Jason Calacanis said that the best thing to do when on an economic downturn is to invest on one’s self. If you’re a company, concentrate on your core business keep focused, improve and grow your core. Individually, if you’re a 8/10 programmer, now’s the time to invest into becoming a 9/10. Whatever the case may be, the point is now’s the worst time to be worrying about anything external. On the contrary; now’s probably the time where the adage “help yourself before you can help others” is most applicable.

In any case, I decided to put a little spin on that and justified my most recent purchase:

To tell you the truth, I never thought I’d see the day where I’d put this much value in comfortable steating. I guess it was all because of the overtime shifts I’ve been doing from the days between October 18 to the 6th of this month. After threshing out the details, I found out I had just put in 25 full shifts in 2 and half weeks! Not to mention that on the 22nd, there was that CMMA awards where our group had to sing in.

Incidentally, I also had my Lumix stolen during the the awards. So the 22nd played out as such: half shift -> awards -> Lumix stolen -> straight home (foregoing the group’s obligatory “gimmick”) -> finished the other half of the shift then go onto the next shift (which was already graveyard times). Let me tell you, the prospect of going home to work overtime after you lost a camera is not fun.

Fortunately, there was a big payoff at the end; the “silver lining” as it were – which yielded some early Christmas presents for myself and Cris. I was also able to replace my lost Lumix in the process (and get a swanky case for it while I was at it). So I guess losing a camera and a bunch of nights sleep pretty much evens everything out (it’s all about the yin and yang baby!)

And to finish everything off was the chair, which was now addressing the real concern brought on by those stressful nights.

The Aeron Chair

When I set out to get myself a comfy work-chair, the first thing I naturally did was gather recommendations. The funny thing though was that there wasn’t really any “competition” when I started getting feedback. Almost unanimously, there was this single iconic chair that everyone in the IT industry swears by; the Herman Miller Aeron chair.

All recommendations by my peers were basically rephrasing one thought: If you can afford it, get an Aeron – if you can’t, only then should you start canvassing for others

Now that I’m sitting on one, I can see and feel what all the rave is about.

This chair is truly the chair as far as “custom-fit” seating goes. Practically every aspect of it is adjustable (assuming you got the fully adjustable model):

1. Height (standard with every chair I hope)
2. Armrest height
3. Armrest’s “spread angle” Outside, straight or inside. And let me tell you, I never knew that an inward angle can actually be useful when I’m “thinking” – as I can rest my shoulders without having to tilt to the side to (reach the armrests).
4. “Kinematic Tilt” mechanism The way the Aeron tilts is different from normal computer chairs. It’s not apparent in the pictures, but imagine that you’re leg-area pretty much stays in the same place when you tilt back. So it’s like the chair tilts back and downwards where the pivot point is somewhere below… between your thighs and knees. I’m probably explaining this horribly, but the point is, the tilting feels more natural and stable (i.e. you won’t feel like you can flip over no matter how far you tilt).
5. Tilt tension How much “play” the chair has. Useful for people of different weights. One person may easily make the chair tilt because of his/her weight variation, so this makes short work of that.
6. Tilt limiter You can quickly “lock” on a maximum tilt if you don’t feel like leaning back so much. I find it useful because I like the “play” on the chair to be loose (meaning I can easily tilt), but when working, and you want to be in a fixed comfortable position while still being able to access your work desk easily, then the limiter is the thing for you.
7. Forward tilt When used in conjunction of the tilt limiter, you can lock it to a forward tilt. I’m not really sure as to what practical use this will have; I can’t imagine a situation where you need to be “locked” in a forward tilt. Still, I guess for the price of this fucker, they should accommodate even the most obscure possibilities.
8. PostureFit At the back of the chair, you have a wishbone frame with a pad that is designed to support your lower back. When it’s properly adjusted, you will hardly notice it simply because you’re sitting with support that’s properly contoured to the right posture. But once you release it, you’ll notice the difference and how much better it is to have that support.
9. Pellicle The chair uses a mesh-like membrane – which allows your back to breathe. It’s pretty impressive stuff because if you push down on it with your fingers, it’s pretty soft and flexible, but the more surface area pushes down on it (like your ass) it distribute the weight perfectly. It has that nice support without feeling “hard”
10. Built to last 12-year warranty, lifetime service warranty. Herman Miller really has faith in this product! And I must say, it feels really solidly built.

I guess all in all, apart from the impressive specs, this is still one of those things where words fail to articulate the experience. This chair is a joy to sit in. It almost makes me want to do overtime just to sit on it more… just kidding!

Whatever the case may be, this is an investment for myself. The reason I’m good at what I do is because take the time to make sure the environment and tools I work with makes me deliver quality output. I can see this chair easily being one of those those perfect tools to get the job done..

Just recently though, Herman Miller released a new line called the Embody, which some review sites claim surpasses the Aeron as far as comfort goes. Looking at the pictures, I can imagine why that would be so, but I have to be honest that it’s not as elegant looking as the Aeron (not to mention huge!). But it does give that feeling of “futuristic”-ness.