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My two-part desk setup (2025)

arslan.io

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Re: My two-part desk setup (2025)

#101

Post by fmajid »

Symbiote wrote: post #56
3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

Re: My two-part desk setup (2025)

#102

Post by nine_k »

sdevonoes wrote: post #100
nine_k wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Re: My two-part desk setup (2025)

#104

Post by senadir »

nixass wrote: post #76
porphyra wrote: post #24

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

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.

That’s a rude and terrible thing to say about someone you don’t know. I guess hiding behind anonymity gives people courage.

Re: My two-part desk setup (2025)

#105

Post by poly2it »

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.

Re: My two-part desk setup (2025)

#106

Post by cryzinger »

poly2it wrote: post #105

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.

Re: My two-part desk setup (2025)

#107

Post by fluxusars »

poly2it wrote: post #105

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.

I can recommend Vernal desks. I just bought a corner desk that's height adjustable and it feels like quality.

Re: My two-part desk setup (2025)

#108

Post by daishi424 »

bayindirh wrote: post #72
mattlondon wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 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 wha…

I couldn't resist reading this in Patrick Bateman's voice!

Re: My two-part desk setup (2025)

#109

Post by amelius »

> 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.

Re: My two-part desk setup (2025)

#110

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

tianqi wrote: post #13

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 i…

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.

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