two Sides."
Basically, corner rooms are best.
When we worked with a German company, I was impressed by their offices. They tended to have two engineers per office, with really large windows.
I was told there's actually a law that requires it.
I remember visiting the Facebook office, in New York, and was kind of aghast. It was this huge open-plan cavern, with the managers' offices around the edges (with the windows), and rows of desks, in a fairly dimly-lit pit, in the middle. Of course, the desks all faced each other, and the engineers' backs were to the aisles, with no real buffer between where people walked, and where they worked. It was also noisy.
The Japanese do something similar, but at the company I worked for, there was a lot of natural light in the open-plan offices. The managers don't get offices; just desks, nearer the windows, and the aisles were quite wide.
A VP, with a billion-dollar budget, would have a little desk in the corner that would embarrass a fifth-grade teacher.
And the offices were whisper-quiet, with hundreds of people working in the room.
It's to stop the eunuchs from murdering you.
I like to joke that if you look at every Feng Shui rule through the lens of "to reduce the risk of assassination" it all really makes sense.
Maybe it's not so much of a joke....
Yes, there is a reason for it: it is rude.
It is better for privacy and receiving clients, but a disadvantage is less physical space in the center/walking area. You can play with lego on the ground, too. I would also get rid of the bookshelf. Get an ereader. There is no way you need all those books physically in your vicinity (I am not arguing you should give up 100% on physical books).
Worse, if my desk wouldn't be at the wall (in corner) my cats wouldn't be able to hide in that corner under the desk, and they could play easier with cables which would also be way more in sight. Against the wall? Not so much. I do regret not getting a sit/stand desk, but the extra cost back then was too large. Oh, and I like Ikea. You can sell those refurbished for good price, too.
It's also pretty widespread in the US business world. I rarely see a manager's office where they're not facing the door. I've made it my practice throughout my own career, even when it meant improvising the fixtures in dank little cubicles. Also, nobody but me sees my screen.
For a while, I had one of those kneeling chairs that I kept in front of my desk, so if you wanted to sit down and chat, it was like you had to kneel in front of me. I only did it as a joke, but it was amusing. It didn't last very long because someone took it away and replaced it with a regular chair.
That's funny, because there was a joke going around many years ago that you could tell how much money someone had by how far their couch was from the wall.
Out of curiosity, I was trying to find a source for that, but didn't find much other than old Reddit threads and a 'viral TikTok trend.'
What about having a window on the wall you're facing, so you can look out it?
This principle emphasizes that there should be no space behind you. It has nothing to do with the wall or window in front of you. Those are just examples I used to explain according to the original post.
If you're concerned about the window's position, ancient Feng Shui advised the window should be located to your side, specifically on the side of the hand you don't use for writing. I think their reasoning was: this way, your head and the hand you use for writing won't cast shadows on the area where you're writing.
Workplace safety rules for screen workers say that to avoid eye strain, windows should be to the side, not in the direction you're facing. On a bright day the light coming from the window can have an intensity multiple orders of magnitude higher than the screen. I find it very uncomfortable.
It can be good natural light for video calls.
I like it to the side more, if it is in front you'd have to look from above monitors to see it.
Disagree. Misplaced context
Overruled.
Wow this guy has the 606 Vitsoe Universal shelving [1] and USM Haller desk [2]
How is this shelving any better than what you can buy from say IKEA?
I've got wooden IKEA shelves in my shed and they take serious abuse of big heavy tools, lawn mowers, car batteries, paint cans etc being non-carefully put/clattered away and they're holding up 100% after years. I can't imagine any normal shelves needing to be "well made" to support a few magazines and a toy model Porsche?
Or is this just a "because I am rich and want you to know how rich I am" type thing?
I have a study furnished solely with IKEA furniture. Billy bookshelves, Galant tables, a wall shelf, etc.
Tables are really well made. So are the bookshelves. They are sturdy, high quality and withstand to abuse.
There are high quality items, and there are fine and high quality items. What he uses the latter.
Take an example. He uses fountain pens (so do I). Montblanc inks, a Lamy 2000. They are not expensive for what they are, yet they are fine instruments. They are made with care. I have tons of inks, yet Montblanc and a couple of brands really stand out in reliability, writing comfort and color quality. Same for L2000. It’s a very understated but a completely handmade thing, with great attention to detail. It’s even too much pen for that money.
The furniture he uses are the same. Understated, yet fine. It’s not there to make a statement, but to be enjoyed by their owner. I share the same sentiment. I do not buy anything to impress anyone, but to enjoy.
Nobody, sans my wife sees my most prized possessions. I got them to use and enjoy, that’s all.
I couldn't resist reading this in Patrick Bateman's voice!
Impressive. Very nice. Let's see Paul Allen's book-case.
I cannot tell if this is sarcasm or real. It reads like an article from "McSweeney’s Internet Tendency". It gets even better if you read it with a syrupy deep (American) southern accent, similar to Fred Brooks (author of "The Mythical Man-Month"). The only thing missing from this reply is telling us about your "understated, yet fine" wrist watch (no doubt: Swiss), obscure Porsche car model, and high-fidelity surround sound system (with obligatory record player).
For anyone else curious, I Googled about the LAMY 2000 Fountain Pen. It has a retail price over 250 USD. You can buy excellent Japanese single-use pens for less than 1 USD.
> Nobody, sans my wife sees my most prized possessions. I got them to use and enjoy, that’s all.
And yet, you needed to come to the Internet and tell us all about them.
Have you ever done some extended handwriting? What you do it with actually matters, that's literally what you hold in your hands and press onto the paper every single time; it's what determines your writing experience, especially with fountain pens. Lamy is not really a fancy brand; they just make good and sturdy fountain pens. Go for Lamy Safari, it's less than 10% of 2000's price
I'm pretty sure a $700 desk lamp is a statement.
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This is a philosophical question that goes back millennia. It just comes down to what sparks joy for you, and how much do you value that.
I have an Eames lounger. It was absurdly expensive and doesn’t even have a recline lever. But, it sparks joy. I like how it looks, I find it comfortable.
When I was a student I went to a furniture store with a friend and I sat in this chair, not knowing who Eames was or the price tag, and I loved immediately. It felt like sitting in a cloud. When I saw the price tag I said if I ever make it I’m buying this chair.
I worked a long time to buy it and it represents a non tangible journey to me.
But I also feel like an ass, because it was absurdly expensive and a total luxury and people are going hungry every day. My mom would slap my head if she knew what I paid.
Oh my goodness! Who could ever pay that much for something they use every day!
Anyway, back to my folding chair, Vision Pro, and Mac Studio 512GB. ;)
Yeah it looks different.
I mean, you can say that about any luxury good right? It just looks nice and makes you feel good.
IKEA doesn't actually make any modular wall shelves like that anymore, after discontinuing the SVALNÄS. For a wall mounted shelf on a budget you could go for the Elfa system or the Fasttrack one.
Well precisely - shelves feels especially like a solved problem where basically the cheapest tat you can buy (IKEA) is totally fine and solid and long lasting. Need something more hardcore? Then you're probably not in the "shelves on my living room" context, but probably need something more suited for an industrial setting.
