Optimizing the WFH Setup for the Long Term - Deep Learning Edition

One of the seemingly lasting impacts of COVID-19 is going to the reality of working from home for long periods of time for folks working in the technology industry. I always thought I had a decent setup at home. As I started working from home on a full-time basis, I had to make several adjustments to my setup to make sure I was comfortable, work was getting done and I was actually using this as an opportunity to explore new ideas.

My work from home setup looks like this.

The key elements of this setup are:

1. An external webcam: The reality of collaboration is lots and lots of video conference calls. I reused an old Microsoft LifeCam that I connected to my work MacBook Pro. I would say that this four or five-year-old webcam still beats the built-in cameras on the MacBook and iMac. The microphone in this camera is excellent and is good and canceling some of the noise. It has auto-focus and is able to deal with the varying lighting conditions throughout the day.
2. An external monitor: This is not something I thought I would need, but it turns out that connecting to a video call on Google Meet and trying to read a document at the same time is not possible on the laptop screen. I used my old BenQ E2420HD monitor for this purpose. The thing I really liked is that this monitor has decent speakers for calls. I started developing ear and headaches from wearing headphones (Sony WH-1000MX3 and AirPods Pro) for several hours in a day. It is quite liberating not having to hear headphones all day and do the calls. However, I am in the process of upgrading to LG 27" 4K IPS monitor so that I can park my laptop behind the monitor and make more space on the desk. This particular monitor has a USB-C port with 60W that reduces cables needed to connect the monitor with a laptop. Further, at 4k resolution and 27", it is like having two HD monitors.
3. Mechanical Keyboard: A colleague of mine introduced me to this Keychron K2 mechanical keyboard. For folks used to touch typing keyboard, this is very clackety! However, it is very satisfying typing on it. The feature I especially love is its ability to connect to three devices on Bluetooth and the ability to switch between them with a keypress. Gone are the days of a KVM switch! I frequently switch back and forth between my iMac and office MacBook. This makes it a breeze and reduces clutter on the desk.
4. External Mouse: Similar to the keyboard, I went looking for a mouse or trackpad that could switch so effortlessly between computers. I found the Logitech M720 Triathlon. There is a similar cheaper version at Costco with a different name. I gave up on mice for a long time as the trackpads were much more expressive. This mouse gives my multi-touch trackpad a run for its money. It has more configurable buttons and gestures than my trackpad. It is way cheaper and can switch between computers with the press of a button. Logitech also has this amazing software called Flow where the mouse can seamlessly move from one computer's screen to the other and enabling copy past across machines. I couldn't get that feature to work when one of my computers is on VPN.
5. A wrist rest: If you go for the Keychron, it is a very high keyboard. You will need a wrist rest. Splurging a little and going for style, I bought a real ash hardwood Glorious Gaming Wooden Wrist Rest. It is very stylish with a dark finish and provides great support in addition to looking extremely nice.
6. GPU Rig: You cant actually see it, but there is an Ubuntu desktop under my desk. I took a six-year-old Dell desktop with an i5 processor, upgraded to 16GB RAM, added a 1 TB SSD, and an NVidia RTX-2070 GPU card, all for under $800. After setting up the Jupyter notebook server on it, I can access it from any computer on my home network and run jobs on it. Occasionally, if I am training a big LSTM network, I can fry eggs on it too. The fast switching keyboards and mouse allow me to keep a track of my training runs through my home computer while doing all my office work.
7. Decision Maker: I think this is the most important tool of them all on my desk. Here is a close up of what it looks like.

Faced with a difficult choice, just spin this and it comes up with the right answer almost always!

Outside of the equipment on my desk, I do have a standing desk and Herman-Miller Aeron chair. Those are probably the most expensive items in my home office. It is very important to have an ergonomic chair and adjustable desk as I am finding that I sit for much longer time periods on my desk than at work.

Hopefully, there are some tips here that are useful to you. Hope you stay safe in these times and remain productive!