![]() I still use a “roll-around” mouse (on the left, since I’m left-handed)-because at least according to my latest measurements I’m still faster with that than with any other pointing technology.Īt the touch of a button, my desk goes to standing height:īut while standing may be better than sitting, I like to at least start my day with something more active, and for more than a decade I’ve been making sure to walk for a couple of hours every morning. The monitors are at a height that-especially given my “computer distance” multifocal glasses-forces my head to be in a good position when I look at them, and not hunched over. ![]() The keyboard is at the right height for optimal typing. Particularly since I’m at my desk much of each day, I’ve tried to optimize its ergonomics. On the left is my secondary “private display” monitor that’s got my email and messages and other things that aren’t directly relevant to the meetings I’m doing.įor the past year or so, I’ve been livestreaming many of our software design meetings-and there are now 250 hours of archived screensharing, all from that right monitor of mine. On the right is my main “public display” monitor that I’ll be screensharing most of the day with people I’m talking to. And partly following my example, our company has evolved a very distributed culture, with people working scattered all over the world (it’s all about being productive, rather than about “showing up”):Īt my desk, though, my basic view of all this is just: Being a remote CEO helps me achieve that, and stay focused. I’m one of those CEOs who actually does a lot of stuff myself, as well as managing other people to do things. Mostly I’m just at home, interacting with the company with great intensity-but purely through modern virtual means: But I’m only physically “in the office” a few times a year. I’m about as hands-on a CEO as they come. Something that often surprises people is that for 28 years I’ve been a remote CEO. To explain my personal infrastructure, I first have to say a bit about my daily life. Much of it can probably be helpful to lots of other people too some of it is pretty specific to my personality, my situation and my patterns of activity. In many ways, it’s a good, practical exercise in computational thinking, and, yes, it’s a good application of some of the tools and ideas that I’ve spent so long building. But instead what I’m going to focus on here is my more practical personal infrastructure: the technology and other things that help me live and work better, feel less busy, and be more productive every day.Īt an intellectual level, the key to building this infrastructure is to structure, streamline and automate everything as much as possible-while recognizing both what’s realistic with current technology, and what fits with me personally. I could talk about how I try to set things up so that what I’ve already built doesn’t keep me so busy I can’t start anything new. I could talk about how I lead my life, and how I like to balance doing leadership, doing creative work, interacting with people, and doing things that let me learn. But as a nicely organized private company with about 800 people it’s an awfully efficient machine for turning ideas into real things, and for leveraging what skills I have to greatly amplify my personal productivity. Yes, it could (and should) be larger, and have more commercial reach. And for me personally, another huge “productivity hack” is my company, which I started more than 32 years ago. Now, of course, one giant “productivity hack” that I’ve been building for the world for a very long time is the whole technology stack around the Wolfram Language. And maybe in time more and more of them will become mainstream, as a few already have. But they certainly help me be productive. Over the years I’ve been steadily accumulating and implementing “personal infrastructure hacks” for myself. And part of being able to do that is to have the best personal infrastructure I can. And I want to do as much of that as I can. I’m a person who’s only satisfied if I feel I’m being productive. Read Stephen Wolfram’s Reddit AMA about this essay »
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