Rate my setup
For the first time since forever I’m actually happy with my current desk setup, so I thought I’d go back and look for some photos of older setups and rate them.
2010 edition
On display we have an iMac "Core i5" 2.66 27" (Late 2009), some Harman Kardon SoundSticks, an Apple keyboard, and a LaCie external drive sitting on a glass IKEA desktop and a crappy plastic chair. Amusingly, the LaCie is sitting on a foam block to dampen the noise caused by the vibrations from the spinning HDD platters. A Blue Snowball mic can be spotted sitting up on a shelf above the desk.
2011 edition
Start-up life, part 1. The Apple keyboard is now accompanied by a "Magic" Trackpad, and we see a MacBook Air next to a decidedly-not-4K Dell monitor (to which is taped a picture of a US keyboard layout because my brain was trying to recover after being rewired when using Spanish layout keyboards). In a minor concession to ergonomics, the monitor is raised close to a suitable height by sitting on a ream of paper, but it’s not centered in front of the keyboard, something I’d never tolerate now.
Part 2. The start-up life intensifies, with an Aeron chair and a crankable standing desk (horridly unsafe, BTW, with a bespoke mechanism). The LaCie has again joined me on the desk, but this time without the foam dampening block. In typical VC-funded bubble fashion, I’ve gone from a single ream of paper to six whole reams, significantly improving the ergonomics of the setup by center-aligning the monitor and elevating the laptop (that’s what the two reams on the right are for).
2015 edition
Fast-forward to 2015 and I just moved into this fancy building at FB along with the rest of Product Infrastructure. You get a standing desk! And you get a standing desk! You get a standing desk! Also, an "ergo consult" where they give you a real laptop stand and make sure your keyboard (now a Realforce) and display are at the right height. Some kind of Apple Monitor — I don’t remember exactly which — but at that time it wasn’t a 4K or Retina one. Some fun details in there, if you look closely, like a React logo leant casually against a desk, a glimpse of the corner of Zuck’s "Acquarium" office in the background, and Joe Savona intently ripping through some some god-level-hard problem, as is his wont.
2020 edition
One pandemic later, working from home — at the kitchen table, no less — in another country. The keyboard is the same, but everything else is different. A new employer, new headphones, a shitty 5€ mouse (not even cordless), and an unfortunate new era of Apple laptops without ports (see the dongle) but with horrible butterfly switch keyboards and useless "Touch Bars".
2021 edition
Still working from home, but now from the living room, and another employer. We’re still afflicted with a cursed Touch Bar, but we have awesome Apple Silicon now. Note that the "upgrade"[1] from the kitchen table to a dedicated but non-adjustable standing desk requires an ingenious new laptop stand[2] while I send my intermittently faulty monitor away for warranty repair or replacement.
2023 edition
Better view of the same desk. Ignore the cardboard boxes (this was a moving day). Not too much has changed at this point, but I have acquired a few accessories, like a "Blue Yeti" mic and mount, and an Elgato ring light: both of those were principally chosen on the not-so-sound basis of being actually available (things got scarce in the pandemic), and I wanted to put my employer’s "home office" budget to use. Also visible: new headphones, better in many ways, and my trusty Linux desktop.
2025 edition
I’m not quite ready to show this yet, but I think I’m actually happy with my setup for the first time since basically forever. I’ve still got the ridiculous ring light, but that’s about the only thing that’s out of place any more. I now have an adjustable desk! I actually have a chair! I got rid of the rather mediocre Blue mic and upgraded to a nicer Røde one. I replaced my 4K monitor with a 5K one (a Retina-ish external display, finally). New headphones[3], courtesy of my employer. I even have a desk mat now to put the keyboard and trackpad. Not sharing a photo at this time because of one small problem: it’s in the corner of the living room and I don’t really have a good angle on it.
"Upgrade" in quotes because it was a horrible, low quality thing made out of the cheapest, warped wood. I got it because it was the just pleasing enough, aesthetically speaking, that I could hope to put in the living room without becoming the most unpopular member of the household. In the end, I think I did become the most unpopular member anyway, but that’s all water under the bridge now. ↩︎
Don’t judge me for my taste in books. My then-employer gave me a learning budget every year, and I ended up buying a ton of books. The ones in the photo were just the ones that happened to be the right height for my needs. ↩︎
To be honest, I am not sure which QuietComfort model I’ve got, but whichever one it is, the sound is great and the UX is good too. ↩︎