Working outside
(midwest.social)
EfreetSK
Programmer Humorhttps://x.com/zeynepmyenisey
Sun glare, sand, bad WiFi… yeah, it looks better than it feels 😭
Behold! E-paper laptops! You can read them outside!
If I’m ever envious of someone doing work in places where they should be relaxing, please kill me.
I have a fucking awesome gaming laptop. It has like 2 hours of battery life tops. (the very highly operative word being "tops") Just today I was anxious about pulling it out of my backpack due to the fact it's being spingtime and literally all of the winter walkway gravel is in the wind. I'm a Nikon fangirl and I very much hesitated to uncap my lens.
The bit about people bringing their laptops to the beach smells like RTO propaganda
Being on your laptop ~~outside~~ is a miserable experience
ftfy
As a lifelong desktop PC user, laptops just feel claustrophobic 😅 Especially sucks without a mouse, fuck the trackpad.
I think it's an excellent compromise for being a portable PC. If I'm going to university, to a study space or a lecture, a laptop is freaking fantastic.
Also all laptops universally have one killer feature that nearly no desktop PC has: a built-in UPS. If power goes out, the laptop just keeps chugging along on battery power, giving you an extra few hours of work.
It's not my workstation of choice by any means, but I wouldn't call it miserable. It's fine.
Bro, people today prefer trackpad. Its fucking mindblowing. Ive met several IRL people that love trackpads and don't own a mouse.
I almost guarantee I'm 10x faster at anything on a PC than them
Amazingly, there is this nifty thing called a "port" that allows a mouse to be plugged into a laptop. It is pretty incredible technology. /s
I tend to vacillate myself depending on the noise of the environment vs the work at hand. If I need to spread out across a few monitors, dock it. If I just need to do some simple paperwork, portable. If I want to force no distractions, portable (as it is more difficult to see things when your screen real estate is reduced.)
Helps if you have good eyesight too, laptop UIs today are at clown magnification levels anymore.
Amazingly, there is this nifty thing called a “port” that allows a mouse to be plugged into a laptop. It is pretty incredible technology. /s
Yes, I meant that it's even worse when there's no mouse plugged in, but I guess my phrasing wasn't clear :)
Yeah, i have no idea how all those people are doing their work. I need a big monitor or two, a good keyboard and a nice mouse!
My partner is a psycho who does like 90% of her graphic design work on a 13" macbook air using only trackpad
As a graphic designer, I'd quit being a graphic designer if laptop+trackpad was my only option D:
Dude I know these people. My brain explodes at how inefficient they must be.
Sometimes I forget not everyone is computer literate and so fast that their work laptop can't keep up with them
As a graphic designer I need to ask what the fuck.
I never use drawing tablets, honestly, but I do need a real mouse.
Yeah, i mean she uses a tablet when doing the actual creating part, but mostly the job these days is moving assets around to fit the necessary sizes for different social media. I still don't understand how someone can stand to do that using a trackpad, but she's good at what she does so 🤷♂️
Don't fall asleep.
i use the keyboard nipple myself
Hell yeah another clit stick user, there are dozens of us!
Plug in mouse. If you need to, pllug laptop into external monitor(s)/TV
i have no idea how all those people are doing their work.
like people in cafes "working".
and what screen is visible on a sunny day outside.
I was thinking that too, just looking at the image is giving me a headache imagining squinting at your screen notched up to full blast and still dim, through your sunglasses.
What in the stock image hell is this. Lmao
Well, these guys aren't working, as far as I'm concerned, if they can do it without bringing out a mouse and real keyboard and probably a second monitor. (My laptop bag is pretty heavy.) They can at best be checking emails.
Agreed.
If you can do your work on a 13" laptop with no mouse or external monitor without your productivity dropping off a cliff, you were never productive to begin with.
I disagree on the external monitor, not everyone need one or they are just used to using it, also how the OS is scaled matter too
Yeah, tbh I'm fine working as a graphic designer on my single 24-inch screen, not sure what I'd put on another one.
