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Working outside can be fun. At least AS long AS you dont need that good of an internet connection, have a comfy place to sit in and are at a somewhat dark spot, so you can still see on your screen.
If and only if these three things are all given, than it can be quite nice to work outside.
Exactly, I used to hike to the top of a mountain find a shady spot and work till my battery died then hike back down.
Couldn’t agree more. Some of my best work and learning recently has been me on my back porch under shade with a box fan. While I have solid WiFi and power there, I also pack a portable monitor and can work without internet on much of what I do.
Also, if you take any meetings, it needs to be quiet enough to communicate but also not disruptive to others if you’re taking loudly.
There are some very decent outside-internet solutions. I have one of those solutions at home and it’s a joy to work outside.
Working outside your home is nice. But I think a lot of these comments are talking about working outside in public is a whole other problem.
So it’s good if you are close to your router, have a comfortable chair, and have so much share you’re basically indoors.
So if I just open a window in my office…
If the sun is not out and it’s not too windy/cold it can be okay sometimes
A coworker of mine specifically built a little gazebo on their deck to be a summer-office. They wired a little wifi repeater in the roof, retractable shades and curtains, a ceiling fan, and got a desk that specifically fits a comfy deck chair. Obviously all of this can be moved out of the way for normal back yard stuff, but it’s become the absolute envy of all my remote colleagues.
The dark spot also avoids overheating
No work is getting done there. They’re pretending it does.
As opposed to the office where I’m definitely not doing just enough to not get fired
Turns out as long as you have your browser and inbox open and frown at your screen when your boss walks by, most people won’t question it any further
Sometimes, I’ll lean back, look at the ceiling and let out a loud “hmmmm” so it’s clear I’m thinking and doing a difficult task.
Bonus points if the browser has loaded a webpage, preferably one showing graphs that automagically update?
Executives fuckin love a dashboard
As someone who builds a ton of dashboards for executives they absolutely do! It’s also very obvious when an executive finally gets replaced who hasn’t been pulling their weight because I’ll suddenly learn that 3 of the dashboards we made for them have been broken for multiple years without anyone noticing
I think it makes them feel important, like they are somehow contributing something (which justifies their salary)?😁
I have literally used that nonsense fake hacker/coding site before, where you just hit random keys and it spits out fake code.
Sounds like California
The
code is compilingLLM is training. ok?
Being on your laptop
outsideis a miserable experienceftfy
As a lifelong desktop PC user, laptops just feel claustrophobic 😅 Especially sucks without a mouse, fuck the trackpad.
I think it’s an excellent compromise for being a portable PC. If I’m going to university, to a study space or a lecture, a laptop is freaking fantastic.
Also all laptops universally have one killer feature that nearly no desktop PC has: a built-in UPS. If power goes out, the laptop just keeps chugging along on battery power, giving you an extra few hours of work.
It’s not my workstation of choice by any means, but I wouldn’t call it miserable. It’s fine.
Yeah, i have no idea how all those people are doing their work. I need a big monitor or two, a good keyboard and a nice mouse!
My partner is a psycho who does like 90% of her graphic design work on a 13" macbook air using only trackpad
As a graphic designer I need to ask what the fuck.
I never use drawing tablets, honestly, but I do need a real mouse.
Yeah, i mean she uses a tablet when doing the actual creating part, but mostly the job these days is moving assets around to fit the necessary sizes for different social media. I still don’t understand how someone can stand to do that using a trackpad, but she’s good at what she does so 🤷♂️
As a graphic designer, I’d quit being a graphic designer if laptop+trackpad was my only option D:
My partner used to do design on her laptop on the sofa with a graphic tablet. Inconceivable for me .
Dude I know these people. My brain explodes at how inefficient they must be.
Sometimes I forget not everyone is computer literate and so fast that their work laptop can’t keep up with them
Don’t fall asleep.
Did you just mix up Michael Myers, Candyman, and the Blair Witch?
i use the keyboard nipple myself
haha I always heard of that being referred to as the “clit” :D But haven’t used one in 20 years or so, I don’t see them on modern laptops.
the think pads still have an
Plug in mouse. If you need to, pllug laptop into external monitor(s)/TV
Bro, people today prefer trackpad. Its fucking mindblowing. Ive met several IRL people that love trackpads and don’t own a mouse.
I almost guarantee I’m 10x faster at anything on a PC than them
I prefer a trackpad while I work, and the reason is simple: Much less movement to switch from trackpad to keyboard than from mouse to keyboard. And much easier to land on the key you want without looking.
And I very much doubt you’d be faster than me with a mouse!
Trackpads give me handcramps very fast. Also if Trackpads were faster, gamers would use them.
