222 pointsby dnw3 hours ago30 comments
  • avalys2 hours ago
    You can measure my productivity by how slouched I am.

    Sitting up straight at my desk, chair locked, perfect posture? I’m doing nothing, maybe looking through System Preferences to change the system highlight color.

    Sliding down in my chair like jelly, with my shoulders where my butt should be and my head resting on the lumbar support? I’m building the next iPhone and it’ll be done by 2 AM.

    • collingreenan hour ago
      This is how things get built for me as well. I have a standing desk and like using it occasionally but if you see me standing at it you can bet I'm doing something typical like emails or chat and not thinking deeply.
    • dgxyzan hour ago
      My productivity is generally measured in how much time I sit on the porcelain thinking throne first.
      • jacobkranzan hour ago
        Truer words have never been spoken. That and planning out your day & thinking through problems in the shower.
        • codyb37 minutes ago
          If you delete social media, and leave your phone away from your person all day with notifications turned off, you can have these moments all the time it turns out.

          Considering how much more productive these moments are for me than the bullshit I used to do on my phone and social media, it was an easy decision to make.

          • saagarjha36 minutes ago
            How do you simulate the warm water?
            • codyb31 minutes ago
              Oh, lol, now I get your question. Yea, it turns out the silence and lack of distractions are what produce "shower thoughts", more so than the act of showering itself.

              Doing any relatively rote act like washing dishes, walking places, etc can also give rise to them. Not having a device in your hand to constantly steal your attention really helps though.

            • codyb32 minutes ago
              With a faucet my good friend!
    • marginalia_nu5 minutes ago
      Gamer lean is when it gets really serious.
    • chonglian hour ago
      My neck is screaming in empathetic pain for your future neck!
    • an hour ago
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    • TheRealPomaxan hour ago
      Sounds like you're literally the target audience for this app.
      • amelius20 minutes ago
        Not if there is a hard positive correlation between productivity and slouching, like they say.
    • digitaltinfoilan hour ago
      this is the way
  • jasonjmcghee2 hours ago
    I'm not sure how you can use a laptop with good posture. An external monitor at the right height seems like a necessity.

    I'm also optimistic about monitors in the form of glasses- even less effort needed to set yourself up for perfect posture. But the sweet spot problem is still very much a thing from what I've seen- can't wait until it's normal for them to have eye tracking, foveated rendering and streaming, and be wireless.

    • cosmic_cheesean hour ago
      Yeah, most of my computer use is with a properly adjusted desk setup with external monitors and while it doesn’t bother me to use a laptop to jot down some notes or for a short study session, if I try to do “real” work at all I quickly become uncomfortable. A cheap folding laptop stand (which elevates the laptop enough that the middle of its screen is eye level) and wireless KB+mouse dramatically improves comfort (and productivity) but the tradeoff is that you need a table or other sizable, stable flat surface.

      The exception is if there happens to be a reclined-position chair (IKEA POÄNG or similar) around; this gives back support and reduces neck craning enough to make longer sessions more viable, but it’s far from a given that this kind of seating will be available.

    • rectang25 minutes ago
      When working at a desk I put my 16-inch MacBook Pro on a stand and use an external keyboard and trackpad.

      I don't like adapting my monitor layout when moving between working environments.

      Instead of an extra monitor, I have an iPad Pro on a stand.

    • an hour ago
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    • MengerSponge2 hours ago
      My dog could, but a person with adult proportions probably can't. For long-term use, a stand+KB is the only solution I know of

      https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/86285180/the-roost-savi...

      It's too bad that nobody on the Surface team has managed to crack this! I'd be much more interested in one if they had.

      • physicles22 minutes ago
        I use the Nexstand K2 (well, the Chinese knockoff I got for $5), and I bent some coat hangers to attach to the top of the stand and tilt the laptop forward. I’m a tall guy, and the top of the screen is even with my eyes. Bonus is that with an X1 Carbon, the Lenovo M14 or M14d fits perfectly over the top of the keyboard.

        The whole setup fits into a drawstring gym bag.

        https://nexstand.io/

    • duckruu2 hours ago
      My Apple Vision Pro has all that, and it’s perfect for posture when using a MacBook.
      • vunderba44 minutes ago
        Isn’t the Vision Pro rather front loaded in terms of its weight distribution? Seems like you might just be trading one ergonomic problem for another.
        • duckruu30 minutes ago
          It’s not really, with the new dual band which changes the weight distribution. If you lean back a lot it’s obviously going to rest on your face then, but that’s a good way to avoid bad posture too.

