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Show HN: Explore the Workspaces of Modern Creators

41 pointsby ryangilberttoday at 3:41 PM34 commentsview on HN

Comments

skippyfishtoday at 3:59 PM

I find it nuts that "creators" is basically synonymous with "streamers". To add insult to injury, these workspaces appear to be overwhelmingly staged.

There's nothing interesting to me about a workplace with a clinically-tidy desk and a LED ring light. I want to see metalsmiths, woodworkers, electrical engineers, etc. Even software occupations often have interesting workspace setups dictated by the nature of the job - for example, many CAD and music / video production setups are eclectic - but these ain't it.

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ericzawotoday at 6:06 PM

This is cool but it just promotes the Kinfolkification of the home. And they all look the same / nothing like how me or my colleagues's home setups look. This looks very...... youtube and #aesthetic. Which is fine and there's clearly a market for, but it should include ALL workspaces not just Creatives one which is shorthand for like "Cool guy Creators / streamers / people with Instagrams"

thih9today at 6:38 PM

Victor’s desk[1] was the first that I saw that had some honesty, showing a laptop on a stack of books. Thank you Victor.

[1]: https://workspaces.xyz/p/526-viktor-vlahek-ekaeoq

SubiculumCodetoday at 4:19 PM

Not one creator's workspace is a messy hoard? This is an idealic, oh crap we better clean up before the photographer arrives, fantasy.

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blobdoletoday at 7:19 PM

These remind me of the various YouTube channels I have seen pop up over the last few years focusing on 3d printing and organization, usually of clean workshops or sterile computer desks.

They are usually very pretty and well edited, with impressively done voice overs. They are also usually about aesthetically organizing and displaying an exacting set of objects that can't be changed without breaking out the fulfillment.

I guess aspirational and satisfying to look at, but pretty useless in terms of actual working space organization. Should probably play "A Little to the Left" and get your pattern matching fix that way.

KellyCriteriontoday at 5:29 PM

What Im doing wrong?

I have a 50 bucks IKEA table with scrathed surface, a screen from 2008 and a chair for 10 bucks I bought from the last companies shut down.

And no, this is not fancy :-D :-D but it does the job :)

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1-moretoday at 7:55 PM

Guess I'm the only dude with his home gym in the same room as his work desk? In the Claude Code era it's an absolute gamechanger.

a1otoday at 3:58 PM

I am curious why so many people use Apple Monitors but with a regular stand instead of the VESA mount version so they could use a better support, the stand is clearly not being able to deliver the best position as people seem to use different things to rise them a little more.

Having been using different supports throughout the years, using the regular stand that come with monitors always felt like a considerable downgrade and the cost of a proper support that you attach to the desk, drill on it or drill on the wall, depending on the necessity of the space, is usually negligible.

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lrctoday at 6:44 PM

It's like Frutiger Aero come to life

markus_zhangtoday at 3:53 PM

Would love to see computer engineers or electrical engineers.

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anentropictoday at 6:09 PM

TBH I feel like this is cringe

tsxng44today at 5:23 PM

Wow, these made me feel worse about my own workplace. Jokes aside, these workspaces are likely staged beforehand in my opinion. Very interesting though however!

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graypeggtoday at 5:22 PM

I love the idea! But echoing some comments on here, oh man if the desk-owner takes the desk-photo, you get a lot of branded mugs with the logo facing towards the camera, books neatly stacked in a pile right in the middle of the desk, or (my personal favourite) the iPhone place purposefully upside down centred on the un-scratched cutting mat just downwind from the perpendicularly oriented speed-square/stencil. [0] You never know when you might need an edgeless speed-square at a moment's notice!

NOT A DIG AT THESE PEOPLE! The spaces look great! And clearly, they own all the things listed/shown, so there's nothing disingenuous. It's just a bit of a stretch to say it's their workspace... this is the collapsed superposition of their workspace once you measure it with a photo. They took the photo, sat down, realized the pile of books is now where there arm should be and then entropy takes the wheel.

The few that don't have that manicured aesthetic, I love [1]. The books have been opened, the sticky notes are actually used, pens are in the broken mug, and fun knick-knacks are fully deployed to every flat surface EXCEPT the one you have to put your arms on. Tessa dedicated like 15 minutes to these photos then moved on with her day and got shit done. I get the same feeling from that video of Linus Torvald's "zombie shuffling desk". [2] If he spent, like 3 hours organizing and manicuring this, it could fit in on this site just fine, but he probably has other stuff to do.

[0] https://workspaces.xyz/p/507-lubos-volkov

[1] https://workspaces.xyz/p/218-tessa-brown

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYUZAF3ePFE

BorisMelniktoday at 5:16 PM

love it! Id love it if you made it like a TinderCard feature

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mmoosstoday at 4:03 PM

Very interesting, thank you. For designers and similar creatives, I'm surprised that there isn't more artwork. Also, the workspaces - the desks and especially the monitor screen area - are much smaller than I expected.

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RIMRtoday at 4:13 PM

Oh please, what is with all of these pristine "engineer" workspaces? Every high-powered engineer I know lives in a pile of wires, boards, and monitors that evolves like a living organism.

ryangilberttoday at 4:05 PM

Hi HN!

I originally launched Workspaces on April 5, 2020 when world shifted to remote work.

The original idea was simple... interview one person a week, ask them about their setup, publish the photos and gear list.

It's now been 6+ years and 500+ interviews.

Each feature includes workspace photography, a short bio, a full gear list with links, and four interview questions. New issues go out every Saturday morning.

Would love to hear what you think!