Comment Re:Chair of the future? (Score 1) 93
"Who here is going to spend more on their chair than they are on their computer?" you ask.
Well, I would. I hope I would have a great computer also, (better than the "middling" one I have now) but that wouldn't prevent me from buying something like the poetic technologies' chairs/workstations.
Think about it for a moment -- how many hours per day do you spend using your computer? Do you use it for "play" -- coding for fun, using the net, whatever -- or do you use it for work AND for play, spending perhaps upwards of 12 hours some days at your computer, your workstation?
Sure, we all know that you have to get up every half an hour and move around, get the blood flowing, but how many times have you been so into something that you've looked up and three hours (or more) have gone by and the only reason you're looking up is that your big-ass container of mountain dew is empty and you need your caffeine?
Yes, I know this is a stereotype.. but's it's a valid stereotype. I work out, almost every day I get to the community center, swim, do some weights. I'm not one of the muscle crew, but I'm doing okay for someone with a sedentary job. I know for a FACT though that if I had a more ergomonically correct work station that the work would be easier. And easier means faster. And thinking about that, well life is far too short -- the more hours spent doing things with the people we love are more hours worth living.
"Human Engineering" -- the science of engineering things to make them the best they can be for us (where things are in your car, where the knobs are so you can reach them without crashing, etc.. all that is human engineering, and each company tries to out engineer the other) is a hot area and it should be: there are lots of things that are uncomfortable for no good reason and should be redesigned. Like the workstation that gives everyone a shoulder/wrist/backache.
Do you know how many tens of millions of dollars are spent each year on repetitive stress injuries, including carpal tunnel, shoulder strain (reaching for that damned mouse) and other computer workstation-related repetitive movement injuries?
Why should I (or anyone else) get back strain and shoulder strain from reaching for the mouse time after time? In a human engineered, ergonomic work station, that would never happen. In a Poetic Technologies Workstation, that would never happen. I wouldn't have the repetitive injuries, the stress injuries, the aches and pains that come from things being placed badly.
And so you ask, would I pay a lot of money to get rid of all that, and vastly improve the quality of my work life and play (at least the part that happens on the net)? Hell, yeah, I would. I think the better question, more to the point, is why wouldn't you?
Your computer you exchange every few years, but the hours you sit in a chair at a desk that doesn't "fit" you right, and does all sorts of uncomfortable things to you -- how could that be good? Think of it this way, if for no other reason than getting your work done FASTER because you're more focused and able to get out of that chair an hour or two earlier to rejoin life. That's a great reason alone to invest in a good work station, or even a great one.
If I had the money, I'd buy one today. Unfortunately, I can't afford one - yet. But I will, eventually. And I can't wait. If you, whomever you are, reading this, can afford one, get it. If you use it for work, you write it off on your taxes - and think of the investment in your productivity, health, and enjoyment of work that you're making. I think that's worth a couple of computer upgrades. I really do.
