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My two-part desk setup (2025)

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Re: My two-part desk setup (2025)

#81

Post by bayindirh »

throwaway219450 wrote: post #71
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.

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? D…

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?

Re: My two-part desk setup (2025)

#83

Post by allenu »

Tomte wrote: post #10

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

Re: My two-part desk setup (2025)

#84

Post by mattlondon »

porphyra wrote: post #74
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 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.

Re: My two-part desk setup (2025)

#86

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: My two-part desk setup (2025)

#87

Post by nine_k »

RyeCombinator wrote: post #49
lifty wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Re: My two-part desk setup (2025)

#88

Post by PunchyHamster »

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

Re: My two-part desk setup (2025)

#89

Post by PunchyHamster »

nozzlegear wrote: post #34
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…

What about having a window on the wall you're facing, so you can look out it?

I like it to the side more, if it is in front you'd have to look from above monitors to see it.

Re: My two-part desk setup (2025)

#90

Post by throwaway219450 »

bayindirh wrote: post #81
throwaway219450 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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? D…

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.

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