My personal workspace is usually ...
Displaying poll results.21622 total votes.
My personal workspace is usually ...
If you push the "extra ice" button on the soft drink vending machine, you won't get any ice. If you push the "no ice" button, you'll get ice, but no cup.
It's what they say (Score:5, Funny)
If a messy desk indicates a messy mind, what does an empty desk indicate?
Re:It's what they say (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The word is "laid". Don't worry, you'll get it when you grow up in a few years.
Re:It's what they say (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: It's what they say (Score:5, Funny)
"Disappointing"
Re: It's what they say (Score:5, Informative)
Those were all published after the printers conventions gained common acceptance among publishers and dictionary writers (between 1450 and 1550 or so). They are proper for printed English. But written English is much older than that. The use of "y" at the end of a word and "i" in its place in the middle of a word was a convention by printers which made it easier to deal with the "y" descender in a stylish way.
I would not say this in many forums, but this is slashdot....
Re: (Score:2)
The use of "y" at the end of a word and "i" in its place in the middle of a word was a convention by printers which made it easier to deal with the "y" descender in a stylish way.
I would not say this in many forums, but this is slashdot....
*I* find it convincing and interesting though a reference would be nice. And this is /. so it is appropriate to learn something new and slightly odd.
A pet hate of mine is faux archaic signs like "Ye olde cheese shoppe". The "ye" is just a misunderstanding AFAIK of "the" written with a slightly open, regional form of the letter thorn [wikipedia.org] which vaguely looks like a "y" though it just means "th".
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
So fucking what? Then isn't now.
Go to Italy or Spain and start wittering in Latin. They won't understand a bloody word you're saying.
Re: (Score:2)
I have four years of Latin.
Caput tuum in ano est.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
If a messy desk indicates a messy mind, what does an empty desk indicate?
Messy and empty aren't opposites. My desk is well structered (boxes/helpers provided by my company and lego). There is a pad and a biro for scribbling and the rest is taken up by a wall of monitors. The desktop is kind of messy, because there is never enough screen estate.
Re: (Score:2)
What's ordered to one person is messy to another.
Re:higher dimensionality order... (Score:3)
Looking at a pine tree or maple tree from its top and it looks like a bunch of leaves mashed together (2D projection), but seeing the full 3D view or around from the side, and there is obviously quite a bit of order. For a lot of messy desk-ers, there *is* order, it is just not necessarily apparent from a simple outsider's view, one who doesn't understand the higher dimensionality of it...
Re: It's what they say (Score:1)
Empty = devoid of any objects.
Messy = Existing objects are in a disorganized state.
For sonething to be messy, there must be objects in it. Empty means there are no objects.
Care to explain how "messy" and "empty" are not opposites?
Re: (Score:2)
> Messy = Existing objects are in a disorganized state.
Actually to a quantum physicist they seem just the same thing [scientificamerican.com].
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
More work than an inclination to clean.
Re: (Score:2)
I think The Economist said it best [economist.com] when defending a cluttered desk. Interestingly, they found that those with a messy desk actually found it easier to find stuff and to organize ideas than those with a clean desk. Mainly because a cluttered desk actually better reflected a physical map of a person's mental state and proved to be a more efficient organizing principle.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Bill Gates desk (Score:2)
I work in a 2nd generation cave? (Score:2)
If I posted a picture, you wouldn't believe me, but I'm working to clean it up as fast as I can... Really better not say more. My wife is already annoyed enough.
At home or at work? (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Same here:
Work (IT): A stack of papers. Hardware. Cables. That's it.
Home: Coffee cups, saucers, candy wrappers, parts from various projects (prop replicas, keyboards, computer hardware).
Photos (Score:5, Funny)
I'd post a photo of how messy my work area is...but...well...my camera is buried in the mess somewhere :(
Re:Photos (Score:5, Funny)
I would have got first post if I could only have found my keyboard.
Re: (Score:2)
The roaches living under the paper stack carried my camera away. It belongs to them now.
What workspace? (Score:2)
What is my case? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
It's only messy if your desk isn't strong enough to carry the weight!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds to me like his employer should have provided him with some shelving. ;-)
I've seen this problem in several workplaces, where some employees' jobs involved collecting and often analyzing/summarizing/whatever numerous paper trails, but the managers didn't want to bother (or spend money on) the proper shelving to prevent that sort of stacking. Often, the victims of this sort of treatment eventually found another job elsewhere. Sometimes, they just made the best of a (literally) messy situation.
Re: (Score:2)
"Ransacked!" (Score:2)
I once accidentally left my door open so the neighbor called the Police. When the cops got here, my office was so messy they thought the place had been ransacked!
Re: (Score:2)
My home office is a total tip. It's a security feature. If there was a burglary I'd know instantly by how tidy it was.
That's if they didn't get shot by the Japanese soldiers who don't believe the war's over. I think their base is behind the old TV that doesn't work.
Minimal, Clean Desk and Cabinets (Score:3)
I have a desktop phone, my backpack, my laptop, oversized Thunderbird monitor, keyboard, mouse, notepad, smart phones (personal and work), and my drink. I could easily lose the phone.
I have no pictures up on the cubical walls. My cabinets and drawers are 95% empty.
Even my computer desktop is empty of all but the Macintosh HD icon in the upper right corner plus the menu bar and icon bar.
Everything I use or need are on the computer. I take weekly USB based backups of my personal stuff on my laptop and remove them once they're home. Pithy sayings or odd pictures on the walls are boring after a short time. I've brought things in, pictures, calendars, little miniature figures. But it doesn't take long before I take them home again and put them away (besides the occasional "that's inappropriate" from management for Zombie pictures). Company awards, certifications, training, all eventually get taken home.