It was a genuine question about what makes these any better (...or not). Like do they have some amazing non-obvious feature? Something that no other shelf has? Something that IKEA shelves fail to do?
Of course it could be a performative thing (as I was suggesting) in the same way that someone pays $150 for a t-shirt because it has a logo on it and they want people to know. There is a sucker born every minute as they say.
A big downside of IKEA’s modular shelving is that they periodically release a new range and discontinue the old one. This happened to me with their ALGOT shelving system about 10 years ago. I bought mine not long before it was discontinued and replaced by BOAXEL which is not compatible.
That’s fine if you buy exactly what you want and need and know your needs will never change, but if you later want to expand, you’re out of luck. At best, you might get lucky and find parts of Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree, but you’re usually just stuck. (I’d kill for some more 200cm wall rails but I doubt I’ll ever find any.)
The 606 Vitsoe system is heinously overpriced but has the advantage of having been around for 50+ years and is so established you’ll likely always be able to buy more parts if you want to expand it.
But those don't even look good. Like, I thought it was some IKEA series that I didn't knew, just raw aluminum profiles + some uninteresting shelving
It's a bit snobby, both shelving and the desk.
Now when I checked his website in little bit more detail I get that feeling more and more. Looks like someone who brags about a lot of things he owns and cannot shut up about it.
I suspect it might be more like:
while true:
optimize life
personally my setup is on iteration <n> of keyboard, mouse, desk, monitor, computer, wrist rest, etc etc etc etc
Don't forget the $700 desk lamp.
That’s a rude and terrible thing to say about someone you don’t know. I guess hiding behind anonymity gives people courage.
How is it "rude" and "terrible" (dramatic much?) to infer a loose profile from someone based on what they willingly decide to share with the world? Maybe parent is wrong, but that's their perception of the author based on what they put out there.
I think there's an untapped market for really cool office furniture.
The shelving isn't that attention grabbing (looks like double-track
wall shelving)
but the cabinet with drawers, that is cool.
I think we should have lots more office cabinets with drawers so things can be in plain sight. super-functional shallow metal ball-bearing drawers like tool chest drawers. I think it would be organized and productive.
Well, Fatih Arslan uses quite a lot more premium of the premium tools. I once stumbled on his website, on the topic of Fountain Pens (I think). I subscribed to his feed since. Leica for photography, 3D prints pretty interesting items, etc. He spends time and definitely have a taste and can afford some premium product for “ordinary use.”
I’m curious what the dimensions of the desk are for him to have space for a computer and reading space
The closest IKEA equivalent is the IVAR.
Between IVAR and now this 606, I actually don’t know any other non-garage-oriented “universal” shelving systems where you can like mix and match drawers, shelves, tables, etc.
I have IVAR in my office and it’s great.
To anyone hesitant on the price of the Vitsoe system I just have to say I’ve had mine for two years now and can confidently say that nothing else compares. It’s truly well made. Feels like it will be around much longer than I am, and still look the part.
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Yeah, the first thing I thought when I saw the photos: Damn, this guy is rich.
The Vitsoe shelving is the goal for my office, but the initial cost is just so high. I know it will last me the rest of my life, and I should just have bought it when I first wanted it 15 years ago.
The chairs in front of the desk might be a pair of Vitsoe 620 Chair Programme.
I mean if you like look of some raw profiles on the wall with plain white shelving, not sure why you want to pay extra for it
This is exactly what I was looking for in the original post. For those who think this is expensive but spend most of your waking hours at a desk, think of it as an investment in yourself.
2,000$ and the desk description has "laminate" in it?
Much above that and you might as well get custom-made stuff.
Its just designer furniture, like any other Velben good.
A designer couch made entirely of foam can cost you 10k just because there is a name on it.
You're paying for the distinctive style and to show others your wealth or taste.
Are there compatible alternatives to this shelving without the price tag?
Home Depot vertical rails and shelves serve me just as well.
search Reglraum ON-WALL. Few options, recently purchased the wood one with black frame. It's great quality and a fraction of the price of Vitsœ
Perhaps buying it second hand
The product website says it's more expensive second hand.
Any twin slot shelving might be what you're after.
I can see the shelves, kind of, but seriously, $2000 for a simple table seems very hard to justify.
It "looks" amazing. But you know, the real hard work is always done by the rag-looking, worn-out dirty, dented, scratched, faded-out, weak tools and work-benches. Not the shiny or rugged ones. Just like some notebooks that were used a 1000 times, with corners rounded by usage, not by design.
I would love a table that has uneven solid wood surface, with cracks and scratchers, burn marks, broken corners, worn-out edges, ink-marks everywhere, shaped out by the usage, not by design.
> I would love a table that has uneven solid wood surface, with cracks and scratchers, burn marks, broken corners, worn-out edges, ink-marks everywhere, shaped out by the usage, not by design.
So buy a table and start using it.
It is possible to take care of your tools. My workbench looks used, but why would it have burn marks etc? I take care when I work. My office desk looks pristine because it's not a workbench.
What brand and model of ergonomic armchair does he use?
Very beautiful setup. I'm jealous of the space to do this. I like the idea of making the desk face out into the room, but my office is quite small, so it would end up floating in the middle of the room. Having it in the corner isn't quite as pleasing to the eye, but it makes it so the rest of the room feels larger.
There are bits in here that are a little bit over-designed in my opinion. Do you really need two fountain pens at the ready? Must they be there on the desk at all times? I find I carry my single fountain pen with me when I need it. I also can't see myself always sitting at the desk to read. I have books scattered about the house wherever I was reading last. Also, it's great to have such a wide desk for both digital and analog, but how many of us have the space for that luxury? Anyway, just food for thought if you look at something like this and feel jealous and think whatever space you work in today is now poorer for seeing someone else's nicer setup.
When I went remote for COVID I did something similar in terms of analog-digital separation, but at the level of my home, not my desk. All of my work-related gear never left my home office (even my laptop). When I leave my home office this allows me to "disconnect" mentally.
I ended up at the same conclusion as you guys but implemented in yet another way: my home office has a desk for digital work, and a 'study nook' for analog (mostly reading, but it has its own little desk as well).
If I had a larger home, a dedicated den or study room would be a pretty high priority for me. I want my office to be a minimalist, businesslike space with no distractions that focuses me on the screen where my work happens. But the study is a place for clearing my head, thinking and reading, more about comfort, dimmer lighting, familiar objects, and no screens unless I bring in a small e-reader.
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
Very aesthetic, the author must be a photographer, these photos could fit very well on r/malelivingspace.
He’s a software engineer with taste. I know taste is subjective but I happen to like he’s taste.
He is a software engineer with taste and the financial means.
Being a software engineer usually gives you enough money to afford a nice desk if you care about it.
But not enough to afford an office room with enough space that one can put their desk facing space.