Though I imagine it might be useful when gaming to put a guide or spreadsheet on a smaller, vertical screen.
This is like the idea of having sex on the beach. Who really wants that. You didn't think it through if you want that. Do you really want to invite sand and salmonella to the mix?
Imagine having the freedom to work from the beach and still putting on a button down shirt.
I don't even like Hawaiian shirts. What's the point of that collar? Why is western wear so obsessed with putting that style of collar on absolutely everything.
A light wall made button down isn't all that uncomfortable. I'd call it nice on a breezy day. It's not a tie.
A nice linen shirt is great in hot weather.
Depends on the print.
Solid color or conservative pattern? Hard pass.
Pineapples or flamingos? Fuck yeah.
What does she mean by outside? Like being in second room ?
I literally live in the SF bay area, there's like 2 good beaches, and none of them are worth the headache it would take to get there
I miss the IBM mouse clitoris of the 90s
still there on Thinkpads
You can even get Bluetooth keyboards with them
Definitely finding a cafe with a plug. I don't want to be outside.
Even just being in public. I tried it for one day at Panera while I was writing a professional review. People kept coming up to talk to me, I couldn’t tune the noise out, and I was uncomfortable in their wood chairs.
I’m convinced those suits in Starbucks are just trawling for chicks.
People kept coming up to talk to me [at Panera]
This is just...unimaginable to me. Who goes up to strangers at a chain restaurant? Especially one who is clearly busy? Unless you mean employees, which would be a bit more understandable, though still weird.
It was a lot of old people just being social on a Tuesday. I didn’t mind that so much, reasonably sane old people should be cherished. My brain just isn’t wired for distractions.
One time an old lady kept talking to me at the gardening section of the supermarket. I didn't have the heart to cut her off, bless her heart.
She did know her shit about flowers though.
Who goes up to strangers at a chain restaurant?
who sets up to work in a public place that serves shitty food?
...lots of people.
Over-ear headphones help with this. Then you can just ignore them and pretend you can't hear.
(My neurospicy is showing...)
I go traveling with the sales guys sometimes, and we had Starbucks in between meetings so that we can sit down and do email for an hour and then go to the next meeting. I wouldn't want to sit there all day.
I work from home and I never get to the point where I want to go out in public and do work. I do get to the point where I want to go on public, but I take a walk and get some sun and I don't bring my laptop.
Toshiba used to sell a laptop (IIRC the model name was R500) back in like 2008 that had a mirror behind the screen, meaning that bright sunlight would be reflected back through the LCD and always respond to external lighting conditions no matter how bright. The image quality and color was shitty, but you could use it in the sun. Battery time was also extremely impressive.
The same thing would work with e-ink. It works fine in super bright sunlight. Unfortunately since it physically spins little balls with electromagnets the refresh rate is very slow compared to conventional screens.
interesting. most modern lcds have a shiny reflective layer behind the backlight for this reason, I wonder if they're all modeled after toshibas design
We need rLCD laptops
or e-ink
Working outside can be fun. At least AS long AS you dont need that good of an internet connection, have a comfy place to sit in and are at a somewhat dark spot, so you can still see on your screen.
If and only if these three things are all given, than it can be quite nice to work outside.
The dark spot is only an issue if you're using a laptop or something. Pen and a pad of paper is fine outside. Loose stacks of paper is obviously not ideal.
Unfortunately, most of us need to work using screens these days. I have hope for the future with these smart AR glasses. With the screen on the glasses, it shouldn't be a problem to use them in bright light. And, feeling the sun on your skin is one of the best parts about being outside when the weather is good.
A coworker of mine specifically built a little gazebo on their deck to be a summer-office. They wired a little wifi repeater in the roof, retractable shades and curtains, a ceiling fan, and got a desk that specifically fits a comfy deck chair. Obviously all of this can be moved out of the way for normal back yard stuff, but it’s become the absolute envy of all my remote colleagues.
