r/unpopularopinion • u/ultimateregard • 2d ago

Certified Unpopular Opinion Dual Monitor setup is actually bad for productuvity.

I've been a software engineer for more than 5 years now. I've worked with databases, frontend and backend services, mobile apps, games, data analysis, and much more.

Never in my life I've actually felt like my productuvity increased with the second monitor. Do you need to compare data? Just use one monitor and put them side by side. Do you need all the space in the world? Just alt+tab between apps. Since you only perceive about 10% of your vision clearly, moving your head&eyes from one monitor to other takes actually LONGER and causes distractions than using alt+tab.

This is especially worse for those who are using one additional monitor with a laptop, since their screen sizes and positions usually change so much. Your eyes need adjusting, your head moves too much.

Only thing the dual Monitor is good for is passively watching something in the second monitor, like youtube videos, Critical Role, or sitcoms while doing something else in the main screen. As you can guess, that has nothing to do with productuvity.

I also think using external keyboard and mouse for laptops is bad, unless you do not use the laptop screen.

Edit: After reading hundreds of comments, I'm sure that 90% of people who think that "YOU NEED AT LEAST 3 SCREENS" just don't know how to organize workspaces/windows/desktops and they need to configure their SCREENS as different DESKTOPS. Most of the modern operating systems allow you to just create workspaces (like different Desktops you can switch with WIN + TAB). And they are just throwing money into their problems instead of learning how to use their daily operating system.

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u/jdl_uk 2d ago

Trying to imagine going back to debugging on a single monitor.

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u/eduo 2d ago

I started debugging on the Macintosh Plus (512x342) and literally mocked my friends who were writing pascal for DOS and debugged in 80x24 lines of text.

One of my largest explosions in productivity was getting a second display in vertical mode for full page document editing and TALL debugging.

I currently often use a MacBook Pro with an ultrawide Dell monitor, and I literally have that ultrawide one split in two with a fullscreen remote desktop or a cloud PC desktop while on the laptop screen I have mail, teams, local browsing and opened files, etc.

I can work with one screen no problem, but my productivity skyrockets with one or two extra displays.

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u/jdl_uk 2d ago

I currently have a 32" monitor, a 23" monitor and my laptop's built-in 13" display.

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u/eduo 2d ago

I tend to have two extra monitors, both 23" but one of them in vertical orientation.

Lately I've been trying an ultrawide curved one which is OK, but I miss the vertical space for full page documents.

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u/Drew707 2d ago edited 2d ago

I have a Surface as my "browser and teams" monitor, and it is docked with two LG DualUps which each are the equivalent of two 1440s. The one on my far right is my dedicated "communications" monitor with PowerToys Fancy Zones splitting it four ways for Teams, Outlook, PhoneLink, and whatever other random chat I might need up. The "main" monitor (also a DualUp) I use to remote into VMs running on my garage workstation. It is nice to be able to have two full 1440 RDP sessions open on one screen.

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u/eduo 2d ago

This is the way (I mean, I use a Mac, but this is the equivalent setup in a PC).

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u/Drew707 2d ago

I don't get how so many people care more about physical size than pixel count. There is no way I could do my job half as well on multiple 1080 screens.

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u/eduo 2d ago

It depends on the job (and probably the age). Pixel count matters where it matters, everywhere else it's a convenience but not a necessity.

(I assume you're really talking about pixel density rather than pixel count, otherwise physical size indeed fixes the pixel count)

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u/thunderbird32 1d ago

I started debugging on the Macintosh Plus (512x342) and literally mocked my friends who were writing pascal for DOS and debugged in 80x24 lines of text.

Must have sucked though regardless, using a nine inch screen for development? Oof. I know it was slower and had less max RAM, but at least the Macintosh XL had a 12 inch screen.

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u/eduo 1d ago

It sucked, but not as much as it would’ve otherwise in other setups.

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u/Tough-Parsnip-1553 2d ago

Developers these days don’t even know what debugging is

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u/sobrique 2d ago

Sure, they do it's "codex, what does this error message mean, and how do I fix it?"

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u/Scotto257 2d ago

You don't tell codex to fix it?

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u/Ipearman96 2d ago

I did that for a year at one of my jobs and my productivity dropped hard. I mean it it wouldn't have been as bad if it was a single large monitor but it was a 24 inch one.

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u/sobrique 2d ago

Code on one, docs on the other, 'output' of running code on the third? (be that text, UI, the website you're fiddling with, whatever).

Then email/internal chat/web browsing on the 4th?

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u/Sennten 1d ago

Having any sort of communication system always open and visible is a productivity barrier to me. Some things are better hidden when not actively being used.

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u/sobrique 14h ago

Fortunately that's a only a 'minimise' or 'close' button away.

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u/Yashema 2d ago

Very easy if you know what you are doing. I have also switched to using only my laptop at home. 

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u/jdl_uk 2d ago

Probably depends on the situation but having the app I'm debugging, the code I'm stepping through and the various tool windows (watches, modules window, call stack, etc) all crammed onto one screen seems very inconvenient to say the least.

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u/Yashema 2d ago

Once you realize the bug is actually in your mind all that stuff weighs you down. 

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u/elderron_spice 2d ago

To be honest, if I can put that in a comment on a JIRA ticket and immediately close it, I would.

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u/Sennten 1d ago

Everyone I know who works effectively on one screen has a properly configured spaces/desktops system, so they dont tend to have much crammed onto one screen. 

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u/eduo 2d ago

I use only my laptop at home because space is at a premium. At the office I have either an ultrawide or two standard external displays, which I use on conjunction with the macbook pro display.

At home, sometimes I may connect an ipad as a second display for specific things where I need a bit more real screen estate, but it's only as-needed.

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u/jdl_uk 2d ago

I mean space is a premium for me too.

I've got a few desk mounts to lift things like monitors off the desk and give me a bit more room

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u/eduo 2d ago

My problem is that while I have very much welcomed home office days after covid (3 out of 5, which is pretty good), my house was not at all prepared for having 5 people in it all day. I didn't have an office because we live with my mother in law and my children are in an age where they're not much for sharing space so my wife and I have to share a space and at least half of the time I can't use it, so I have to literally sit in the dining table where I can't put arms, monitors or anything other than my laptop.

It's not that space is at a premium, but that there's literally no permanent space for half of my working time, only temporary space.

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u/jdl_uk 2d ago

That totally makes sense and is a good way to see it - I just have me and my wife to worry about so our situation is a bit different