Two Screens
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I’ll take one decent sized (27” for me) 4K screen over two. Completely solved all problems.
Productivity? I can only focus on one thing at a time. Managing windows and which screens they are on is an overhead I don’t need to deal with.
When the pandemic started I left a couple of my monitors at the cowork space where I had my desk, and had to do with what I had at home (one 1920 x 1080 and another at 1366 x whatever).
I had another monitor lying around, and eventually I plugged it into my box as well.
As I didn't have a way to keep the monitor in a decent position... I put it as a "console" window, almost on level to the keyboard and right in the space between it and the larger monitor I had.
Eventually I went to pick my stuff from the cowork, so now I have 3 HD monitors arranged in portrait mode side by side; and I still crave for the "console" window.
Although I do reckon I wouldn't mind having a 4K monitor, but the price of those in my country are prohibitive (To the tune of +400 USD last time I checked).
Also I'm looking forward to the point that I can buy a decent VR headset, and then I think I'll be at a point of no return.
I'd love to have 2 or 3, but alas I don't think my MacBook is powerful enough to handle it (even aside from the expense)
I find that having different things live on different monitors (and virtual desktops on those monitors) helps me focus on things more easily. E-mail/calendar/Jira is on my side monitor, whereas my main one is filled only with my editor and terminal. It helps because I can _avoid thinking about_ things that aren't on my main screen, until such time as I need a break and deliberately shift focus.
Maybe it's my slightly lowered perception threshold, but having a screen in my peripheral vision where e.g. new emails could be seen wouldn't be useful: I'd still see that a new email has arrived and would still need to decide whether I want to look at it now or whether that can/has to wait. And that's only a small step away from having a popup notification on my main screen about a new email.
The multi-screen trend is now pursuing its mainstreamification to every offices and home desktops. But at the same time Earth is sending us warnings: we need to slow down. Given the state of our knowledge on that matter, I am surprised that the general consensus on YN is not to have less screens and reserve the resources to better usage.
I have two 28" 4K external monitors, and both are completel covered in multiple windows for the one thing I am working on right now (well, would be if I wasn't posting this).
It really depends on what your workflow is like and what constitutes a "thing".
Are they windows you need to look at at the same time?
I get these when I have monitors unbalanced off to one side and have my head constantly turned in that direction. On the other hand I've had 5-wide monitor setups and been fine, because they were properly balanced.
> Managing windows and which screens they are on is an overhead I don’t need to deal with.
Conversely, constantly managing which windows are on top and visible is overhead I don't need to deal with. I use a quad 4k 29" monitor setups at minimum these days, and bought the extra monitors for workplaces that won't provide them. I want documentation, my IDE, my fullscreen game I'm debugging, etc. all visible at once without the need to constantly alt+tab around.
In many cases I yearn for a 5th monitor. Debugging networked stuff, for example, might benefit from two debuggers, two fullscreen games, and then I'm already forced to split monitors if I want documentation. For desktop games I can at least split one monitor between two game windows - although that's not an option for console dev, typically, unless I want to resort to even more fiddly picture-in-picture nonsense...
EDIT: I'll also print off sheet music single-sided so all pages are visible at once - and so I don't have to raise my hands off the instrument to flip pages. Same principle IMO - place stuff in a relatively stable configuration once up front, so it's not constantly interrupting my flow.
So, for example, a primary monitor in front and two secondary monitors to the left can be problematic for me - my main content might be front and center, but constantly looking off to the left only, and not the right, causes problems.
Balance it with another monitor or two on the right - and moving content over there as well - and I won't have any issues, even if I'm still using the leftmost monitor some.
But then, I can cause problems with that same setup - if for example I have only the leftmost monitor(s) connected to a Mac Mini, and end up doing a bunch of iOS/OS X dev/porting/debugging in a row. When I first had problems, I was using Synergy - I stopped doing that as much in favor of a second keyboard/mouse, or shelling into that machine (despite it being on my desk!)
It wasn't my first choice (I was interested in some more expensive BenQ models), but when I bought it the options on amazon (or elsewhere, really) were limited. Still I would buy it again.
edit: also, I called it ultrawide, but while wider (and curvier) than other monitors, it is not actually ultrawide.
I even make use of three screens for Rust dev. One for documentation, one for the editor and one for execution.
Especially if the one screen is a laptop screen.
I find myself much more productive having a standard keyboard, mouse, and large monitors. Then when I have to attempt to do my work using just a laptop with no accessories.
I am impressed with the people who are highly productive with a tiny laptop screen. I have seen them in action. Unfortunately that isn't me :(
Found that the more screens I accumulated the more work I tried doing concurrently, and, well:
Fuck that noise.
MUCH more productive, and feel much less jittery about workload by allowing myself to focus on the cadence of work instead of the volume of work. Boss is happy with it too ;)
Are you implying the workload is some form of sexually satisfying your boss, that you're keeping them happy nudge nudge wink wink say no more?
Are you implying sarcasm, that your boss is actually NOT happy with your improved mood and improved productivity?