Depending on your location, and preparation. My home office room (which also doubled as a workshop and light storage room) used to be 10' x 12', and I was able to sit with my back towards a wall, and my desk facing space. And it was in Brooklyn, NY, not an area known for cheapest sq.ft. It mostly depends on how you plan the room.
Ehh, I find it difficult to distinguish between "taste" and "money". The shelving alone is a "contact us for pricing" situation. Premium items coupled with a too-clean-to-be-used work environment and natural light can do a significant lift in the "taste" department.
It reminds me a little of set dressing in movies. Every sophisticated character owns a chemex, but they use a french press to make coffee onscreen. Harks back to the days of Notting Hill when we had to believe that Hugh Grant ran a failing second hand bookstore while living in a well-decorated house in central London. Do we think the author uses his Teenage Engineering pocket operators, or are they window dressing? Do we need Godel, Escher and Bach as the backdrop for a completely unrelated photo?
People can be multi-dimensional. I’m a sysadmin/developer, yet I played in a symphony orchestra, and still play bass, take photos and read world classics, sci-fi and occasional philosophical books.
Why can’t he make music, read music history or biographies, or do other things?
Do all “software engineers” need to interface with a computer 7/24, Matrix style?
Of course you can, I think the author has taste, is clearly interested in design and I enjoyed looking through the images to see what I recognized. I should say that it obviously looks good, for the same reasons that movie sets look good and why we hire set designers/dressers.
It's also fair game to critique these photos from an artistic perspective. Some are clearly intentionally staged and I argue that the messaging is a little clumsy. Sure, it's hard to avoid if you've filled your space with expensive design objects. Another comparison is cooking blogs where the photographers add visual clutter that looks good on instagram, but is impractical and unrelated to the food being cooked. The space itself is very nice, though you've got to be absolutely anal about keeping clutter down.
The amount of hate that people give you for having nice things is something that amazed me when I started experiencing it firsthand.
Prices are on the linked page, or in a full price list PDF it links to.
(Though the fetishisation of this shelving seems weird. Maybe as I grew up in the UK, but I associate it with every single public and office building. Every library, every office, every school. It's not what I'd choose for home.)
Vitsœ is now a British company, and their products are made in the UK as well.
It's great when you actually do want the flexibility. Not that you need anything ridiculously expensive, though. In a garage or workshop it's great because you can just put the brackets where you want and store long stuff like wood or pipes etc. But if you're just putting up shelves that you're never going to move it's less appealing. That said, I have used it in my study because I don't care how it looks and it's very strong.
A lot of what you pay for with these systems is them staying the same for decades at a time - a factory outfitted with shelving doesn't want to have to replace it all just because they're reconfiguring a part or adding on.
On the contrary, there's lots of expensive stuff that's horrifyingly terrible taste. There might be some connection, but they're separate
I know a person with a very good taste; his apartment is even emptier and cleaner than this. He's actually good at his job. Some people just find it actually comfortable. I'm not one of them, but these are real people, not posers.
There’s a chasm between them. I have seen people create great things with no money, and people who slaughtered spaces because they don’t have an eye for anything.
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
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.
Yep, even more-so with a corner desk (L-shaped). Although there are times my work involves both papers and computer, and the quick swivel of a corner desk is great.
I want this. It's the reason why every time I shop for desks I look for workbenches. Desks are always TINY and I never understood why.
I agree. I recently bought a beast from IKEA: TROTTEN (160x80 cm). Crazy cheap and built like a tank.
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.
When I had five monitors, they each had a job. Front of me were two ultrawides on top of each other, the one directly in front of me was for 'the action' as it could handle "two screens" worth of info next to each other.
The ultra wide above was mainly dedicated to various chat programs (teams, telegram, iMessage, etc).
The laptop's screen to the left was my mail screen (both home and work).
To the right was a 4k on its side, for documentation reference or output work.
And above the laptop was a "scratch" monitor for whatever was needed (often a music player, etc).
You quickly get used to glancing at what you need and moving on; if something needs more attention it's easy to bring it front and center or turn your chair.
Power fluctuations took out the ultrawides and one of the 4ks so now I just have one supermegaultrawide with a 4k above it (still laptop for mail, "above" for chat, and main for main things).
This is why ultrawides are very comfortable, you can focus on the center region where 2x monitors likely have their edges meeting.
I repurposed a 43” 4K TV as a monitor. The thing I’m working on goes roughly in the middle, everything else is sprawled out wherever.
Which? I like this idea.
It is an older $299 Toshiba Fire TV that isn’t powerful enough to stream 4K content smoothly. Displays 4K@60Hz fine over HDMI fine.
Wouldn’t recommend it, but I already had it.
Ah. Got it. Thanks!
I do this too, and just put less-important stuff on the second monitor. Work chat, music, logs, whatever.
I have three monitors. The left and right are turned vertically. They're all 30". So the main screen is in the center and I keep slack/email/web browser with docs/info on the left and usually Twitch DJs or Spotify on the right. So usually I'm looking forward but I look left briefly throughout the day.
Why would your head always be turned to one side? Have one monitor in the middle (the main one) and secondary either left or right. Having split screen right in the middle of my field of view is ridiculously unpleasant
The proper setup is 3 monitors: [ stdout ][ stdin ][ stderr ]
I have a rotating chair (normal desk chair) and I rotate the whole chair to look at the other screen If I need to look at it for more than one second.
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)
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.
Extension cords exist.
They'll only get you so far
Yes, only... 25m? You must have a bigger room than I do :)
> And moving the chair from one side to the other is enough to change the context.
I think it would be better to have the analog side on the opposite side of the desk, so you wouldn't be able to peek at the screen so easily and get distracted.
but then he... he would face... tHe WaLl!
Nice article to show status signalling vanity and taste-based elitism. Adding a drop of "playing lego with kids" to show humane side was clever.
> If I’m reading a book, once the kids are asleep, I have 3–4 hours each evening, and I also have free time on the weekends. So it’s possible to read a lot of books as a father of two kids. I could probably read even more if I stopped spending time on other things, like writing for my blog, learning piano, or doing industrial design.
I thought: "Oh, I see, so you don't parent much."
I too continue parenting my children once they are asleep.
He’s a software engineer with a passion for design.
Just skip it if it’s not for you.
I have a similar setup, but separate desks:
- A sitting desk for coding
- A standing desk for thinking and working on paper
There is something magical about standing while working on paper.
I’ve also found that this separation became more important to follow since the arrival of LLMs.
It's cheating, somewhat, to replace your desk with once that is as wide as two desks. I'm trying to figure out a way to do something similar with only one desk's worth of space.
My desk is only 48" wide (4 feet / 1.2 meters) and 30" deep (76 cm). This is enough space to have a massive mouse pad with a full sized keyboard and mouse on it with enough space to the right of it to comfortably sit and work with physical items. The desk also has a 32" 4k monitor and a 27" 1440p monitor, a rack sized audio processing unit, a USB audio interface and easy access to a drawing stylus. I don't even have monitor arms either to save space, they rest on stands. It's also deep enough where if I wanted more horizontal space I could move my keyboard and mouse forward and have plenty of room to sprawl out a few physical items.
