600frogs

I’ve tried _so_ many different desktop workflows (including writing two custom window managers!), and I’ve finally settled for the exact same workflow - F -keys bound to my most common apps, all fullscreened. It becomes muscle memory within two weeks, and it’s faster than anything else I’ve tried by a mile. I use Thor for MacOS if anyone wants to replicate it, it’s a no-fuss version of the author’s setup.

If I ever do need to see two things side-by-side, I’ve also got Rectangle for window positioning. A single cmd+caps lock+H/J/K/L for left-half/restore/maximise/right-half is all I’ve found is necessary.

I've fallen all the way down this rabbit hole - from a full-size to a 60% to an ergodox to a CRKBD (36 key split) - and come all the way out again, settling with a chiclet standard qwerty (Apple wireless keyboard).

I think the central hypothesis of using these keyboards is flawed. It seems to all centre around thinking that less movement is better, and that keeping as close to the home row as possible is king, even if that means chording, contorting your hands to reach far keys, and over-relying on your weak pinky fingers.

Human bodies are meant to move. I've found that since I've started dancing over keyboard more with my fingers (a sort of advanced hunt-and-peck using all fingers but the pinky), combined with using a low profile keyboard, my hand pain has disappeared, and I'm at my fastest WPM yet (105). YMMV of course, but it's worth considering if you're peering into the rabbit hole.

KJo is a slam-dunk open OTB, but I get your point!

This book actually gets quite a lot of hate on HN as parts of it have been debunked (or are at least heavily argued about): https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/

In the summary: > Li-Fi can theoretically transmit at speeds of up to 100 Gbit/s

In the main article: > Researchers have reached data rates of over 224 Gbit/s

Am I missing something here, or does the claim in the summary need to be adjusted?

Heh, first time I’ve seen this. I’m of the opinion that as long as you’re not using something wildly out of place like papyrus or comic sans in a professional setting, it’s not hugely impactful what font you choose. You can spend hours comparing the subtle differences between helvetica and ariel but does it really make a difference?

Also unrelated but the shocked dude in the last pane looks way too much like Elon Musk for my liking.

Typography, to me, is one of those things that’s simultaneously incredibly boring and completely fascinating. On the one hand, it’s something you experience (whether consciously or not) for a large part of your day, and each font you read in your day has been meticulously chosen for all the supposed qualities it gives off. But on the other hand - it’s just a bloody font.

Some unsolicited advice for you:

* That initial "How to use it" diagram completely puts me off the product - it seems dizzyingly complex, and to have that right at the top before I even know what the product is seems like a mistake.

* Consider getting a native speaker to review the text - the grammar is off in a fair few places.

* Write a simpler paragraph for what your product does - I've read through the entire landing page, and your HN comment, and I still don't understand what it is you are selling.

I currently use a third-party git GUI (GitKraken atm) but I also use jetbrains products, am I missing out by not using the integrated git functionality? If so, is there a tutorial or guide you could recommend, or is it all fairly self-explanatory?

I went to checkout your profile as I was interested in seeing what products you've made, and I saw on your website you've got a mailto link. I was thinking of adding the same thing to my site, but I'm worried about crawlers picking up my email and using it for spam. Has this happened to you at all - do you get much spam?

This is why I'm cancelling my hey subscription as well. I get that they are upfront about it being a feature, and it sounds great at first, but it's made me paranoid about missing mails now - a feeling I never got with any other service provider. It's a shame, as I got in pretty early and bagged a great account name (firstname @ hey.com). But it's not worth sacrificing my sanity for vanity.

Ah I hadn't clocked that part - it's actually a tool to get the upper-hand against a _particular_ known opponent. Not that useful to me, but cool to know it exists!

What does this provide that the chess.com analysis engine doesn't? I'm a chess rookie but I find the engine's suggestions and playing through paths much more useful than just seeing what moves people have played against me and their win rates. Is this a tool that only becomes useful for higher rated players?

I presume the right time was 20-30 years ago?

Just took a look at your product, I'm very impressed and have added myself to the waitlist. I'm almost even more impressed by the domain name itself though - how on earth did you manage to bag that domain?!

I'd definitely recommend giving dedicated hotkeys (one per app) a try - it's very hard to go back to alt-tabbing after being able to switch so effortlessly. As I say, I use Thor, but I'm sure there's a bunch of alternatives out there.

Ah, interesting. I think we've arrived at a very similar setup, albeit implemented in different ways. I too use a MacBook and external monitor, and fullscreen my apps, but I just let them take up the whole screen minus the bar at the top, rather than explicitly use the fullscreen new workspace feature. I then swap between apps by binding all my most common apps to F1-F6 using Thor, which I find is easier to navigate than remembering workspace positions.