          Still, it’s not for everyone. I use it with my AirPods Max comfortably, I have a sturdy neck. I don’t think my wife could pull it off.

      • jasonjmcghee2 hours ago
        Yeah- this and the upcoming steam frame seem like the best options today.

        There's something very attractive for me personally about the sunglasses form factor.

        Safer in public, draws less attention, more portable, less headset fatigue, etc.

        But obviously trading quality and features.

        Also AVP is like $3k, steam frame will probably be $800+, xreal are like half that

        • duckruu24 minutes ago
          > But obviously trading quality and features.

          For me it’s like settling for a CRT after trying a 4k TV in terms of visuals, but with the form factors reversed.

  • rdslwan hour ago
    Congrats on the app.

    I'm seeing that "great-ai-unlock" is happening. I see in last month a lot of new software being codeveloped with claude/codex/gemini/you-name it.

    Before, it was too costly to do sth like the Posture app: here, you would have to know Swift and apple apis to write such tool. Would you be C# (very good) programmer with free weekend, and an idea: no cookie for ya.

    These days, due to "great-ai-unlock" your skills can be easily transferred and used to cross platforms boundary and code such useful app in a weekend or so.

    Jevons paradox is indeed working (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox).

  • incanus77an hour ago
    Anyone else with progressive lenses just think "I already have this"?
    • wkjagt2 minutes ago
      I'm due for new glasses, so any laptop use is now a careful equilibrium between "text is burry" and "text is too small".
  • jama211an hour ago
    Sounds like a good idea but “good posture” meaning being upright is just such an outdated and incorrect thing. Be comfortable, relax in your chairs, it’s fine.
  • blauditore2 hours ago
    Does anyone ever reach a high level of productivity with correct posture? I can't.
    • louthy2 hours ago
      Sure, but getting the right environment is a prerequisite. In my case it’s a Herman Miller Embody chair [1] that stops me getting into a bad position (it’s not impossible, it just encourages good posture).

      [1] https://www.hermanmiller.com/en_gb/products/seating/office-c...

      • esskay2 hours ago
        Totally a tangent here but it amazes me how a company as big as Herman Miller could screw a product page up so much by not even having a picture of the damn product.
        • hypeatei2 hours ago
          Something might be wrong with your client (ad-blocker, NoScript maybe?) because there a ton of pictures on that page.
          • esskayan hour ago
            Ha, yep you're right. How bizarre, wasn't a browser ad block, it was adguard dns blocking a ton of tracking scripts needed to show the images.
        • amelius16 minutes ago
          I had the same problem.
        • StilesCrisisan hour ago
          It's the first thing on the page. Your browser is doing something funky.
      • cluckindan43 minutes ago
        Word of warning: the Embody chair does not have front-to-back adjustments for the armrests. They will be pretty useless unless you like having your keyboard close to the edge of your desk.
      • hexbin010an hour ago
        The embodiment of overpriced and mediocre
    • hashmap2 hours ago
      if im not sitting on my right foot with left knee under my chin my thinking takes a hit, but i also have to constantly switch how im sitting so i dont get annoyed. its hard not to slouch/melt into whatever im sitting on and i think the only way to offset all that is the gym.
  • altern821 minutes ago
    I can't seem to open it. It keeps saying "Apple could not verify “Posturr.app” is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy.".

    I tried opening by right-cliking on the app file, holding option, etc.

    I'm on Sequoia 15.7.3 (24G419)

    • peesem16 minutes ago
      you have to go into your Privacy & Security settings and scroll down until you see something like "Posturr.app was blocked to protect your Mac." and then press "Open Anyway"
    • illusive43 minutes ago
      [dead]
  • sahiljagtapyc32 minutes ago
    I wonder if this is less about “bad posture” and more about how people unconsciously optimize for stability when thinking deeply. When I’m reasoning through something hard, I tend to lock into whatever position minimizes micro-adjustments - even if it looks terrible ergonomically.
  • tanelpoder2 hours ago
    Once launched, Posturr runs in the background and displays a brief "Claude Mode Active" notification.

    I haven’t checked the code yet, but what does the “Claude Mode” mean? Is it a poor naming choice? It implies that the local app is somehow connected to Claude (?)

    • tjohnell2 hours ago
      Hi - this is the author. I can explain that, ha!

      Right now I'm using a vision library to detect head height which was good enough. I went down a tangent where I hooked it up to my Claude Code instance to take a screen shot and have Claude Code assess how bad my slouch was. Claude would watch a folder for screen shots, read it in, and if it detected bad posture, write to a file the program was watching to adjust blur.