Long story short, what kind of desk are you working with? I would consider my desk fairly small but it has lots of room for common things.
My desk is a tiny bit wider, my displays are smaller, and my keyboard and deskmat are smaller too. My monitor arms do take up a ton of space though and make it hard to temporarily increase my working area by pushing my keyboard back.
If I had the space I'd love to have a writing area as wide as OP's, which looks wider than either of our entire desks.
What is the lamp, the one that‘s like a paper globe?
That was everywhere in my childhood.
The one on the shelf is probably a Akari paper lantern. I have an orange one that I quite like. You used to be able to buy them from Design Within Reach or the MoMA Design Store, but I can't find them on their sites now but they're on the Noguchi site. [1] The hanging sphere one might be similar.
For those not aware of them, Design Within Reach has a lot of nice famous designed furniture and shelving, but pricey. They often have 15% off season sales though. Good place to shop if you're into the stuff seen in this blog post.
"Paper lantern" generally. Many inexpensive import shops carried them in the Before Times. Widely available now. They offer a soft ambient glow. Not ideal as a reading lamp (a bit too diffuse), but quite good for general room lighting.
Not necessarily that specific lamp, but GULLSUDARE from IKEA is the same kind.
Japanese lantern
Tolomeo detected.
Michele De Lucchi & Giancarlo Fassina (1987)
in the 1980s we had the McDLT, a styrofoam container to keep the hot side of a hamburger hot, and the cold side cold. This desk kinda reminds me of that.
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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.
The "standard" answer is to do basically what he did - cluster the monitors on a corner (either angled or straight).
The "classic" answer is an L-shaped desk, or a desk with credenza.
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.
It's not an issue if your office is so small that no one is hanging out in front of it. :)
My wife only comes in to get printouts and supplies if I'm working, and if she's working (we share the "battle station" by switching out whose laptop is connected to the dock) I basically only go in there to quickly chat and walk around to the other side.
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.
You just need a home cubicle.
If you do good cable management it looks good imo. I have a desk arm with monitors attached on their VESA mounts. All the monitor cabling is attached to the mounts and goes into the cable management tray under the desk with everything else.
I can’t sit with my legs down like this, I always need them on top of something, and my legs are like super long. :/
OK, I have something similar with an L-shaped desk, one "leg" is my monitor/keyboard/blabla and the other side is where I write, read, build models, do non-computer hobbies. OK.
I don't think people are too (d|n)umb to realize that it's a great setup, it just requires a fairly large room to pull it off.
Since this thread seems to have attracted the attention of some hackers with taste, has anybody considered an adjustable height desk? If so, what brands are you looking at? They all seem to compromise on the aesthetics on the desk and end up quite clunky.
My wife and I both have Fully desks, which are now part of the Herman Miller family (but weren't at the time we bought them). Not the cutest designs ever, but they've both held up well, and I think the bamboo/wood-ish desktop finish is nicer looking than similar models from other brands.
I've also seen a few places (including IKEA?) sell bring-your-own-top adjustable desks, where they provide the legs and motor and skeleton and then you add some kind of slab of your choosing as the desktop. Haven't tried one myself, though.
You can also buy the Fully legs/motor on their own and bring your own desktop.
I really disliked the bamboo desk fwiw and much prefer the thicker 1" laminate "wood" one. I wish I'd gotten the extended range legs, though.
I can recommend Vernal desks. I just bought a corner desk that's height adjustable and it feels like quality.
Of course they are not next to the wall, the acoustics are terrible! Also wall is good place to put storage in, having desk face it is generally a bit of a waste and only worth if there is not much space behind it to have it other way
I made a big U with desks for PC/music/electronics, I did actually prefer having the most used side (computer) next to the wall but aforementioned acoustics were absolutely ass so I moved it
This motivated me to clean my desk, and turn it around so I'm facing away from the glare and out towards the room (now with a glimpse of view outside instead of the wall). \o/
I think his before desk was better, just a clean surface with monitor and speakers, ready to start a new task fresh.
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.
He has an old picture of the desk against the wall. The new setup is the cluttered desk in center of the room. "Two-part desk" actually means a one-part desk, the source of your confusion probably.
He didn't add another desk. Did you read the linked article?
I'm not really convinced that this is a good solution. I have my own home office and I keep two separate desks. I have a modern motorized desk that can sit or stand. I also have a mid-century classic desk for "analog." And that's where I do all my real business planning. I use digital to-do app only for errands such as reminders to get milk and so on, so sometimes my actual projects get written into the digital world this way, which I do on my phone at the writter's desk. In this way, I'm not only much more distant from potential distractions, but also it's much more secure. Yes, people working at these companies can spy on you. Don't assume your digital notes are secure.
I put my desk facing the middle of the room in a previous place a few years ago. I really liked it. Unfortunately it does require more space, though, which I don't currently have. If I ever have more space again I'll definitely be doing it again. It feels so much cosier. I don't like having my back to the door.
This does not look like the work space of someone who does serious work.
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Will there be a follow-up when that Ikea tissue-paper lamp catches fire and burns his flat down?
I don't know how those things are legal, like building a computer case out of recycled newspaper clippings.
Those where everywhere in the late 80s, complete with 80W incandescent light bulbs. I'm not suggestion that it can't catch fire, but even if it did wouldn't the paper would burn so fast that not enough heat is generated to ignite anything else?
I'm not an engineer, but I learned that the full size Edison incandescent bulbs can't get hot enough to burn anything. And if anything breaches the bulb, the filament opens up instantly. Kind of an old fashioned failsafe design.
The tiny halogen lamps weren't that way, and there were reports of "torchiere" lamps causing fires, or at least smoke, when peoples draperies dangled into them, resulting in a ban IIRC.
Betcha there’s an LED in there creating less waste heat than the sunlight hitting it during the day.
Would you like to buy a fire insurance policy against the specific casualty of that lamp igniting from its light source and burning OP’s flat down? I’ll sell you one for a great price.
I don't know when's the last time you handled an Edison base LED bulb but they get really goddamn hot at the base where they cram all the improperly-cooled electronics into an area the size of a thumbnail.
You're literally arguing that rice paper is an acceptable material for electrical safety.
Frayed cord, damaged/defective socket, the list of potential ignition sources goes on but hey let's wrap it all in dry grass and kindling.
Less than an ancient phone charger. OP’s flat will be fine.
2.8W when it's operating properly.
No one is lighting a room with a 2.8W LED (equivalent to a 25W incandescent). That is barely enough light for a focused desk lamp.
40W equivalent, if you read the link.
And in OP’s pictures, I totally believe that’s the bulb they’re using. Notice they have a desk lamp for up close work, and a freaking enormous window to let in sunlight. No need to flood the space with light with the hanging pendant thing.
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 know that one of the main patterns in Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language was "Light From Two Sides."
Basically, corner rooms are best.
When we worked with a German company, I was impressed by their offices. They tended to have two engineers per office, with really large windows.
I was told there's actually a law that requires it.
