alt.hn

7/17/2026 at 3:41:05 PM

Workspaces – Explore the workspaces of modern creators

 https://workspaces.xyz/

by ryangilbert

7/17/2026 at 6:06:12 PM

This is cool but it just promotes the Kinfolkification of the home. And they all look the same / nothing like how me or my colleagues's home setups look. This looks very...... youtube and #aesthetic. Which is fine and there's clearly a market for, but it should include ALL workspaces not just Creatives one which is shorthand for like "Cool guy Creators / streamers / people with Instagrams"

by ericzawo

7/17/2026 at 9:02:20 PM

The should give a one year window and pop round on some random afternoon. Bet they’d look a bit more like a space where work gets done then.

by nickt

7/17/2026 at 9:57:28 PM

Love this idea

by burnto

7/17/2026 at 11:10:41 PM

Which is exactly how my desk looks. I keep wanting to tidy it up but meh.

by NetOpWibby

7/17/2026 at 11:10:19 PM

> Kinfolkification

Pardon my ignorance, but what is this referring to?

by VTimofeenko

7/18/2026 at 3:04:46 AM

Pretty sure he meant that as a synonym for "samey" - as in they're all of the same archetype of "clean setup" More about a display case / something meant to look like a workplace vs actually being one.

by ffsm8

7/18/2026 at 9:56:28 AM

Kinfolk style magazine

by adammarples

7/18/2026 at 1:25:53 AM

Oh my god you people can't enjoy anything. It's just cool workspace inspiration and a place for people to share their setups, can't we just take it for what it is?

by Pedro_Ribeiro

7/21/2026 at 5:49:31 AM

I'm sure there's a name for the type of conversation killing argument you make here: I get your point though, I think it would be a better opportunity to shed wisdom instead of voting down your comment for its negativity.

First and foremost: HN thrives on intellectual curiosity and discussion so keep that in mind; it's actually a good skill to be critical else we end up going down the road of "who cares about privacy and physical ownership".

I enjoy cool workspace inspiration so I'm leaning closer to your side but the critical discussion has merit in the fact that we end up with "slop" if nobody is bringing anything new to the table (yay I made a pun).

"Cancer killing /b/" and all that. If we spend too much time with kin we become closed off to cool ideas or better ways of advancing us all.

by razodactyl

7/17/2026 at 4:19:23 PM

Not one creator's workspace is a messy hoard? This is an idealic, oh crap we better clean up before the photographer arrives, fantasy.

by SubiculumCode

7/17/2026 at 4:22:37 PM

Here are a few non-staged setups:

https://workspaces.xyz/p/70-alex-wilhelm https://workspaces.xyz/p/296-alex-nicolai https://workspaces.xyz/p/337-jason-levin

by ryangilbert

7/18/2026 at 4:18:19 AM

This[0] is my personal favorite that was posted on a battlestations page. If it is staged, I think the author is pandering more to the Buffalo Bill demographic rather than tech nerds.

[0] https://imgur.com/a/h44Uzw0

by 3eb7988a1663

7/18/2026 at 7:10:34 AM

Or this one as an example of a YouTube programming creator who uses a teleprompter i think quite cleverly as a way to have his eyes centered on the camera/webcam https://youtu.be/IG-H5poJMvY

by cheesecakegood

7/17/2026 at 8:07:02 PM

These look like real desks people actually work at!

Why are these not on the homepage...

by cj

7/17/2026 at 4:45:21 PM

Nice! And also, sorry if my comment came off as mean about the site. I don't think so at all...I also don't understand why your first comment on the post went dead.

