Ask Slashdot: What Recliner For a Software Developer?

Taxilian writes We've talked about office chairs before, but I'm one of those coders who tends to relax by doing more coding. Particularly when I'm short on time for a project, I like to move my work to where I am still around my wife and children so that I can still interact with them and be with my family, but still hit my deadlines. I have used various recliners and found that programming in them (at least in evenings) can be quite comfortable, but haven't felt like I really found the 'ideal chair' for relaxing and working on my Macbook.

I have found references to failed chairs (like La-Z-Boy Explorer, the so-called "E-cliner") that were intended for tech and failed, but are there any existing and useful options? I'd really like something that provides some sort of lap desk (to keep the heat from the laptop away from me) and reasonable power arrangements while still being comfortable and not looking ridiculous in a normal family room.

Comments

The best seat in the house

[slashdice]

Sit on the toilet. You need to get a comfortable seat but you can work, shit, eat (I have a mini fridge within reaching distance), watch tv (I also have a tv mounted on the wall), pull your pud, whatever. And no pants required!

They don't call it a throne for nothing!

Re:The best seat in the house

[roger10-4]

I think you missed the part where he still wants the kids and family around... :)

Re:The best seat in the house

[tsqr]

you can work, shit, eat (I have a mini fridge within reaching distance), watch tv (I also have a tv mounted on the wall)

Didn't anyone ever tell you not to shit where you eat?

First World Problems

[astro]

You can't actually be serious? What? I like a good recliner myself, but as an Ask Slashdot this takes things to new lows.

Re:First World Problems

[Jahf]

To "First World Problems" ... for enough people for it to matter, this isn't a first world problem any more than coding is a first world job (and these days it isn't). As someone with hereditary back issues since my teens that, after 25 years of pain and bad surgeries with severe complications, I am now on disability. I wouldn't have made it 25 years without an extreme ergonomic solution that I paid for out-of-pocket because until recently employers didn't recognize that even "ergo chairs" aren't enough.

For the original question ... you're probably not as bad off as I was. But if you're getting close you have a few solutions depending on how much you can spend (or get expensed). If you're not looking for this level of solution, hopefully the article attracted someone who did.

* Not a recliner, but for helping your back similar to how an exercise ball does but with more support for long coding, I have used a "SwingSeat" at my desk for a decade or more (http://www.swingseat.com/). This was good enough to get me by until the last round of surgery (which was actually a success) made it too hard to sit upright all day.

* A "Zero G" chair, like the ones by Human Touch (I use a Human Touch Perfect Chair), a bit pricey but not awful. Combined with a laptop table that can raise and angle the laptop you can actually do the vast majority of your work from a completely reclined position.

* For a desk, rather than reclining all the time, I assembled a custom desk from Anthro using their Console line that has a tray that can raise and pivot from sitting to reclining (which actually needs to be raised higher than sitting) to standing (great for those of you who don't have partial leg paralysis, good for me on rare occasions). The desk is HUGE but dang, it does everything. It is the Console with full pole extensions bringing it to almost 6' with monitors on a shelf 8" higher than the shelf that hosts the keyboard tray. Which means the monitors can raise up to standing position as well. I can, if I use a trackpad to avoid mouse problems, use this in combination with the Perfect Chair as a rigged solution similar to the next one.

* I couldn't afford this, or at least I could have before I needed it, but can't now. But if you can, the desks from ErgoQuest are perfect. And some of them are inexpensive enough to be not tooooo awful on the budget (if I had the money I spent on the SwingSeat, Anthro Console and Perfect Chair I could afford an ErgoQuest). You can -sometimes- find these on Ebay but not usually from someone willing to ship and often not for significantly less than having the right one built to your specs.

Re:First World Problems

[mellon]

Asking fellow geeks what chair they sit in sounds pretty on-topic to me.

Re:First World Problems

[swilly]

The definition of First, Second, and Third World are not based on wealth, but on ideology. Second World countries are those that are industrialized and socialist (though in practice it referred only to communist governments).

You don't hear much about them because back in the early 90's there was this series of events that resulted in the collapse of most of the Second World. The independence of the Baltic states and the Ukraine, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. You may have heard of some of these, as they were a big deal at the time.

The major Second World country to survive these events is China, but North Korea would also be considered a Second World nation. I've heard of a proposal that we repurpose the term Second World to refer to developing nations, which works well since it's the natural term for nations moving from Third to First World status, but this hasn't been adopted yet (probably because developing countries don't want to be associated with the old Soviet Union).

Eames lounge

[Noxal]

Pick up an Eames lounge chair and ottoman. Yes it's expensive. Yes it's worth it. You'll thank me later.