I remember visiting the Facebook office, in New York, and was kind of aghast. It was this huge open-plan cavern, with the managers' offices around the edges (with the windows), and rows of desks, in a fairly dimly-lit pit, in the middle. Of course, the desks all faced each other, and the engineers' backs were to the aisles, with no real buffer between where people walked, and where they worked. It was also noisy.
The Japanese do something similar, but at the company I worked for, there was a lot of natural light in the open-plan offices. The managers don't get offices; just desks, nearer the windows, and the aisles were quite wide.
A VP, with a billion-dollar budget, would have a little desk in the corner that would embarrass a fifth-grade teacher.
And the offices were whisper-quiet, with hundreds of people working in the room.
It's to stop the eunuchs from murdering you.
I like to joke that if you look at every Feng Shui rule through the lens of "to reduce the risk of assassination" it all really makes sense.
Maybe it's not so much of a joke....
Yes, there is a reason for it: it is rude.
It is better for privacy and receiving clients, but a disadvantage is less physical space in the center/walking area. You can play with lego on the ground, too. I would also get rid of the bookshelf. Get an ereader. There is no way you need all those books physically in your vicinity (I am not arguing you should give up 100% on physical books).
Worse, if my desk wouldn't be at the wall (in corner) my cats wouldn't be able to hide in that corner under the desk, and they could play easier with cables which would also be way more in sight. Against the wall? Not so much. I do regret not getting a sit/stand desk, but the extra cost back then was too large. Oh, and I like Ikea. You can sell those refurbished for good price, too.
It's also pretty widespread in the US business world. I rarely see a manager's office where they're not facing the door. I've made it my practice throughout my own career, even when it meant improvising the fixtures in dank little cubicles. Also, nobody but me sees my screen.
For a while, I had one of those kneeling chairs that I kept in front of my desk, so if you wanted to sit down and chat, it was like you had to kneel in front of me. I only did it as a joke, but it was amusing. It didn't last very long because someone took it away and replaced it with a regular chair.
That's funny, because there was a joke going around many years ago that you could tell how much money someone had by how far their couch was from the wall.
Out of curiosity, I was trying to find a source for that, but didn't find much other than old Reddit threads and a 'viral TikTok trend.'
What about having a window on the wall you're facing, so you can look out it?
This principle emphasizes that there should be no space behind you. It has nothing to do with the wall or window in front of you. Those are just examples I used to explain according to the original post.
If you're concerned about the window's position, ancient Feng Shui advised the window should be located to your side, specifically on the side of the hand you don't use for writing. I think their reasoning was: this way, your head and the hand you use for writing won't cast shadows on the area where you're writing.
Workplace safety rules for screen workers say that to avoid eye strain, windows should be to the side, not in the direction you're facing. On a bright day the light coming from the window can have an intensity multiple orders of magnitude higher than the screen. I find it very uncomfortable.
It can be good natural light for video calls.
I like it to the side more, if it is in front you'd have to look from above monitors to see it.
Disagree. Misplaced context
Overruled.
Wow this guy has the 606 Vitsoe Universal shelving [1] and USM Haller desk [2]
A dream setup.
[1] https://www.vitsoe.com/us/606
[2] https://us.usm.com/collections/tables-desks
How is this shelving any better than what you can buy from say IKEA?
I've got wooden IKEA shelves in my shed and they take serious abuse of big heavy tools, lawn mowers, car batteries, paint cans etc being non-carefully put/clattered away and they're holding up 100% after years. I can't imagine any normal shelves needing to be "well made" to support a few magazines and a toy model Porsche?
Or is this just a "because I am rich and want you to know how rich I am" type thing?
I have a study furnished solely with IKEA furniture. Billy bookshelves, Galant tables, a wall shelf, etc.
Tables are really well made. So are the bookshelves. They are sturdy, high quality and withstand to abuse.
There are high quality items, and there are fine and high quality items. What he uses the latter.
Take an example. He uses fountain pens (so do I). Montblanc inks, a Lamy 2000. They are not expensive for what they are, yet they are fine instruments. They are made with care. I have tons of inks, yet Montblanc and a couple of brands really stand out in reliability, writing comfort and color quality. Same for L2000. It’s a very understated but a completely handmade thing, with great attention to detail. It’s even too much pen for that money.
The furniture he uses are the same. Understated, yet fine. It’s not there to make a statement, but to be enjoyed by their owner. I share the same sentiment. I do not buy anything to impress anyone, but to enjoy.
Nobody, sans my wife sees my most prized possessions. I got them to use and enjoy, that’s all.
I couldn't resist reading this in Patrick Bateman's voice!
Impressive. Very nice. Let's see Paul Allen's book-case.
I cannot tell if this is sarcasm or real. It reads like an article from "McSweeney’s Internet Tendency". It gets even better if you read it with a syrupy deep (American) southern accent, similar to Fred Brooks (author of "The Mythical Man-Month"). The only thing missing from this reply is telling us about your "understated, yet fine" wrist watch (no doubt: Swiss), obscure Porsche car model, and high-fidelity surround sound system (with obligatory record player).
For anyone else curious, I Googled about the LAMY 2000 Fountain Pen. It has a retail price over 250 USD. You can buy excellent Japanese single-use pens for less than 1 USD.
And yet, you needed to come to the Internet and tell us all about them.Have you ever done some extended handwriting? What you do it with actually matters, that's literally what you hold in your hands and press onto the paper every single time; it's what determines your writing experience, especially with fountain pens. Lamy is not really a fancy brand; they just make good and sturdy fountain pens. Go for Lamy Safari, it's less than 10% of 2000's price
I'm pretty sure a $700 desk lamp is a statement.
This is a philosophical question that goes back millennia. It just comes down to what sparks joy for you, and how much do you value that.
I have an Eames lounger. It was absurdly expensive and doesn’t even have a recline lever. But, it sparks joy. I like how it looks, I find it comfortable.
When I was a student I went to a furniture store with a friend and I sat in this chair, not knowing who Eames was or the price tag, and I loved immediately. It felt like sitting in a cloud. When I saw the price tag I said if I ever make it I’m buying this chair.
I worked a long time to buy it and it represents a non tangible journey to me.
But I also feel like an ass, because it was absurdly expensive and a total luxury and people are going hungry every day. My mom would slap my head if she knew what I paid.
Oh my goodness! Who could ever pay that much for something they use every day!
Anyway, back to my folding chair, Vision Pro, and Mac Studio 512GB. ;)
Yeah it looks different.
I mean, you can say that about any luxury good right? It just looks nice and makes you feel good.
IKEA doesn't actually make any modular wall shelves like that anymore, after discontinuing the SVALNÄS. For a wall mounted shelf on a budget you could go for the Elfa system or the Fasttrack one.
Well precisely - shelves feels especially like a solved problem where basically the cheapest tat you can buy (IKEA) is totally fine and solid and long lasting. Need something more hardcore? Then you're probably not in the "shelves on my living room" context, but probably need something more suited for an industrial setting.
It was a genuine question about what makes these any better (...or not). Like do they have some amazing non-obvious feature? Something that no other shelf has? Something that IKEA shelves fail to do?