There is something very interesting about looking at workspaces. As other commenters mentioned? Does your site delve into non-computer workspaces?

by SubiculumCode

7/17/2026 at 9:04:07 PM

not at all! was great feedback and something for me to consider honestly...

there were a handful of artists early on but it really did morph into tech-focused creators (designers, developers, founders, etc) mostly because the early audience and guests pulled it in that direction

by ryangilbert

7/17/2026 at 11:20:55 PM

I would love to have space like this. Then I realized that every single one of them has house plants, which would mostly not survive if it was me.

by darth_avocado

7/17/2026 at 11:54:21 PM

They’re pretty easy to keep, set a reminder to water once a week and that’s basically all you need to do. Maybe if you want to go crazy, test if the soil is dry first.

by nxc18

7/18/2026 at 5:04:51 AM

To me these work spaces look so sanitised/artificial, bordering on being sterile.

Lot of people I know have all sorts of clutter in their workspace. A sticker from here and badge from a conference, a poster, books and notebooks lying around the table. The cluttered chaotic looking workspace has its own aesthetic, indicating a rich experience for the senses and the worker. Things where they should be for their functional aspects not only aesthetic one.

by the-mitr

7/17/2026 at 5:29:07 PM

What Im doing wrong?

I have a 50 bucks IKEA table with scrathed surface, a screen from 2008 and a chair for 10 bucks I bought from the last companies shut down.

And no, this is not fancy :-D :-D but it does the job :)

by KellyCriterion

7/17/2026 at 6:44:00 PM

The main thing it having an environment that facilitates you and your creativity. If that works for you, than that works for you

by MSKJ

7/17/2026 at 8:11:20 PM

Or simply: that's what fits my home and what I can afford.

I work in a tiny room and the only place a desk fits is in the corner, so I have a small corner desk that fits there, with a ultra wide monitor, but I have to keep the laptop closed because I don't have space on the desk. Also a trackball because it's too cramped for a mouse.

by klez

7/17/2026 at 7:19:39 PM

These remind me of the various YouTube channels I have seen pop up over the last few years focusing on 3d printing and organization, usually of clean workshops or sterile computer desks.

They are usually very pretty and well edited, with impressively done voice overs. They are also usually about aesthetically organizing and displaying an exacting set of objects that can't be changed without breaking out the fulfillment.

I guess aspirational and satisfying to look at, but pretty useless in terms of actual working space organization. Should probably play "A Little to the Left" and get your pattern matching fix that way.

by blobdole

7/18/2026 at 3:49:26 AM

I enjoy some battlestation pics, but this feels like an oddly uniform collection that makes me feel like I'm looking at a stock art catalog. I'm not sure if it's a narrow demographic being interviewed, the photos themselves, the presentation, or what. It's kind of eerie.

by chickensong

7/17/2026 at 3:58:49 PM

I am curious why so many people use Apple Monitors but with a regular stand instead of the VESA mount version so they could use a better support, the stand is clearly not being able to deliver the best position as people seem to use different things to rise them a little more.

Having been using different supports throughout the years, using the regular stand that come with monitors always felt like a considerable downgrade and the cost of a proper support that you attach to the desk, drill on it or drill on the wall, depending on the necessity of the space, is usually negligible.

by a1o

7/17/2026 at 4:20:40 PM

Because it looks better in these photos.

by shen

7/17/2026 at 3:53:28 PM

Would love to see computer engineers or electrical engineers.

by markus_zhang

7/17/2026 at 4:14:53 PM

Here's a great start!

https://workspaces.xyz/collections/developer

by ryangilbert

7/18/2026 at 12:51:38 PM

looks like a bunch of boring desks for software developers, i don't see any electrical or computer engineers

by rnrn

7/17/2026 at 4:03:48 PM

They have a developers section.

by mmooss

7/17/2026 at 6:09:15 PM

TBH I feel like this is cringe

by anentropic

7/17/2026 at 8:38:04 PM

why's that?

by ryangilbert

7/20/2026 at 11:19:30 AM

it's just showing off, they all seem inauthentic and homogeneous, don't feel like real workspaces

by anentropic

7/17/2026 at 9:02:03 PM

it's all fake

by metalliqaz

7/17/2026 at 10:29:02 PM

these are all real setups from real people working in tech

by ryangilbert

7/18/2026 at 12:36:56 AM

They're staged, though. None of them are authentic.

