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Ask HN: What does your room look like?
34 points by revorad on Sept 7, 2008 | hide | past | favorite | 53 comments
I'm re-organising my room to make it most productive for my work (which includes some coding). A while back I saw a really interesting section on the Guardian website featuring pictures and descriptions of famous authors' rooms (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/series/writersrooms). So I thought it would be cool to find out what hackers rooms look like.

What does your room look like?




After a while of mess, I redesigned my working area. The KEY to the redesign is that no matter what I do, it becomes almost impossible to make it into a mess. I also made the default position of things very conducive to not making a mess, so after a little work at the beginning, there is no further work.

Step 1: Empty desk. No cups or paper holders or anything like that

Step 2: Digitalise what can be digitalised, and sort away all papers that are not directly relevant

Step 3: Get 2 baskets, one for unimportant papers, another for papers you have to order. When anything comes in that is not critical, drop them in the basket. Don't keep the basket on your desk, keep it away in your cupboard. We don't push paper that often.

Step 4: Sort the cables out. Tape them, put them away sensibly

Step 6: Get really good lights

Step 7: Get something to play with for when you are thinking. I personally use a 50 cm wooden ruler, and apart from my PC and a pen, that's the only thing on my desk. If I did not have it, I'd have chewed the pen dead by now.

When you work with a clean desk things feel a lot tidier. When you have stuff on the desk, only when they are extremly high priority. Having a neat desk will make you focus even better on the stuff that is important when it does come on your desk.

And if you have a desktop, consider moving it somewhere else. I keep mine in the closet and use it via network - that way I have some quiet.

So, my suggestion is to plan in a way that it gets difficult to get untidy.


I'd imagine chewing on a wooden ruler tastes kind of like chewing on a wooden pencil—yuck :P Bic pens are where it's at!


You don't chew with the ruler, you just hit things with it. A pen or pencil invites you to chew it because of it's shape. But a ruler is flat, it really is not a good feeling. Much better is either to spin the ruler or hit things...


I bought some Pilot G2 pens... they're too nice to chew on. It's the only way I could hope to stop chewing on things.


How does a pen invite you to chew it? I just spin it around in my fingers, it's much more relaxing.


I don't know how, maybe the pen manufacturers have some type of telepathic device in it that activates the chew part of my brain? And perhaps, by chance, you have powerful electromagnets in your office that prevent this brain-controlling circuit from getting activated?


Interesting note about the ruler. I've been curious about what other people have for playing with while thinking, actually. (I seem to have settled on dice, except they're a bit noisy, so I save them for my desk at home.)


I use a US "golden dollar" coin. You can see it in the picture there, on the notepad, next to the HP-48g. RPN is very soothing. :)

I used to use a German "5 mark" coin, but lost it in a move a few years back.


Very useful. I've tinkered with a Rubik's cube, a yo-yo, a paperclip, a piece of foam rubber...


My workstation. My wife calls it "the bridge".

Posted once before in the "screen shots" thread. Seems appropriate here as well.

http://www.jonandkarrie.com/images/P8087198.JPG


Before: http://fuzzyshot.com/dkokelley/post/zpeM5KGvvn/photo/6PnHjhM...

After: http://fuzzyshot.com/dkokelley/post/HQsw5xt2yd/photo/1ZSu6IQ...

And the desk: http://fuzzyshot.com/dkokelley/post/vDo6FGezfF/photo/TRLWCje...

It's a little private (it's my room), but I figure it would be neat to share here. Having things organized helps me to think, and my room was not organized (but now it is).

Some background info: I live at home while I'm going to school. My brother just moved out (we shared that room, and the desk was where his computer used to go), so I now have 'ownership' over that room, meaning I can't expect anyone else to mess up or clean the room but myself, so I'd better make sure it's clean.

Finally: The mess on the top of the bed is stuff that belongs to my brother, so I can't really clean it up. He'll get it later. Also, there's a closet to the right that isn't as clean as the rest of the room. I just shut the doors when I want to think.


Nice work.


A mess.

And after every time I have a serious go at cleaning up, it seems to devolve into something messier...


Dude, second law of thermodynamics at work. Its not your fault that the disorderliness of the closed system tends to a maximum.


You definitely don't want to see my room; it looks like a dirty clothes store threw up in there. However, here is a gallery of "TicketStumbler HQ" aka our apartment:

http://gallery.me.com/binjured#100016&view=grid&bgco...

The station with 4 screens is Dan's; the silver one is actually a TV so he can watch Foosball and other dumb sports. The one with the two mounted screens is mine; basically everything you see there I highly, highly recommend to all hackers.

We have two whiteboards that have been invaluable (go to Home Depot and have them cut some board for you, it's super cheap!). I recently got a desk upgrade, thank god, and actually have some empty space on it now... mmmmm, empty space!