Of course it could be a performative thing (as I was suggesting) in the same way that someone pays $150 for a t-shirt because it has a logo on it and they want people to know. There is a sucker born every minute as they say.
A big downside of IKEA’s modular shelving is that they periodically release a new range and discontinue the old one. This happened to me with their ALGOT shelving system about 10 years ago. I bought mine not long before it was discontinued and replaced by BOAXEL which is not compatible.
That’s fine if you buy exactly what you want and need and know your needs will never change, but if you later want to expand, you’re out of luck. At best, you might get lucky and find parts of Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree, but you’re usually just stuck. (I’d kill for some more 200cm wall rails but I doubt I’ll ever find any.)
The 606 Vitsoe system is heinously overpriced but has the advantage of having been around for 50+ years and is so established you’ll likely always be able to buy more parts if you want to expand it.
But those don't even look good. Like, I thought it was some IKEA series that I didn't knew, just raw aluminum profiles + some uninteresting shelving
It's a bit snobby, both shelving and the desk.
Now when I checked his website in little bit more detail I get that feeling more and more. Looks like someone who brags about a lot of things he owns and cannot shut up about it.
I suspect it might be more like:
personally my setup is on iteration <n> of keyboard, mouse, desk, monitor, computer, wrist rest, etc etc etc etcDon't forget the $700 desk lamp.
That’s a rude and terrible thing to say about someone you don’t know. I guess hiding behind anonymity gives people courage.
How is it "rude" and "terrible" (dramatic much?) to infer a loose profile from someone based on what they willingly decide to share with the world? Maybe parent is wrong, but that's their perception of the author based on what they put out there.
I think there's an untapped market for really cool office furniture.
The shelving isn't that attention grabbing (looks like double-track wall shelving)
but the cabinet with drawers, that is cool.
I think we should have lots more office cabinets with drawers so things can be in plain sight. super-functional shallow metal ball-bearing drawers like tool chest drawers. I think it would be organized and productive.
Well, Fatih Arslan uses quite a lot more premium of the premium tools. I once stumbled on his website, on the topic of Fountain Pens (I think). I subscribed to his feed since. Leica for photography, 3D prints pretty interesting items, etc. He spends time and definitely have a taste and can afford some premium product for “ordinary use.”
I’m curious what the dimensions of the desk are for him to have space for a computer and reading space
The closest IKEA equivalent is the IVAR.
Between IVAR and now this 606, I actually don’t know any other non-garage-oriented “universal” shelving systems where you can like mix and match drawers, shelves, tables, etc.
I have IVAR in my office and it’s great.
To anyone hesitant on the price of the Vitsoe system I just have to say I’ve had mine for two years now and can confidently say that nothing else compares. It’s truly well made. Feels like it will be around much longer than I am, and still look the part.
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Yeah, the first thing I thought when I saw the photos: Damn, this guy is rich.
The Vitsoe shelving is the goal for my office, but the initial cost is just so high. I know it will last me the rest of my life, and I should just have bought it when I first wanted it 15 years ago.
The chairs in front of the desk might be a pair of Vitsoe 620 Chair Programme.
I mean if you like look of some raw profiles on the wall with plain white shelving, not sure why you want to pay extra for it
This is exactly what I was looking for in the original post. For those who think this is expensive but spend most of your waking hours at a desk, think of it as an investment in yourself.
2,000$ and the desk description has "laminate" in it?
This is $895 and is maple-topped: https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/H-1222-MAP/Industrial-P...
Much above that and you might as well get custom-made stuff.
Its just designer furniture, like any other Velben good.
A designer couch made entirely of foam can cost you 10k just because there is a name on it.
You're paying for the distinctive style and to show others your wealth or taste.
Are there compatible alternatives to this shelving without the price tag?
Home Depot vertical rails and shelves serve me just as well.
search Reglraum ON-WALL. Few options, recently purchased the wood one with black frame. It's great quality and a fraction of the price of Vitsœ
Perhaps buying it second hand
The product website says it's more expensive second hand.
Any twin slot shelving might be what you're after.
I can see the shelves, kind of, but seriously, $2000 for a simple table seems very hard to justify.
It "looks" amazing. But you know, the real hard work is always done by the rag-looking, worn-out dirty, dented, scratched, faded-out, weak tools and work-benches. Not the shiny or rugged ones. Just like some notebooks that were used a 1000 times, with corners rounded by usage, not by design.
I would love a table that has uneven solid wood surface, with cracks and scratchers, burn marks, broken corners, worn-out edges, ink-marks everywhere, shaped out by the usage, not by design.
> I would love a table that has uneven solid wood surface, with cracks and scratchers, burn marks, broken corners, worn-out edges, ink-marks everywhere, shaped out by the usage, not by design.
So buy a table and start using it.
It is possible to take care of your tools. My workbench looks used, but why would it have burn marks etc? I take care when I work. My office desk looks pristine because it's not a workbench.
What brand and model of ergonomic armchair does he use?
Very beautiful setup. I'm jealous of the space to do this. I like the idea of making the desk face out into the room, but my office is quite small, so it would end up floating in the middle of the room. Having it in the corner isn't quite as pleasing to the eye, but it makes it so the rest of the room feels larger.
There are bits in here that are a little bit over-designed in my opinion. Do you really need two fountain pens at the ready? Must they be there on the desk at all times? I find I carry my single fountain pen with me when I need it. I also can't see myself always sitting at the desk to read. I have books scattered about the house wherever I was reading last. Also, it's great to have such a wide desk for both digital and analog, but how many of us have the space for that luxury? Anyway, just food for thought if you look at something like this and feel jealous and think whatever space you work in today is now poorer for seeing someone else's nicer setup.
When I went remote for COVID I did something similar in terms of analog-digital separation, but at the level of my home, not my desk. All of my work-related gear never left my home office (even my laptop). When I leave my home office this allows me to "disconnect" mentally.
I ended up at the same conclusion as you guys but implemented in yet another way: my home office has a desk for digital work, and a 'study nook' for analog (mostly reading, but it has its own little desk as well).
If I had a larger home, a dedicated den or study room would be a pretty high priority for me. I want my office to be a minimalist, businesslike space with no distractions that focuses me on the screen where my work happens. But the study is a place for clearing my head, thinking and reading, more about comfort, dimmer lighting, familiar objects, and no screens unless I bring in a small e-reader.
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
Very aesthetic, the author must be a photographer, these photos could fit very well on r/malelivingspace.
He’s a software engineer with taste. I know taste is subjective but I happen to like he’s taste.
He is a software engineer with taste and the financial means.
Being a software engineer usually gives you enough money to afford a nice desk if you care about it.
But not enough to afford an office room with enough space that one can put their desk facing space.
Depending on your location, and preparation. My home office room (which also doubled as a workshop and light storage room) used to be 10' x 12', and I was able to sit with my back towards a wall, and my desk facing space. And it was in Brooklyn, NY, not an area known for cheapest sq.ft. It mostly depends on how you plan the room.
