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by Micah Elliott.
Original Post: Softest. Shoes. EVAR.
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Like many other hackers who sit in wonky chairs for 12+ hours every day, I have a bit of a "back problem". And of course I'm an optimizer, AKA cheapskate (which surely contributes to the problem). Even so, I still end up dropping 50 bucks each month on chiropractic visits. How can I optimize that?! My healthcare plan optimization leaves me paying outright for pretty much everything.
Standing up doesn't help anymore. In fact, I think it makes it worse. My main in-house computer station is a stand-up setup in the kitchen, which gets some mileage in the evenings. I now stand on a thick, padded door mat there and it seems to help. So that's tip number one, if you're going to be standing a lot. The second tip is: don't be so stingy when it comes to buying shoes. I finally convinced myself it would be a good investment to make my feet happy, and hopefully consequently my back. So I resisted the urge to again go to Ross or Freddy's, and went straight to Joe's to do an experiment. I would try on a variety of their most expensive running, cross-training, and walking shoes in search of the softest. I probably hadn't talked to a shoe salesperson in 15 years, but I put this lady to work! Some 20 pairs and five brands later I had tried on everything in sight. It actually turned out that one of the cheapest pairs ($70) I tried was the best. They're the Nike Air Edge Trainer 08.
Here they are, uglier even than my bare feet (though no worse than most I've owned), and really soft. Let's hope they fix me for good! You can order them here from zappos, or probably pick a pair up from your local Joe's. How many should I order right now before they stop being made? Don't you hate it when that happens?!
I'm casting my vote for these as Top Pick, Hacker's Choice Awards. What's been your best pair of hacking shoes? How many pairs of those have you owned? What else do you do to optimize your back performance? (Don't say yoga; I didn't have the patience!)
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