Supine Computing (2019)

This reminds me of when I did something nasty to my back and could only lie down - instead of mounting my laptop I hooked it up to a projector I already had for films and pointed it at the ceiling. It required low light, but it was what I had available at the time and worked for the length of time it took for my back to get better.

However, I have to quibble with the "Healthy Hacking: DIY Supine Workstation" article linked to. That's a guaranteed way to make sure your muscles waste away, particularly if your aim is to "improve [the] ability to work for long hours." The human body is designed for movement, and static working is having a terrible impact, particularly on people who work on computers: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csz4bf

My back was a mess until I got a standing desk and started pilates. What I found interesting is that the standing desk made me move around quite a bit more - I end up doing lower-body yoga poses sometimes and I feel much better for it. I deliberately choose not to work long hours (I recognise I'm lucky in that respect, although I run my own company, so it's partially earned luck) but when I do need to, I can always bring my desk down and use a chair.

Classic meme in the Clojure world is "hammock driven development" popularized by Rich Hickey himself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f84n5oFoZBc

Love this!

Some notes from someone who has experimented with this for years - with zero gravity chairs, beds, floors...

- having your hands elevated above chest height sucks after a few minutes. The Altwork and Ergoquest workstations suck for that reason, and you _need_ a split keyboard if you don't want numb fingers.

- not moving sucks. I think I've hurt my neck and back (and throat) more by doing this than I'd like to admit

- for short periods of time, and when you can _actually_ relax (side projects etc.), working in this way is divine.

YMMV.

Side note - I discovered OP Andy Matuschak around 3 hours ago while pimping my Obsidian config, and have been the biggest fan of @msgsloan's vim Todoist plugin for years.