Ehh, I find it difficult to distinguish between "taste" and "money". The shelving alone is a "contact us for pricing" situation. Premium items coupled with a too-clean-to-be-used work environment and natural light can do a significant lift in the "taste" department.
It reminds me a little of set dressing in movies. Every sophisticated character owns a chemex, but they use a french press to make coffee onscreen. Harks back to the days of Notting Hill when we had to believe that Hugh Grant ran a failing second hand bookstore while living in a well-decorated house in central London. Do we think the author uses his Teenage Engineering pocket operators, or are they window dressing? Do we need Godel, Escher and Bach as the backdrop for a completely unrelated photo?
People can be multi-dimensional. I’m a sysadmin/developer, yet I played in a symphony orchestra, and still play bass, take photos and read world classics, sci-fi and occasional philosophical books.
Why can’t he make music, read music history or biographies, or do other things?
Do all “software engineers” need to interface with a computer 7/24, Matrix style?
Of course you can, I think the author has taste, is clearly interested in design and I enjoyed looking through the images to see what I recognized. I should say that it obviously looks good, for the same reasons that movie sets look good and why we hire set designers/dressers.
It's also fair game to critique these photos from an artistic perspective. Some are clearly intentionally staged and I argue that the messaging is a little clumsy. Sure, it's hard to avoid if you've filled your space with expensive design objects. Another comparison is cooking blogs where the photographers add visual clutter that looks good on instagram, but is impractical and unrelated to the food being cooked. The space itself is very nice, though you've got to be absolutely anal about keeping clutter down.
The amount of hate that people give you for having nice things is something that amazed me when I started experiencing it firsthand.
Prices are on the linked page, or in a full price list PDF it links to.
(Though the fetishisation of this shelving seems weird. Maybe as I grew up in the UK, but I associate it with every single public and office building. Every library, every office, every school. It's not what I'd choose for home.)
https://www.vitsoe.com/us/606/components
Vitsœ is now a British company, and their products are made in the UK as well.
It's great when you actually do want the flexibility. Not that you need anything ridiculously expensive, though. In a garage or workshop it's great because you can just put the brackets where you want and store long stuff like wood or pipes etc. But if you're just putting up shelves that you're never going to move it's less appealing. That said, I have used it in my study because I don't care how it looks and it's very strong.
A lot of what you pay for with these systems is them staying the same for decades at a time - a factory outfitted with shelving doesn't want to have to replace it all just because they're reconfiguring a part or adding on.
On the contrary, there's lots of expensive stuff that's horrifyingly terrible taste. There might be some connection, but they're separate
I know a person with a very good taste; his apartment is even emptier and cleaner than this. He's actually good at his job. Some people just find it actually comfortable. I'm not one of them, but these are real people, not posers.
There’s a chasm between them. I have seen people create great things with no money, and people who slaughtered spaces because they don’t have an eye for anything.
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
His Studio Display 3D printable model MacBook holder: https://arslan.io/macbook-holder-for-apple-studio-display/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbToLPgu0N8
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.
Yep, even more-so with a corner desk (L-shaped). Although there are times my work involves both papers and computer, and the quick swivel of a corner desk is great.
I want this. It's the reason why every time I shop for desks I look for workbenches. Desks are always TINY and I never understood why.
I agree. I recently bought a beast from IKEA: TROTTEN (160x80 cm). Crazy cheap and built like a tank.
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.
When I had five monitors, they each had a job. Front of me were two ultrawides on top of each other, the one directly in front of me was for 'the action' as it could handle "two screens" worth of info next to each other.
The ultra wide above was mainly dedicated to various chat programs (teams, telegram, iMessage, etc).
The laptop's screen to the left was my mail screen (both home and work).
To the right was a 4k on its side, for documentation reference or output work.
And above the laptop was a "scratch" monitor for whatever was needed (often a music player, etc).
You quickly get used to glancing at what you need and moving on; if something needs more attention it's easy to bring it front and center or turn your chair.
Power fluctuations took out the ultrawides and one of the 4ks so now I just have one supermegaultrawide with a 4k above it (still laptop for mail, "above" for chat, and main for main things).
This is why ultrawides are very comfortable, you can focus on the center region where 2x monitors likely have their edges meeting.
I repurposed a 43” 4K TV as a monitor. The thing I’m working on goes roughly in the middle, everything else is sprawled out wherever.
Which? I like this idea.
It is an older $299 Toshiba Fire TV that isn’t powerful enough to stream 4K content smoothly. Displays 4K@60Hz fine over HDMI fine.
Wouldn’t recommend it, but I already had it.
Ah. Got it. Thanks!
I do this too, and just put less-important stuff on the second monitor. Work chat, music, logs, whatever.
I have three monitors. The left and right are turned vertically. They're all 30". So the main screen is in the center and I keep slack/email/web browser with docs/info on the left and usually Twitch DJs or Spotify on the right. So usually I'm looking forward but I look left briefly throughout the day.
Why would your head always be turned to one side? Have one monitor in the middle (the main one) and secondary either left or right. Having split screen right in the middle of my field of view is ridiculously unpleasant
The proper setup is 3 monitors: [ stdout ][ stdin ][ stderr ]
I have a rotating chair (normal desk chair) and I rotate the whole chair to look at the other screen If I need to look at it for more than one second.
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)
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.
Extension cords exist.
They'll only get you so far
Yes, only... 25m? You must have a bigger room than I do :)
> And moving the chair from one side to the other is enough to change the context.
I think it would be better to have the analog side on the opposite side of the desk, so you wouldn't be able to peek at the screen so easily and get distracted.
but then he... he would face... tHe WaLl!
Nice article to show status signalling vanity and taste-based elitism. Adding a drop of "playing lego with kids" to show humane side was clever.
Yeah, I love this part too: https://arslan.io/2025/12/26/books-i-read-in-2025/
I thought: "Oh, I see, so you don't parent much."I too continue parenting my children once they are asleep.
He’s a software engineer with a passion for design.
Just skip it if it’s not for you.
I have a similar setup, but separate desks:
- A sitting desk for coding
- A standing desk for thinking and working on paper
There is something magical about standing while working on paper.
I’ve also found that this separation became more important to follow since the arrival of LLMs.
It's cheating, somewhat, to replace your desk with once that is as wide as two desks. I'm trying to figure out a way to do something similar with only one desk's worth of space.
My desk is only 48" wide (4 feet / 1.2 meters) and 30" deep (76 cm). This is enough space to have a massive mouse pad with a full sized keyboard and mouse on it with enough space to the right of it to comfortably sit and work with physical items. The desk also has a 32" 4k monitor and a 27" 1440p monitor, a rack sized audio processing unit, a USB audio interface and easy access to a drawing stylus. I don't even have monitor arms either to save space, they rest on stands. It's also deep enough where if I wanted more horizontal space I could move my keyboard and mouse forward and have plenty of room to sprawl out a few physical items.
Long story short, what kind of desk are you working with? I would consider my desk fairly small but it has lots of room for common things.
