More a reflection of people having trouble with nonbinary thinking.
Research shows that sitting all day is not good...and many people take that as meaning they should not sit at all. They think their only choices are sitting all day or standing all day.
You can see a similar thing with diets. Someone reads that lowering carbs might have some benefits so they try to change their diet from one that has 60% of its calories from carbs to one that has 10% or less. In reality they are likely to get many of the low carb benefits if they cut from 60% to 30-40%, and 40% is a heck of a lot easier to do than 10% (and so also something one is more likely to stick with long term and so actually have a chance to see benefits).
Look at discussions here on HN about climate change, health and safety regulation, crime prevention, privacy regulation, transgender issues, and no doubt many others and you'll find a lot of people overlooking the possibility that anything other than the most extreme opposite approaches might be viable.
I've been a full-time developer since about 1993. I switched to 100% standing at work in 2014 sort of on a whim. Before that, I had a significant episode of back pain (enough to leave me unable to function normally) about once a year. Since then, never once.
I'm sure it's complicated and I know correlation is not causality. But my personal belief is that standing is a huge benefit for my back's health as a programmer.
They do wonders for me. Any chair I sit in mostly upright for more than a few minutes will start to cause me pain in my lower back. (Herniated L4-L5)
Alternatively, a standing desk where I have tons of movement and am constantly moving my feet and legs, I can stand at all day long. I'm sure it's distracting when I'm on camera, I'm constantly swaying from side to side.
Less the snake oil of our times than a trendy fad from 10 years ago that managed to accumulate a few fanatics, and consequently get a few furniture businesses and research scientists funded who would supply steady press releases to a lazy media that tired of it after a few years.
Not really, you're just trading off one set of problems for another if you work in one position all the time. Given that most modern standing desks are adjustable, it's pretty convenient to have more options.
A dozen years ago when people started using them I thought those were rather odd fellows. Fast forward to the point where after 20+ years of coding lower back pain is quite common unless I work at a standing desk a lot.
