Jan 22
I had this video loaded for three nights until finally completing all 76 minutes. Such is my life. Lazy list view:
- If you work on a computer, always have a second monitor. Within a month, productivity increases pass the cost of a < $200 screen which is why I never understood my past employers forcing a single setup on me, even if it’s a 22″ widescreen.
- I can say many of my university essays back in the day fell into quadrant 3 under “due soon” and “not important”. Damned relative values always get in the way, but I maintained my honours average!
- The current reality of customer service: “Your call is extremely important to us. Watch while my actions are cognitively dissonant from my words.”
- “When you have a meeting, lock the door, unplug the phone, and take everyone’s Blackberries.” Highlights the reason projects using a SCRUM methodology has daily meetings less than 15 minutes while standing up.
- And WTF to the camera staying on the blond at ~1:06:15 for what felt like 30 seconds.
Does the video expand on or provide justification for the two monitors thing? I’ve had two monitors at work on-and-off for years, and eventually decided to drop it down to just one. I didn’t seem to be more productive with two at all, and it involved a fair amount of extra faff. The footprint on my desk was enormous too. I am, however, hoping to upgrade to a widescreen monitor at some point, which is some kind of compromise.
Multi-monitor setups are mentioned starting at 27:30. He uses the metaphor of the difference between working from a home desk and an airplane tray which I agree with. There are definitely multiple studies done but I can’t find them via search because the terms are too frequent in Google results to get meaningful links.
Here’s his main point:
“If you figure the cost of adding a second monitor to an employee’s yearly cost to the company, it’s not even 1% anymore.”
Any sort of power user like developers or IT admins should find another monitor an absolute necessity to be functional at their job.
All the engineers I work with have at least two monitors. If I’m designing a new PCB i’ll have the schematic editor (or reference design) on one monitor and PCB editor on the other. Its so much faster than switching between programs and trying to remember stuff; or printing it all out.
I’m can’t think of many times where I don’t find it useful.