I scrolled through 8 pages, and I couldn't find a single one that was even just a little messy.

by KomoD

7/17/2026 at 5:22:52 PM

I love the idea! But echoing some comments on here, oh man if the desk-owner takes the desk-photo, you get a lot of branded mugs with the logo facing towards the camera, books neatly stacked in a pile right in the middle of the desk, or (my personal favourite) the iPhone place purposefully upside down centred on the un-scratched cutting mat just downwind from the perpendicularly oriented speed-square/stencil. [0] You never know when you might need an edgeless speed-square at a moment's notice!

NOT A DIG AT THESE PEOPLE! The spaces look great! And clearly, they own all the things listed/shown, so there's nothing disingenuous. It's just a bit of a stretch to say it's their workspace... this is the collapsed superposition of their workspace once you measure it with a photo. They took the photo, sat down, realized the pile of books is now where there arm should be and then entropy takes the wheel.

The few that don't have that manicured aesthetic, I love [1]. The books have been opened, the sticky notes are actually used, pens are in the broken mug, and fun knick-knacks are fully deployed to every flat surface EXCEPT the one you have to put your arms on. Tessa dedicated like 15 minutes to these photos then moved on with her day and got shit done. I get the same feeling from that video of Linus Torvald's "zombie shuffling desk". [2] If he spent, like 3 hours organizing and manicuring this, it could fit in on this site just fine, but he probably has other stuff to do.

[0] https://workspaces.xyz/p/507-lubos-volkov

[1] https://workspaces.xyz/p/218-tessa-brown

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYUZAF3ePFE

by graypegg

7/17/2026 at 9:15:03 PM

>NOT A DIG AT THESE PEOPLE

This whole comment reads as a dig against these people. They like to have it tidy/or they like to tidy up before photographing their desk.

by fastasucan

7/17/2026 at 7:55:38 PM

Guess I'm the only dude with his home gym in the same room as his work desk? In the Claude Code era it's an absolute gamechanger.

by 1-more

7/17/2026 at 8:37:40 PM

heres another (kinda) lol

https://workspaces.xyz/p/148-austen-allred

by ryangilbert

7/18/2026 at 3:44:29 AM

DAMN it's me and dude who got got by the CFPB for, everyone say it with me, telling everyone that they could get rich if they bought his magic beans! I'm way nicer than him; I don't defraud anyone!!

by 1-more

7/17/2026 at 8:49:29 PM

May as well be Mtv Cribs. It's full of impressive looking spaces that are obviously not actually used as they are presented.

by metalliqaz

7/17/2026 at 8:51:09 PM

Quote on the bottom of the homepage is a reader saying it's the new MTV Cribs ;)

by ryangilbert

7/17/2026 at 6:44:16 PM

It's like Frutiger Aero come to life

by lrc

7/17/2026 at 11:17:44 PM

From the results I can see that I am somehow living as a radically messy desk creator. Even my books are not color coordinated or nicely arranged. I will try to do better.

by paulorlando

7/17/2026 at 5:23:58 PM

Wow, these made me feel worse about my own workplace. Jokes aside, these workspaces are likely staged beforehand in my opinion. Very interesting though however!

by tsxng44

7/17/2026 at 5:25:09 PM

Most of the guests do indeed stage them or tidy up before they submit their interview.

I will try to add some "messy reality" ones as well going forward!

by ryangilbert

7/17/2026 at 5:40:08 PM

Maybe not "messy reality", honestly my desk is a mess right now and it would be a totally apt description... but I wouldn't want to be in a category called "messy reality"!

