A lot of us have made the mistake of underestimating technology. How big can the internet be? What real work would our computers or mobiles be capable of? There were plenty of questions in the early days of internet & mobile that had experts puzzled and take polar views. I may have many such tales myself, but here is a simple one. Also personal.
I have had a desktop computer for most of my life. I think the earliest I got one was sometime in 90s. It was a privilege. And in over two decades of computing it is only in 2020 that I have learnt how useful large screens are. So much so that I believe it is a disservice to spend on a good laptop before buying a large external monitor (27″ or more!). I also think organisations need to promote use of large external and even multiple screens for professionals. It is a must have for productivity.
Using an external screen is increasingly common for coders. But the benefits are far from limited to just software engineers. During my international visits, I found it lavish to see even admins & operations staff at co-working space using external displays with their laptops.
It should have hit me back then that a good external monitor has a life of 10 years and costs less than 1 months salary of most working individuals (even in India). Yet we see folks toiling away on small laptop screens and embarrassingly in cases like mine with fancy MacBooks.
2020 was a year I decided to give it a shot, largely motivated by the extensive amount of video editing I did during the COVID-19 lockdown. And while I haven’t edited any videos in the last few months, I cannot see myself working without a large external monitor ever again. Make no mistake, I do no such thing as coding or juggle heavy Excel sheets on a daily basis. Yet the benefits of an external monitor are now immediately visible to me.
We are in an age of information overload, multiple email ids, Slack, WhatsApp, Zoom, Hangouts, Discord, Telegram, all vying for our time.
We are in an age of information overload, multiple email ids, Slack, WhatsApp, Zoom, Hangouts, Discord, Telegram, all vying for our time. With a large screen it is much more easy to organize these apps, read longer articles, play a YouTube video on the side while you sort your emails or have two apps open side by side for cross referencing. For specific professions like accounting, video editing, content writing or online teaching there are immediate benefits of a 2nd display or a single large screen.
If you think this is a luxury and not a must have, here is a story from recent memory. A colleague who worked part-time with us over the last year recently moved on from our company. He now conducts MS Excel coaching sessions online via Zoom / Google Meet for various batch of students. As a part of his work from home kit, he had a decade old 19″ desktop monitor that he got from us. During his exit, I noted that he hadn’t returned the monitor.
Upon inquiring, he mentioned that it was difficult to carry it and he would return it on a later date. Incidentally a few weeks later I had a side project that could benefit from a monitor and I called our Excel guru colleague to check if he can drop it over at office. I could sense some hesitation in his tone and upon probing further he revealed that he finds it much more comfortable to conduct his Excel classes with the external screen where he can see his students.
This colleague of mine is an extremely simple and humble person who probably uses a 5 year old laptop that (in my assessment) desperately needs an upgrade. Under normal circumstances he would never invest in an 2nd screen just for online teaching. But after a few months of using it, he offered to pay for keeping the used monitor.
How to choose your external monitor? I bought mine after reading a fantastic article on the subject by Techoids. Do give it a read and remember two basic things. 27″ is the bare minimum and 32″ isn’t as big as you think 🙂
PS: My good old 19″ screen was left with the colleague as a gift.