My neck is asymmetrical because some years back I used to often lie in bed while using a laptop, and would prop my head up on my left elbow, but not my right because there was a wall in the way. In general, using a laptop while lying in bed is an ergonomics nightmare. The ideal would be to lie on your back with the laptop suspended in the air above you, except that that would make typing inconvenient.
So a friend recently blew my mind by informing me that prism glasses are a thing. These rotate your field of vision 90 degrees downwards, so that you can lie on your back and look straight up while still seeing your laptop. I have tried these and highly recommend them.
That said: You should probably not do non-sleep/sex things in bed because that can contribute to insomnia. I recommend trying a standing desk, by putting a box or a chair on top of your desk and putting your laptop on top of that, then just standing permanently; it will be painful at first. Also currently experimenting with only allowing myself to sit down with my laptop if I’m at the same time doing the highest-value thing I could be doing (which is usually ugh-fielded and unpleasant because otherwise I’d have already done it).
Another thing: I have a crankish theory that looking downwards lowers your unconscious estimation of your own social status (which seems to be partly what is meant by “confidence”/”self-esteem”). If that’s true, prism glasses and standing desks could increase confidence.
Relatedly, you can buy goggles that make you see the world inverted up/down or left/right, or rotated. These look incredibly cool but I haven’t yet thought of any actual use for them.
Thanks for the link! The page’s arguments don’t seem to strongly support its recommendation to spend most of the day sitting, though; my takeaway is that you should look at ergonomics, and you shouldn’t stand all day.
Related: I have a messy selection of anecdotal and apocryphal evidence that exacerbating relative height differences between men and women has an immediate effect on how attractive they find each other, (i.e. if a [hetero] man is standing on a chair and looking down at a [hetero] woman, he will find her instantly more attractive than if he were standing at ground level, and vice versa).
Abstract: Human faces show marked sexual shape dimorphism, and this affects their attractiveness. Humans also show marked height dimorphism, which means that men typically view women’s faces from slightly above and women typically view men’s faces from slightly below. We tested the idea that this perspective difference may be the evolutionary origin of the face shape dimorphism by having males and females rate the masculinity/femininity and attractiveness of male and female faces that had been manipulated in pitch (forward or backward tilt), simulating viewing the face from slightly above or below. As predicted, tilting female faces upwards decreased their perceived femininity and attractiveness, whereas tilting them downwards increased their perceived femininity and attractiveness. Male faces tilted up were judged to be more masculine, and tilted down judged to be less masculine. This suggests that sexual selection may have embodied this viewpoint difference into the actual facial proportions of men and women.
I’m strongly tempted to provide anecdotes related to this, and was halfway to the reply box before I caught myself and remembered how tied up this is in my personal brand of weird.
Suffice it to say, I totally believe that standing erect and facing forward is better for mood/confidence overall. (And that believing this is not sufficient reason for me to do so all that often.)
To the extent that height correlates with status and status is positional, I’d naively expect it to be the other way round (you look upwards when you’re surrounded by taller people and downwards when you’re surrounded by shorter people).
For my main home display, I have a data projecter pointed at the far bedroom wall. I often lie in bed, on my back, with the display “floating” above me. Also, it’s far enough away that my eyes stay relaxed (focused at infinity).
My neck is asymmetrical because some years back I used to often lie in bed while using a laptop, and would prop my head up on my left elbow, but not my right because there was a wall in the way. In general, using a laptop while lying in bed is an ergonomics nightmare. The ideal would be to lie on your back with the laptop suspended in the air above you, except that that would make typing inconvenient.
So a friend recently blew my mind by informing me that prism glasses are a thing. These rotate your field of vision 90 degrees downwards, so that you can lie on your back and look straight up while still seeing your laptop. I have tried these and highly recommend them.
That said: You should probably not do non-sleep/sex things in bed because that can contribute to insomnia. I recommend trying a standing desk, by putting a box or a chair on top of your desk and putting your laptop on top of that, then just standing permanently; it will be painful at first. Also currently experimenting with only allowing myself to sit down with my laptop if I’m at the same time doing the highest-value thing I could be doing (which is usually ugh-fielded and unpleasant because otherwise I’d have already done it).
Another thing: I have a crankish theory that looking downwards lowers your unconscious estimation of your own social status (which seems to be partly what is meant by “confidence”/”self-esteem”). If that’s true, prism glasses and standing desks could increase confidence.
Relatedly, you can buy goggles that make you see the world inverted up/down or left/right, or rotated. These look incredibly cool but I haven’t yet thought of any actual use for them.
You can get 30-degree goggles here ($15) or 180-degree goggles here ($25), or make your own, or get an adjustable thing ($80).
Obligatory note re: standing desk ergonomics: http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/CUESitStand.html
The lesson seems to be to mostly sit, but stand and walk around every 30-45 minutes or so.
Thanks for the link! The page’s arguments don’t seem to strongly support its recommendation to spend most of the day sitting, though; my takeaway is that you should look at ergonomics, and you shouldn’t stand all day.
Crankish? This is bog-standard body language / NLP thing. It is the opposite of power posing.
Why is this crankish? I consider this totally plausible.
Related: I have a messy selection of anecdotal and apocryphal evidence that exacerbating relative height differences between men and women has an immediate effect on how attractive they find each other, (i.e. if a [hetero] man is standing on a chair and looking down at a [hetero] woman, he will find her instantly more attractive than if he were standing at ground level, and vice versa).
This study is relevant:
I’m strongly tempted to provide anecdotes related to this, and was halfway to the reply box before I caught myself and remembered how tied up this is in my personal brand of weird.
Suffice it to say, I totally believe that standing erect and facing forward is better for mood/confidence overall. (And that believing this is not sufficient reason for me to do so all that often.)
This sounds interesting. Could you say why this isn’t enough reason for you to stand erect and forward-facing more often?
For personal reasons I generally don’t expect people to take seriously. The short version is I fail at keeping my identity small.
To the extent that height correlates with status and status is positional, I’d naively expect it to be the other way round (you look upwards when you’re surrounded by taller people and downwards when you’re surrounded by shorter people).
For my main home display, I have a data projecter pointed at the far bedroom wall. I often lie in bed, on my back, with the display “floating” above me. Also, it’s far enough away that my eyes stay relaxed (focused at infinity).
Treadmill desk. Set between one and two miles per hour.
Been using them for 4 month, love em