Today's episode is "Old News"! Stephanie shares her ergonomic desk setup. Joël talks about the pyramids.
Another old thing is the Bike Shed episode two weeks ago about success and fulfillment. Stephanie and Joël realized off-mic that one area they didn't really talk about so much is impact, and that is something that is very fulfilling for both of them. Today, they talk about impact and leadership as individual contributors because leadership is typically associated with management. But they believe that as ICs, at any level, you can be displaying attributes of leadership and show up in that way on teams.
This episode is brought to you by Airbrake (https://airbrake.io/?utm_campaign=Q3_2022%3A%20Bike%20Shed%20Podcast%20Ad&utm_source=Bike%20Shed&utm_medium=website). Visit Frictionless error monitoring and performance insight for your app stack.
Success and Fulfillment episode (https://www.bikeshed.fm/376)
Logitech MX Vertical (https://www.bestbuy.com/site/logitech-mx-vertical-advanced-wireless-optical-mouse-with-ergonomic-design-graphite/6282602.p?skuId=6282602&ref=212&loc=1&extStoreId=319&ref=212&loc=1&&&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItMP27PT8_QIVfMiUCR0_dwVqEAQYASABEgIWJ_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds)
Rose Wiegley's Lead From Where You Are (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GorXHiB7nw)
Transcript:
JOËL: Hello and welcome to another episode of The Bike Shed, a weekly podcast from your friends at thoughtbot about developing great software. I'm Joël Quenneville.
STEPHANIE: And I'm Stephanie Minn. And together, we're here to share a bit of what we've learned along the way.
JOËL: So, Stephanie, what's old in your world?
STEPHANIE: I'm glad you asked that question because I don't think we get a chance to talk about things that are exactly the same as they've always been. And so today, I'd like to share my ergonomic desk setup, [laughs] which has been old for about a year or so. And back then, I was having some issues with some back pain and some wrist pain, and I made a few upgrades and since then have not had any issues.
And I feel like it's one of those things that I just forgot about because when it stops being a problem, you don't really notice it. And today, I am able to reflect on my old problem of bodily pain while working. And I'm happy to say that things have been much better for a while now.
JOËL: Oh, that's amazing. What's one thing you think had the most impact in your setup?
STEPHANIE: Oh, I picked up one of those vertical mice for my wrist. I was having some wrist pain, like I mentioned. And I actually solicited some input from other thoughtboters for the best mouse to replace the Apple Magic Mouse that I was using, which I really wanted it to work for me because I liked the way it looked, but nevertheless, that was causing me issues. So I ended up with the Logitech MX vertical, and that has really solved my wrist pain. It is very not cute. [laughs] It kind of looks like a weird big, gray snail. But you know what? You got to do what you got to do.
JOËL: That sounds like an art project waiting to happen.
STEPHANIE: Yeah. I would love to see; I don't know, a way to make these vertical mice look a little more cute. Maybe I will stick some googly eyes or something on it and then just be like, this is my pet snail [laughs] that works with me every day.
JOËL: Do you have a name?
STEPHANIE: Not yet. Maybe I'll save it for what's new next week.
[laughter]
JOËL: Homework assignment. Years ago, I was also having some wrist pain. And I think one of the most impactful things I did was remapping some keys on my keyboard. So I'm a pretty heavy Vim user. And I think just reaching with that pinky for the Escape key all the time was putting a lot of strain on my wrist. So I remapped Caps Lock to control. That's what I did. Yes, because it was reaching down with the pinky for the Control key and remapped escape to hitting J twice.
So now I can do those two very common things, Control for some kind of common chord and then Escape because you're always dropping i