That said, measuring pixels is also probably not really looking at what's really important here.
Pixels seems to almost definitely be the right measure, here- basically, you want to have N windows open with enough information in all of them. For most tasks, N is greater than 2, but once you have enough windows extra space is just wasted. (One of my former labmates had four monitors, which generally had Matlab open in one window, the docs in another, his system monitor in a third, and nothing in the fourth- so he probably would have been fine with two monitors most of the time- but he did sometimes do something involved enough that he needed all four. For someone working on code where lots of different things all matter, having lots of monitors seems useful.)
Pixels seems to almost definitely be the right measure
Nowadays with very-high-DPI monitors around, I think inches are becoming the right measure again. No one likes to squint at tiny fonts.
Continuation of: Spend Money on Ergonomics, by Kevin
Three years have elapsed since Kevin wisely told us to spend money on treating our bodies well. It may be time to check for new gadgets, to verify what has worked and what has not etc...
If you have purchased an item for this purpose, or intend to buy one and don't know which, tell here, ask here.
Nick Bostrom uses a mouse that looks like a plane controller joystick.
I've seen keyboards that bend sideways, that are concave, that are convex, and that look like a sphere.
At FHI, dozens of books are used so that computer screens stay at eye level or above.
But I am no expert and I have not looked myself, nor would know how to. So please share in the comments the best knowledge about:
Keyboards
Mice
Chairs
Balls to sit on
Pillows
Beds/Matresses etc..
Screens - Size, position, brightness etc...
Other household office items - Stairs, Handles, Shower etc...