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Comment by MikeTheGreat | Hacker News Reader

Ok, this is clearly a joke / fun project that metastasized / etc, and it's also clearly awesome, but I gotta ask - why 7 screens?

Why not 6? Or 8?

They said that they wanted to design a mobile Security Operations Center - do people doing this work normally need exactly 7 screens worth of information? I've seen pictures of "Operation Centers" which have tons of screens so it's plausible that someone would need "a lot" of screens, but I can't tell if this would actually achieve the goal of being a mobile SOC.

(My gut feeling is that they were trying to see how many screens they could put onto a single laptop, moreso than that small screen next to the touchpad actually being genuinely, uniquely useful, but I'd love to know for sure if each screen actually has a specific purpose)

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Why not 6? Or 8?

Because 8 is too many and 6 is clearly not enough. This is what separates the Steve Jobs' of this world from the rest of us.

And the lord spake, "Then shalt thou count to seven, no more–no less. Seven shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be seven. Eight shalt thou not count, neither count thou six, excepting that thou then proceed to seven. Nine is right out."

This reminded me of the hitchhiker scene in There’s Something About Mary:

Hitchhiker: Think about it. You walk into a video store, you see 8-Minute Abs sittin’ there, there’s 7-Minute Abs right beside it. Which one are you gonna pick, man?

Ted: I would go for the 7.

Hitchhiker: Bingo, man, bingo. 7-Minute Abs. And we guarantee just as good a workout as the 8-minute folk.

...

Ted: That’s right. That’s – that’s good. That’s good. Unless, of course, somebody comes up with 6-Minute Abs. Then you’re in trouble, huh?

[Hitchhiker convulses]

Hitchhiker: No! No, no, not 6! I said 7. Nobody’s comin’ up with 6. Who works out in 6 minutes? You won’t even get your heart goin, not even a mouse on a wheel.

Ted: That – good point.

Hitchhiker: 7’s the key number here. Think about it. 7-Elevens. 7 dwarves. 7, man, that’s the number. 7 little chipmunks twirlin’ on a branch, eatin’ lots of sunflowers on my uncle’s ranch. You know that old children’s tale from the sea.

So, I think that clears up why they went with 7 screens.

Traders frequently use smaller monitors stacked up very high. The upper monitors usually have charts or heatmaps or live video feeds. They don't usually read the text from those screens. This product would have sold well to the finance crowd when monitors were relatively expensive.

Our prototypes are definitely geared towards day traders. We have had a lot of feedback from individuals in the finance industry and as such we are refining our prototypes accordingly.

Wait, you mean this is a real product? I took it for performance art or a very-well-done joke...

YUP - This is very real.

Seven carries special symbolism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolism_of_the_number_7

Every number carries special symbolism. It's all nonsense numerology.

Its six up top - the 7th is the one on the wrist rest...

That's correct.

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