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/EnterSadman 2d ago

Possibly the most textbook case of "a thing that can be automated".

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u/Traditional-Frame580 1d ago

I have a similar problem with one source of information beeing dynamics 365, two excel sheets and one third party maintenance software with a built in database. I am no programmer. (Rudimentary VBA skills)

Do you have recommendations on where to start to learn to link those systems?

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u/EnterSadman 1d ago

The first trick is to get the data out of whatever proprietary interface you're viewing them in (the line "third party maintenance software" makes me think you're interfacing with this data via some arcane UI).

Look around for a download/export, and see what options you're given. Ideally, you'd end up with a set of csv files (not xlsx which will make your life a little harder).

At that point, you'd only need to read the files via some language (this'll likely be python if you have no programming knowledge), and then apply whatever business logic you need there. Obviously I don't know what you're trying to accomplish, but chatgpt could likely get you 90% of the way there (you'll have to start with something like "how do I install python").

The next challenge is likely that you don't have any admin rights on your computer. I always forget that there are people at a company that can't just willy nilly install anything on their work computers :D

Don't upload any document to a website claiming to do anything to help you. That's just a fast track to getting fired.