Show HN: Movably – Protect your health, move more while you work
Nah. Give me a standing desk that I can lower all the way down to a squat. Scratch that: just give me a wooden box to squat on. Where will I put that box, though? I don’t know…<p>(Warning: rant incoming)<p>It’s interesting that this “sitting is [literally] the new smoking” study-shows movement has shown how limited ergonomic tools are. Maybe some ergonomic tools are just a grift to paper over the inherent defiencies of office work.[1] Think about it:<p>1. People get health problems from working in an office<p>2. Ergo company steps in to let the managers buy ergonomic equipment<p>3. Ergo company makes a pretty penny<p>4. The company behind the office just have to spend a little more money on office equipment rather than rethink the whole structure of their work environment. (Does it work? Well, the important thing is that they made an effort)<p>5. Win-win<p>So anyway. How come the bodies of (one of) the smartest species on Earth are so fragile that it can’t deal with full-time thinking-work?[2] And how can we ever make up for it when we are contractually obligated to do keyboard-clacking&#x2F;mouse-clicking&#x2F;meeting-sitting for eight hours a day?<p>1. Better remember to look at a far-away object every twenty minutes in order to combat screen&#x2F;reading-induced myopia<p>2. Try to (as often as possible) vary your positions without interrupting your own concentration on your task (how?)<p>3. Better remember to schedule some movement ritual in order to not be the new “smoker”<p>4. Better try to not look like a try-hard idiot as you do all your anti-sedentary&#x2F;anti-myopia exercises in the middle of your open office which even has (for insult-to-injury) glass walls separating it from the common hallway<p>5. Honestly, even with all the fidgeting and practicing the-best-positions-is-the-next-one at work, you will have to dedicate a lot of time off-work for that old school rigorous exercise (remember the eighties when that was all it took? Supposedly)<p>One problem might be that companies are stupid (see: open office). But it seems more fundamental than that. How are you even supposed to do knowledge work without committing sins of sedentary?<p>1. Maybe a small treadmill? Could work for reading tasks or meetings. But what about your gait when you are typing and using the mouse? I’ve heard that that gets awkward<p>2. Memorize the codebase and apply changes in your mind while you go for an outdoor hike? What kind of outdoorsy savant could pull that off?<p>[1] Key word “some”. I know that some people swear by certain ergo alternatives.<p>[2] I know, I know. There is no “why” to evolution. We just evolved in a completely different environment. Still makes me upset though.