I recommend yoga. I practice at home several times a week, just beginner level stretches and positions, but I find it has helped particularly with knees which I had injured running.

I did start to get neck aches so I moved back from my solo laptop at kitchen-table setup to my desk...

and now it's gone, but I do find myself wanting a better monitor now

I'd recommend the following to anyone • Posture is everything, you can live the healthiest lifestyle but if you work/walk/... in bad posture, that's gonna ruin it and any compensation work (workouts, stretches, massages) will become just a temporary patch ◦ Therefore, be aware of your posture every few minutes. It's just a great habit that can be with you • Be aware of the 3 syndromes that affect most office workers: anterior pelvic tilt, rounded shoulders, forward neck • Get a PT full-body massage and get informed of which specific zones have tightness or knots. You might be able to get rid of them in ~10 sessions • Work in any specific zones that might be weak. Some usual suspects are glutes and lower back. ◦ Counterintuitively, zones that might ache need work, not just rest/massages • Bootstrap your way up. Improving physical condition is much similar to many iterative things in programming :) There's a lot of resources on youtube etc. Learning about how own bodies work for a few mins a day is definitely a sound investment 🙂

and yes I might have had a little too much fun in the write-up 😇

Thanks for the input everyone! I’ve started to take taking care of my body a little more seriously recently.

Sitting on a yoga ball currently to avoid a fixed posture, trying to gather up enough heat to dare take my socks off to allow the toes the freedom they want. Rolling my foot soles on wooden rolling pins. Trying to remember to adjust my electrical standing desk periodically, and to remember to stand up and work for at least some of the day.

It’s a little hard to reconcile with the deep focus that you often need for developer work, but hopefully, I’ll make habits of it all.

I wonder what my forefathers, tilling the fields, would say, if they knew how much I complained/concerned myself about sitting down all day 😄

> It’s a little hard to reconcile with the deep focus that you often need for developer work Yeah I feel this. Personally I try to not particularly engage in physical activity while working e.g. avoid much muscle tension or joint pressure. Too distracting and doesn't feel 'scalable' in terms of hours For this, a reclined posture works best for me i.e. somewhere between sitting and laying. I recently got an electric bed, will start trying it out for work soon

was reading this in a bad posture -> “scared straight” 🙀

Regarding a reclined posture, I’ve long felt that this would be much better or at least a great addition to sitting. The peripherals need to support it, though. You can use a trackball lying down, I guess. It’s a bit more difficult to position the screen correctly, I think, and to have a keyboard positioned ergonomically correct - if at all. I’ve been thinking that a very low profile split keyboard that you can somehow position so that your arms are just resting, as if they were hanging from your sides (when standing), would be neat - both when standing and sitting. But I don’t see a feasible way to implement that.

Perhaps use voice commands + trackball + eyetracking? 🙂

I use a low-profile keyboard, trackpad, both on top of an ikea Byllan. Then I use a TV large/far enough that one doesn't have to worry about neck position :) the byllan helps a lot keeping the desired angle for the wrists, otherwise leaving the peripherals on top of your lap is a mixed bag

hah, I have two Byllans downstairs for couch work 😄

My back is a bit foobared, I find the McKenzie method exercises help tons.

by co-incidence I heard a lightning talk today where a colleague was recommending "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_e4I-brfqs" for back pain - he swears by it, for whatever that second-hand recommendation is worth!

I do like the idea of working lying down - split keyboard to each side, just need someway to suspend a hefty monitor over my head... :thinking_face:

Yeah, the monitor hampers things. If you could get some lightweight VR headset that's comfortable wear for extended periods while lying down, that might be a neat solution.

I've followed that guy for ages on Instagram (since I had time to lift weights). Seems very knowledgable. Perhaps I should actually try and do some of the stuff he talks about, like those 3 exercises.

@UE21H2HHD gotta read up on those

The singularity might introduce other issues, but should solve my back problems.

@U0AQ3HP9U a friend introduced me to it, https://www.amazon.ca/Steps-Pain-Free-Life-Rapidly-Shoulder-ebook/dp/B00DMCPJ3Q/ref=sr_1_5?crid=9S4BL7BHFQQC&keywords=mckenzie+method&qid=1663087720&sprefix=mckenzie+method%2Caps%2C91&sr=8-5.

Back aches can also be caused by foot issues, in my case it was helpful to get some supportive insoles

@UE21H2HHD 😄 becoming a virtual brain in a sea of virtual brains is probably not going to happen in our lifetime (or ever), but it's a notion that I cannot shake since I read about it in a grand space opera trilogy

@USDPTD3FY my feet are not well. Should get them looked at.

