Made a big difference honestly. Used to work in an office where I sat for 8hrs a day and my back/legs would go numb after awhile. Went all in on an ergo set up during COVID. Sit-stand desk, split keyboard, vertical mouse, etc. I figure if I use them more than 40 hrs a week and they prevent some form of RSI or back-pain, it’s worth it.

Also, the other half of the equation is stretching, yoga, and walking. If I have to wait 5 min for something to run, I’ll do a quick stretch while waiting.

In addition to self-hosting, I’ll throw out a few other alternatives:

Free:

• hoopla or OverDrive/Libby via local library membership
• LibroVox public domain books read by users

Paid:

• For a user experience closer to Audible, I went with libro.fm. You can pick a local, independent bookstore that gets a portion of the sales. Their catalog is pretty extensive as well, have been able to find most books I’m interested in. Books are DRM-free and you can pause your membership.
• Downpour - DRM-free as well

DRM-free is important IMO because otherwise you’re at the mercy of the platform and if the company ever changes its Terms of Use or wipes your account, you lose your purchases. Amazon have remotely deleted books from users’ libraries in the past or replaced them with modified copies (e.g. Roald Dahl books). Kindle announced last month they won’t let you download your eBooks via USB so it’s possible Audible could see changes for the worse in the future as well.

One terrible combo is infinite scroll plus links in the footer (Bing does this, if you needed another reason not to use that site). I think pagination is generally a better pattern, since you can link to a specific page.

Also lack of back button functionality and having your state reset on refresh are also pet peeves.