Re:Eames lounge

[PopeRatzo]

I bought a ruined Eames chair and ottoman at an estate sale a decade ago. Cost less than a piece of junk from an office supply store. Took a little fixing, and it's not pristine, but man, for the past ten years it's been my second favorite place to sit in the house. It's my first favorite place to sit where I can't also relieve myself. Actually, I could relieve myself while sitting in the Eames chair, but my wife would probably beat me with a rolled up newspaper. Again.

This strikes me as spectacularly unhealthy.

[spads]

Are you sure you have realistically evaluated this activity as quality with your wife AND children? Just be sure everyone's on board with this!

Note: this is opposed to the original (snarky) response which occurred to me, which was that probably a recliner would not afford significant relaxtion in comparison to a quart of whiskey! :)

Re:This strikes me as spectacularly unhealthy.

[Taxilian]

Are you sure you have realistically evaluated this activity as quality with your wife AND children? Just be sure everyone's on board with this! Note: this is opposed to the original (snarky) response which occurred to me, which was that probably a recliner would not afford significant relaxtion in comparison to a quart of whiskey! :)

Oh, certainly I wouldn't call this quality time with my wife and children! It's more along the lines of "better a little poor quality time than no time at all". I do also of course spend time *without* the computer, but I prefer to be with my family as much as possible. This is for the times when the alternative is not seeing them at all.

Re:This strikes me as spectacularly unhealthy.

[Belial6]

Different people need different environments to concentrate, and different families provide different environments to those people. I can say for myself, I concentrate better when there is human voice chatter around me. Voices that I don't have to respond too. Other people work better with quite music. Some with blaring death metal, and then there are those that need absolute quite. The absolute quite folks seem to be the ones that have the hardest time understanding that not everyone is like them.

First things first...

[QuietLagoon]

I'd shop around for a recliner that suits me, one that I feel comfortable in, one that doesn't tip over when I go all the way back. To keep the heat of the laptop from frying my family jewels, I'd use a Lapinator or something similar.

.
Keep it simple. If you try to satisfy too many requirements with the chair, you'll wind up with something that has compromises all over the place, and you won't want to sit in it.

Get a chair that is comfortable for you, then use other items to meet your other criteria.

Re:First things first...

[cruff]

Ekornes Stressless recliners are very comfortable, and have a swiveling table (Stressless PC-table) that holds a laptop, but can be moved out of the way when you don't need to use it.

Re:First things first...

[Belial6]

In the spirit of keeping it simple... A few years ago, I took a month long road trip with my family. We rented a mini-van and she would drive during the long streatches of nothing while I worked from the back. After the first day in, it became apparent that the laptop on my lap wasn't cutting it. So, we stopped at a K-mart and I bought a big wood cutting board. It worked awesome. It was flat so It packed pretty well. It was very sturdy. It had the groove around the edge designed for catching liquids that worked very well for keeping pens and whatnot from sliding off the edge. Plus, when we would get to a stop, I could lift it up and set it on the seat next to me without having to rearrange anything. That way when we were done looking at the sights, I could get back in the car and get started back to work without any setup.

All in all, it was the best lap board I have ever used. To this day, my son still uses it when he wants to use his laptop while sitting on the couch. Storage consists of putting in the small space between the end of the couch and the wall.

Automotive bucket seat

[TWX]

Or save a whole bunch of money and go to the junkyard to get the high-backed bucket passenger front seat from a comfortable car. Build a base for it to sit on, and use that base as the means for attaching the shelf for the keyboard and pointer.

Go with the passenger seat because it's usually less worn. If you're feeling inventive you can go with a powered seat, but those are usually biased toward the driver rather than the passenger.

Re:Automotive bucket seat

[gmarsh]

I've done this - I had a Toyota Cressida chair in my house, with a SLA battery and trickle charger hooked up to run the power seat bits.

However, I'll warn that it's hard to construct such a thing without making it look ghetto. Eventually, spousal acceptance factor led to the demise of the chair.

Seriously?

[BarbaraHudson]

Particularly when I'm short on time for a project, I like to move my work to where I am still around my wife and children so that I can still interact with them and be with my family, but still hit my deadlines.

If you're working against deadlines, etc., you can't be doing it right while still interacting with your wife and kids. And you won't really be interacting with your wife and kids all that well either. Try the kitchen table. The kids can do their homework at the same time in the same place, and your wife will appreciate the time you've freed up by HER not having to watch the kids do their homework for a change.

But really - you're giving the recipe for poor code and poor home life.

Think outside the box (er, chair) - try a standup

[msclark]

After three decades of programming from a chair, I switched to a stand-up desk this year. It is better for health, posture, and programming focus. It takes discipline but there is a payoff, especially for us older coders. I still do laptop coding around my family from comfy chairs, but I'm now upright for the hard-core office work.

Efficiency tip

[Snufu]

Throw the food directly in the toilet. Cut out the middle man.