I love (in theory at least) the concept of being able to work from literally anywhere, and the concept of some sort of smart display (glasses, lenses, etc) but having a physical keyboard to type out code is always a major barrier.
Something like this starts to edge towards that vision which is cool.
I wonder as well if there's a way to have some sort of bracelet (but probably something less comfortable) that can track the way your hands move, so you'd be able to just "type" normally with your hands (eventually with less actual movement and more intent I suppose) to make use of these wearable displays. No idea how feasible it is, but it feels like it is!
One day I'll be able to work whilst walking around in the forest... One day!
Why not just walk around in the Forrest? I mean, why do you feel it's desirable to shoehorn doing work into any and all type of human activity? GP has a good point: that sounds terribly dystopian.
I've got ~40 hours a week during which I have to work, and right now I have to spend them stuck in a chair.
Outside of that time, particularly on weekdays, I'm generally pretty busy with house and child care. That means that my time for just walking in the forest generally has to be crammed into the weekends. Usually on no more than one day per, since, on the weekends, even if I've got nothing else keeping me busy, I've still got to convince a couple other people who would much rather just play in the yard to come with me before I can go. And then, even if we have done that, I still can't really daydream much, since I've got to pay attention to and manage them.
Not so much the work time, though. A lot of it is spent sitting and thinking and reading and taking notes. The only thing about those tasks that's tying me to a place is the awkwardness of doing them while ambulatory, and that's really just an equipment problem. With the right tooling, that could happen anywhere. I wouldn't even need to sit or stand still to do it. Which means that I could perhaps get much more time walking in the forest than is otherwise possible. I could perhaps even make it a daily thing rather than a once-a-week-if-I'm-lucky thing.
This is exactly how I feel about it, thanks for clarifying!
I'm in a very similar situation, life is busy. Working at a computer doesn't feel like it should constrain me to a boring office, I could be in nature enjoying the fresh air, thinking about a problem and test out a solution right there.
When my dog was around, he'd have had the time of his life if my office was truly mobile!
Yeah. Also, when I'm doing thinking work, I'm definitely more productive when I'm on my feet and in the fresh air.
There's wisdom to the idea of not mixing business and pleasure, and maintaining work/life boundaries. But I don't think that the principle is meant to imply that a joyless working environment is the secret to a happy life.
Nothing is stopping you from walking around without work. But if one must work (and one must) - walking around in the forest is a nicer setting than sitting at a desk, at least for some subset of the work.
Zack freedman made a video [0] last year where he created a wearable glove that tracked hand movements to achieve something similar to what you describe. Seemed really cool, and I'm sure we will get something better than this in the not-too-distant future.
[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6raRftH9yxM
Zack is a good guy, I ran into him at a conference years ago, where I was wearing my own mobile setup with a HUD and a Twiddler and we hit it off b/c we were both trying to solve the same problems, however his design was way better!
I'm glad to see this iteration, as it looks like it is getting closer and closer to reality. He is definitely on the cutting edge of these things in terms of usability.
Definitely cool! I guess I'm just being impatient. I would definitely like to be an early adopter of this type of tech. I'm kinda sad the initial mainstream hype around wearables died down so quickly, but looks like I need to source out details specifically for more info. Thanks for sharing!
You should look up the Korean alphabet on 9 (?) keys. It's really cool that you can type anything in Korean using 6 or so keys.
It works because in Korean, characters are made up of base characters. So you can essentially build a character out of two other characters, and then a syllable out of three of those characters. Then words out of a match of syllables.
https://twiddler.tekgear.com - bluetooth chord keyboard that fits in one hand, look in their forums for a whole lot of different layouts to try, including ones designed for programmers.
It seems surprisingly hard to find a video of someone using that proficiently (I couldn’t find any videos on their website, and youtube was mostly just unboxing demos), though it sounds interesting to observe.
I love (in theory at least) the concept of being able to work from literally anywhere, and the concept of some sort of smart display (glasses, lenses, etc) but having a physical keyboard to type out code is always a major barrier.
Something like this starts to edge towards that vision which is cool.
I wonder as well if there's a way to have some sort of bracelet (but probably something less comfortable) that can track the way your hands move, so you'd be able to just "type" normally with your hands (eventually with less actual movement and more intent I suppose) to make use of these wearable displays. No idea how feasible it is, but it feels like it is!
One day I'll be able to work whilst walking around in the forest... One day!