Justify purchase of Aeron (or other nice chair)

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GalenAgas

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I am trying to justify the purchase of an Aeron/Mirra/embody/steelcase-leap/etc chair for studying. I am about to really buckle down for a "final push" in my step1 study and unfortunately I have been experiencing paresthesias.

Will the chair get much mileage during 3rd year or thereafter? During 3rd year will I be at home enough to use this chair? 4th year? During my career? Thoughts?

I cannot justify purchasing a 800+ chair if it will only be used for step1 studying.

Thoughts?

hero_aeron_work_1.jpg
 
I've had one since M1 year. Bought it second-hand from an office doing a sale. Pretty nicely discounted.

Best $$ I've spent in a long time. Yes, M3 year has plenty of studying. I can't see how you won't spend a decent amount of time at your desk throughout M4 year/your career. Get one. You won't regret it.
 
VisionaryTics said:
I've had one since M1 year. Bought it second-hand from an office doing a sale. Pretty nicely discounted.

Best $$ I've spent in a long time. Yes, M3 year has plenty of studying. I can't see how you won't spend a decent amount of time at your desk throughout M4 year/your career. Get one. You won't regret it.
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I heard M3 requires the same/more studying as MS2 but without the dedicated time. Is there really time to study during MS3? I'm guessing it's block dependent.

Well I guess I'm off to pickup an Aeron 😀
 
You always need somewhere comfy to sit, regardless of where you are in your career. I spend a decent amount of time at my desk as an M4, for example (although I'm usually not doing anything academically productive). So I will vote for comfy chair, with the caveat that $800 is overkill for a desk chair.

I heard M3 requires the same/more studying as MS2 but without the dedicated time. Is there really time to study during MS3? I'm guessing it's block dependent.

Well I guess I'm off to pickup an Aeron
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In my experience: M3 requires more total time, but less of that time will be spent actually studying. It is block dependent (large variance in free time). Personally, I did most of my studying during downtime (which is often large and frequent) at the hospital and very little at home.
 
I struggled with this too, but if I ever have that kind of money I would have no qualms.
 
Sitting on one as I type this. My bum could not be more thankful.

Yea it's expensive, but I like to splurge when it comes to my apt. It's not just for studying, but nice for surfing the web, etc.
 
I have tried all of them and ended up with a Steelcase Leap. It's awesome. IMO an excellent chair and an excellent bed (any of the TempurPedic lines) are absolutely essential. It's dumb to be stingy on the two things that you use most in your entire life.
 
viper930 said:
I have tried all of them and ended up with a Steelcase Leap. It's awesome. IMO an excellent chair and an excellent bed (any of the TempurPedic lines) are absolutely essential. It's dumb to be stingy on the two things that you use most in your entire life.
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Yah after going to teh chair store I couldn't decide and left empty seated.

I'm trying to choose between the Leap, HM Embody, and Zody
 
What makes these chairs so expensive?! If it's that magical, I may need to look into this for next year... looks comfy.
 
I guess nobody got my reference. brb, pouting in my nerd corner.
 
NickNaylor said:
Ergonomics brah.

(sent from my phone)
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I understand that. But what specifically makes these so expensive? There's not an onboard computer or anything like that.... the materials can't be that expensive, nor the construction process THAT intensive. 😕

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
 
I got the reference! Not sure if I should be so excited about that though...
 
GorillaPanic said:
I understand that. But what specifically makes these so expensive? There's not an onboard computer or anything like that.... the materials can't be that expensive, nor the construction process THAT intensive. 😕

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...

The Herman Miller Embody supposedly took 4 years of R&D. Also, there's the simple fact that there are no cheap alternatives. The ones you can buy at officemax simply don't compare.
 
another vote for steelcase leaps, although i believe mine may be leap v2 (might have made that up)

I spent ~300 off of craigslist buying it from some family in a rich neighborhood who got another one free from their work and didn't need it-->i'd go either this route for the discount office furniture place one, although I believe both aerons and leaps go on sale x2 a year (once around xmas, once in june-ish IIRC) and both have warranties, which I always think are worth it especially when if you'd be investing in the new cost, ~1000.

TL;DR, buy it
 
I find it moderately amusing how often "how will I ever pay back my $400k in student loans back" topics pop up....then you see someone trying to justify spending close to $1,000 on a chair....I see a trend.
 
FSU2013 said:
I find it moderately amusing how often "how will I ever pay back my $400k in student loans back" topics pop up....then you see someone trying to justify spending close to $1,000 on a chair....I see a trend.
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well I could buy a good chair now or have sciatica in the future o.o
 
FSU2013 said:
I find it moderately amusing how often "how will I ever pay back my $400k in student loans back" topics pop up....then you see someone trying to justify spending close to $1,000 on a chair....I see a trend.
Click to expand...
KLycos said:
well I could buy a good chair now or have sciatica in the future o.o
Click to expand...

I already have sciatica lol. It sucks. If you can't afford the nice chair, consider getting a standup table which also seems to help.
 
