
Ask HN: What would you put on the wall behind your desk? - aditya
The wall behind my desk at work is bare. What would you put on yours?<p>I'm currently debating between the Tufte "Information Design in Outer Space" poster<p>https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/posters<p>or, the xkcd map of the internet poster:<p>http://xkcd.com/195/<p>Ideas welcome!
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tstegart
A map of the world. It reminds me that one of the reasons I'm trying to do the
things I'm doing is to be able to travel more often.

~~~
CaptainMorgan
I got this for the exact reasons you describe:
<http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/posters/6a93/> The night effect just
seemed really cool to me... I love this poster... it's also much better seeing
it in person - I don't think the TG site's picture does it justice.

I also like the Linux distro time line poster that used to be linked from here
to KDE.org: <http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000842.html> Not sure
what happened to it, but if I could get it I would.

~~~
rwiser
The Linux distro time line may be here:
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/LinuxDist...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/LinuxDistroTimeline.png)

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asp742
Genealogy of Rock/Pop Music <http://www.historyshots.com/Rockmusic/index.cfm>

DNA Portrait <http://www.dna11.com/>

Fotoflōts of your own pictures <http://fotoflot.com/>

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tom_rath
I find a Sword of Damocles helps.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
Ha! I have a replica of Sting hanging on the wall behind my desk at home :-)

I'd put one of my katanas there instead, but I have a 7 year old who sleeps
next door...

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mickt
A window.

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asnyder
I would put the Richard Feynman "Think Different" poster behind my desk. There
were 2 different versions made, either would do.

[http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.artiges-
hf...](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.artiges-
hfp.de/struktur/giffsnstuff/appleCampagne/apple_feynman.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.artiges-
hfp.de/projekte/apple_campagne/appleCapagne.html&h=283&w=438&sz=56&hl=en&start=1&sig2=klb6UmE0FkjkjAMvOQc8LA&um=1&tbnid=YCLUj_OUQ40FtM:&tbnh=82&tbnw=127&ei=VW6sSI_IKKbCwwHg5JRG&prev=/images%3Fq%3DRichard%2Bfeynman%2BThink%2Bdifferent%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN)

------
misterbwong
Currently have these printed and posted on the wall for fun:

McCarthy - Programming: You're doing it completely wrong
[http://lemonodor.com/images/mccarthy-youre-doing-it-
wrong-s....](http://lemonodor.com/images/mccarthy-youre-doing-it-wrong-s.jpg)

Djikstra - Quick and Dirty: I would not like it
<http://flickr.com/photos/mando/1591358554/>

Picard - Facepalm: Because expressing how dumb that was in words just doesn't
work [http://www.forumammo.com/cpg/albums/userpics/10071/picard-
no...](http://www.forumammo.com/cpg/albums/userpics/10071/picard-no-
facepalm.jpg)

------
Locke
I've always wanted this:

<http://despair.com/limitations.html>

For some reason I find it inspirational even though it's not supposed to be.
My brain must not be wired correctly.

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felideon
The History of Programming Languages poster from O'Reilly.

[http://oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/news/languageposter_0504.ht...](http://oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/news/languageposter_0504.html)

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gaius
A giant mirror. For the Feng Shui.

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truebosko
I wish I could put a poster up but I fear the customers. See, since we are a
retail/online shop (guess which part I handle), we have one big warehouse that
we turned into a pseudo office/showroom. The office is nicely away from the
show room but there's no walls, so customers can easily see me, and everything
behind me.

It's a nice setup, very open, but I guess that restriction kind of sucks. :/
Of course, I could always put up an appropriate poster..

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sspencer
I have Edward Hopper's "Two On The Aisle" behind me. It's one of my favorite
Hopper paintings, and people often comment that they think it is a nice change
from everyone's maps of the internet and automotivators.

<http://www.toledomuseum.org/Images/Art/Modern/1935_49.jpg>

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maxklein
I usually put a picture of George W. Bush, sometimes I put David Hasselhof.
It's great to be free to do what I want.

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brk
I would put something that is non-obvious and hopefully marginally unique.
This would likely mean nothing with a Dilbert, xkcd, or space theme.

My walls tend to have unique artwork, and/or framed versions of my own
photographs. I like when my office wall art can inspire a conversation vs. a
"heh heh, funny" sort of response.

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Alex3917
When I get an office I'm planning on framing the covers of books that have
inspired me and putting them on the wall. It would say something about myself,
be a good conversation starter, and also make people who use their degrees as
a crutch uncomfortable. An all-around win.

~~~
mrtron
People with degrees don't read books?

I would say anyone with a degree should use it to help them, that is why you
spend 4 years attaining it. So you want to make everyone with a degree
uncomfortable (somehow). Some misplaced resentment?

~~~
Alex3917
I have nothing against degrees, I just disapprove of the (large) subset of
people using their credentials as an excuse to remain ignorant and disengaged.

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Morieris
I had this up over my desk for quite a while:

<http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~mjuric/universe/>

People always asked what it was; my standard response was "The universe. All
of it."

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Erwin
VisiBone have some very nice quality laminated reference charts, booklets
etc.: <http://www.visibone.com/> \-- their JS/CSS references have very high
information density.

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Zev
I've been debating about getting an Ork poster (<http://orkposters.com>) of
Manhattan, but there are a few other cities that there's posters for as well.

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aupajo
The Web is Agreement: <http://www.flickr.com/photos/psd/1805709102/>

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rms
<http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/posters/>

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stevedekorte
If you want to show your appriecation for design, then nothing would show it
better than a bare wall and a debris free workspace.

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qhoxie
I actually have the map of the internet poster in the room where I do most of
my work. I get a kick out of it as do visitors.

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viggity
I have both an actual United States Flag (not a picture) and a portrait of the
Iwo Jima Memorial at sunset.

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Ardit
The magnificent painting, I think from Michelangelo? Of god and man almost
touching their index finger.

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pyroman
I would put a picture or paining of myself sitting at my desk. It would be
like the Colbert painting.

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mattmaroon
I have a really awesome hand made metal clock. The time is still not adjusted
for daylight savings.

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manvsmachine
right now have a print of Nature's "Relationships Among Scientific Paradigms":
<http://informationesthetics.org/node/20>

and xkcd's "Dreams": <http://xkcd.com/137/>

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shadytrees
A Foe-Glass. I've said too much.

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sanj
Fingerpaintings from my kids.

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gtani
linux kernel poster

<http://www.makelinux.net/kernel_map_poster>

OR the one that looked like the milton Bradley Simon game

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noodle
i have a bunch of personal stuff. my diploma, some of my more difficult certs,
some black belt certs, pictures, and stuff.

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cmos
A big sign that says "I rock this world"

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vaksel
a picture of a window looking out on some exotic location

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maurycy
Actually, nothing.

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gills
paint.

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weegee
The 'Photographic Truths' poster by Ted Orland