Exactly, I used to hike to the top of a mountain find a shady spot and work till my battery died then hike back down.
Couldn’t agree more. Some of my best work and learning recently has been me on my back porch under shade with a box fan. While I have solid WiFi and power there, I also pack a portable monitor and can work without internet on much of what I do.
There are some very decent outside-internet solutions. I have one of those solutions at home and it's a joy to work outside.
Working outside your home is nice. But I think a lot of these comments are talking about working outside in public is a whole other problem.
WiFi mesh networks can have impressive range outdoors, without walls and reflections blocking the wifis. And they can be powered by PoE (Power over Ethernet) so you only need to run 1 cable to hook it up.
But for most of my work, a cellphone hotspot is suitable, so long as it's not so remote that I don't get at least a strong 4G signal. Video conferencing isn't very data intensive with compression and, if I'm not running the meeting, slight spottiness is fine.
Also, if you take any meetings, it needs to be quiet enough to communicate but also not disruptive to others if you're taking loudly.
So it's good if you are close to your router, have a comfortable chair, and have so much share you're basically indoors.
So if I just open a window in my office...
I get what you're saying and acknowledge that that's the best environment for some people, but for me there's a different feel in being in your office and being on the back porch or out in the garage with the door open.
The fresh air, mild distractions on an easy day, and more natural light make me feel good. I think the beach would be a fucking nightmare for me. Same for things like a coffee shop. But if I'm in at least a semi private space and it's not a balls to the wall day, I'll take not being chained to the desk every time it's practical.
Gotta turn the brightness all the way up so you squint at your laptop for about an hour before it dies and you have a tension headache.
Not if you’re using a macbook…
...why?
they got e-ink screens now?
Laptops and screens can be pretty efficient. I got a pretty cheap run of the mill one (Arch btw) that easily does >8 hours at full blast HDR and no power saving.
lol macs have the glossiest screens out there, almost like they make it a mirror on purpose
2022 brought one of the best screens for outdoor work… for a price, but of course
I use a MacBook Pro M4 from work, and the battery does last.
It’s also amazing that Apple Silicon can have similar power to a desktop RTX 5070 Ti in a laptop, except without a space heater PSU or a 16GB RAM limitation. If only it didn’t cost $4k and only have one Linux distro option. I’m hoping AMD RDNA 5 SoCs will be competitive and address both limitations.
What does that have to do with seeing the screen outdoors, and tension headaches?
I exaggerated the 1h battery life in my original post for comic effect. This person replied saying that’s not the case with a MacBook. I replied expressing my approval for MacBooks and couldn’t help but also going off on a tangent to express my other thoughts on the topic.
Oh, whoops, I didn't look at names. Nevermind.
Same thing with eating outside. I could be indoors with air conditioning and not squinting my eyes while shooing away flies, but some normie in my party wanted to eat outside because "it's nice out." Meanwhile my napkins are blowing off the table that I need to dab away the sweat dripping down my face. What a great idea!
Location, weather and time is key when eating outside. Have eaten many a meal outside without issue and I prefer it to inside when the three align.
Wasps. Fuck wasps.
If not for wasps, my family would eat outside most of the summer. As it is, it's either wasps writing 3 minutes of bringing food outside, or a wind strong enough to blow the wasps and our food away.
On second thought, let's not go outside. 'Tis a silly place.
No work is getting done there. They’re pretending it does.
As opposed to the office where I’m definitely not doing just enough to not get fired
Turns out as long as you have your browser and inbox open and frown at your screen when your boss walks by, most people won’t question it any further
I have literally used that nonsense fake hacker/coding site before, where you just hit random keys and it spits out fake code.
Sometimes, I'll lean back, look at the ceiling and let out a loud "hmmmm" so it's clear I'm thinking and doing a difficult task.
Bonus points if the browser has loaded a webpage, preferably one showing graphs that automagically update?