I have less time than ever for stuff like this since my son was born, but the same event triggered the notion of how important it is that I take care of myself ❤️

If the monitor can flip its output then perhaps a lightweight mirror would be a safer thing to suspend over one's head.

ahhh yes, good thinking!

In addition to stretches etc, I had a lot of benefit from simple strength training to keep pain at bay (deadlifts, squats and rows), also helps with posture.

@U0P1MGUSX I yearn to lift weights again. I just generally felt better when I did it regularly. Plus, lifting heavy stuff feels very fulfilling. I want to deadlift 200 kgs some day 😄

Compound weight exercises and Olympic lifts. They're full body exercises and fun

Indeed! I never got really into Olympic lifts, yet, for whatever reason (think it was actually scheduling issues). But I kind of like the slow, heavy ones. Hope to have a home gym eventually.

🧵

No idea about this particular LG, sorry, but here's my 2 cents: For what it's worth, I have a 25" QHD and I don't recommend it because the only way to work on it is with fractional scaling (unless you're waaaay too close to it) -125% is my sweet spot-, which results in some blurriness sometimes (on Linux; it should be better on a Mac but still, fractional scaling is problematic). If I had to choose again, I'd go with a HiDPI monitor that looks good at 200% scaling e.g. nothing less than 27" 4k (you'll get the same real estate as 1080p but with much clearer text) or 32" 5k. 27" 5K is probably ideal in terms of resolution.

i'm using a 32" curved 2k from dell. my eyes suck so i can't tell the difference between 2k and 4k 😄

also costs waaaay less

For me it does make a difference because my eyes suck. I often get blurry vision from reading text on a non-HiDPI screen after a long day. I'm talking about this effect (not as pronounced in real life obviously): https://blog.typekit.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/source-sans-light-example.png But yeah, cost is definitely a factor (and it's the reason I haven't replaced my current monitor yet 😛).

yeah, i have to say mac does a MUCH better job of font rendering than windows does. or rather, my eyes like it better

Recently bought - https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-27up850-w-uhd-monitor w/96W type-c power delivery. Quite Satisfied by price/quality ratio.

Not as sharp or responsive as MacBook 16" M1 Pro screen - 163 PPI vs 255 PPI and 60Hz vs 120Hz, but good enough screen size w/appropriate pricing for writing code and communication.

I'm aiming at 5k lg 27 ultrafine...

it will cost me a leg, but I only buy a monitor every so often...

In that case I might suggest recently released 40" Ultrawide monitors with proper pixel density: 1. LG 40WP95C - https://www.idealo.de/preisvergleich/OffersOfProduct/201930998_-40wp95c-w-lg-electronics.html 2. Dell U4021QW - https://www.idealo.de/preisvergleich/OffersOfProduct/201187799_-ultrasharp-u4021qw-dell.html

Already went with the LG 27k ultrafine 💸

note: I think it’s so named because much of PLT concerns lambda calculus - it’s expressing the sentiment that “nothing that can’t be solved by some lambda abstraction (one of the two basic rules of raw lambda calculus)”

and if I’m not mistaken, lisp in general have a close relation to lambda calculus

wow, that’s some total pwnage right there (considering the amount of impact those softwares have), thanks for your work!

Also, coffee - when in doubt, the answer is coffee

There are a couple of tools I'm still missing and not sure if exist yet - One to edit the deps file and the project, with common ops like adding paths and deps at the top or in alias (maybe niel is close?) Some way to call tools without -T tool and auto completion, at least of tool name.

Check out rewrite-edn

And #babashka-bbin could probably fill that other hole

Rewrite edn is about half the recipe, need a way to search deps from command line Also would be nice to add namespace file in path All those parts exist, just need to be out together

Searching deps and adding the dep is what neil does

And it requires node, right?

Nope

Bb

Cool!

You think it would be a good idea to use it as a dispatch point for tools as well, covering the second idea?

Maybe, I think so yeah

I don't see why not

But then you still have tot type ‘neil tool blabla’ right

So what does that buy you

Preferably, without the tool prefix. It would list all installed tools, dispatch to them correctly, and auto complete

I could really use auto completion for tools

Also for aliases available at the directory I'm invoking clj

I think bbin could fulfill that role for tools

It would install a wrapper script in a bin dir

So autocomplete naturally works

For aliases it's recommended to use bb tasks with its autocomplete

Another thing I've been missing with tools is even an unofficial tools repository, where authors would submit their tool and coordinates, then another tool can just "install some-tool"

Again I feel like the elements are all there, I'm just not sure how to put them together in a coherent work flow

(Or a tool which bundles them)

Should clj provide that coherent workflow? ;-)

I recommend checking out bbin and neil and then talk further based on experience with those

I will. I think neil covers a lot of what I need already

🙏