I'm seeing a lot of self-righteous "I need the second monitor for the sheer amount of data my programming requires I have immediate access to". Ok, but speaking as someone who spends a few dozen hours a week in computer labs with College CS students, the second monitor does seem to collect an awful lot of non-task oriented material in that population.
Why I Stopped Using Multiple Monitors
111–120 of 137 posts
Re: Why I Stopped Using Multiple Monitors
#112>> to display multiple things simultaneously? If my email or social media feeds are available at a glance, then I’ll check them constantly Just had no desire to read further, I started with the impression that there will be some strong arguments against multi monitor setup. May be for the author's needs a single monitor suffices, he earlier had a multi monitor setup, so he ended up using the excess which made him unp…
>>> to display multiple things simultaneously? If my email or social media feeds are available at a glance, then I’ll check them constantly Actually, what is this social-media-at-work thingy? Is this accepted in US? Elsewhere in Europe? Should it be?
Actually, what is this mobile-phone thingy?
Is it accepted in the US to check text messages immediately? Elsewhere in Europe? Should it be?
The OP just fails to abstract away from "social media" to "distractions pushed into your input feed".
Re: Why I Stopped Using Multiple Monitors
#113I can hardly imagine being productive on a single monitor anymore. After having three 19" monitors for a couple very productive years, I tried switching to two 27" monitors. It added up to more space, to be sure, but I spent way too much time managing windows. And then I took a job with a startup and bought a laptop since they wanted me to show up in the office on occasion, and working with one monitor was like drivi…
> After having three 19" monitors for a couple very productive years, I tried switching to two 27" monitors. It added up to more space, to be sure, but I spent way too much time managing windows
That seems bit odd (in this specific case); half of a 27" display should have almost exactly the same screen-estate as a 19" screen (1280x1440 vs 1280x1024), and even Windows can do half (and quarter) screen layouts easily these days. So I don't really see why windows managing with 2x27" would be worse than 3x19"
Re: Why I Stopped Using Multiple Monitors
#114I stopped using multi-monitor a few months ago, the advantages of just working from a single laptop started to outweigh the benefits of multi-monitors.
- the window-snapping is better on a smaller screen. Less fiddling to get the layout just right.
- the portability is great. Now I work from bed, couch, office, home, all in the same way.
Re: Why I Stopped Using Multiple Monitors
#115>> to display multiple things simultaneously? If my email or social media feeds are available at a glance, then I’ll check them constantly Just had no desire to read further, I started with the impression that there will be some strong arguments against multi monitor setup. May be for the author's needs a single monitor suffices, he earlier had a multi monitor setup, so he ended up using the excess which made him unp…
At work, I use a single monitor with Windows 10 to avoid a few bugs and annoyances, such as one monitor not returning when unlocking the desktop, or having to rearrange all my windows onto the multiple screens when docking the laptop, or sometimes just when returning from a break. To compensate for the lack of screen real-estate, I start by being an individual with great eyesight. (Thank you, LASIK from 2005.) I use…
I guess you'd have enjoyed SCWM[0], a window manager built with the cassowary[1] as a backend: Window layouts could be constrainted to get effects like "If I move my emacs-window to top-left, the xterm with the log output on top right moves to the left and hides behind it, same for the other xterm on bottom left, which will go up and hide behind emacs." Adding state based on whether you are using a single-monitor setup or a laptop with an attached 42-display wall would have been added as yet another set of contraints.
[0] http://scwm.mit.edu/ (does not respond at the moment)
Re: Why I Stopped Using Multiple Monitors
#116I have been using a 15" laptop for dev work for quite some years now. I have an external monitor next to it but most of the time it stays off, only using it to test things on large resolutions.
There are a few reasons for that:
1. It protects my eyes. I felt much more tired with 2 displays glaring at me all day.
2. Most of the time it's just useless information sitting idle on my second screen. I rarely need to work with 2 windows at the same time and when I do (fe. when coding while reading the docs) I can just fit them on one screen. Though I usually just switch tabs in order not to copy paste and try to understand what I'm reading first. I try to keep my mental load small, focus on what I am doing. I for one I'm not that good at multitasking (and after reading Thinking Fast and Slow I understand I'm not alone) so whatever is on that second screen will steal attention from what I'm focused on.
3. There is really not much "realtime" work I need to do so 1 min or 2 until I check my email/Skype is acceptable.
Anyone else doing the same?
Re: Why I Stopped Using Multiple Monitors
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
>>> to display multiple things simultaneously? If my email or social media feeds are available at a glance, then I’ll check them constantly Actually, what is this social-media-at-work thingy? Is this accepted in US? Elsewhere in Europe? Should it be?
Now you know why people are at work for so many hours in the US.
Europe too. I'm guilty of that myself; I always keep at least Messenger tab open (for communication with my SO) and I check HN frequently.
Let's be honest here: rare is a person who can do cognitively demanding work 8+ hours a day for longer stretches of time. Especially when that's a job, and not one's true life calling.
I also personally find it hard to completely ignore distractions just because of other people - it seems rude to tell them all to stop calling / mailing me during work hours, even though I try so hard.
Re: Why I Stopped Using Multiple Monitors
#118Perhaps if you have one of those huge 4K monitors, but I usually keep console on a laptop, and editor and browser on two external 24" monitors, and probably could use another one if only I had space for it on my desk.
Re: Why I Stopped Using Multiple Monitors
#119"Why Everyone Should Adopt My Personal Preference"
TBF, i see a LOT more people in the comments here saying "you should use multiple monitors" than not.
Re: Why I Stopped Using Multiple Monitors
#120On my Mac, I can 3 finger swipe to quickly switch between multiple virtual desktops. This takes less than a second and it doesn’t require me to turn my head and refocus my eyes on content in a different spot. This reveals something odd about me, or about the author. Not sure which. It seems obvious to me that it's less context-switch overhead to glance at something that's already physically in my peripheral vision th…
The truly monstrous users like myself use both systems: 3 monitors, with multiple virtual spaces on each. I can't have it any other way. The primary spaces on each monitor are a) IDE, b) Chrome, c) Terminal. The secondary space on monitor 1 is database tool, monitor 2 is Postman for API testing, monitor 3 is a split-screen of email and Slack.
A benefit of this system are that email and Slack are on a dedicated screen, but on a secondary space of a secondary monitor. The distraction of those communication tools is completely out of the way; I specifically switch to that screen when I am willing to switch out of "real work". Yet it's not complicated at all - a single 3-finger swipe to the left on monitor 3.