

Set good defaults - arram
http://justinkan.com/set-good-defaults

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kyro
I'm curious about the standing desk because to me it's always seemed like
something that would make me focus less on the task at hand. Then again, I've
always been baffled by how others at the gym can read novels while on the
eliptical. I can't even focus properly on the TV shows the gym has running
when I'm exercising. Perhaps it's a reflection of my overall health or maybe
my brain is wired in a way where I can't handle both involved physical and
mental activity.

I'd like to hear from people who use standing desks on how it's affected their
productivity and quality of work.

~~~
drewrv
I have a comfy stool to sit in at my standing desk. I've found that without
even thinking about it, I stand when producing, and sit when consuming. For
example I'll sit and read some documentation or sample code, then stand to
write my code. Standing felt quite natural after a day or two.

As for productivity/quality of work, it's not worse. For quality of life, it's
much better as I don't feel as drained at the end of the day.

~~~
tworats
Same: producing when standing, consuming when sitting. I'm actually more
productive, and if feels great. I'm also much more mobile when standing - I'll
walk around if I'm thinking.

I am more physically tired at the end of the day, but in a good way.

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artursapek
I don't see much of a correlation between these goofy treadmill desks and user
interface defaults. I like the UI example of what they do at Exec, I think
it's a smart design. But the second half of the article just reminds me of
Mitch Hedberg's joke about escalators.

~~~
rdl
I think the connection is that he's going to work regardless, and if the
default (via a treadmill desk or standing desk) is to be healthier, he'll do
that. It would take work to find a chair and sit down and be less healthy,
then.

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greggman
I'm very curious about this claim

> I appreciate the most about having a treadmill desk is that even if I don’t
> turn it on once during a day it still functions by default as a standing
> desk, which is already way better for you than sitting!

As far as I can tell the only thing we know is sitting is bad. We don't know
that standing desks are good. Standing desks could ruin your feet. Treadmills
could ruin your eye site as your head bounces as you try to read.

If there is some evidence that standing desks and treadmill desks are actually
a net positive it would be nice to see the citations rather the just citations
that sitting is bad.

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podperson
Defaulting to the last thing the user did is very often the simplest and best
thing to do. But I'd question the _initial_ defaults -- is 1 b.r. 1 bath the
most common option? Maybe it is. Is it the most common option for people
wanting their place cleaned?

For all I know you've figured this stuff out and the answer to both questions
is yes.

~~~
belorn
Business reasons can in this case also effect what sane defaults are. Maybe
one want to anchor the consumers thoughts by defaulting with "cleaning the
whole house" and barging down, or maybe one want to start with one of the
cheapest options and barging up. This is where testing really shine as one can
test each default for a while and see what default brings most revenue.

~~~
podperson
In a business like this, I'd optimize for repeat customers rather than
revenue, but your point is taken.

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brianr
Good defaults also let you give power users complex features while keeping the
common case manageable.

For <http://ratchet.io> , we're currently working on overhauling our
notification system. The new system is rule-based, extremely flexible, and can
be as complex to configure as you want it to be. But we're providing sane
defaults -- e.g. "email everyone on the project when a new error occurs in
production", "if Pivotal Tracker is set up, create a story for each new error"
-- so it will (hopefully!) work just fine for most people out of the box.

~~~
hayksaakian
Too many things are called ratchet. Reading your comment, I got you confused
with

maker.github.com/ratchet/

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mappum
The power of defaultism is why Internet Explorer still has 26% market share.

~~~
JoshTriplett
And why Bing has users, and why other competitors to Google have a very hard
time getting traction.

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bcoates
Speaking of unconventional desk surfaces, does anyone make a good wall-mounted
standing keyboard tray? All I can find are crazy articulated arm systems and
gigantic freestanding desks. I just want a ready-made shelf designed to be
used for only a keyboard + mouse facing a wall-mounted monitor.

~~~
ricardobeat
Doesn't a standard ikea shelf do the job?

~~~
joahua
These are often too narrow and end with your face in the screen. I've
apparently got perfect vision but had difficulty focusing when I attempted
such a setup using standard-depth shelving.

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shurcooL
Defaults are everything.

Most people seem to heavily underestimate their power and potential.

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belorn
On servers, distros that has sane defaults and do not force one to configure
every little piece of software is clearly "winning" over the more old ways of
compile and configure. Back when BSD was the normal OS for servers, distros
like Debian really showed the way that sane defaults was way superior than to
the no defaults policy some had.

Thankfully we have moved away from the no defaults. Some places still need to
see the benefits first hand, but universally, the old policy that said one
should have no defaults is long gone. Those that previously had no defaults
have mostly moved to the same style as Debian.

