Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The tyranny of chairs: why we need better design

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 167 posts

Re: The tyranny of chairs: why we need better design

#91

Post by renewiltord »

yodsanklai wrote: post #83
renewiltord wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is literally the opposite of a controversial opinion. It's just the magic solution in a different shape. Most things in life aren't some sort of instant solution. If you run you won't live to be a hundred. If you smoke you won't get lung cancer. What these actions do is shift your probability distribution in certain ways. Running frequently improves your overall life-expectancy, smoking increases your risk of lu…

I know lifting weight is a big thing in the US, but not so much in my part of the world. Sometimes my impression is that many guys primarily want big muscles and conveniently convince themselves it is the way to go to be in good health. Not saying it's not but because it looks unnatural and isn't functional (I mean, have homo sapiens ever needed that kind of muscles?), I'm just wondering if it's really that healthy.…

The problem with asking a question like that is that you're going to get links to individual papers, but that's not a reasonable way to study science. You need the aggregate.

So, if you're wondering about whether lifting is good for your health, you should first identify what outcomes you're aiming for and then look for yourself what interventions increase the likelihood of those outcomes. I cannot provide specifically the information you desire in an economical way¹.

But it's unfair to just leave you with nothing, so here's a starting point in your research (apart from the Wikipedia article on Weight Training²): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2453303/

¹ For instance, maybe you don't care to be able to run some arbitrary distance. Maybe it isn't important to you to be able to cliff dive. Maybe it isn't important to you to live to 80. Maybe you consider being muscular to be of negative utility on its own. The state space is too large for me to capture here.

² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weight_training#Health_benefit...

Re: The tyranny of chairs: why we need better design

#92

Post by lightgreen »

Theodores wrote: post #38

Chairs need a failsafe mode. This is what I call better design. Recently my father sat on a chair that collapsed underneath him. It was a seemingly okay teak garden chair that had been recently in service and offered up to important guests. So in that way it was good that it was him rather than his brother in law or elderly neighbour that received a bruised elbow. This got me thinking about the safety of chairs. This…

Realistically, how many people get injured from collapsed chairs? I think less than from fire or drowned or something.

Just buy not the cheapest chair, and you will be safe.

Re: The tyranny of chairs: why we need better design

#93

Post by lightgreen »

throwawaysea wrote: post #9

Perhaps we need to design for a furniture-less world, where we sit and stand as we did for most of our evolution.

We just need neuralink with text input and output to the visual cortex so we could do our work literally anywhere: on the bus, lying on a bed, taking a shower.

Re: The tyranny of chairs: why we need better design

#94

Post by grugagag »

adamnemecek wrote: post #89
grugagag wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not comfortable but I don't think that's the worst chair especially if you pay attention how you sit in it. The worst chair is the cheap office chair that is often misaligned, wobbly and encouraging you to rest your back in a wrong way. And the free rotating swivel makes sure you are you really have a bad posture and not being able to sit properly. I relearned to sit down and now prefer a rigid surface and most…

You shouldn't have to pay attention to how you sit in it. there is literally only one position to sit in.

You should absolutely pay attention to how you sit if you’ve learned to it wrong. Once the proper habit is built you no longer have to pay attention, just check yourself once in a while so you don’t slowly go back to the old habits. I unlearned and relearned sitting habits in my 30s after having back pain. Now in my 40s im doing much better than in my my 20s. Once in a while I catch myself in a bad sitting posture but it seems to be getting better and better.

Re: The tyranny of chairs: why we need better design

#95

Post by tern »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #3

We would do better for ourselves to get rid of chairs entirely and sit on the floor. Getting down and up from the floor is a natural human movement that would keep us all fitter into old age.

I have some experience with zen monasteries in the West. It's generally considered very unlikely that you'll be able to sit for over an our on the ground without significant pain arising unless you're unusually flexible or grew up sitting like this. Forcing yourself to sit for long hours can be good for your practice, but it can also lead to injury.