"Brutalist" maybe... I could convince myself of that being a positive trait. The unguided wires and bare deskpad-less desktop is a desk that's honest [0] about the materials making it up.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist_architecture#:~:text...

by graypegg

7/17/2026 at 11:13:07 PM

And I have a daily argument with corporate who tell me “nobody uses Macs except you”

by aetherspawn

7/17/2026 at 4:03:09 PM

Very interesting, thank you. For designers and similar creatives, I'm surprised that there isn't more artwork. Also, the workspaces - the desks and especially the monitor screen area - are much smaller than I expected.

by mmooss

7/17/2026 at 4:04:18 PM

A lot of designers are definitely running similar setups right now!

by ryangilbert

7/17/2026 at 8:40:43 PM

Yes, indeed! The similarity across place and profession is hard to believe. Is there some other explanation other than all these people - many professional designers - making the same design choices? Maybe something to do with how they were chosen or what questions were asked or who responded?

by mmooss

7/17/2026 at 5:16:32 PM

love it! Id love it if you made it like a TinderCard feature

by BorisMelnik

7/17/2026 at 5:18:09 PM

Have kicked this idea around!

I should try to add this soon.

by ryangilbert

7/17/2026 at 9:22:21 PM

I dont get why people here are so livid that people like to have a tidy desk and/or tidy up before photographing their desk.

Many people also like to tidy up their home a bit before they receive guests or groom themselves before going out for the night. No reason to judge them.

by fastasucan

7/17/2026 at 11:23:58 PM

haha yeah wild reaction to someone tidying up a bit to submit photos of a version of their setup, even if it isn't necessarily the day to day reality.

by ryangilbert

7/17/2026 at 4:13:20 PM

Oh please, what is with all of these pristine "engineer" workspaces? Every high-powered engineer I know lives in a pile of wires, boards, and monitors that evolves like a living organism.

by RIMR

7/17/2026 at 11:17:45 PM

This does not spark joy. Why would I create a nice work environment just to prompt Claude all day long?

Fuck this fake life, I'm out

by Biganon

7/17/2026 at 3:59:15 PM

I find it nuts that "creators" is basically synonymous with "streamers". To add insult to injury, these workspaces appear to be overwhelmingly staged.

There's nothing interesting to me about a workplace with a clinically-tidy desk and a LED ring light. I want to see metalsmiths, woodworkers, electrical engineers, etc. Even software occupations often have interesting workspace setups dictated by the nature of the job - for example, many CAD and music / video production setups are eclectic - but these ain't it.

by skippyfish

7/17/2026 at 4:11:44 PM

The majority of these creators are actually designers in tech and not streamers at all.

I do agree that I should attempt to share more of the "messy reality" alongside the more staged photos, though.

by ryangilbert

7/17/2026 at 4:03:39 PM

I totally see what you're saying.

Also noticing a lot more creators on youtube who are metalsmiths, woodworkers, electrical engineers.

Many seem to only have started the past few years, and the rest may have not been presented to me by the algorithm because the algorithm cared to keep me watching and not if I might have diverse interests.

One of the other realities is more and more people are distributed, and having communication be clearer (sound, light, video) is increasingly becoming more common in any field.

The thing that stands out to me about some of these designs is they look great, but not enough show the functionality that needed to be designed as well (organization, storage, etc).

by j45

7/17/2026 at 5:47:28 PM

Yeah, id like to see their day-to-day workshops, not the cleans after versions.

Mine is a real mess (partly because of ADHD, but not only)

by Faaak

7/17/2026 at 5:19:17 PM

As a creator, you could make and stream that content.

by browningstreet

7/17/2026 at 4:05:55 PM

Hi HN!

I originally launched Workspaces on April 5, 2020 when world shifted to remote work.

The original idea was simple... interview one person a week, ask them about their setup, publish the photos and gear list.

It's now been 6+ years and 500+ interviews.

Each feature includes workspace photography, a short bio, a full gear list with links, and four interview questions. New issues go out every Saturday morning.

Would love to hear what you think!

by ryangilbert