I really dislike most of the “battlestation” stuff I see online—if you’re not familiar with the term, I it’s associated with people posting pictures of their PC gaming rigs. But most of it is just too clean! Influencer chic, streamer house style with flawless cable management and no indication that somebody actually plays games or works there.

When I see a desk with some clutter or like, something weird propping up the monitor, I know it’s real. It’s more beautiful to me than the smoothest, most LED RGB hypebeast thing. Basically, my ideal setup is the PC equivalent of the Satoru Iwata Saw basement station.

I though he was gonna make an extended point but that’s the whole article above, basically wncapsuled in the title. I think he just wanted to show off the basement photo he found

Nothing is “meant to be messy”. Thats bs.

Personally a work space, of all things, should be clean. Though there’s nothing wrong with a little mess. Sometimes it’s hard to avoid: I have a desk with multiple armatures holding a widescreen monitor/kvm switch, and 2 computers. All that is connected to my audio workstation with an external mixer routing 3 effects pedals, a sequencer and a synth; and that’s next to my solder workstation and 3d resin printer. That doesn’t even get into the reference speakers, cameras, mics and such. Also the turntable and wall of records.

It’s a lot to keep tidy, but if my workspace gets messy then I can’t work. Still, it’s important to note that messy is not dirty. Messy is one thing, but there is ZERO excuse to not be clean.

All this is to say, I see no reason for OP to take umbrage with not being messy. Even if showing more wires means it feels more real… Some of us have more than an old prebuilt pc swarmed with surge protectors and loose usb cables.

Every time I feel like posting my setup, I don’t cause of all the “management” I do not do. It is also hard to get the whole thing in a single photo as 1 monitor(TV) is facing away from my station, and the rats nest under the desk is hard to see without direct lighting. One day, my glorious mess will be revealed

The same is true with linux.