Re: The tyranny of chairs: why we need better design

#96

Post by temptemptemp111 »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #48
mattlondon wrote: post #16

Just out of curiosity, am I the only one that seems to be happy to just sit on a dining chair when at my desk? When the WFH wave hit, people seemed to be going mad buying webcams and office chairs. Loads of people I work with spent a lot of energy researching and discussing chairs etc. I have a sit-stand desk and I stand for perhaps 2 to 3 hours any working day. But the rest of the time I just sit on a normal old woo…

>I do run 2 to 4 times a week so I do wonder if that helps avoid problems? I think there are a lot of stressed and unconditioned office workers who want some magical device to solve everything. Vertical mice, split vertical keyboards, expensive chairs. None of it replaces exercise. Might be a controversial opinion.

Ya, I'm all for great equipment. But one cannot deny the attitude & behavior: they want to abuse their bodies and not pay the price.

Re: The tyranny of chairs: why we need better design

#97

Post by Aeolun »

encom wrote: post #64
colmvp wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found my Aeron chair triggered my lower back pain. Since then I’ve moved to mostly using a standing mat and standing up as well as strengthening my core. I might try sitting on my Aeron chair after a few months of core strengthening

>lower back pain How low? I've had a terrible pain in my tailbone going on a few months now. I finally relented and got one of those donut shaped memory foam pillows. 40€ for a block of foam with a hole in it is criminal, but after using it for a week now, I must admit it does help a lot.

I had pain in my tailbone like this for 1.5 years (including donut cushion and all) before a doc ordered a CT and found I had a hemmorhoidal cyst.

Not sure if that’s already been excluded, but my life has been a lot happier since they removed it :P

Re: The tyranny of chairs: why we need better design

#98

Post by m463 »

scrooched_moose wrote: post #54

If anyone is looking for a better chair, we found this was a great time to pick up Herman Miller Aerons off of craigslist. There's a steady stream of small-to-medium offices in our area closing, and they're all liquidating office furniture. We picked up 2 for $500. They're a massive improvement over my $80 chair that was fine for a few hours a week pre-WFH, and my back is feeling much better.

I had an aeron for years. Great chair.

I bought a used aeron for home ~ $250 and I noticed it had some play in the column and sunk a bit.. $50 to amazon and I replaced it. Now it's a year or so later and I'm suspecting that the web mesh could use a refresh (the pan assembly is ~ $220)

Re: The tyranny of chairs: why we need better design

#99

Post by m463 »

colmvp wrote: post #60
scrooched_moose wrote: post #54

If anyone is looking for a better chair, we found this was a great time to pick up Herman Miller Aerons off of craigslist. There's a steady stream of small-to-medium offices in our area closing, and they're all liquidating office furniture. We picked up 2 for $500. They're a massive improvement over my $80 chair that was fine for a few hours a week pre-WFH, and my back is feeling much better.

I found my Aeron chair triggered my lower back pain. Since then I’ve moved to mostly using a standing mat and standing up as well as strengthening my core. I might try sitting on my Aeron chair after a few months of core strengthening

You might want to play with your recline angle

Re: The tyranny of chairs: why we need better design

#100

Post by blunte »

akudha wrote: post #31
blunte wrote: post #12

At age 35, otherwise healthy and having spent 10 years in Herman Miller Aeron chairs, I had hip problems and a small but growing waistline. Then I transitioned to working from home and built my own standing desk (sadly before the very affordable mechanical Ikea standing desk was first released... But which I have now happily used for years). The first few weeks were challenging, but within three months I could stand…

Could you please link to the standing desk you are using?

Skarsta ($239 with mechanical crank): https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/skarsta-desk-sit-stand-white-s5...

It is well designed, sturdy, and meets both my sitting and standing needs. It does take about 70 cranks to move from one position to the other, but honestly that takes just one minute or so (and I rarely move it anyway).

Post reply on HN