WEBVTT - 9 Delightful Facts about Office Supplies 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.320 Guess what, mango, what's that? Well, I'm gonna share a 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:04.520 fact that you didn't know was coming your way. So 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:08.879 did you know that Truman Capodi loved paper weights? That 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:12.639 is so strange, I know, but apparently he was a 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:15.280 huge fan of them. So I feel like paper weights 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:17.400 are one of those things that you only had because 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:20.480 your kid made it for you for Christmas. Likely they 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:22.840 glued some feathers and a pipe cleaner to a rock 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:25.400 and now you can't throw it away. Yes, I got 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:27.920 one of those sitting right here, But I don't think 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:30.240 I've ever bought a paperweight. If you it's not like 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:33.000 I live in a windy house, right anything. Yeah, I 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:35.800 can't say that I've ever saved up to buy a paperway, 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:39.199 But apparently there's quite a market for them, and Capodi 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:42.400 had an amazing eye for them. According to the Paris Review, 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:45.040 he went to the auctions in Europe and Asia just 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.240 to see these things, and he'd check out thrift shops 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:51.040 and even buy them for like twenty bucks and they 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:53.479 turned out to be worth like four thousand dollars and 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:57.000 four thousand dollar paperweight. This isn't something I made up. 0:00:57.040 --> 0:00:59.960 He really did this stuff. But I mean, like, unless 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.360 you're using a diamond for a paperweight, I really don't 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:04.800 see how it could be worth that much. I don't know, 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:07.280 but he loved them, and Capodi actually had one in 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:10.120 his collection that was from Italy, a Mili Fiori and 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:14.880 it was worth seven thousand dis Apparently he called paper 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:18.759 weights a quote fragment of a dream. But after finding 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:21.319 that story, I thought we should do today's nine Things 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:46.480 on office supply, So let's dig in. Hey, their podcast listeners, 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:48.760 welcome to part time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:50.760 always I'm joined by my good friend man guest shot 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:53.720 Ticketer and the other side of that soundproof glass shuffling 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:58.640 folders around in his Lamborghini trapper that day, and that's 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:02.480 our pal and producer Ston McNeil. I know we love 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:04.680 our office here at how stuff works. And actually I've 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:06.800 seen you bring your kids in a few times and 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:09.000 do they love coming into the office here? Of course, 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:10.880 I mean they think it's such a treat. I don't 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:12.720 know if you do, but I I used to go 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:14.840 to my dad's office and this is when he worked 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:18.080 at the Experimental Station at DuPont, which was their big 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.280 research facility and I remember thinking it was just so exotic, right, 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:23.960 like it was the secret world he'd go to do 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:26.360 important things. And when I was there, I get to 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:28.359 peek into his lab set up that he had near 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:31.560 his desk. It was super cool. I mean, my kids 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:33.239 just like coming to the office here because Tamika and 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:37.560 Ember keep it stocked with candy and snacks. But actually, 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:39.760 you know, I think it's from coming in. But my 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:42.720 my daughter is obsessed with having meetings with her friends now, 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:46.120 Like she just keeps talking about meetings. She's got to 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:48.440 go to a recess and meetings she's got with her 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:51.280 friends after school. And I think it's because I'm always 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:54.080 rushing off to meetings and and so what does she 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:56.960 do with these meetings? Mostly she just comes in and 0:02:57.000 --> 0:02:59.680 a hoff and says, oh, honor, and I had to 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:02.320 cancel our meeting today. It's so annoying. And you'll be 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:05.480 like why and she'll say, you know, a monster attack. 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:09.680 That sounds pretty accurate. And that's kind of what happens 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:13.840 with us. Well, we we started the show off talking 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:16.280 about paper weight, So so where do you want to 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:18.959 go from their mango? I think I'm gonna start with pencils. 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:21.920 So do you remember the sudoku trend from like a 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:25.239 decade or so ago. Yeah, it was everywhere. And actually 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:27.160 this is a short aside, but I remember one of 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:29.480 our editors, that our book publisher. She was telling us 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.200 how it was her job to edit sudoku and that 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:35.400 there was basically no difference between them. You could get 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.160 them an easy, medium or hard, but yeah, that there's 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:40.800 no personality to the things. So her job was to 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:43.320 come up with different book covers and so she turned 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:46.120 them into like a salsa jar cover or have them 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:50.200 say like mild, medium or spicy and like that, which 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:52.440 I'm sure gets like challenging after a while, right, Like 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:54.960 how many categories can you come up with? But here's 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:57.680 what I wanted to say about pencils. So, after sudoku 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:00.600 took off in England, the Chicago Tribute in report that 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:03.760 pencil sales in the country went up seven hundred percent. 