The couch is for laptop-based hacking while watching pretty HD TV and movies. Photos care of my grainy iPhone camera, sorry :(


http://files.dangrover.com/markerdesk.jpg


I like the sketchpad on the writing surface. Do you find it more effective than pen & paper or a whiteboard? How do you deal with the mess (assuming it's based on dry erase markers)?


It's not particularly more effective, but much more fun.

I usually use markers that have erasers on the end.


i need to get me a timer too..

edit: my phone can do this


i have a timer too


http://www.justin.tv/officecam

The white couch towards the top-left corner is my workspace - I don't like desks.


Heh I'm the same. Most productive on a comfy sofa with a laptop. Or if I'm concentrating, sometimes on the floor :)


I've always worked on the floor - I think it's regressing to childhood where I did homework on the floor in front of the TV. Good to see at least one person is similar.


"... the whole point of it as far as Roald was concerned was that it was private, a sanctuary where he could work where no one interrupted him ..."

I've long been interested in Dahl and his work area.

He did his writing in a shed in the back yard of his house, Gypsy House ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/2837817746/ The description of the setup is fascinating. The shed contained an old chair. His feet would rest on a his an old suitcase his mother had discarded. On his lap would be a large board that he would sit over his lap. Within his reach would be half a dozen sharpened pencils and some writing pads. This is all he needed to write. You can see some images of the setup here ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/2837817764/ here ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/2837817762/ As for my work area isn't a patch on Dahls. An overview you can view here ~ http://flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/1131207/

Programming is much like writing. You need the solitary (confinement) to get into the flow. You can learn a thing or two emulating past masters. Dahl recongnised that to write you need the discipline of regular practice in an environment free from distraction.


Right now?

Have a three point desk, all have some crap on them, the main one has the monitor and keyboard, also a water bottle and a bottle of ginger ale. The connecting piece has a laptop and empty water bottles(I drink it religiously ever since I passed my first kidney stone). The main piece has mostly crap like empty CDs, digital camera, phone, some documents, a few books, and the speakers and the computer.

To the right of that I have a drawer with a lamp, phone charger, and more documents.

To the right of that I have an unmade bed and a fan aimed downward.

The other half of the room has the FAX/Printer/Copier on the left side. A cabinet with a bunch of books, and to the right side of that a hamper and the closet. Also have an unhooked fridge from my college days which I always put off hooking up.

On the messiness scale, I'd say its a 7...meaning its a mess, but I can clean it up in about 10 minutes if I have to.


Mine looks like <a href="http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2008/06/21/new-workspace/">this</a>. The important thing is the cleanliness of the desk: just a computer and a backup hard drive I can't see when I'm typing. The books were ones I was using when the picture was taken.

Mostly, the desk doesn't have a lot of visual distractions. It's there chiefly for thinking, and I think a clean space helps thinking. The only major features are books, and those 1) put me in the thinking mood and 2) are occasionally consulted. Other posters have commented on the value of a plaything; I often have a squeeze ball to relieve stress and keep my arm from cramping, as well as a fountain pen, but otherwise it's clear.


It's completely full of junk and I sit in the living room with my laptop in my easy chair. Except today, as I'm on the BlackBerry sitting outside by the garden with the dog in the sun. :)

Actually, my room is fairly full of electronics stuff: oscilloscopes, computer hardware, small electronics tools. I'm too ashamed of the mess to show it, as I haven't cracked the organization aspect yet. Insofar as I have, I'd say small organizers for binnable items (LEDs, resistors, little rubber feet), and pegboard for cable management under the desk, and horizontal surfaces (layered when possible) seem to be key to making it work. I would say having a place for everything is 90% of it and keeping everything in said place is 10%.


After 4ish years of college (still in college), I finally got my own place. My productivity has shot through the roof now that I don't have roommates looking for a Mario Kart Wii companion.

http://flickr.com/photos/pauls/sets/72157605398490674/

That's when I was moving in, I have a more civilized setup now:

http://paulstamatiou.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/pstam_ap... http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3164/2831665151_83a0df503d.jp...


> http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3164/2831665151_83a0df503d.jp...

I love the tidy motif. If you're the kind of person to do basic electrical hacking it's trivial to modify that ikea lamp (top left corner) to run the power cord all the way to the bottom inside the frame tube. If you cut the wire at the switch, and disassemble it at the break above the wire hole, you can snake the cord end through the base of the lamp up to the top of the stem and repair the wire cleanly so it fits in the tube.

I did it to a pair of mine and was quite pleased with the results. Unfortunately I didn't bring the lamp with me when I moved across the country, so I can't show you pictures of what I did.


Unless you live in a condo with concrete floors and thin wooden floors which would make that quite difficult.