Are you implying that the boss is "happy", nudge nudge wink wink, so now you're the one getting extra favours, if you know what I mean?
Are you implying you're not more productive, you're doing less, and you're putting on a sham act which your boss is falling for?
I'm trying to imagine someone actually saying in-person "I rethought my workflow and now I'm calmer and more productive. And my boss is happy with it too". and then winking at me. And me not feeling skeeved out by it.
Edit: I do love me some Anne Robinson though.
and if that's not the most frustrating reply I could put to that, because of the winky face, I don't know what is. btw, after reading all of the entire comment ... wink wink, not serious, just kidding, gotcha!
I've also got an ipad with sidecar as a second monitor for always on things like spotify or the occasional zoom.
About the only thing I use a second screen for is videoconferencing.
But, to each their own. Everyone's work style is different.
He may be right that the second screen helps. But maybe it's worth saying it in a way that isn't tied in with a level of wealth that signals that his problems are often unlike most people's problems.
I can't fathom being a professional in the tech world and not having two monitors.
Windows' mouse properties control panel has "Display pointer trails" and "Show location of pointer when I press the Ctrl key" options to make the pomouse pointer more findable.
I was confused for a long time as to why people seem to need larger and larger screens (not want, but need, it would seem). That changed when recently I had to use a GUI static analysis toolkit on my 1440 screen. It was too small. The GUI wasn't customizable and its usage on my screen was very awkward. Its single window was split into a number of panes, all of which were too small to use comfortably without constant horizontal and vertical panning.
The mentioned GUI's devs created it for big screens. I'd guess that this happens with popular IDEs as well, right? In a way it's about modifying hardware to adhere to software. Sounds backwards.
The reason why a 1440 laptop screen is enough for me is that I use vim and cli for pretty much everything except browsing. That makes my workspace relatively space efficient.
On Windows I recommend using the Inverted (Extra large) scheme for the mouse cursor. It’s dynamic - becomes black on a white background and white on a black background; works with other colors too, even with complex textures. It’s a life saver.
This works for both Zoom and Teams - I haven't tried other meeting solutions.
Another solution that I'm going to experiment with sometime soon is to use my iPad Pro as the video conferencing device so that I can (hopefully - haven't tried yet) see a 9 box of people on the device. It's probably a step down in video quality for other folks looking at me, but that's OK :)
Also, when I’m the one presenting (from the big screen), I can see what everyone else sees on my phone. This helps a lot. You then know when slides actually changed, how big things are, etc.
Coupled with FancyZones from PowerToys (https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys ) it's even better.
You might think, well if you're just using FancyZones to split the screen up again doesn't that take you back to close to a two monitor setup, but the key is the flexible sizing. I have a main pane centrally for core focus and then I have really small side windows for scripts, upcoming reminders, and a bigger side section for calendar and chat, which are both handy to glance at (eg to confirm things during calls)
I honestly think it'll be a struggle to compete with "home me" when I go back to the office, as it's just so much better. A certain amount may be a placebo effect but I sense the effect all the same!
The first screen is 27" away from my eyes with the top of the screen bezel being level with my eyes. This works great.
The second screen is the 23" above the first and is generally used in terminal sessions or when I'm presenting something in a meeting.
The screen on the right is portrait mode. It's only 20" or so, but that doesn't matter. Slack works SO WELL in portrait mode.
The 4th screen on the left is 22" and is 1680x1050. It works fine for email, stuff I need but not immediately.
My total investment in monitors? About $50. I do need two video cards though, but since it's for work, not gaming, that was cheap too.
The monitor on the right is no longer there, it was for my ham radio shack computer, which I now just teamviewer into.
Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html
As a maker (and permanent remote worker, even before COVID-19), I am constantly struggling to convince people to have fewer meetings, and having a second screen for the meetings I do have, isn't the answer: the answer is fewer meetings!
I know this whole "remote-work" thing is somehow new to people, but, in a word: evolve!
I am so not into a second screen that I have embarked on using a cellular-capable tablet as my sole device, so that I can do work anywhere, anytime. The "home office" with multiple monitors is not the answer to remote-work, doing your job with simple tools, is. But, of course, this is just my opinion.
At the same time, if I’d lose my second screen, I’d lose more productivity than I gained from all the won time. I think most dev related jobs benefit greatly from a 2nd monitor. I couldn’t imagine working on a website, having an IDE open, browser dev tools etc. and constantly alt-tabbing between all of those.
An iPad screen is much closer in size to the MacBook display, and I find I make better use of this more balanced setup than I did my very lopsided previous big monitor and small laptop display configuration. Less can be more.
NB: Sidecar sometimes flakes out on wakeup, so it’s not a total win.
Another trick that works well is to use my phone as the Zoom camera. There are a bunch of apps you can use (why? Quicktime can just connect to the phone) but I simply connect in multiple times.
When I'm on meeting, I'm on meeting.
Actually, like the couch setup from article a lot.
Is this new Slack hell ?
Such perceptions are notoriously unreliable. I know this from having spent countless hours looking at data on this kind of thing in an HN context.