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:07.920 Isn't that insane? That is? Yeah, But there's also a 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:10.400 bonus pencil fact I have here. Part of the reason 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.480 that NASA uses pens in space is because sharpening pencil 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:15.600 sends all these wooden flakes into the air. I mean, 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:19.720 that's pretty obvious, but first, they switched to mechanical pencils 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.000 before they made the move to pens, and this was 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:26.000 in nineteen five. NASA ordered thirty or so mechanical pencils 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:28.839 from a company and paid about a hundred thirty dollars 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:32.200 for each one, and there was actually so much outrage 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:34.520 from the public about spending that much money on pencils 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:37.520 that they switched to pens, which of course means astronauts 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:39.720 have to be extra careful when they do their sudoku 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:42.680 in space. I mean, that is crazy. But all right, well, 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:44.960 speaking of mistakes, did you know what they used to 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:49.240 use before rubber erasers? Apparently they used wheat red and 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:51.359 and and it had to be wheat I think, not 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:54.440 rye or pumpernickel. And anyway, this comes from mental flaws. 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:58.359 But in seventeen seventy, a guy named Edward name was 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:00.880 writing and made an error, so he reached for his 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:04.000 leftover wheat loaf, I guess, and he accidentally grabbed a 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:07.040 piece of rubber and started a racing and was delighted 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:09.599 when he realized it performed even better than the wheat bread. 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.120 That sounds like a terrible life hack, right, Like, we're 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:16.400 on the race around your pencils. Just stuff some bread 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:20.640 and there instead. Doesn't it seem like the pencil markings 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:22.880 would just get all smudgy, Like I can't imagine it 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:26.000 works that well. Well, we'll have to try this one 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:28.480 out later, all right, So what's your next one? Well, 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.479 how about we move on to the stapler. So if 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:35.400 you loved the classic movie Office Space, you probably remember 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:38.200 the character Milton and his red swing Line stapler that 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.000 he was obsessed with. So you know, after the movie 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:42.840 came out, it bombed in theaters, but it did well 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:46.440 on DVD, and Swing Line started getting tons of calls 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:49.720 for their red stapler. The only problem was Swing Line 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:53.400 never actually made a red stapler. The one in the 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:55.640 movie had been custom painted by a prop designer I 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:57.520 guess to make it pop off the screen or whatever. 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:00.719 So people actually made a business of it. They started 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:03.240 d I wining it, they spray painted their own, and 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:05.960 suddenly there was this hot market on eBay for it, 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:08.800 and eventually, like swing Line, wise and up and at 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:13.360 least a quote rio red version to quality demand. I 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:16.599 love that people can get attached enough to a concept 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.360 in a movie that they like need a red staplers 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:22.440 such a weird thing. All right, Well, here's a quick 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:24.760 one about a post it notes. There's of course a 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:27.680 well known origin story where scientists created a very weak 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:30.279 glue that no one knew how to use, and eventually 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:32.680 he used it for temporary bookmarks and his hymnal and 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:35.720 it kind of took off from there. What's interesting is 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:38.640 that for something so temporary, they actually have quite a 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:43.080 bit of sticking power. So post it note actually survived 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:46.280 on a trip from Vegas to Minneapolis on the nose 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:49.400 of a jet. It was put there as a reminder 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:51.680 for the Vegas ground crew, but it clung on through 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:55.200 five hundred mile per hour speeds and minus fifty six 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.120 degree temperatures. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, I mean it's like 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:01.400 the little post it that could definitely was. But all right, 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:02.680 so where do you want to take it from here? 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:05.200 So I've actually got a great story that Christopher told 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:07.960 me about, and it's about the highlighter. And you know 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:10.239 how they always come in these fat and flat shapes, 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:13.400 So this is something I've never thought about. But the 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:17.400 story is really funny. So apparently this guy, Gunter Schwanhauser 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:20.000 for from the Schwan pencil factory. You know the schwan 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:25.000 pencil factory, right of pencil factory. Well, you've seen a 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:27.400 highlighter in the US in this nineties seventies, and he 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:29.720 wanted to release his own version back in Germany. So 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:32.720 he had his technicians and designers bring him a bunch 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:36.120 of these like clay prototypes for some reason. But when 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:39.160 he saw them, he was completely irritated, like none of 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:41.360 them had the right ergonomic field or something, and it 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:43.760 didn't feel right in his hand. So in his anger, 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:47.240 he slammed his fist down on the clay models and 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:49.240 when he looked at the flattened shaped he was like, 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:53.360 this is genius, Like that's the shape that feels good 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:56.400 in your hand, and uh, I mean, I just think 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:58.920 that's so cool. But he also called the product the 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:01.880 boss because busses don't write things, they just point out 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:05.120 important things that other people right, And I imagine a 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:08.200 guy named Gunter schwan Hauser would would slam his fist 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:11.160 down every once in a while. Definitely. Well here's something 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:13.040 neither of us are fancy enough to own, and that's 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.640 fifteen hundred dollar business cards for one card, or for 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:20.520 like a set of them, apparently one card. So this 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:22.920 is from two thousand twelve where a company called Black 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:25.760 Ask from in England started making a card of Swiss 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:29.440 metal construction and more than thirty carrots of diamonds were 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:32.360 in each card. I mean, if I got handed one 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:36.440 of those, I just think you're really bad at business. Yeah, 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:40.000 someone must be buying the custom handcrafted cards are sold 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:43.800 in packs of twenty, three, fifty or one hundred, and 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:46.040 just because you're wealthy doesn't mean you can purchase them. 