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I bought the Steelcase Leap back in 1999. I sat on a lot of chairs back then, and the Leap was by far my favorite. A few months ago I was looking for another task chair and decided to give the Steelcase Think a try. The Think is the cheaper chair of the two, but I like it better. It doesn’t have as many adjustments as the Leap, but it doesn’t need them. A lot of different adjustments are collapsed into one control that works based on body weight. The body weight proportional recline just works, no fiddling required.

The seat back flexors are a big point in the Think’s favor. I find that they offer a more supple fit for my back. Other’s might find them a bit squishy compared to the Leap, but for me they are a good deal more comfortable.

Likewise, the seat edge seems more flexible and supple on the Think. I feel less pressure on the back of my legs when sitting in the Think. I have big, muscular thighs (if I do say so myself), and pressure from the front edge of the seat is a problem for me in many chairs.

The retractable arm rests on the Think are a small feature that is really nice. They retract back as you move toward your work surface, allowing you to scoot in really close to your work. My Leap does not have retractable arm rests, but it looks like the newer ones might. I don’t know if they retract to the degree that the Think does though. The Leap marketing doesn’t play up the feature the way the Think does.

The Think is much, much lighter than the Leap. Moving the Leap up and down stairs is a back-breaker. The Think is much more manageable.

Finally, the Think has a headrest option. I’ve never bothered with headrests before, but I decided to add one to my Think. I’m glad I did. Maybe it’s because I’m getting old, but I find that leaning back with my head against the headrest while coding saves some shoulder and neck strain.

These are both great chairs, but the Think is my new favorite.

I noticed a few days ago that Akismet had caught more than 1 million spam comments on this blog. That’s an incredible amount. I didn’t think more about it until I spotted that Darren Rowse blogged about “The Blog Tool that Has Saved Me Months of Work” referring to Akismet having caught 2 million spam comments for him. He calculates that it has saved him over 46 days of moderation time.

Wow! That means it must have saved me 23 days effort, using his calculations. If I include the 200,000 or so it has caught on the other blogs I manage, it’s an awesome amount of time saved.

I have to agree that Akismet is a fantastic tool, and second his comment to encourage you to pay for Akismet if you are getting a great service out of it.