Ask HN: What would you put on the wall behind your desk?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=281650

by aditya • 18 years ago

10 44 18 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

The wall behind my desk at work is bare. What would you put on yours?

I'm currently debating between the Tufte "Information Design in Outer Space" poster

https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/posters

or, the xkcd map of the internet poster:

http://xkcd.com/195/

Ideas welcome!

cmos• 18 years ago

A big sign that says "I rock this world"

brk• 18 years ago

I would put something that is non-obvious and hopefully marginally unique. This would likely mean nothing with a Dilbert, xkcd, or space theme.

My walls tend to have unique artwork, and/or framed versions of my own photographs. I like when my office wall art can inspire a conversation vs. a "heh heh, funny" sort of response.

qhoxie• 18 years ago

I actually have the map of the internet poster in the room where I do most of my work. I get a kick out of it as do visitors.

asp742• 18 years ago

Genealogy of Rock/Pop Music http://www.historyshots.com/Rockmusic/index.cfm

DNA Portrait http://www.dna11.com/

Fotoflōts of your own pictures http://fotoflot.com/

Morieris• 18 years ago

I had this up over my desk for quite a while:

http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~mjuric/universe/

People always asked what it was; my standard response was "The universe. All of it."

tstegart• 18 years ago

A map of the world. It reminds me that one of the reasons I'm trying to do the things I'm doing is to be able to travel more often.

CaptainMorgan• 18 years ago

I got this for the exact reasons you describe: http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/posters/6a93/ The night effect just seemed really cool to me... I love this poster... it's also much better seeing it in person - I don't think the TG site's picture does it justice.

I also like the Linux distro time line poster that used to be linked from here to KDE.org: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000842.html Not sure what happened to it, but if I could get it I would.

rwiser• 18 years ago

The Linux distro time line may be here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/LinuxDist...

maxklein• 18 years ago

I usually put a picture of George W. Bush, sometimes I put David Hasselhof. It's great to be free to do what I want.

vaksel• 18 years ago

a picture of a window looking out on some exotic location

Alex39173• 18 years ago

When I get an office I'm planning on framing the covers of books that have inspired me and putting them on the wall. It would say something about myself, be a good conversation starter, and also make people who use their degrees as a crutch uncomfortable. An all-around win.

mrtron• 18 years ago

People with degrees don't read books?

I would say anyone with a degree should use it to help them, that is why you spend 4 years attaining it. So you want to make everyone with a degree uncomfortable (somehow). Some misplaced resentment?

Alex39173• 18 years ago

I have nothing against degrees, I just disapprove of the (large) subset of people using their credentials as an excuse to remain ignorant and disengaged.

maurycy3• 18 years ago

They have a good excuse to not read books, actually.

(interesingly, one can reversely say that lack of degree encourages you to read more because you have more to prove)

carl_• 18 years ago

"It would say something about myself"

If I walked into your office and you gave me a "conversation starter" along that line, I'd think you had a chip on your shoulder. It's one thing to be proud of your achievements, a different one to use them as a crutch for your inferiority complex.

Been there, done that.

Alex39173• 18 years ago

I don't see how you equate social objects with an inferiority complex. By that logic everyone who owns a teapot or board game has low self-esteem.

maurycy3• 18 years ago

All subjects are good to rant on the education and the social structure, eh?

misterbwong• 18 years ago

Currently have these printed and posted on the wall for fun:

McCarthy - Programming: You're doing it completely wrong http://lemonodor.com/images/mccarthy-youre-doing-it-wrong-s....

Djikstra - Quick and Dirty: I would not like it http://flickr.com/photos/mando/1591358554/

Picard - Facepalm: Because expressing how dumb that was in words just doesn't work http://www.forumammo.com/cpg/albums/userpics/10071/picard-no...

mickt• 18 years ago

A window.

Erwin• 18 years ago

VisiBone have some very nice quality laminated reference charts, booklets etc.: http://www.visibone.com/ -- their JS/CSS references have very high information density.

truebosko• 18 years ago

I wish I could put a poster up but I fear the customers. See, since we are a retail/online shop (guess which part I handle), we have one big warehouse that we turned into a pseudo office/showroom. The office is nicely away from the show room but there's no walls, so customers can easily see me, and everything behind me.

It's a nice setup, very open, but I guess that restriction kind of sucks. :/ Of course, I could always put up an appropriate poster..

weegee• 18 years ago

The 'Photographic Truths' poster by Ted Orland

felideon• 18 years ago

The History of Programming Languages poster from O'Reilly.

http://oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/news/languageposter_0504.ht...

tom_rath• 18 years ago

I find a Sword of Damocles helps.

HeyLaughingBoy• 18 years ago

Ha! I have a replica of Sting hanging on the wall behind my desk at home :-)

I'd put one of my katanas there instead, but I have a 7 year old who sleeps next door...

sspencer• 18 years ago

I have Edward Hopper's "Two On The Aisle" behind me. It's one of my favorite Hopper paintings, and people often comment that they think it is a nice change from everyone's maps of the internet and automotivators.

http://www.toledomuseum.org/Images/Art/Modern/1935_49.jpg

shadytrees• 18 years ago

A Foe-Glass. I've said too much.

noodle• 18 years ago

i have a bunch of personal stuff. my diploma, some of my more difficult certs, some black belt certs, pictures, and stuff.

asnyder• 18 years ago

I would put the Richard Feynman "Think Different" poster behind my desk. There were 2 different versions made, either would do.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.artiges-hf...

gills• 18 years ago

paint.

mattmaroon• 18 years ago

I have a really awesome hand made metal clock. The time is still not adjusted for daylight savings.

sanj• 18 years ago

Fingerpaintings from my kids.

gaius• 18 years ago

A giant mirror. For the Feng Shui.

pyroman• 18 years ago

I would put a picture or paining of myself sitting at my desk. It would be like the Colbert painting.

Locke• 18 years ago

I've always wanted this:

http://despair.com/limitations.html

For some reason I find it inspirational even though it's not supposed to be. My brain must not be wired correctly.

maurycy3• 18 years ago

Actually, nothing.

viggity• 18 years ago

I have both an actual United States Flag (not a picture) and a portrait of the Iwo Jima Memorial at sunset.

manvsmachine• 18 years ago

right now have a print of Nature's "Relationships Among Scientific Paradigms": http://informationesthetics.org/node/20

and xkcd's "Dreams": http://xkcd.com/137/

gtani• 18 years ago

linux kernel poster

http://www.makelinux.net/kernel_map_poster

OR the one that looked like the milton Bradley Simon game

Zev• 18 years ago

I've been debating about getting an Ork poster (http://orkposters.com) of Manhattan, but there are a few other cities that there's posters for as well.

rms• 18 years ago

http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/posters/

Ardit• 18 years ago

The magnificent painting, I think from Michelangelo? Of god and man almost touching their index finger.

stevedekorte• 18 years ago

If you want to show your appriecation for design, then nothing would show it better than a bare wall and a debris free workspace.

aupajo• 18 years ago

The Web is Agreement: http://www.flickr.com/photos/psd/1805709102/

Ask HN: What would you put on the wall behind your desk?

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