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:50.920 They're only obtainable through an exclusive invite. I love that 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:53.280 sort of pomposity, like you have to be invited to 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:56.600 throw away your money. Here's right, right. I know we've 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:58.760 got a couple more facts to share before we declare winner. 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:14.160 But let's take a quick break for Welcome back to 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:17.760 Part time Genius, and we're talking facts about office supplies. Now, Mango, 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:19.920 it's your last fact, So what do you want to 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:23.240 talk about. I want to talk about cubicles, which are 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:26.280 always a touchy subject, and they were touching at our 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:28.480 last office. And I'm sure you remember this, like some 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.440 people love them, some people felt closed off from all 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:34.080 the conversations around them, and and you know, we kept 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:36.840 experimenting with the office design, like we had big cubes 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:41.120 and then these more open office spaces. But but did 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:43.720 you realize that cubicles were actually designed to free office 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:48.000 workers from their uninspired workplace settings. Yeah, this is another 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:50.760 thing Christopher told me. But the things were originally called 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:54.160 the action office and was meant to free workers from 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:56.600 the tyranny of those classroom style offices that you see 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:59.040 in old movies where like all these deaths are in 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.000 the big hall face the same way. But the designer, 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:05.480 who's named Robert Probst, he designed them in the sixties 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:07.920 and actually hated how they were used in the eighties 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:09.720 and nineties. And and this is how he put it. 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:13.199 The dark side of this is that not all organizations 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:16.319 are intelligent. Lots are run by crass people who can 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:18.960 take the same kind of equipment and create hell holes. 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:22.000 They make little bitty cubicles and stuff people in these 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:26.440 barren rat hole places. Wow, he was not a fan. 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:30.880 You know. I always love that book from Quirk about 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:34.240 how to wallpaper your cubicle and make it like tiki themed, 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:36.000 or how to design it so it was like your 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:38.320 cabin in the woods or something like that. I know, 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:41.160 it's so great, So well, what's your last fact? All right, So, 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.560 just like cubicles and open offices, another thing that goes 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:47.080 in and out of fads seems to be desk chairs 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:50.360 and and right now, standing desk are obviously super popular. 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:52.040 We can just look around in the office here and 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:54.120 see so many people using them. I know, I feel 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:56.600 like it made this like progression right from like these 0:10:56.640 --> 0:11:00.360 super ergonomic chairs to yoga balls for a while, suddenly 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:02.960 like everyone was bouncing on yoga poulse and now all 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:05.760 of a sudden everyone is standing. Oh that's right. But 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:08.839 apparently none of this is new. The ministers have been 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:12.319 preaching standing desk since at least seventeen nineties seven, when 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.319 this Presbyterian minister his name was job Orton, he was 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:18.520 telling people that a sedentary life was dangerous and he 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:21.240 claimed that quote, it must be your resolute care to 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:24.680 keep your body upright as possible, never stoop your head 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:27.720 or bend your breast. To prevent this, you should get 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.640 a standing desk. That's crazy that he used this exactly where. 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:33.720 It's like he kind of should have trademark them, right. Yeah, 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:36.079 And another minister in eighteen thirty six, this guy was 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:39.199 named Ebeny's reporter claimed that the standing desk is good 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:42.400 for those quote who have the animal vigor to sustain 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:46.360 the exhaustion and occasions. Animal vigor, you know, that's what 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:49.240 it takes. But if you're on the fence about using 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:51.520 a standing desk, you should know there are some historical 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:55.400 figures who were early adopters. Thomas Jefferson used what he 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:58.640 called a tall desk to draw blueprints, and Winston Churchill 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:01.280 also used the standing desk to lay out galley proofs. 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:04.199 I mean, Churchill also used to spend half his day 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:07.600 naked in a bathtub, like drinking straight in martiniz. So 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:11.040 that's how. I'm not sure I need to follow his model, 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:13.679 but I do like knowing that this trend has come 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:16.439 full circle. And since you've changed my mind on standing this, 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:19.000 I want you to take home today's trophy and use 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:21.439 it as a paperweight. All right, Well, thanks so much, 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:24.320 and that's it for today's episode. We will be back 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:27.120 with a full length episode tomorrow. Thanks so much for listening.