      I did this weird work-around so I could use my Claude Code subscription as opposed to the API.

      Anyways, it was too slow and Claude was a bad judge of slouchiness. Head height works well enough!

      I'll clean this up.

      • tanelpoder2 hours ago
        Cool, thanks for the clarification. Indeed it's a good and practical idea for a small app. As other comments have said, (some) people might happily pay for this app.

        I luckily won't need such feedback loop anymore, had some mild lower back pain show up over 10 years ago and bought a chair without a backrest that, after 3-4 weeks of struggling, trained me to sit up straight. Now I have some random cheap office chair with a backrest, but I rarely lean back to it. Funnily, I was going to give up using that "backrestless" chair after 2 weeks of inconvenience, but decided to give it one more week and then the magic happened :-) Mild lower back pain automatically gone.

        • hn8726an hour ago
          Care to share an example of this backrestless chair? Is it like a regular chair just without the backrest, or has some other differences? Does it have armrests for example, and if not - does it bother you?
          • tanelpoderan hour ago
            I went with an overkill approach at first (as I often do :-) and bought some expensive nicely designed "active chair" / stool that was adjustable high enough so that I could lean on it even when using my desk as a standing desk. It was interesting, but not a game changer at all for me. I don't use standing desks now at all.

            But what I have now is this:

            https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002FL3LY4

            Just don't assemble the backrest at first. If sitting up straight, I just lean wrists on my keyboard wristpad and part of forearms on the desk, no armrests needed either.

            Edit: I still use my height-adjustable standing desk, but now it's value is that I could adjust it for the perfect height for my sitting-up-straight position (so no chair armrests needed) and it's been fixed at that height for the last 7 years...

          • manuelmorealean hour ago
            Not sure which one the parent was referring to but personalizing I've been using one of these for more than a decade at this point (I'm sitting on it right now) https://www.varierfurniture.com/en/products

            The one I have does have a backrest but because of the way it's shaped you don't actually use it to slouch. It's more there to support when you lean back and want to take a break from typing or something like that.

    • auslegung2 hours ago
      A codebase search for "claude" only has 1 hit in the code (the markdown that you referenced) and 4 commits which include the word in the commit message, or one commit includes .claude/ in the git ignore. See https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Atldev%2Fposturr+claude&ty...

      Same with a codebase search for "anthropic"

  • didip10 minutes ago
    lol, whenever I am hacking intensely, I am lying down on my bed with laptop tilted with the perfect angle.

    I guess this app won’t catch me slouching then.

  • xfactorial2 hours ago
    I think the idea is wonderful, but a not-audited application that uses things like the camera is a “no go” for me.

    Get it notorized and ask for some money! I will gladly pay it (and I hope others will do it as well).

    Awesome concept: ergonomics and/or posture monitoring is a market opportunity for heavy users.

    • alin232 hours ago
      Notarization is mostly a glorified malware scan. There's no Apple engineer auditing what's being sent for notarization. Even clever malware can evade notarization scans and be distributed as a notarized binary, it has happened in the past [0]

      There's no better way for auditing such an app than having the code easily available and looking through it, and compiling it yourself. Which is already the case here.

      [0] https://thehackernews.com/2025/12/new-macsync-macos-stealer-...

      • burnerthrow0082 hours ago
        Your link says that Apple revoked the certificate used to sign the malware by the time the story was published.
    • xpasky2 hours ago
      It's literally a single .swift file. Ask your LLM to audit it.
      • micromacrofoot2 hours ago
        then I need to get someone to audit the LLM, which is considerably more difficult
        • StilesCrisis2 hours ago
          Do you expect this programmer is in cahoots with Anthropic?
          • saagarjha34 minutes ago
            The opposite, actually: that the code tricks the LLM.
    • wizzwizz42 hours ago
      While I disagree with you, thank you for sharing your decision-making process: you're probably not the only one who thinks this way.

      In general, would you pay for a notorised build of free software, if you had use for that software, even if an un-notorised build or the source code were available?

      • IshKebab2 hours ago
        I seriously doubt that he actually would. And in that unlikely event he'd be in a miniscule minority. Not a good open source monetisation strategy.
    • tananaev2 hours ago
      Are you serious? It's open source. And there's less than 1000 lines total. Get Codex or Claude to review it if you're paranoid.
      • Alejandro9R2 hours ago
        The thing is that how do you know at the end of the day that the compiled binary hasn't been tampered with "extra code" besides what's in the repo?

