Interesting take. I regularly switch between just the laptop and my 3 monitor setup. Sometimes I feel like I could use a 4th one because there is just so much stuff to look at when developing. When I get to my laptop I sometimes feel like I can't be really productive on it. Having to tab all the time is not in itself an issue, but I keep getting lost when I have multiple instances of an app open - e.g. IDE. Say you have 3 projects open, I feel like I keep tabbing to the wrong one all the time.
But overall, I do like the idea that you don't actually have to see everything at once. Also takes focus away I guess.
I would love to see a study on this which tries to actually measure this.
I feel that tabbing to the wrong instance of an app is a problem that can be solved on the software level. It’s a nightmare on the default macOS app switcher. I use an app called Contexts as a solution and it works reasonably well. There seems to be some free and open source solutions as well.
Managing windows with OS idiosyncrasies becomes a task in itself.
However, I've also learned recently it depends what you're doing.
Software development, I just want one single maximized window on a single laptop monitor. If I have a near-retina DPI monitor with 120hz+ (I can't deal with low DPI fuzziness and low refresh all day) I'll usually have a 3-4 window layout on a single monitor with the IDE taking up half the screen.
There is a minor cognitive hit from switching focus between monitors for things like reading documentation, so I don't like doing that.
Music production? Man, I could probably use like 3+ monitors. Main stems view, a separate monitor for open VSTs, a separate monitor for video, a separate one for piano roll maybe. The window juggling gets really cumbersome on a single monitor.
My friend who is a professional musician (makes music for TV shows) uses 3 large TVs for music production.
Tiling merely changes the idiosyncrasies, and I say this as someone who primarily uses them. (hyprland in my case)
If you created a window right now, where will it go? Which window will it take its space from? Does it use your focused window? Your mouse position? If your WM supports mixed floating & tiling, how does it go when you flip a window between them? etc. That's all cognitive load when you aren't familiar and still requires some hand control when you are.
I’d say monitor position and ergonomics matter way more than screen size.
Navigating a stack of apps with alt+tab, ctrl+tab is extremely efficient. I only miss the extra space when looking at spreadsheets or comparing things in different windows.
Some laptops have a pitiful screen height, avoid those.
Ultrawide is an extra screen size that many web devs forget about. Good design can take advantage of it. But some fluid designs look terrible without constraints.
I ran a vertical setup, with a monitor above my laptop. Not a bad way to go if you want more space for auxiliary apps.
Focus is essential for productivity. Do whatever it takes to get there.
> Focus is essential for productivity. Do whatever it takes to get there.
I'm posting this because it's something I went through in my career and I hope it helps someone who is in a similar situation
I was undiagnosed ADHD until my 30s. In high school and university I was able to brute force my way through and get reasonably good grades. I had a really rocky start to my career in software. I was always getting middling performance reviews along the lines of "You're really good when you're working, but your productivity is terrible". Meanwhile my stress level was crazy high despite not exactly doing lots of overtime or anything else
Even treated, ADHD can make focus very difficult. Undiagnosed, it is devastating
Bringing it back to the words I quoted, I agree entirely. Focus is essential for productivity. Part of doing whatever it takes to get there might mean getting diagnosed and medicated
My main home office has 5 monitors, and i still have to swipe between desktops regularly. I used to have 6, but two ultrawides stacked one above the other was a bit painful and I developed a back pain after a while.
My on the road setup typically involves a folding portable monitor (asus zenscreen duo, or something to that effect - that is 2x 1080p). Easily enough, and I don't really see a decrease in my efficiency.
But I sometimes do long distance flights and then I code/work on a single screen. I absolutely can do the same thing that I can do with my 6 screen setup with almost not noticeable effect on productivity as well. Could it be that the extra screens are just useless and an illusion of added productivity?
Perhaps the problem isn't the BigScreen, it's the youtube video?
I normally run applications maximized on my 28" 4k, unless I need input from 2 applications at the same time, then I tile them.
Working from my work-issued 16" Macbook Pro or any other of my laptops is a pain because of the limited estate - it's hard to see patterns at a glance or get the whole context when I can only see 30 lines of text that is truncated at <=80 columns. Plus, the fact that the keyboard isn't detachable from the screen forces bad habits on the posture.