My desk is a tiny bit wider, my displays are smaller, and my keyboard and deskmat are smaller too. My monitor arms do take up a ton of space though and make it hard to temporarily increase my working area by pushing my keyboard back.
If I had the space I'd love to have a writing area as wide as OP's, which looks wider than either of our entire desks.
What is the lamp, the one that‘s like a paper globe?
That was everywhere in my childhood.
The one on the shelf is probably a Akari paper lantern. I have an orange one that I quite like. You used to be able to buy them from Design Within Reach or the MoMA Design Store, but I can't find them on their sites now but they're on the Noguchi site. [1] The hanging sphere one might be similar.
For those not aware of them, Design Within Reach has a lot of nice famous designed furniture and shelving, but pricey. They often have 15% off season sales though. Good place to shop if you're into the stuff seen in this blog post.
[1] https://shop.noguchi.org/collections/akari-light-sculptures
"Paper lantern" generally. Many inexpensive import shops carried them in the Before Times. Widely available now. They offer a soft ambient glow. Not ideal as a reading lamp (a bit too diffuse), but quite good for general room lighting.
<https://duckduckgo.com/?q=round+paper+lamp&iar=images&t=ftsa>
Not necessarily that specific lamp, but GULLSUDARE from IKEA is the same kind.
Japanese lantern
Tolomeo detected.
Michele De Lucchi & Giancarlo Fassina (1987)
in the 1980s we had the McDLT, a styrofoam container to keep the hot side of a hamburger hot, and the cold side cold. This desk kinda reminds me of that.
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.
The "standard" answer is to do basically what he did - cluster the monitors on a corner (either angled or straight).
The "classic" answer is an L-shaped desk, or a desk with credenza.
E.g., https://www.borofkasfurniture.com/desk-2/bbgavioffice2-p207/... or https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/H-9731/Office-Desks/Ind...
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.
It's not an issue if your office is so small that no one is hanging out in front of it. :)
My wife only comes in to get printouts and supplies if I'm working, and if she's working (we share the "battle station" by switching out whose laptop is connected to the dock) I basically only go in there to quickly chat and walk around to the other side.
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.
You just need a home cubicle.
If you do good cable management it looks good imo. I have a desk arm with monitors attached on their VESA mounts. All the monitor cabling is attached to the mounts and goes into the cable management tray under the desk with everything else.
I can’t sit with my legs down like this, I always need them on top of something, and my legs are like super long. :/
OK, I have something similar with an L-shaped desk, one "leg" is my monitor/keyboard/blabla and the other side is where I write, read, build models, do non-computer hobbies. OK.
I don't think people are too (d|n)umb to realize that it's a great setup, it just requires a fairly large room to pull it off.
Since this thread seems to have attracted the attention of some hackers with taste, has anybody considered an adjustable height desk? If so, what brands are you looking at? They all seem to compromise on the aesthetics on the desk and end up quite clunky.
My wife and I both have Fully desks, which are now part of the Herman Miller family (but weren't at the time we bought them). Not the cutest designs ever, but they've both held up well, and I think the bamboo/wood-ish desktop finish is nicer looking than similar models from other brands.
I've also seen a few places (including IKEA?) sell bring-your-own-top adjustable desks, where they provide the legs and motor and skeleton and then you add some kind of slab of your choosing as the desktop. Haven't tried one myself, though.
You can also buy the Fully legs/motor on their own and bring your own desktop.
I really disliked the bamboo desk fwiw and much prefer the thicker 1" laminate "wood" one. I wish I'd gotten the extended range legs, though.
I can recommend Vernal desks. I just bought a corner desk that's height adjustable and it feels like quality.
Of course they are not next to the wall, the acoustics are terrible! Also wall is good place to put storage in, having desk face it is generally a bit of a waste and only worth if there is not much space behind it to have it other way
I made a big U with desks for PC/music/electronics, I did actually prefer having the most used side (computer) next to the wall but aforementioned acoustics were absolutely ass so I moved it
This motivated me to clean my desk, and turn it around so I'm facing away from the glare and out towards the room (now with a glimpse of view outside instead of the wall). \o/
I think his before desk was better, just a clean surface with monitor and speakers, ready to start a new task fresh.
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.
He has an old picture of the desk against the wall. The new setup is the cluttered desk in center of the room. "Two-part desk" actually means a one-part desk, the source of your confusion probably.
He didn't add another desk. Did you read the linked article?
I'm not really convinced that this is a good solution. I have my own home office and I keep two separate desks. I have a modern motorized desk that can sit or stand. I also have a mid-century classic desk for "analog." And that's where I do all my real business planning. I use digital to-do app only for errands such as reminders to get milk and so on, so sometimes my actual projects get written into the digital world this way, which I do on my phone at the writter's desk. In this way, I'm not only much more distant from potential distractions, but also it's much more secure. Yes, people working at these companies can spy on you. Don't assume your digital notes are secure.
I put my desk facing the middle of the room in a previous place a few years ago. I really liked it. Unfortunately it does require more space, though, which I don't currently have. If I ever have more space again I'll definitely be doing it again. It feels so much cosier. I don't like having my back to the door.
This does not look like the work space of someone who does serious work.
[dead]
Will there be a follow-up when that Ikea tissue-paper lamp catches fire and burns his flat down?
I don't know how those things are legal, like building a computer case out of recycled newspaper clippings.
Those where everywhere in the late 80s, complete with 80W incandescent light bulbs. I'm not suggestion that it can't catch fire, but even if it did wouldn't the paper would burn so fast that not enough heat is generated to ignite anything else?
I'm not an engineer, but I learned that the full size Edison incandescent bulbs can't get hot enough to burn anything. And if anything breaches the bulb, the filament opens up instantly. Kind of an old fashioned failsafe design.
The tiny halogen lamps weren't that way, and there were reports of "torchiere" lamps causing fires, or at least smoke, when peoples draperies dangled into them, resulting in a ban IIRC.
Betcha there’s an LED in there creating less waste heat than the sunlight hitting it during the day.
Would you like to buy a fire insurance policy against the specific casualty of that lamp igniting from its light source and burning OP’s flat down? I’ll sell you one for a great price.
I don't know when's the last time you handled an Edison base LED bulb but they get really goddamn hot at the base where they cram all the improperly-cooled electronics into an area the size of a thumbnail.
You're literally arguing that rice paper is an acceptable material for electrical safety.
Frayed cord, damaged/defective socket, the list of potential ignition sources goes on but hey let's wrap it all in dry grass and kindling.
Looks like this is the product: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/gullsudare-pendant-lamp-shade-w...
They pair it with a 2.8W bulb: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/solhetta-led-bulb-e26-450-lumen...
Less than an ancient phone charger. OP’s flat will be fine.
2.8W when it's operating properly.
No one is lighting a room with a 2.8W LED (equivalent to a 25W incandescent). That is barely enough light for a focused desk lamp.
40W equivalent, if you read the link.
And in OP’s pictures, I totally believe that’s the bulb they’re using. Notice they have a desk lamp for up close work, and a freaking enormous window to let in sunlight. No need to flood the space with light with the hanging pendant thing.