i'm the same. i don't understand why some fellow programmers need multiple monitors: one is already plenty enough for me. (i'm using a tiling window manager, switching back and forth between different workspaces, having another monitor would require moving my head while i can instantly switch to another workspace from my fingertips)
I'm the same too. Having multiple monitors makes no sense to me.
With a keypress, I can switch between fullscreen workspaces. Or place two windows side-by-side when needed. My desk is free of clutter, and I never have to deal with configuring multiple displays.
I believe multiple monitors are less elegant and less effective (though a giant workstation full of monitors is perhaps impressive to family and friends).
A similar topic: I also don't understand why some fellow programmers need syntax highlighting. Some programmers have never even tried programming without it! And to them it might feel weird to go without at first, but I think it quickly becomes clear that syntax coloring is noisy and superfluous (and you might end up wasting time picking colors, etc.). Imagine if we did that for natural language (verbs are green, nouns are red, etc.), or math notation (numbers are blue, variables are pink, operators are orange, etc.). The silliness becomes clear quickly.
I've found that, for me anyway, one centered large monitor with enough real estate for your daily tasks is better than N smaller monitors. This is even if "total number of pixels" is larger on the N-monitor setup.
It's one less decision to make 1000 times a day (which monitor should this thing be on?), and reduces neck strain resulting from switching your focus between monitors.
A couple of years ago my setup was three 27" 1440p monitors, these days I am down to one 13" laptop screen and am way more productive! With all that screen real estate, it's way too easy to have your "work" on two of the screens, then Reddit/Hacker News on the the third screen and kid yourself that you are "working".
It's been years I have 2 or 3 monitors and I find them annoying and mostly a waste of power.
Every now and again I use them as a reference screen against something I'm doing, but my neck starts hurting pretty quick. Alt-tabbing rocks. They tend to be mostly empty.
Alt-tabbing means improved focus "one thing at a time" too.
I'm thinking to keep a large 32" screen in front of me, ditch the side 32" and get a "portable LCD" to put "under" as if my keyboard is a laptop and I'd have a laptop screen below my main screen. That should be hopefully useful as a reference screen.
Having 2 or 3 of the exact same screen makes no sense to me anymore. We're not with 19" CRT Sony trinitron anymore :)
I'm surrounded by a wall of screens and I don't know what to do with them (that is useful and not distracting).
Portrait displays are worth trying, in my view. I've gone through various iterations of multi-display setups, and I've settled on having 2 x 27" portrait displays at 1440p (or scaled 4K equivalent), one directly in front of me and one to the side, plus a landscape display of any size to the other side.
Both the portrait displays get a good amount of use. The central one is most important of course but the one to the side is useful too as I don't have to turn my head much to look at it. Its usual use is documentation or similar but using it for actual work is no hardship.
The landscape display is mainly there because I work in video games, so I kind of need one. I usually use only about half of it at most, though, to avoid having to turn my head too much. If I was in some other line of work I'd probably have a 3rd portrait display instead.
(I did use the large monitor + laptop below arrangement for a while, and that was good too, but one day I knocked my drink over and it destroyed my laptop. So that prompted a rethink.)
I got a 43” 4K TV that can do 60hz with reasonable signal input latency. You can check the specs of many TVs on rtings.com. Just over $200 at Costco these days.
I personally like to use Divvy to chop my screen into sections but mostly I do 2/3 for my IDE (affords me 3 less-than-full-width columns for source) and 1/3 for the browser. I have wanted to have an iPad for displaying docs but haven’t gone there yet.
Not the GP, but the pixels on my 43" 4k TV are just slightly smaller than those on the 1080p monitors it replaced. I have the TV positioned about an arm's length away. It's farther than the monitors it replaced. And it's far enough away the I don't have to crane my neck side to side. (To that end, I also use a tiling window manager and have ~3 inch gutters on the side.)
I love it and it's just a $200 TCL TV that happens to have good response (thanks rtings.com).