Executives fuckin love a dashboard
As someone who builds a ton of dashboards for executives they absolutely do! It's also very obvious when an executive finally gets replaced who hasn't been pulling their weight because I'll suddenly learn that 3 of the dashboards we made for them have been broken for multiple years without anyone noticing
I think it makes them feel important, like they are somehow contributing something (which justifies their salary)?😁
Sounds like California
wat
Sounds like my job description
The ~~code is compiling~~ LLM is training. ok?
Ah, dang it! I didn't know that lady was the arbiter of universal human experience!
Pack it up everyone. We're having fun the wrong way! Someone make her CEO of Blizzard, stat!
Being in sunlight is tiring. It's better to work in a hatchback or camper van at the beach. Then it can be moved to a wooded park in the hills.
How do you even read the screen in broad daylight?
One guy even has sunglasses, like there's no way he can see anything
Maybe it's polarized glass, so it takes more away of the sunlight than the display light. He can't tilt his head too much though.
Uh, polarized glasses cancel out a lot of displays. It's why pilot glasses aren't.
Polarized glasses and a low refresh rate is a recipe for a good beach vomiting
some people get sick looking at screens?
Especially anywhere near a beach! Aside from the sunlight, all the sand in the air getting everywhere. ¡No bueno!
Nothin like the crunch of salt under your keys to really boost that productivity.
I love that crunchy feeling! You just don’t get that with new keyboards!
Am I the only one that sees Brendon Frazier and David Duchovney?
Now that you say it... it's kinda uncanny! Obviously, we're looking at a picture taken twenty years ago.
Absolutely does look like young them
For those with modern MacBooks capable of HDR, check out an app called “Vivid” for working outdoors. I use it. Life changer.
You can also do this with Lunar, or with the paid version of BetterDisplay, and they also support controlling external monitors via DDC/CI.
I personally despise MacOS, but the MiniLED displays in MacBooks have fully changed what I prioritize when buying displays.
It's so much more pleasant to be in a bright room (or outside), but that's only feasible if your screen can output like 1000nits of brightness which few can outside of MiniLED displays.
Starting w/ M4 MacBook Pros, the anti reflective screen option is shockingly good.
I'm more concerned about the bagels served in bowls rather than the beach side work tbh
The sneaky traffic cone is cracking me up.
Looks like there are several. Probably marking a property line on the beach
You can double the brightness of an LCD relative to its surroundings by wearing polarised sunglasses
Unless the screen is horizontally polarized, in which case you won't see a thing unless you tilt your head 90°
Just wear two pairs of polarised sunglasses each rotated 90°
Start a new fashion trend
But that will just make it bla... Oh...
You're still working to make someone else rich. I'm not sure being in full sunlight at the beach is much of a consolation.
Given that the only other option for most people is "make someone else rich in a less comfortable environment", I would say it's pretty nice. Bonus points, you're probably less productive there so you're making them slightly less money.
Not all rebellion involves molotov cocktails.
Cocktail hour with your coworkers would be so much better if it involved molotovs though... A girl can dream.
Had bad experiences with all except Macbooks.
Any time I've gone to "work" from home somewhere fun, no actual work is getting done, no matter how genuinely I try
Isn't that more of a personal issue?
I work from home everyday. I get my shit done and then I do whatever I want.
I would do exactly the same thing at the office except whatever I want is bullshit with people I don't want to be around (coworkers).
Not work from home, "work from home" (i.e. not in the office) somewhere fun.
I have no problem setting up at home and getting down to business. But sitting on a beach or in a park might not work out the same. Realistically, there are issues with lighting, ergonomics, having power, internet connectivity, etc.
I didn't fully understand the glory of working from home until I did it on a snow day.
Removing the commute was an obvious, expected benefit. But turning off the camera and doing laundry or cooking lunch while in one of my multiple daily conference calls was amazing. I just had the meeting in my headphones and chimed in when needed. And it annoys me that can't be my regular routine.