FSU2013 said:
I find it moderately amusing how often "how will I ever pay back my $400k in student loans back" topics pop up....then you see someone trying to justify spending close to $1,000 on a chair....I see a trend.
Click to expand...

Yea. This is pretty spot on.

The Aeron chairs are nice, I'll grant them that. My department provided them so that's the kind of chair I'm sitting in at the moment.

That being said, the overall return on investment for a home chair is pretty minimal. I would never buy one of these for use at home. A $200 chair does just as well (I find my $200 tempurpedic chair to be more comfortable for long term use than these ones). If you have a bad posture then a chair isn't going to fix that.

But if you have $1000 of disposable income and want to spend it to get a fancy chair , then that's up to you. It's not a necessity though.
 
Doctor Bob said:
Yea. This is pretty spot on.

The Aeron chairs are nice, I'll grant them that. My department provided them so that's the kind of chair I'm sitting in at the moment.

That being said, the overall return on investment for a home chair is pretty minimal. I would never buy one of these for use at home. A $200 chair does just as well (I find my $200 tempurpedic chair to be more comfortable for long term use than these ones). If you have a bad posture then a chair isn't going to fix that.

But if you have $1000 of disposable income and want to spend it to get a fancy chair , then that's up to you. It's not a necessity though.
Click to expand...

Aeron chairs in an ER? Aren't you guys usually on your feet? lol 😛
 
GalenAgas said:
Aeron chairs in an ER? Aren't you guys usually on your feet? lol 😛
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Pssh... I'm an attending at an academic institution. The biggest risks I have during a shift is that I might form a DVT or decubitus ulcer.
 
That's really impressive.

That guy can do his work without even turning on the monitor. It gives him more time to do important things, like arrange his pens and inspect his pen cup.
 
113 said:
That's really impressive.

That guy can do his work without even turning on the monitor. It gives him more time to do important things, like arrange his pens and inspect his pen cup.
Click to expand...

Is that a picture of you? I would love to arrange my pen in your cup
 
We had these at work, plus a $4,000 variant that we (stupidly) bought.

I mean, it's a chair. oohhhhh manually adjustable lumbar support, incredible...meh

Seriously though for people who haven't sat in one of these, it's not like your life starts anew once you sit in one...not sure why there's so much fanfare over a chair. I mean, they're not bad, but I'd still never spend my own money on one of these...
 
This thread inspired me to buy a Steelcase Leap yesterday. Got it from a secondhand office furniture place here in Chicago for $500. I feel like a king on my nerd throne.
 
HatWobble said:
This thread inspired me to buy a Steelcase Leap yesterday. Got it from a secondhand office furniture place here in Chicago for $500. I feel like a king on my nerd throne.
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If you got a fully loaded one for 500 that's an awesome deal!
 
When buying used (craigslist) how can you tell if it's legit and not a knock off?

Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile
 
FSU2013 said:
I find it moderately amusing how often "how will I ever pay back my $400k in student loans back" topics pop up....then you see someone trying to justify spending close to $1,000 on a chair....I see a trend.
Click to expand...

Same people are the ones buying new cars and putting it on their student loans, to be paid back 6 years after the car is gone.
 
TheProwler said:
Same people are the ones buying new cars and putting it on their student loans, to be paid back 6 years after the car is gone.
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Ack. That's pretty bad. But I have to agree that spending anywhere near $1000 for a chair is really bad as well. I just use my couch to study... Or I sit at the table--I've never had any back problems from that.

But, if you have disposable money at your fingertips, and it's what makes you happy, go for the chair. Personally if I was going to spend that kind of money, I'd much rather buy a really nice camera or a canoe, but that's me 🙂
 
TheProwler said:
Same people are the ones buying new cars and putting it on their student loans, to be paid back 6 years after the car is gone.
Click to expand...

I agree. If you can't afford to buy one of these chairs cash you shouldn't buy one... or you should look for a really good deal on a used one. Some of us had jobs before medical school

Also, compared to the current model ergonomic chairs (Leap, Mirra, etc) the Aeron (circa 1994) is rather uncomfortable.
 
Aeron chairs are awesome! I have one at work, and LOVE it! It will be hard to leave it when the time comes....

You could look into a used one? May be cheaper?
 
GalenAgas said:
I am trying to justify the purchase of an Aeron/Mirra/embody/steelcase-leap/etc chair for studying. I am about to really buckle down for a "final push" in my step1 study and unfortunately I have been experiencing paresthesias.

Will the chair get much mileage during 3rd year or thereafter? During 3rd year will I be at home enough to use this chair? 4th year? During my career? Thoughts?

I cannot justify purchasing a 800+ chair if it will only be used for step1 studying.

Thoughts?

hero_aeron_work_1.jpg
Click to expand...

Oh man...when they were building the new science library, my school put out a few chair samples and let the students vote on the final selection...needless to say, we ended up with a library full of these chairs (and beanbags). 👍

Just do it. It's not like you'll stop using it after this year!
 
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