How do you handle split screen? Do you never have two programs side-by-side on the same screen? I've tried doing that in the official fullscreen mode but found the whole experience a pain, so I use rectangle to shift windows left and right.

Interesting, can you expand on your workflow a bit more? I'm of the exact opposite opinion - I think Mac's window management is the absolute worst thing about using a Mac - so I'd love to know what I'm doing wrong.

In DOTA, sure. In real life, that lesson isn't uniformly applicable, and could lead one to give up and go with the herd when that might not be the right thing to do.

I'm not sure I agree with this lesson. I've sunk 1000s of hours into DOTA 2, and would agree with you in such a game where emotions run high and considered, reasoned responses aren't possible, but I think it's a poor takeaway from the game. Sometimes it is correct to stand your ground and stand up for what you believe is the correct course of action. I'd instead emphasise the importance of emotional control and the importance of morale as a better lesson from MOBAs.

I can echo this exactly - 16GB RAM M1 MacBook Air, runs like a dream except for Android development, which is sluggish and downright broken. I can't even compile some APKs - I can't use an ARM JDK, and rosetta 2 fails during compilation, so I've got a separate laptop just for Android dev, which is less than ideal.

Other than that, no complaints! A fanless, performant laptop is a dream.

The only winning move is not to play - oddly apt for some of the EvilCorp sites!

The "choose a country to agree to the terms and conditions" should have an alternative answer - let the timer run out! I was really smug about answering that one until it marked it as incorrect.

Agreed, but that only hammers home the point even more - I don't have time to mine the ore and smelt the iron and fashion the perfect knife tailored to me when I've got deadlines to hit and there's a perfectly good knife ready to be used on the wall.

I definitely get having distinct sprints and seeing where you are at in the bigger picture, but this can absolutely be achieved without distancing yourself from the rest of the human race who are all using a different timekeeping system. It's just arbitrary contrarianism in my eyes. Keep 2 week sprints, label them A-Z, but use standard timestamps so the rest of the world can join in.

I'm absolutely on your side in theory - big bloated layers on bloated layers for a Todo list app grinds my gears more than you can imagine, but moving back to more primitive tools and inconvenience in the name of climate change seems like such a tiny drop in the ocean as to be a pointless sacrifice.

There's also the question of prepping, but I'm a chronic optimist, so I don't think a true collapse is coming in my lifetime. And if does, there's always that CollapseOS which was posted here a year or so ago to get me through. Though thinking about it - I think perhaps whether or not I can browse HN during the apocalypse will be the least of my worries.

I honestly can't tell if I love this piece or hate this piece.

On the one hand, it really kicked off my imagination, and I started to yearn for absolute computing simplicity and efficiency. A world where I can run absolutely anything I want off of a Raspberry Pi Zero and a small battery pack. I even spent half an hour looking into the most lightweight GUI toolkits available, to start to contribute to this vision.

On the other hand... it all seems so futile, and out-of-touch with reality. In the real world, I need to pick the best tool for the job at work, regardless of the philosophy of the tool. And in my spare time, I can't help but feel like it's a pointless endeavour. I'm not living on a boat, and I'm not working on a Raspberry Pi. Why rewrite the software I use into something more lightweight when I can just use the software without consequence now, and save all that pain?

Plus, there's a certain amount of 1. pretentiousness and 2. hypocrisy that I read in the article, that I don't want to touch with a 10 foot pole. Using your own time system is nothing more than a "I want to be different" gesture. I honestly can't see the benefit at all, despite his explanation. If you want to do 2 week sprints, just do a 2 week sprint. If you want to work to 40 minute Pomodoros, just do 40 minute Pomodoros. The main benefit that I can see is the element of mysticism to seeing things on the wiki timestamped as `14X05`, to add to the feeling that this is some other-worldly operation going on that's just out of reach. Yet he scoffs at the interview for suggesting it's an aesthetic thing.

Regarding the hypocrisy - Devine preaches for energy efficiency and simplicity above all else, then writes half his tools using <canvas> on a bloated web browser. It doesn't quite stack up for me.

Fun fact - your new word "aplkenabd" is a one-hit wonder on Google! What was it meant to say?

FYI, Firefox focus sounds perfect for you - it doesn't track history or save any state, and wipes itself after use.

Thanks for the concrete example, that's super interesting. Do you find this level of granularity helps, both short-term and long-term? I tend to find in a busy day that I've completely neglected to update my DONE list, and my suspicion is that if I stopped every 20 mins to update it I'd break my flow.

Long-term, I can see once in a blue moon going back to the exact thought process during an issue would be invaluable if something similar crops up, but 99 times out of 100 is this not over-documenting? I'm not trying to criticise here, I want to understand what value you get from it.