I drive 3-4 hours a day in traffic to sit in a (very nice) office where 95% of my work is remote work using cloud-based software and attending Teams meetings.
But because once a week or so someone may walk into city hall and ask for me instead of sending an email or making a phone call I'm expected to be in the office. Which is doubly annoying since most of the time they get turned away because I'm already in a separate online meeting when they show up.
I do legitimately have to attend public meetings a few evenings a month. I'd be so happy to compromise and go into the office on days with public hearings or when I need to visit a site, but work remote the remaining 80-90% of the time. Hell - I'd even trade working an extra hour a day while remote to do it. It'll still save me time versus driving.
I'm a strong believer in requiring all office/majority computer using roles to be at least hybrid if for no other reasons than to take cars off the road, but the societal benefits of mass remote work are immense.
I've worked remotely more than not since 2020 (and that's with 5 job changes since 2020 somehow) and if I got to pick, I'd work a hybrid role where I go to the nice office and bullshit with my coworkers about all the little things that weren't worth writing an email or Teams message about a few days a month, then go home and crank out the real work the rest of the time. And with kids, they clearly appreciate me being at home more than at the office even if I do have to shoe them away fairly frequently.
Oh no, don't get me wrong, I work from home just fine.
If I'm working from a cafe, restaurant or bar, I'm spending the whole time there distracted
Which I guess is indeed a personal issue, so far play
I'm with you, but in my case it's about comfort. Most places don't have ergonomic seating, and I have a hard time focusing when I'm not comfortably seated
I like it. My patio table has an umbrella though.
Sitting next to a laptop doesn't mean I'm working. It's the same at the beach and in the office.
LPT - quit your office job and get a job in construction - you get to actually work when you're "working outside" and you can enjoy using your computer for entertainment only... inside where they belong.
Construction can pay well, but it can be brutal on your body if you do it for long
I've only been doing it for twenty years, but I started in my thirties. I stretch in the morning and work smart not hard, so for me it's more like getting paid to exercise. YMMV.
Did this but now I can no longer afford a computer in 2026. Thanks Sam Altman.
True, but that's a problem hitting everyone regardless of job. I've been trying to focus on upgrading the parts of my 2020 rig that are still affordable, before those also get hit by the AI bubble. Buy HDDs now, as I think they're next!
The image makes me so uncomfortable just by looking at it. The way they are hunged down get a closer look of the screen or the right guy is adjusting their screen to get a better angle... Also their brains inside their heads are in direct contact with the sun and is probably past well-done by now. If the chair in the back is the one they two are sitting on then "good night". Ill give them 2 hours tops until they call it a day.
Bees
And in the basking sun with a lot of sand all around? No thank you.
I've been trying to think how I could have a good way to play games outside. Was thinking if I ever have the extra money for it, I could get AR glasses, and connect those and a solar charger to my Steam Deck. And a controller. Cyborg in the wild.
In case anyone reading this didn't know: direct sunlight can cause your VR headset lenses to act like a magnifying glass, burning your precious LCD display in a moment, if the light hits it right.
@_@
Love to be in full Sun while doing work 🙄
At least have an umbrella or something?
I live close to the beach. I work from home. Screens and sunny days just don’t match
the two dudes aren't real. this is just someone complaining using Ai slop as background. which, ok, but still.
It doesn't look AI at first glance, the dudes are too out of focus. What makes you say it's AI?
their pinkies, especially guy in right.
wearing same color shirt.
the focus seems...off.
beach furniture looks out of place in general as if they just prompted for " create 2 guys in pink shirts on the beach working on their laptops in the sun."
I feel like the residential grade table with kitchen swivel counter stools is more out of place despite not looking entirely off. Do they really put stuff like that, which will instantly rust and fall apart on California beaches? The rest of the image has more understandable outdoor furniture.
I don't see any clear giveaways but the bagel cups' shadows look very much not parallel. It could be a wide-angle lens doing its thing though.
