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How we chose and furnished an office the Y Combinator way

blog.cloudant.com

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Re: How we chose and furnished an office the Y Combinator way

#5
> We decided to build instead of buy

Meaning they decided to procrastinate instead of working on their product/service.

> we instead chose to purchase solid core doors from Home Depot (~$40 each)

Meaning they instead chose to spend more on something that wasn't designed to be a desk than an actual desk.

From [1]:

Ergonomically, door desks leave a lot to be desired. Keyboards were usually too high. Typing for hours could be uncomfortable. And those angle brackets have sharp edges; accidentally scrapping exposed flesh against those was a mistake that wouldn't be repeated.

[1] - http://glinden.blogspot.co.uk/2006/01/early-amazon-door-desk...

Re: How we chose and furnished an office the Y Combinator way

#7
Typically when I see door desks, the whole point is to be as cheap and as quick as possible (ie take a big, flat door and throw it on some cinder blocks or makeshift legs). In this case, it seems like those in charge of furnishing the office were more hung up on the novelty of a door desk than any possible cost savings, so they spent way too much time doing things like staining and varnishing, etc. when they could've just bought proper looking desks in the first place.

Re: How we chose and furnished an office the Y Combinator way

#9
Well done! Wood is an amazing material. Don't not mind these comments about investing your time better. You did it right. A solid and comfortable environment is essential for a good product. Maybe good ideas were created at starbucks, but certainly not good products.

Re: How we chose and furnished an office the Y Combinator way

#10

Seriously? Put most tables facing the wall? Who wants to look at a wall and have no screen privacy?

Their at work, they're suppose to be looking at their screen not out the window.

Their at work, they're suppose to be working on their work not watching netflix.

I think its a nice setup. My only concern would be my laptop overheating on those wooden desks.

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