It depends what I'm working on. If it's a bunch of interdependent systems that involve a large amount of data, a giant monitor is better. If the giant monitor is being used to make visible more application surfaces (Slack, email, VS Code, etc.), it makes focus worse.
The biggest improvement I've found for my focus is to force myself to close any open tabs/windows that are not absolutely necessary roughly every two hours. I used to be one of those people with 800 tabs open in the browser and 20 application windows spread across 8 desktop spaces. Was a concentration mess. Requiring myself to "clean up" periodically has really helped.
I gave up my monitor pre-covid, a few years earlier than that actually, and have not looked back.
The only thing that does make me wonder at times is that my video in a zoom'ish app looks different than other people's video in some manner, but all that means is that maybe I need 1 backup and mirrored display for video calls, but maybe I can live with it.
The MacOS window manager is so bad that I've resorted to three monitors plus the built in screen. Two monitors have fullscreen terminal emulators and the last has the browser. The built-in screen handles all the distracting stuff whenever I can be bothered to look down at it.
With Xmonad I had 10 spaces on a single laptop screen (actually however many I wanted) with the flick of a button. And yes, I know about hacks like aerospace and the others that require disabling system integrity
I've been a laptop purist most of my life, and prefer to work outside my house / office. Only recently I got a Big Monitor™ for a mini pc. It's really messed with my head. Now when I look at my 15" laptop everything looks incredibly small. Not just that, but the scroll direction is opposite on the pc, so if I'm working side by side I find myself accidentally scrolling each one backwards, or actually typing into the wrong keyboard. Somehow I survived this long with just laptop screens and I don't think it's a mistake that my focus was preserved through that.
Similarly, laptop purist for the past 25 years. I so much prefer the focus of one thing on my screen at a time, and toggling between apps without having to shift eyes on a large monitor. I also like to pick up and work from starbucks or wherever. I feel like we are in the minority overall but I do know some like us.
I just upgraded to a 49" curved display because it lets me view everything I need _for the current task_ at one time.
One virtual desktop is Messages, Slack, and Outlook for all my comms needs.
Another is IDE & browser for development work.
Another is todo list, planner, notes, and browser for task management.
Having to constantly swap app between browser, email, IDE, slack, etc is interruptive. Being able to switch to a single-focus desktop with everything visible is much more productive for me and reduces context switching.
What's your viewing distance? I currently have a 32" at about 80cm or so. Did not like the 34" as it has actually less vertical space despite having more area technically.
My viewing distance is one-arm-length (kinda close), when I raise my arm my fingertips just touch the screen. Definitely closer than my previous monitor, as you need to sit within the curved-screen radius to be in the sweet spot.
Looks like it's 32:9 aspect ratio - it's this Samsung, it was on sale last week for $800: https://a.co/d/0f884LPO
I do enjoy rocking multiple monitors, but even if I went to one, I'd still have to use a big monitor. My mind may be young but my almost 50 year old eyes aren't. (I actually run my 32 inch monitors in QHD mode)
This is what so few people realize. Size is relative viewing distance and pixel density. Small screens are designed to be viewed at decreased focal distances, making you more cross-eyed.
There is something powerful about environment and what it does to our minds. For the author, giving up the monitor is totally valid and may work for many people. I can often convince myself to chance a habit by adding a simple extra physical step. This is harder on a computer. It takes discipline to not just end up with dozens of windows and even more browser tabs in some roles. I just aggressively close windows when starting a new task or thinking. Most likely you don't need whatever you are closing :)
I've tried every set up that I have the privilage of having:
- 11in Macbook Air
- 16in Macbook Pro
- 1 X 27in monitor mounted with MB Pro in clamshell mode
- Linux Mint desktop on old Dell Inspiron with 4gb of RAM
and after using all of these to try and increase my productivity, I'm still an unfocused and possibly ADD riddled human. I'm not cut from the same cloth as my other productive peers who do not watch much YouTube and can type away at a black `vim` terminal on one half of their screen with software documentation on the other half of the screen.
I went the opposite direction. I'm running a 45" LG UltraGear curved ultrawide OLED at 3440x1440. At first I thought the real estate would make me more productive. What actually happened is I have apps spread across the whole thing and spend more time rearranging windows than working. The article makes a fair point — a smaller screen forces you to commit to one thing at a time. I'm not ready to give mine up, but I can't argue with the logic."
