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Posted by James72689 2 days ago

My two-part desk setup(arslan.io)
103 points | 58 comments
tianqi 1 hour ago|
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 in front of you.
poplarsol 41 minutes ago||
It's to stop the eunuchs from murdering you.
nozzlegear 38 minutes ago||
What about having a window on the wall you're facing, so you can look out it?
tianqi 28 minutes ago||
This principle emphasizes that there should be no space behind you. It has nothing to do with the wall or window in front of you. Those are just examples I used to explain according to the original post.

If you're concerned about the window's position, ancient Feng Shui advised the window should be located to your side, specifically on the side of the hand you don't use for writing. I think their reasoning was: this way, your head and the hand you use for writing won't cast shadows on the area where you're writing.

porphyra 48 minutes ago||
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

enahs-sf 9 minutes ago||
This is exactly what I was looking for in the original post. For those who think this is expensive but spend most of your waking hours at a desk, think of it as an investment in yourself.
normie3000 17 minutes ago|||
Are there compatible alternatives to this shelving without the price tag?
globular-toast 10 minutes ago|||
Any twin slot shelving might be what you're after.
Symbiote 13 minutes ago|||
Perhaps buying it second hand
normie3000 8 minutes ago||
The product website says it's more expensive second hand.
mrweasel 42 minutes ago||
The Vitsoe shelving is the goal for my office, but the initial cost is just so high. I know it will last me the rest of my life, and I should just have bought it when I first wanted it 15 years ago.

The chairs in front of the desk might be a pair of Vitsoe 620 Chair Programme.

zkmon 20 minutes ago||
It "looks" amazing. But you know, the real hard work is always done by the rag-looking, worn-out dirty, dented, scratched, faded-out, weak tools and work-benches. Not the shiny or rugged ones. Just like some notebooks that were used a 1000 times, with corners rounded by usage, not by design.

I would love a table that has uneven solid wood surface, with cracks and scratchers, burn marks, broken corners, worn-out edges, ink-marks everywhere, shaped out by the usage, not by design.

normie3000 6 minutes ago|
> I would love a table that has uneven solid wood surface, with cracks and scratchers, burn marks, broken corners, worn-out edges, ink-marks everywhere, shaped out by the usage, not by design.

So buy a table and start using it.

satvikpendem 51 minutes ago||
Very aesthetic, the author must be a photographer, these photos could fit very well on r/malelivingspace.
lifty 47 minutes ago|
He’s a software engineer with taste. I know taste is subjective but I happen to like he’s taste.
RyeCombinator 15 minutes ago|||
He is a software engineer with taste and the financial means.
3eb7988a1663 35 minutes ago|||
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.
Symbiote 6 minutes ago|||
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

yjftsjthsd-h 26 minutes ago|||
On the contrary, there's lots of expensive stuff that's horrifyingly terrible taste. There might be some connection, but they're separate
biddit 18 minutes ago||
I have a similar setup, but separate desks:

- A sitting desk for coding

- A standing desk for thinking and working on paper

There is something magical about standing while working on paper.

I’ve also found that this separation became more important to follow since the arrival of LLMs.

baliex 1 hour ago||
Having just moved house, this is fantastic inspiration.

To be fair, the huge window by the desk in the article makes it a naturally more appealing space than my own. But it’s enough to make me rethink the layout we have here so far. Especially since we want space for non digital projects too.

Upas 1 hour ago|
I also just moved to a new house, and am very happy this showed up. I'm trying to do a complete furniture refresh for my office, declutter, and reorganize.

I'm lucky enough that there is a large window in the room, and I also only use one monitor. While I think my room is not as large as his, I can still make it work.

The one thing that was stopping me was cable management - but with clever furniture placement, I think the cables can mostly be hidden.

The non digital side makes total sense and I would love to mimic this

porknubbins 1 hour ago||
I do the same thing but with two physical desks, not just partitioning one desk into two logical desks.

Aside from the obvious advantage of more space it really helps put your mind in a different context when you are at a different location. In his example just moving over slightly would do nothing for me with the computer just arms length away and still in full view.

Tempest1981 25 minutes ago|
Yep, even more-so with a corner desk (L-shaped). Although there are times my work involves both papers and computer, and the quick swivel of a corner desk is great.
dleeftink 58 minutes ago||
I saved my desk from curb side collection. My chair idem. My laptop battery died two years ago so my desk cannot be too far away from a wall socket.

Maybe one day I could face my desk away from a wall.

dredmorbius 35 minutes ago|
Extension cords exist.
a1o 23 minutes ago||
I can’t sit with my legs down like this, I always need them on top of something, and my legs are like super long. :/
platinumrad 32 minutes ago|
It's cheating, somewhat, to replace your desk with once that is as wide as two desks. I'm trying to figure out a way to do something similar with only one desk's worth of space.
nickjj 13 minutes ago|
My desk is only 48" wide (4 feet / 1.2 meters) and 30" deep (76 cm). This is enough space to have a massive mouse pad with a full sized keyboard and mouse on it with enough space to the right of it to comfortably sit and work with physical items. The desk also has a 32" 4k monitor and a 27" 1440p monitor, a rack sized audio processing unit, a USB audio interface and easy access to a drawing stylus. I don't even have monitor arms either to save space, they rest on stands. It's also deep enough where if I wanted more horizontal space I could move my keyboard and mouse forward and have plenty of room to sprawl out a few physical items.

Long story short, what kind of desk are you working with? I would consider my desk fairly small but it has lots of room for common things.

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