A gamer does not need to switch from the mouse to the keyboard repeatedly. Plus, a gamer cares about precision, which obviously a trackpad lacks.
“Faster” standalone means nothing. Can you move the pointer faster with a mouse? Of course. But I don’t see most people flicking on their workstation.
Makes sense!
The point of trackpads (and even more so of trackpoints) is that they’re faster to get to from typing position - you move your hand back a bit (or even just the index finger) instead of moving across the whole keyboard. That’s not something that would go high on the checklist when gaming - it’s usually one hand planted on WASD, the other on the mouse and hardly any going back and forth.
You’re assuming these people are doing something useful, they could be dealing with Microslop licensing as their full time job. Which is definitely a full time job, its just not useful work in the broader sense.
Ha, true
I don’t own a mouse. I like the trackpad because I’m left handed and a mouse always felt weird to me left handed because schools in the 90s forced me to use it right handed.
So, uhh, are you good and comfortable at using the mouse with your right hand? If so you have no reason to use your left. I have a left-handed friend who has always exclusivity used his right for the mouse. Ain’t no law saying your mouse hand must be your writing hand. Not to mention the benefits: it’s the default setting on any system, and there are lots of great quality asymmetric mouses that only fit the right hand.
I’m not trying to change you, by all means if you like the trackpad more power to you. Just curious why you’d try to mouse with your left if you’ve already learned to use it with your right.
I am comfortable with it in my right hand but I have a tendency to click the buttons backwards. Trackpad is easier one finger left click 2 finger right click just seems more intuitive.
I have fond memories of my Macbook Pro’s touchpad. That was over a decade ago, I still haven’t found a comparable experience.
Genuinely, Mac’s track pads are amazing. Which is hilarious because their mouses are so bad. I don’t know how they messed up a mouse so much while mastering the track pad so well.
Framework laptop 13 feels pretty close
Nope, I’ve got one
I’ve stopped caring about being fast. In fact I’m certain my current setup is slower, more comfortable, and funner than any I’ve enjoyed before.
If you feel good and you’re enjoying your setup then that’s what matters.
Yes totally . i can see trackpad bring good if you have some wrist issues. I do have wrist issues but a trackpad makes it worse for me
Same. I go between keyboard, trackball, trackpad, touch screen, and mouse. Whichever is lowest resistance.
Amazingly, there is this nifty thing called a “port” that allows a mouse to be plugged into a laptop. It is pretty incredible technology. /s
I tend to vacillate myself depending on the noise of the environment vs the work at hand. If I need to spread out across a few monitors, dock it. If I just need to do some simple paperwork, portable. If I want to force no distractions, portable (as it is more difficult to see things when your screen real estate is reduced.)
Helps if you have good eyesight too, laptop UIs today are at clown magnification levels anymore.
But my laptop doesn’t have a PS/2 port :(
Amazingly, there is this nifty thing called a “port” that allows a mouse to be plugged into a laptop. It is pretty incredible technology. /s
Yes, I meant that it’s even worse when there’s no mouse plugged in, but I guess my phrasing wasn’t clear :)
I work on industrial production lines. I’ve gotten used enough to laptops that I don’t mind too much.
Work from home on my 34" curved screen + 27" flat is amazing tho.
Curved screens look appealing (I imagine also good for gaming), but I don’t think I’d want to try them for work as a graphic designer. I need straight lines to look straight :)
It’s not like it’s curved upwards
Well, these guys aren’t working, as far as I’m concerned, if they can do it without bringing out a mouse and real keyboard and probably a second monitor. (My laptop bag is pretty heavy.) They can at best be checking emails.
Agreed.
If you can do your work on a 13" laptop with no mouse or external monitor without your productivity dropping off a cliff, you were never productive to begin with.
I disagree on the external monitor, not everyone need one or they are just used to using it, also how the OS is scaled matter too
Yeah, tbh I’m fine working as a graphic designer on my single 24-inch screen, not sure what I’d put on another one.
Though I imagine it might be useful when gaming to put a guide or spreadsheet on a smaller, vertical screen.
I can’t work on a big screen. I’m thriving on my laptop with my 3x3 virtual desktop grid, though.
If I’m ever envious of someone doing work in places where they should be relaxing, please kill me.
You must be someone who hates working from home, because home is the place where we should all feel relaxed, right? What about working in the garden? The garden is certainly a relaxation spot, but god forbid you get some rays of sunshine while you work.
I understand the desire to pity people who work at the beach. But then again, I pity anyone who ended up living near Silicon Valley. Think of all the money though!