This was my secret weapon for years. My coworkers could never understand my focus and productivity and were always surprised when I said that it was due to working from a tiny laptop screen, and no more.
Cmd+Tab skills! But mainly, its a matter of only ever doing one thing at a time and optimizing for that in lots of little ways.
This "rule" is especially useful now that I'm coding primarily through agents. Secret weapon number 2, while everybody else is getting burned out running ten agents at once and producing slop, while I'm now writing more (and better) code than ever.
* I feel the key message here is "single vs multiple windows", not small vs big monitor. I love my 32" curved monitor. I too switched from having three monitors to having just one big monitor and staying with one maximizing window majority of time.
It's also role dependant. I spent few years as ops manager and multiple windows and situational awareness / task parallelization were important. Not saying it's a good thing but it was the name of the game.
Even without task parallelization, multiple windows are important for some roles. If I'm transforming a working excel into executive slide, it's nice to have them both up. If you are good at taking notes, having teams meeting and one note up is a life saver and super power. Etc
But yes - I think core message is "do not assume that prevalent wisdom or what others do, works for your task, job, and personality". As another example, I think dark mode is cool, all my cool friends use it, and it does not work for me on majority of applications. And that's ok... Not everybody is cool like that :-)
I feel the same way. In general, I prefer working on a couch with my laptop. My eyes aren't great and I end up ruining my posture at a desk, invariably.
I've used a cheap 50" TV as monitor for almost a decade now and I can't complain. Sight is 20/20 at 60yo, no eye strain, no headaches, nothing. I only use it for coding (sublime) and browsing (brave), so I don't care about resolution/retina/pixels/colors/curvature/etc.
I went from triple 1440p to just two, but I am going to go back. I guess it al depends on the type of work you do. I know managers that just use their phone.
Went from ultrawide back to my 27 inch monitor and definitely feel more focused. Having everything open "just in case" was killing my output. Nothing alt+tab can't fix.
I was actually wondering about this a few months ago; if big monitors work against focus. There is something zen about having a limited amount of screen real estate & focusing on 1 thing at a time.
went from 27" Mint to 13" Mac Book Neo. I'm extreme astonished how this has changed my workflow. Smaller screen realy works better for me. The change from Mint to MacOS was not hard and most programs are the same.
Author here, I've actually worn glasses since I was 8. :)
That's why I highlighted GNOME getting usable fractional scaling out of the box, it makes all the difference. Previously I relied on the large text accessibility feature, but toggling it on/off depending on what monitor I used was a pain.
I'm actually nearsighted enough that I don't need readers, at least not yet. But my ability to accommodate has diminished, and as far away as I sit from the screen the myopia starts to kick in and even with corrective lenses it becomes difficult to resolve small text because my eyes can no longer make fine focus adjustments. So yes please, big-ass screen, big-ass fonts.
I used to have 3 4K monitors. At some point this has become highly irritating messy. Now all my desktop PCs have single 32" 4K monitor and no scaling. This is "small" enough to keep my focus and yet large enough to arrange windows in a manner I like. Main being development IDE vertically on the right and the UI I debug / test vertically on the left be it browser or pure desktop app.
Interesting take. I regularly switch between just the laptop and my 3 monitor setup. Sometimes I feel like I could use a 4th one because there is just so much stuff to look at when developing. When I get to my laptop I sometimes feel like I can't be really productive on it. Having to tab all the time is not in itself an issue, but I keep getting lost when I have multiple instances of an app open - e.g. IDE. Say you have 3 projects open, I feel like I keep tabbing to the wrong one all the time.
But overall, I do like the idea that you don't actually have to see everything at once. Also takes focus away I guess. I would love to see a study on this which tries to actually measure this.
I feel that tabbing to the wrong instance of an app is a problem that can be solved on the software level. It’s a nightmare on the default macOS app switcher. I use an app called Contexts as a solution and it works reasonably well. There seems to be some free and open source solutions as well.
I learned this lesson a couple decades ago.
Managing windows with OS idiosyncrasies becomes a task in itself.
However, I've also learned recently it depends what you're doing.
Software development, I just want one single maximized window on a single laptop monitor. If I have a near-retina DPI monitor with 120hz+ (I can't deal with low DPI fuzziness and low refresh all day) I'll usually have a 3-4 window layout on a single monitor with the IDE taking up half the screen.