Heck, my boss has put pictures up in my cubical (Bill Murray, "Who's Awesome, You're Awesome.") which has come down again in a few weeks.
I've been a contractor or consultant for many years. I'm able to pack up and bail at a moments notice.
I will say that I don't clean the desktop very often although I do clean the monitor (it gathers dust).
[John]
Re: (Score:2)
Okay, thanks. I've been typing 'cubical' forever. I'll keep it in mind from now on.
[John]
A fire hazard (Score:3, Interesting)
Nothing like being the PC technician stuck in a small computer while being expected to unbox and image new system, configure network gear before it gets deployed and haul back dead systems. When people from other departments visit my cubicle, the first thing they say is "Oh my God!". At a previous employer I took down the cubicle wall between my cube and an adjacent one, moved it into the old entry gap of the other cubicle and formed one double-sized cubicle. The best environment I ever worked in was a basement lab with professionally designed lab benches that had built-in monitor arms and cable routing passages integrated into it. Upper and lower shelves in addition to a generous work surface. It also helped that the lab was treated as a secure room that only technicians badges could open. You can get so much more work done when people can't walk up to circumvent the Help Desk process.
Re: (Score:1)
"stuck in a small computer" should have been "stuck in a small cubicle". Damn Slashdot and their lack of after-post editing.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
*measure*??
Pfft, real men eyeball it.
clean then messy (Score:2)
We need another choice:
I start out with it clean and by the end of a project it's messy.
rinse, repeat ...
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds like my whiteboard it's clean at the start of a project and somewhere in the middle it looks like my brain exploded onto it and not even co-workers that are working the same project know what it means.
The cleanliness of my workspace is directly related to how busy I am, if it's clean and shiny then I'm bored out of my skull, if it looks like a earthquake and a tornado hit it then I'm busy.
Reality (Score:2)
My office is so bad I was watching the reality show Hoarders and realized that I could literally be on that show. Five 33 gallon trash bags later it's a little better but still pretty bad. I did put the C64 and it's 1571 drive back in a drawer.
Not messy... (Score:1)
I said I was going to use this one....
Weakly chaotic (Score:2)
I spend enough time on my desk "organization" that I can find things, but no more. Organization for the sake of organization is a waste of time and resources.
...laura
I'll clean it if a girl is nearby (Score:2)
You don't have offices with window views? (Score:1)
What is this workspace you go on about?
My large wraparound wooden desk has lots of piles, but I weed it periodically.
Empty = Inert (Score:2)
A clutter of garbage can mean a messy slob. A clutter of projects and intermediates and tools (hard or soft) can mean someone who is at least doing shit, and might not put as much priority on decorum as others.
My desk.... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Somewhere at the bottom of my desk... (Score:1)
... old memos are being pressed into coal. [hbingham.com]
Obligatory missing answer (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Mine is pretty cluttered (Score:1)
I was a messy, cluttery kid, (Score:2)
but I've grown up in to a nearly minimalist tidy adult.
Except for my desk. It stays a wreck.
When I was single and living alone my apartment was spotless - other than I would close the door to my office when people came over. I've always got tons of working on, to be worked on, not working on anymore, hardware, paperwork, etc.. Home and at work.
Interesting that only 20% seem to be clean / tidy (Score:2)
I wonder if we have a predisposition as nerds to be messy, or impulsive? Focus on the code, the game? Fuck taking that dish back to the kitchen?
Keep reading that website, can put the food packaging in the bin later?
I don't know.
Then there's the bigger issue than cleanliness and tidyness, it's QUANTITY. Something I'm literally dealing with right now. I'm a geek / nerd, I have *lots* of stupid IT shit, but I "need" it. It's either worth money or I might use it one day. The sad thing is a lot of the "I mig
my home is my workspace (Score:2)
...with the exception of my bedroom which is pretty much bare except for a bed and a reading lamp. 'Cos you got to have a bit of a break from the chaos that's everywhere else, right?
10614 total votes and 66 posts (Score:1)
10614 total votes and 66 posts.
Wow, better go vote! This will make a difference.
Bit too messy (Score:1)
Spent an hour extra changing my mobo and cpu today, because I couldn't find a screwdriver.
contradictions (Score:2)
I love cleanliness, I get crazy if trash is lying around anywhere, but my desk I just cannot keep clean for the life of me. Too much paperwork coming in faster than I can process it, mostly. My mail inbox is the same. Everything else is somehow ordered and sorted and more or less neat (well, I'm not a fanatic, but it's ok) but inbox and desk - I've about given up on those.
Maybe just throw it away once a year ?
depends (Score:2)
Depends on whether or not you are talking about my cubicle at the office, where I do paperwork, or the work space at the customer site, which is actually in a cleanroom.
The cleanroom space is, obviously, cleanroom clean. 5S and all that horseshit.
My desk at the office is chaos to everyone else except me.
clean room (Score:2)
well I work in a clean room, so...
Jim Williams - my desk hero (Score:1)
'Clean desk is a sign of sick mind' was one of my first .sig quotes in the 80s. Google for the late Jim Williams and images of his desk! There was a sane man.
A cataclysm of disorganization (Score:2)
Yes and no? (Score:2)
My "personal workspace" really is messy enough to inspire a reality TV series. But that's only when I'm not working. When I'm working, my field of view is effectively limited to my monitors, which are tidy like a cleanroom. That's exactly the reason why my workspace is a mess: I never see it:p
Too many books (Score:2)
I have way too many books on computer languages, design patterns, etc. These days, I only buy e-books. When I have spare time, I scan some pages of old notes from classes that I took years ago, and then recycle those papers.