That’s one extreme way to take the comment, I guess. I worked from home for a while and I think these return to office orders are stupid as hell, largely because going to the office needs unpaid commuting time, annoyances related to needing to bring a lunch, and it takes away your ability to do small chores and stuff during the work day that might be often impossible during the evening for one reason or another.
Look, if you want to work at the beach or whatever then go for it, but the idea that California is the “envy of nations” because people can do labour at a beach is insanity.
Toshiba used to sell a laptop (IIRC the model name was R500) back in like 2008 that had a mirror behind the screen, meaning that bright sunlight would be reflected back through the LCD and always respond to external lighting conditions no matter how bright. The image quality and color was shitty, but you could use it in the sun. Battery time was also extremely impressive.
interesting. most modern lcds have a shiny reflective layer behind the backlight for this reason, I wonder if they’re all modeled after toshibas design
Even just being in public. I tried it for one day at Panera while I was writing a professional review. People kept coming up to talk to me, I couldn’t tune the noise out, and I was uncomfortable in their wood chairs.
I’m convinced those suits in Starbucks are just trawling for chicks.
People kept coming up to talk to me [at Panera]
This is just…unimaginable to me. Who goes up to strangers at a chain restaurant? Especially one who is clearly busy? Unless you mean employees, which would be a bit more understandable, though still weird.
It was a lot of old people just being social on a Tuesday. I didn’t mind that so much, reasonably sane old people should be cherished. My brain just isn’t wired for distractions.
Over-ear headphones help with this. Then you can just ignore them and pretend you can’t hear.
(My neurospicy is showing…)
I go traveling with the sales guys sometimes, and we had Starbucks in between meetings so that we can sit down and do email for an hour and then go to the next meeting. I wouldn’t want to sit there all day.
I work from home and I never get to the point where I want to go out in public and do work. I do get to the point where I want to go on public, but I take a walk and get some sun and I don’t bring my laptop.
Sun glare, sand, bad WiFi… yeah, it looks better than it feels 😭
How do you even read the screen in broad daylight?
One guy even has sunglasses, like there’s no way he can see anything
Maybe it’s polarized glass, so it takes more away of the sunlight than the display light. He can’t tilt his head too much though.
Polarized glasses and a low refresh rate is a recipe for a good beach vomiting
Why? Does polarization affect motion sickness?
I’ve had polarized lenses reveal multi colored scan lines between black spaces that can be a tad disorienting
some people get sick looking at screens?
Uh, polarized glasses cancel out a lot of displays. It’s why pilot glasses aren’t.
Depending on the display xor glasses polarization orientation you need to tilt your head by up to 90° of course.
Imagine having the freedom to work from the beach and still putting on a button down shirt.
A light well made button down isn’t all that uncomfortable. I’d call it nice on a breezy day. It’s not a tie.
Depends on the print.
Solid color or conservative pattern? Hard pass.
Pineapples or flamingos? Fuck yeah.
Fuck anything with a collar. It’s an absolutely idiotic bit of “fashion” which needs to die
👌
I don’t even like Hawaiian shirts. What’s the point of that collar? Why is western wear so obsessed with putting that style of collar on absolutely everything.
Behold! E-paper laptops! You can read them outside!
I recently discovered this thing called books that also works great outside. And it’s a lot more fun than laptop work!
But isn’t that expensive since each page is pay per? Pay per page! That’s gonna rack up some dough. Although I did go to goodwill today and they had some really inexpensive Wikipedia/website-like things on their shelves. I picked one up from the cooking isle and it had lots of pictures and text on pay per. But it was cheap like 5 bucks.
laptop outside is fine but on the beach? why don’t you pour the sand in manually at home?
That glare makes it impossible to see too
I remember in ~2000 someone was in the parking lot of my office at a picnic table on their laptop and people commented how “cool” that was.
I’ve noticed since then that IT people qualify anything that drives work into personal spaces as “cool”.
2012: Wow, you can hot spot to your blackberry and connect your laptop to the Internet from the ferry, when you used to just let the wind ruffle your hair during your commute? “Cool.”
2026: Wow AI can write 78% of your code so you can produce twice as much shitty code while you spend even more time at your desk then you used to, for less money? “Cool.”
Nah mate screen is awesome outside except most people are stuck on macbooks that are simply unusable due to extreme screen glare.
Can’t tell if you are describing a screen type or are Aussie
Nah everything is fine except there are people I don’t like doing things I don’t like…
The bit about people bringing their laptops to the beach smells like RTO propaganda
Am I the only one that sees Brendon Frazier and David Duchovney?
Now that you say it… it’s kinda uncanny! Obviously, we’re looking at a picture taken twenty years ago.
Absolutely does look like young them
