[FrojoS]

Guys, this is a well known and under utilized effect of human psycho physiology. Visually focusing on a single point, small object, or just small visual field (aka tunnel vision) increases mental focus.

AFAIK it’s also one of the reasons we all get “glued” to smartphone screens.

In this paper, more than 20 deg visual field for a screen and subject performance went down: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01678...

[tom_]

Ah, excellent! Some scientific evidence for my preferred setup: 2 x 9:16 27" monitors, one in front and one to the side. (Plus another display, of no specific kind. Laptop, landscape monitor, etc.)

I sit with my eyes about 1 metre from the screen, and a 27" portrait display is approx 33 cm wide. So I think that's tan(FOV/2) = 16.5/100 = 0.165; FOV/2 = atan 0.165; FOV/2 = 9.37 degrees; FOV = 2*9.37 = 18.74 degrees. It's almost perfect!

(But even if my maths is wrong: this has proven a good setup for me, which I've used for many years now, and I recommend it to anybody thinking of experimenting with their desk setup. Many monitors come with a stand that allows rotation, so it's not necessarily difficult to try. If you don't like it, you can always switch back.)

[miguno]

So that's why Counter-Strike pros are nose-to-the-monitor close to their screens.

Example of player Yekindar: https://preview.redd.it/yekindar-xd-v0-zsm7fzd5jd5e1.jpeg?wi...

"I need you to be focused!"

[rendaw]

Moving closer to the screen would increase the FOV.

[johnea]

Here on HN, this should obviously be considered a market opportunity!

I'm considering a startup to make millennial blinders:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinders

Of course, being an aging boomer, using an 85" monitor isn't decreasing my focus at all. I just look at the part of the screen I'm using at the moment.

Personally I find it helpful to be able to spread windows out on that giant screen so that any one of them is instantly available at a glance (and I still use 8 "desktops"). Of course, I also don't reboot, well maybe once or twice a year after a kernel update. So setting all those windows up isn't something I do every time I sit at the computer.

I do feel sorry for the generations born into internet brain damage (seriously). My son is GenZ and (thankfully) struggles with the typical symptoms less than others, but is still affected.

This is clearly a consequence of growing up with constantly network connected hand held computers, and the maliciously crafted web platforms that exploited that constant connectedness.

[DiscourseFan]

Yeah I do find it easier and less tiresome to read on my phone.