A brief history of my dev setup
Hi everybody 👐! So, yesterday I tweeted about how my dev-setup looked 8 years ago and how it looks now and I think it went a little bit "viral" 😂
So first thing I need to say about this, that these photos are entirely true. The first photo was taken at my parents home when I used to live in Huacho and the second one was taken in my apartment a few days ago.
A lot of things have changed since those days living in Huacho and a lot of things have also happened. So, let's take a look at the brief history of my dev-setup through some photos and stories behind them.
So! My first computer was an Acer 5750 that I used when I was in college. My dev-setup at that moment was complemented with a very basic webcam, a wireless mouse and the desk that I built with some recycled stuff I found at home.
Sometimes, I also used to work using my TV table along with my Micronics headphones.
When I moved to Lima, looking for job opportunities, I lived for a 2 years in the apartment of a close family member and my father thought it was a great moment to buy a new laptop(thank you papa!), so I've got a Asus S56CM Ultrabook and once again my desk was my multi-purpose TV table 😂
Some time later, after saving some money, I bought a second-hand first generation iPad that my Boss at that moment was selling for a very affordable price and also I've got the chance to buy a desk.
Once I got more stable financially, I decided to be more independent 💪 and take the next step 🚶♀️, so I leased a very small but good enough room. It was so small that my desk was reduced to be a bed desk.
After few years, I finally was in the position to rent an bigger place so my desk came back to never leave me again 😆
So, here is where I need to stop and take a moment to share a very painful moment in my life. As you can see, my dev-setup has changed a lot, I think in one side my hardware got more and more better but I need to admit that I lacked of good ergonomics practices.
Working on my bed for almost 2 years and using a very bad chair caused a terrible damage to my body, as consequence in late 2017, I was diagnosed with a L4-L5 hernia. So yep! As you can imagine, having an hernia is terribly awful 😞 but looking at the bright side of things, it also helped me to understand the importance of staying healthy and taking more care of myself.
Since then, I tried to put my efforts improving my dev-setup on things that I believe it helps me to have a better ergonomic posture.
The first thing on my list was indeed buying a new, more comfortable but affordable chair, also start using an external monitor and a proper keyboard and mouse(a trackpad in my case). It took some time and patience to get all of those things.
Step by step, I think I was able to get closer to the dev-setup I dream about. To be honest, sometimes things didn't turn out as I expected and I do need to admit that sometimes it could feel like a waste of money but trust me, it is worth it to invest on ourselves; we deserve to have the best experience possible when it comes to have our own space to create things, in my case to create software.
My current 2020 dev-setup includes:
- Macbook Pro 2019
- Apple Wireless Keyboard
- Apple Trackpad
- LG External Monitor 24" UHD 4K
- Jabra 510 Wireless Speaker (very useful to get rid of headphones)
- Bose SoundLink Revolve
- Anker Wireless Charger
- Vivo Adjustable Monitor Arm
- Twelve South BookArc for MacBook
- One Beat Power Strip with USB C port
- Bamboo Cable Management Box
- Herman Miller Aeron (medium size)
- Customized desk of 68cm height(it turns out that most desks are actually design for very tall people)
And that's it! I hope you enjoyed to know more about the story of my dev-setup. As last thing, I want to ask you to watch this video about some great tips to keep your space as ergonomic as possible. Remember you deserve it 🙂!