        I don't even think notarization gets rid of this problem neither, so the best you can do for this is compile it yourself. Maybe I'm wrong!

        • prmoustache43 minutes ago
          What prevents you from compiling it if it is open-source?

          That's what I do with every project delivered as docker image. I rebuild the app and the image.

        • alexford19872 hours ago
          Compiling it yourself is the best/only thing you can do if you really want to know what code went into a binary.
        • an hour ago
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        • an hour ago
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      • encom2 hours ago
        Go easy on the guy. Mac users are so used to overpaying for trivial functionality.
  • lasgawe16 minutes ago
    Is there anyone out there who’s productive and sitting upright? Asking for me..
  • taf240 minutes ago
    Love it - I did something like this for when codex is done - a script runs to detect if I’m at my computer or not and then notify my phone if I walked away that it’s done - mostly so I can get back to slouching ;)
  • iandanforthan hour ago
    While this seems to detect posture fairly well, the screen blurring doesn't work for me despite allowing what appear to be the relevant permissions. (macOS 15.1)
  • fatliverfreddy30 minutes ago
    Guzzles my CPU, cool though! Would use if it didn't eat up half a core to boot.
  • byteflipan hour ago
    Would be cool to see integration with something like Upright Go or other sensors you place on your back that detect tilt etc.
  • kneelan hour ago
    This is cool, I built something similar a while back. I originally wanted the screen to dim when I slouched but I couldn't get access to dimming on OSX. I ended up just playing a noise when I slouched. It became so distracting I stopped using it.

    The blurring of the screen is a much better idea.

  • amelius2 hours ago
    Why use a proprietary stack for building this when there is a far more capable open ecosystem available at your fingertips?

    https://huggingface.co/models?other=human-pose-estimation

    https://huggingface.co/models?other=3d-human-mesh-recovery

    • kazen442 hours ago
      do any more open applications like this exist? The idea seems great
  • lcnmrn2 hours ago
    Install a pull up bar in your room. It will fix your back better than anything else.
    • winrid2 hours ago
      1 min plank in the morning is a big help too
  • hackernj34 minutes ago
    Black Mirror is nearly here.
  • Raed6672 hours ago
    I would love this but for detecting when I'm not wearing my glasses!
    • jagged-chisel2 hours ago
      “If only the world had some way to remind be to wear my glasses … like going all blurry or something.”

      I get you - but making it absurd is where my brain went immediately. >.<

    • 2 hours ago
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    • dhosek2 hours ago
      If I’m not wearing my glasses the screen blurs organically.
    • dmurray2 hours ago
      Doesn't the screen already go blurry when you're not wearing your glasses?
      • Raed6672 hours ago
        It's a spectrum I'm trying to avoid it getting that bad
      • ngruhn2 hours ago
        I think he's joking
  • iammrpayments2 hours ago
    Staying in upright posture for too long is also not good for you.
  • zsoltkacsandi33 minutes ago
    One thing I learned from my physio: in your spine, everything is connected.

    For example, even if you sit perfectly upright, if you have anterior pelvic tilt, it can change the whole dynamics of your spine, that the cervical segment takes a lot of load that it isn't supposed to do.

    Or with bad habits you can reprogram your neuromuscular system that it uses the wrong muscles to maintain posture, that can lead a series of problems long term.

    If you have back/neck pain or tension that does not resolve in 1-2 weeks, go to a physio.

  • publicdebates2 hours ago
    I would pay $10 for this.
  • avhception21 minutes ago
    So now I gotta squint while I slouch!
  • VadimPR2 hours ago
    How can you tell if a short person is slouching? Or a tall person?
    • gcanyon2 hours ago
      I'm not the author, but I assume it benchmarks the highest height of your head, blurs from there, and updates its baseline if you ever appear higher.

      Meaning that the way to have "perfect posture" is never to sit up straight in the first place :-)

    • kccqzy2 hours ago
      If you assume a person’s chair height and desk height are both set optimally, then I guess the person’s height doesn’t matter for this detection.
  • aa_is_op2 hours ago
    Plz make a Windows version :)))
  • eeixlk2 hours ago
    Satire i hope
  • PlatoIsADisease2 hours ago
    Anyone want to vibe code this to work on linux or M$
    • borzi24 minutes ago
      Great contrarian indicator for when people say that vibe coding is not "real development work" or economically viable/a job in the future - here is someone asking if another person can vibe code something for them that is single file of swift, the prompt could be as simple as "convert this to linux".
  • p0w3n3d2 hours ago
    Great, now I'll get sick eyes too

    * laughs histerically