There is a minor cognitive hit from switching focus between monitors for things like reading documentation, so I don't like doing that.
Music production? Man, I could probably use like 3+ monitors. Main stems view, a separate monitor for open VSTs, a separate monitor for video, a separate one for piano roll maybe. The window juggling gets really cumbersome on a single monitor.
My friend who is a professional musician (makes music for TV shows) uses 3 large TVs for music production.
> Managing windows with OS idiosyncrasies becomes a task in itself.
Tiling window managers are a good solution.
Tiling merely changes the idiosyncrasies, and I say this as someone who primarily uses them. (hyprland in my case)
If you created a window right now, where will it go? Which window will it take its space from? Does it use your focused window? Your mouse position? If your WM supports mixed floating & tiling, how does it go when you flip a window between them? etc. That's all cognitive load when you aren't familiar and still requires some hand control when you are.
I’ve had a 38” ultrawide for about a decade.
I’d say monitor position and ergonomics matter way more than screen size.
Navigating a stack of apps with alt+tab, ctrl+tab is extremely efficient. I only miss the extra space when looking at spreadsheets or comparing things in different windows.
Some laptops have a pitiful screen height, avoid those.
Ultrawide is an extra screen size that many web devs forget about. Good design can take advantage of it. But some fluid designs look terrible without constraints.
I ran a vertical setup, with a monitor above my laptop. Not a bad way to go if you want more space for auxiliary apps.
Focus is essential for productivity. Do whatever it takes to get there.
> Focus is essential for productivity. Do whatever it takes to get there.
I'm posting this because it's something I went through in my career and I hope it helps someone who is in a similar situation
I was undiagnosed ADHD until my 30s. In high school and university I was able to brute force my way through and get reasonably good grades. I had a really rocky start to my career in software. I was always getting middling performance reviews along the lines of "You're really good when you're working, but your productivity is terrible". Meanwhile my stress level was crazy high despite not exactly doing lots of overtime or anything else
Even treated, ADHD can make focus very difficult. Undiagnosed, it is devastating
Bringing it back to the words I quoted, I agree entirely. Focus is essential for productivity. Part of doing whatever it takes to get there might mean getting diagnosed and medicated
I was wondering about this for a while now.
My main home office has 5 monitors, and i still have to swipe between desktops regularly. I used to have 6, but two ultrawides stacked one above the other was a bit painful and I developed a back pain after a while.
My on the road setup typically involves a folding portable monitor (asus zenscreen duo, or something to that effect - that is 2x 1080p). Easily enough, and I don't really see a decrease in my efficiency.
But I sometimes do long distance flights and then I code/work on a single screen. I absolutely can do the same thing that I can do with my 6 screen setup with almost not noticeable effect on productivity as well. Could it be that the extra screens are just useless and an illusion of added productivity?
Perhaps the problem isn't the BigScreen, it's the youtube video?
I normally run applications maximized on my 28" 4k, unless I need input from 2 applications at the same time, then I tile them.
Working from my work-issued 16" Macbook Pro or any other of my laptops is a pain because of the limited estate - it's hard to see patterns at a glance or get the whole context when I can only see 30 lines of text that is truncated at <=80 columns. Plus, the fact that the keyboard isn't detachable from the screen forces bad habits on the posture.
It depends what I'm working on. If it's a bunch of interdependent systems that involve a large amount of data, a giant monitor is better. If the giant monitor is being used to make visible more application surfaces (Slack, email, VS Code, etc.), it makes focus worse.
The biggest improvement I've found for my focus is to force myself to close any open tabs/windows that are not absolutely necessary roughly every two hours. I used to be one of those people with 800 tabs open in the browser and 20 application windows spread across 8 desktop spaces. Was a concentration mess. Requiring myself to "clean up" periodically has really helped.
I gave up my monitor pre-covid, a few years earlier than that actually, and have not looked back.
The only thing that does make me wonder at times is that my video in a zoom'ish app looks different than other people's video in some manner, but all that means is that maybe I need 1 backup and mirrored display for video calls, but maybe I can live with it.
The MacOS window manager is so bad that I've resorted to three monitors plus the built in screen. Two monitors have fullscreen terminal emulators and the last has the browser. The built-in screen handles all the distracting stuff whenever I can be bothered to look down at it.
