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Best Chair For Desktop Coding?
wifeoflurker writes "Can someone give me recommendations for a desk chair to give my husband as a Father's Day gift? He currently uses a cheap one he got from Office Max, but I want him to have a really comfortable one. He spends his life in this chair (coding and lurking on Slashdot). I don't have time to research good chairs on the internet today (I'm chasing my 10 month old around, and she seems to get into the most mischief when I'm staring at the computer screen), so I figured a few folks here might share their personal recommendations." Has there been any great progress in the state of the art (of sitting) since the last time readers sought recommendations for back-friendly chairs a few years back, or the perfect computer chair nearly a decade back? Is there even such a thing as a back-friendly chair, or should we all be in astronaut-style lounge workstations?
There ARE competitors to the Aeron, in many other styles... Check out Knoll Office Seating, the ergonomics that go into these chairs is really amazing. If you can stomach the prices, then by all means, your back WILL thank you at the end of a long day. Make sure you buy a properly sized chair (*the aeron comes in 3 sizes) and if you buy some other chair, make sure he adjusts it to where his posture is set right. I have a couple of Knoll Life chairs at home, I can personally recommend them as super comfortable, and they come in a million different color combinations. Oh.. And they'll outlast anything from ikea or office depot.
Can we all agree that no chair is perfect for everyone?
I have an Aeron, and it's not bad, but there are too many adjustments that are done by friction, and I haven't ever been able to get it to stay in place properly when I get it set up properly. I finally gave up the arms as a bad job and took them off. But I still can't tilt the seat forward the right amount.
The one thing the Aeron is great for is that it's a mesh, so you can sit on it when you get back from a bike ride without feeling like you're going to soak the padding with your manly sweat. This is the reason I haven't just spaced the thing.
I hear that the new Aerons are better, but I haven't personally seen any evidence that this is true. So I would really check this out carefully before buying.
And honestly, I'd run this by him. You're going to spend a lot of money to get him a good chair, and chairs are a very personal choice - what works for one person won't work for another. Also a lot of advice you get on ergonomics from chair stores isn't correct, so if you buy a chair based on that advice, you could wind up with a $500 albatross.
What I would personally recommend is that you just tell him you want to get him a chair, and research it with him. If you don't have time, get him something else. This is a really nice idea for a gift, but it's not an easy one.
Find a place that has nice office chairs and do measurments.
Take him there, treat him like a king while it he gets the measurements and adjustments done.
He can pick out all the colors he wants.
After words a nice meal with some good drinks.
When the chair gets delivered, put the 10 month old down for a nap and fuck your husband in the chair.
You now have the perfect, favorite chair.
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Family Friendly hasn't done crap for shareholders, IMHO.
I ask this somewhat rhetorically and certainly drunkenly, but why does the shareholders right to income trump the workers right to life?
Granted, I'm not married yet, but once I am I imagine I will find my marriage much more important than Microsoft's shareholders.
All joking aside, can we put the "Slashdotters never get girls" meme out to pasture? I've been married for six years (and reading Slashdot for ten) and have two kids, and there's plenty others like me. The joke was kinda funny the first eleventy billion times it was made, but it's old and busted now. It's not that I'm offended by it (I'm not), it's that it's just... tired.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
15 years ago, when old timers like me were sweating to ship, it was practically a divorce announcement a week, in my group. Weeks before deadlines, sleeping in our offices, doing build, after build after build, nobody would have considered Redmond to be family friendly.
In fact, if you needed family time, you were considered a bit suspect, or a whiny little bitch.
That's really a personal choice. 15 Years ago, I was in the same position, and made a choice to work normal hours, get married, learn to SCUBA dive, take vacations and have a life.
This magic was accomplished by telling my manager "No, I will not work nights, weekends and holidays."
Today, I'm still married, own a software business, have friends, take vacations and life is good. In fact, if I interview someone and they say they're willing to sell their soul to me, I won't hire them. I want people who have lives. They're happier, more productive and more stable.
I'm constantly searching for 20-somethings who are more concerned about how their eventual children will live in 2020, than how they themselves are living right now. These people are getting harder and harder to find
They're getting harder to find because nobody wants a life that sucks. And if you fone someone who does, they're typically damaged in some way.
Its a different mindset these days, and while you think your folks are productive, I would comfortably assume that were you up against us on a project, my people would eat your lunch. We work until we ship. THEN we play.
Knock yourself out. I don't sell code, I sell ideas and business processes and charge based on the value I provide to the client, not the hours worked or lines of code. In fact, the actual coding tends to be relatively minimal.
If you need to change diapers between builds, you probably don't want to work for me.
That would account for your hiring difficulties. The only thing more seductive to a programmer than money and toys is having an actual life. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that taking his girlfriend out for a weekend in the mountains is more rewarding than sitting under a flourescent light chasing a segfault at 3am.
I have dived the wrecks of Belize, with the NEW wife (younger and cuter, since I am smarter and richer) and have a great time. Like you say, its a choice. You are happy with yours, I am ecstatic with mine. Good luck.
It's nice diving. I saw my first ray there, but I like Tobermory and the St. Lawrence better. The tropical wrecks deteriorate too quickly.
Good luck with the money and wife. I suspect by the time you hit your 60's you'll wish you had been a little less "driven." The "Trophy Wife" is a little sad; partially because when you marry someone it's supposed to be forever and partially because you now have a wife that married you for money and will leave when you lose yours or someone else comes along with more.