How did you snake it through the floor? Or are you suggesting to make a small hole directly behind the lamp in the wall?


Good question, sorry I wasn't clearer. I opted to leave the cord exposed across the floor from the wall plate to the lamp, since the plate was close to where I wanted the lamp anyway. I was also on a carpeted floor, so where there was any horizontal run I believe I was able to stuff the cord between the carpet and the wood trim -- somewhat unsightly but the best I was willing to do in my rented space.


Very nice place...

But gotta ask, what's with the all the separate pieces of paper on the table? I assume it's a game of some sort, considering the amount of different beverage glasses... can't figure out what game.

Cheers


oh yeah.. um, we didn't have a deck of cards and my friends were very intent on playing Kings/Circle of Death, so they cut 52 slips of paper and wrote out their own deck of cards.


Quite close to the perfect bachelor pad. Good work.


Is that an Apple wireless keyboard or something else?


http://www.morleyfield.com/course/bench.jpg


I hop around town a bit for different parts of work.

Newsreading is at home, a desk in a very small efficiency.

Writing (academic) is at on or two coffee shops downtown.

Research is at the CS dept, a desk with my sun box, 2 monitors, keyboard, space for the laptop, small bookshelf, two drawers and a hanging file folder.

Different work at different locations. Keeps life a little interesting, and it makes each location force different habits. Helps me context switch easier.


I basically have dishes and soda bottles all around me. Thats why there's tomato sauce on my keyboard. But my room is pretty clean, no junk on the floor, just some dishes at my desk and some clothes on my bed. I like my floor to be clean and i like to have a lot of open space in my room, so all my stuff is close to the walls, so i can do some walking in my room or some push-ups or something other than siting at my desk. I also have some nice relaxing calendars with girls on them, i find having girls on your wallpaper to be distracting, but no problem having them on you real wall. The main problem with my room is heat, its an east room, so the first 6 hours of the day its constantly heated up by the sun, and the concrete is hot enough to heat the room in the afternoon and the early night. Next summer i an getting a new air conditioner!


http://twitpic.com/ao6r


Den: http://s3.amazonaws.com/2008/office.jpg Notice the hard wood floor I built on top of the carpet so the chair's casters would glide smoothly. Cost me $50 in wood and an hour's time but it beats those plastic mats you get at office supply stores which inevitably fail on thick carpet. The photo was for a recent craigslist ad to sell the display and MP. Hence why the MP is on the desk instead of the floor. And why the display shows stock Leopard, and why the keyboard and mouse are stock and why it appears I'm using that goofy keyboard tray. At one point, I had the MP in the right side compartment but when I closed the door the fans blared and I realized there was no ventilation - so I nixed that soundproofing hack. I prefer the mobility of a laptop now but miss the extra productivity of the desk setup, particularly when coupled with a Logitech MX Revolution mouse (not pictured, highly recommended).


wait.. you have the subwoofer on top of a glass shelf? that cant sound good. subs are supposed to be on the floor


True, in an ideal environment the floor is best. But someone lives in the apartment below. I imagine they appreciate my imperfect but - at normal volumes - acoustically sound hack of incorporating rubber stabilizers in the subwoofer base and glass shelving.


Sorry to come so late to the party, but I just got around to cleaning my desk. Here it is:

http://modos.org/desk.png

It's nothing special, but I like it. It's two pieces of plywood glued together and suspended around the perimeter. I prefer the feel of real wood to that fake stuff in low-end desks.


A couple of years ago, my setup looked like this. Since I've moved to LCD screens and a little nicer setup, but no picture as of yet.

http://badcheese.com/~steve/gallery/albums/userpics/10003/no...


http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/830/820/1024/IMG_0381.jpg

That's a bit outdated, but it gets the idea across. Though, currently the desk is covered in mail which needs to be sorted and filed.


I don't have a camera, but I can tell you what it looks like.

I don't have a "room". I have a futon in a shared office room in the house I live in, some homemade bookshelves (read wood, eyelet screws and twine), and a laptop. In this same room there is also a silkscreening station.


My desk looks like this:

http://disk.jrock.us/bingo/public/random/desk.jpg

Basically monitor + model m + tea == happiness.


Clean desk. neat bed, organized room enough for desktop, server and laptop. Creative posters. Fans for cooling.


it has a huge glass window, all furnitures close to the walls, and theres a big free space in the middle... its good for walking in, you don't need to go around any obstacles... the bed is like a sofa, non perpendicular to the wall...


http://twitpic.com/5rom


i have a leafless bookshelf which is placed next to a bed

that way i no longer need chair+table (i sit on the bed and readjust the shelf's height to put my laptop on)


http://www.google.com/search?q=leafless+bookshelf

You're number 1!


Very messy. I really should clean it up.




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