With Xmonad I had 10 spaces on a single laptop screen (actually however many I wanted) with the flick of a button. And yes, I know about hacks like aerospace and the others that require disabling system integrity
I've been a laptop purist most of my life, and prefer to work outside my house / office. Only recently I got a Big Monitor™ for a mini pc. It's really messed with my head. Now when I look at my 15" laptop everything looks incredibly small. Not just that, but the scroll direction is opposite on the pc, so if I'm working side by side I find myself accidentally scrolling each one backwards, or actually typing into the wrong keyboard. Somehow I survived this long with just laptop screens and I don't think it's a mistake that my focus was preserved through that.
[Unnatural Scroll Wheels](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=8997844...)
Similarly, laptop purist for the past 25 years. I so much prefer the focus of one thing on my screen at a time, and toggling between apps without having to shift eyes on a large monitor. I also like to pick up and work from starbucks or wherever. I feel like we are in the minority overall but I do know some like us.
You can configure the scroll direction on the Mac. So you can have them both go the same way.
I always reverse the scroll direction on trackpads.
I switched to Niri (https://github.com/niri-wm/niri) about six months ago and I find it does wonders for focus.
Set the default window width to 1/4 or 1/3 of the screen width (depending on the screen size) and it's easy to keep just the right context visible.
I just upgraded to a 49" curved display because it lets me view everything I need _for the current task_ at one time.
One virtual desktop is Messages, Slack, and Outlook for all my comms needs.
Another is IDE & browser for development work.
Another is todo list, planner, notes, and browser for task management.
Having to constantly swap app between browser, email, IDE, slack, etc is interruptive. Being able to switch to a single-focus desktop with everything visible is much more productive for me and reduces context switching.
What's your viewing distance? I currently have a 32" at about 80cm or so. Did not like the 34" as it has actually less vertical space despite having more area technically.
Is the 49" ultra wide or more 16:9/16:10?
My viewing distance is one-arm-length (kinda close), when I raise my arm my fingertips just touch the screen. Definitely closer than my previous monitor, as you need to sit within the curved-screen radius to be in the sweet spot.
Looks like it's 32:9 aspect ratio - it's this Samsung, it was on sale last week for $800: https://a.co/d/0f884LPO
I do enjoy rocking multiple monitors, but even if I went to one, I'd still have to use a big monitor. My mind may be young but my almost 50 year old eyes aren't. (I actually run my 32 inch monitors in QHD mode)
This is what so few people realize. Size is relative viewing distance and pixel density. Small screens are designed to be viewed at decreased focal distances, making you more cross-eyed.
There is something powerful about environment and what it does to our minds. For the author, giving up the monitor is totally valid and may work for many people. I can often convince myself to chance a habit by adding a simple extra physical step. This is harder on a computer. It takes discipline to not just end up with dozens of windows and even more browser tabs in some roles. I just aggressively close windows when starting a new task or thinking. Most likely you don't need whatever you are closing :)
I've tried every set up that I have the privilage of having:
- 11in Macbook Air
- 16in Macbook Pro
- 1 X 27in monitor mounted with MB Pro in clamshell mode
- Linux Mint desktop on old Dell Inspiron with 4gb of RAM
and after using all of these to try and increase my productivity, I'm still an unfocused and possibly ADD riddled human. I'm not cut from the same cloth as my other productive peers who do not watch much YouTube and can type away at a black `vim` terminal on one half of their screen with software documentation on the other half of the screen.
I went the opposite direction. I'm running a 45" LG UltraGear curved ultrawide OLED at 3440x1440. At first I thought the real estate would make me more productive. What actually happened is I have apps spread across the whole thing and spend more time rearranging windows than working. The article makes a fair point — a smaller screen forces you to commit to one thing at a time. I'm not ready to give mine up, but I can't argue with the logic."
This was my secret weapon for years. My coworkers could never understand my focus and productivity and were always surprised when I said that it was due to working from a tiny laptop screen, and no more.
How do you view HTML/Code/JSONs in other applications?
I have an instance of Postman open on my work laptop, and the useful area of the output constitutes maybe 20% of the screen.
Do you just scroll around endlessly every 2 seconds? Or do you have amazing eyesight and use tiny fonts?
