Althouse: "How to set up your desk ergonomically."

May 17, 2019

"How to set up your desk ergonomically."

Don't worry, stand-up desk haters. There's nothing in there about that.

16 comments:

Francisco D said...: My cup of fountain pens is on the left.

What good is a plant when you have to reach for a pen?; 5/17/19, 12:57 PM
JackWayne said...: Even worse, it’s hating on left-handlers.; 5/17/19, 1:00 PM
readering said...: Thanks. Now I am going to get up.; 5/17/19, 1:04 PM
rhhardin said...: Morse code key is on the right (where the coffee cup was), so coffee is on the left now.; 5/17/19, 1:05 PM
rhhardin said...: See?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rhhardin/33992931478/sizes/o

Keyboard is tilted resting on an open center drawer, mouse on an Amazon free mouse pad resting on a copy of H.A.Rey's Stars A New Way To See Them slanted into a flyleaf drawer, and radio above that with paddles accessible from mouse pad.; 5/17/19, 1:14 PM
tcrosse said...: If you can see the top of your desk you're not doing your job.; 5/17/19, 1:26 PM
madAsHell said...: I once received an inter-office email stating that the "ergonomic lady will be here on Monday".

I responded "Aren't they all?".

It was just a contract job, and I was ready to leave!!; 5/17/19, 1:58 PM
bagoh20 said...: I'm the President of two companies with tens of millions in assets, sales, and even income, and I just got my first desk in 9 years. It's an exceptionally unimpressive used one from a casino/hotel in Las Vegas. Before this, I used two folding card tables as a desk - for 9 freaking years. I was busy, and I'm not gay.; 5/17/19, 2:14 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: Not sure if I am happy with his keyboard position. I got Tennis elbow a couple decades ago, and the PT had me bring my wrists up and fingers down - more like playing the piano. The one thing that you don’t want is to have your fingers above your wrists. He was showing fairly even, which is good. The bigger the angle of your wrists, the worse for them. Which is why so many keyboards have the capability of setting up the back, which accentuates this angle. I actually prefer keyboards that allow you to do the reverse, setting up the front of the keyboard instead. Both Microsoft and Logitech have keyboards available with this feature, plus a nice wide surface to rest your wrists on. These also tend to be their keyboards where the keys are split into two groups and angled. I like that feature too.

In PHX, my office has 4 monitors, arranged in a 2x2 matrix. Right and left pairs are angled together a bit. The lower pair are flat vertically, and the upper pair is angled down. Yes, that means that I have to crane my neck a bit for them, but they are fairly static, and dedicated to lower use activities. For patent work though, I prefer a three monitor setup with the outer two angled in, and the middle one being the biggest, with the best resolution. At one point, I was orienting the two outer monitors vertically, and not horizontally. That allowed me to see more at one time of the documents I was looking at. Three worked out well, because I could be referencing documents on each side, while working on one in the middle monitor.; 5/17/19, 2:30 PM
Fernandinande said...: If you can see the top of your desk you're not doing your job.

Desk and desk! What is "desk"?; 5/17/19, 3:12 PM
Fernandinande said...: My Dad was in the "Human Factors Society" back in the 1950s, or so, when they were designing various war-related interfaces between humans and hardware. I think the interest is genetic - why wouldn't it be? - since I've always been interested in computer GUIs and tend to rant and rave about all the crappy ones around nowadays, which is most of them.; 5/17/19, 3:21 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: If you can see the top of your desk you're not doing your job.

if you are staring up at the bottom of your desk, you're working too hard; 5/17/19, 3:21 PM
Anonymous said...: Why would anyone hate on standing desks, unless they're being forced against their will to use one? If you don't like it, don't buy one.; 5/17/19, 3:51 PM
Yancey Ward said...: I feel like George Costanza- every desk needs a hideaway so you can take a nap.; 5/17/19, 5:14 PM
madAsHell said...: I've always been interested in computer GUIs and tend to rant and rave about all the crappy ones

I wrote software, but always stayed away from user interfaces. I think you can imagine why!!; 5/17/19, 11:47 PM
Jamie said...: My desk is in my ridiculously large closet (the friend from whom I took the idea calls this a "cloffice"). But I just discovered that my chair is much too low. The other day, we unexpectedly had a "snow day" from school caused by very heavy rains and flooding, and I spent six hours working on a second draft of a book at the cloffice desk instead of where I usually work when I'm alone in the house. For two full days I couldn't turn my head, my neck and shoulders were so sore. Mostly I use the cloffice desk for wrapping presents...; 5/18/19, 8:00 AM