Cmd+Tab skills! But mainly, its a matter of only ever doing one thing at a time and optimizing for that in lots of little ways.
This "rule" is especially useful now that I'm coding primarily through agents. Secret weapon number 2, while everybody else is getting burned out running ten agents at once and producing slop, while I'm now writing more (and better) code than ever.
Like everything else in life, it depends :
* I feel the key message here is "single vs multiple windows", not small vs big monitor. I love my 32" curved monitor. I too switched from having three monitors to having just one big monitor and staying with one maximizing window majority of time.
It's also role dependant. I spent few years as ops manager and multiple windows and situational awareness / task parallelization were important. Not saying it's a good thing but it was the name of the game.
Even without task parallelization, multiple windows are important for some roles. If I'm transforming a working excel into executive slide, it's nice to have them both up. If you are good at taking notes, having teams meeting and one note up is a life saver and super power. Etc
But yes - I think core message is "do not assume that prevalent wisdom or what others do, works for your task, job, and personality". As another example, I think dark mode is cool, all my cool friends use it, and it does not work for me on majority of applications. And that's ok... Not everybody is cool like that :-)
I feel the same way. In general, I prefer working on a couch with my laptop. My eyes aren't great and I end up ruining my posture at a desk, invariably.
I love alt+tab way too much to ever go back to multi screen.
A different angle: multiple screens can cause neck problems if you’re tilting your head in a weird direction for too long
I've used a cheap 50" TV as monitor for almost a decade now and I can't complain. Sight is 20/20 at 60yo, no eye strain, no headaches, nothing. I only use it for coding (sublime) and browsing (brave), so I don't care about resolution/retina/pixels/colors/curvature/etc.
No thank you. While I'm productive when mobile on my 14” 2.8K screen, I'm more productive with the extra headroom on my single 27” 4K at the office.
I went from triple 1440p to just two, but I am going to go back. I guess it al depends on the type of work you do. I know managers that just use their phone.
Went from ultrawide back to my 27 inch monitor and definitely feel more focused. Having everything open "just in case" was killing my output. Nothing alt+tab can't fix.
I think a single 27” 4K is a sweet spot. I currently have a 32” 4K and I’m considering switching back.
Agreed, pixel density at that size in 4k is a treat.
I was actually wondering about this a few months ago; if big monitors work against focus. There is something zen about having a limited amount of screen real estate & focusing on 1 thing at a time.
went from 27" Mint to 13" Mac Book Neo. I'm extreme astonished how this has changed my workflow. Smaller screen realy works better for me. The change from Mint to MacOS was not hard and most programs are the same.
Being able to de-focus is actually quite useful.
Imagine sitting through those lengthy team calls and having to concentrate on BS for 1-2 hours.
Nah, I’d rather focus on getting things done in the meantime.
I will never give up my 5k2k LG 32 inch lcd. Single is best I do agree.
reading the title I thought it's a relationship advice...
Oooooh, 30. Getting up there, old man! Wait till you hit your 40s and your vision starts going... you're gonna want a big-ass monitor then!
Author here, I've actually worn glasses since I was 8. :)
That's why I highlighted GNOME getting usable fractional scaling out of the box, it makes all the difference. Previously I relied on the large text accessibility feature, but toggling it on/off depending on what monitor I used was a pain.
Just get reading glasses. You'll need them anyway.
I'm actually nearsighted enough that I don't need readers, at least not yet. But my ability to accommodate has diminished, and as far away as I sit from the screen the myopia starts to kick in and even with corrective lenses it becomes difficult to resolve small text because my eyes can no longer make fine focus adjustments. So yes please, big-ass screen, big-ass fonts.
I used to have 3 4K monitors. At some point this has become highly irritating messy. Now all my desktop PCs have single 32" 4K monitor and no scaling. This is "small" enough to keep my focus and yet large enough to arrange windows in a manner I like. Main being development IDE vertically on the right and the UI I debug / test vertically on the left be it browser or pure desktop app.
I went the other direction. I bought a Dell 40" for productivity and I feel like the increased real estate only clutters and distracts.
That is very big. You would end up getting neck pain as you have to physically move your head to look at extremities of the screen.
I use a 32" monitor and I find that I use only the center of the screen. I would downsize if not for vertical real estate.
I've had it two years, no neck pain. I don't have to move my head to look around.
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