Speaker 1: Guess what, mango, what's that? Well, I'm gonna share a
Speaker 1: fact that you didn't know was coming your way. So
Speaker 1: did you know that Truman Capodi loved paper weights? That
Speaker 1: is so strange, I know, but apparently he was a
Speaker 1: huge fan of them. So I feel like paper weights
Speaker 1: are one of those things that you only had because
Speaker 1: your kid made it for you for Christmas. Likely they
Speaker 1: glued some feathers and a pipe cleaner to a rock
Speaker 1: and now you can't throw it away. Yes, I got
Speaker 1: one of those sitting right here, But I don't think
Speaker 1: I've ever bought a paperweight. If you it's not like
Speaker 1: I live in a windy house, right anything. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: can't say that I've ever saved up to buy a paperway,
Speaker 1: But apparently there's quite a market for them, and Capodi
Speaker 1: had an amazing eye for them. According to the Paris Review,
Speaker 1: he went to the auctions in Europe and Asia just
Speaker 1: to see these things, and he'd check out thrift shops
Speaker 1: and even buy them for like twenty bucks and they
Speaker 1: turned out to be worth like four thousand dollars and
Speaker 1: four thousand dollar paperweight. This isn't something I made up.
Speaker 1: He really did this stuff. But I mean, like, unless
Speaker 1: you're using a diamond for a paperweight, I really don't
Speaker 1: see how it could be worth that much. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but he loved them, and Capodi actually had one in
Speaker 1: his collection that was from Italy, a Mili Fiori and
Speaker 1: it was worth seven thousand dis Apparently he called paper
Speaker 1: weights a quote fragment of a dream. But after finding
Speaker 1: that story, I thought we should do today's nine Things
Speaker 1: on office supply, So let's dig in. Hey, their podcast listeners,
Speaker 1: welcome to part time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
Speaker 1: always I'm joined by my good friend man guest shot
Speaker 1: Ticketer and the other side of that soundproof glass shuffling
Speaker 1: folders around in his Lamborghini trapper that day, and that's
Speaker 1: our pal and producer Ston McNeil. I know we love
Speaker 1: our office here at how stuff works. And actually I've
Speaker 1: seen you bring your kids in a few times and
Speaker 1: do they love coming into the office here? Of course,
Speaker 1: I mean they think it's such a treat. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you do, but I I used to go
Speaker 1: to my dad's office and this is when he worked
Speaker 1: at the Experimental Station at DuPont, which was their big
Speaker 1: research facility and I remember thinking it was just so exotic, right,
Speaker 1: like it was the secret world he'd go to do
Speaker 1: important things. And when I was there, I get to
Speaker 1: peek into his lab set up that he had near
Speaker 1: his desk. It was super cool. I mean, my kids
Speaker 1: just like coming to the office here because Tamika and
Speaker 1: Ember keep it stocked with candy and snacks. But actually,
Speaker 1: you know, I think it's from coming in. But my
Speaker 1: my daughter is obsessed with having meetings with her friends now,
Speaker 1: Like she just keeps talking about meetings. She's got to
Speaker 1: go to a recess and meetings she's got with her
Speaker 1: friends after school. And I think it's because I'm always
Speaker 1: rushing off to meetings and and so what does she
Speaker 1: do with these meetings? Mostly she just comes in and
Speaker 1: a hoff and says, oh, honor, and I had to
Speaker 1: cancel our meeting today. It's so annoying. And you'll be
Speaker 1: like why and she'll say, you know, a monster attack.
Speaker 1: That sounds pretty accurate. And that's kind of what happens
Speaker 1: with us. Well, we we started the show off talking
Speaker 1: about paper weight, So so where do you want to
Speaker 1: go from their mango? I think I'm gonna start with pencils.
Speaker 1: So do you remember the sudoku trend from like a
Speaker 1: decade or so ago. Yeah, it was everywhere. And actually
Speaker 1: this is a short aside, but I remember one of
Speaker 1: our editors, that our book publisher. She was telling us
Speaker 1: how it was her job to edit sudoku and that
Speaker 1: there was basically no difference between them. You could get
Speaker 1: them an easy, medium or hard, but yeah, that there's
Speaker 1: no personality to the things. So her job was to
Speaker 1: come up with different book covers and so she turned
Speaker 1: them into like a salsa jar cover or have them
Speaker 1: say like mild, medium or spicy and like that, which
Speaker 1: I'm sure gets like challenging after a while, right, Like
Speaker 1: how many categories can you come up with? But here's
Speaker 1: what I wanted to say about pencils. So, after sudoku
Speaker 1: took off in England, the Chicago Tribute in report that
Speaker 1: pencil sales in the country went up seven hundred percent.
Speaker 1: Isn't that insane? That is? Yeah, But there's also a
Speaker 1: bonus pencil fact I have here. Part of the reason
Speaker 1: that NASA uses pens in space is because sharpening pencil
Speaker 1: sends all these wooden flakes into the air. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's pretty obvious, but first, they switched to mechanical pencils
Speaker 1: before they made the move to pens, and this was
Speaker 1: in nineteen five. NASA ordered thirty or so mechanical pencils
Speaker 1: from a company and paid about a hundred thirty dollars
Speaker 1: for each one, and there was actually so much outrage
Speaker 1: from the public about spending that much money on pencils
Speaker 1: that they switched to pens, which of course means astronauts
Speaker 1: have to be extra careful when they do their sudoku
Speaker 1: in space. I mean, that is crazy. But all right, well,
Speaker 1: speaking of mistakes, did you know what they used to
Speaker 1: use before rubber erasers? Apparently they used wheat red and
Speaker 1: and and it had to be wheat I think, not
Speaker 1: rye or pumpernickel. And anyway, this comes from mental flaws.
Speaker 1: But in seventeen seventy, a guy named Edward name was
Speaker 1: writing and made an error, so he reached for his
Speaker 1: leftover wheat loaf, I guess, and he accidentally grabbed a
Speaker 1: piece of rubber and started a racing and was delighted
Speaker 1: when he realized it performed even better than the wheat bread.
Speaker 1: That sounds like a terrible life hack, right, Like, we're
Speaker 1: on the race around your pencils. Just stuff some bread
Speaker 1: and there instead. Doesn't it seem like the pencil markings
Speaker 1: would just get all smudgy, Like I can't imagine it
Speaker 1: works that well. Well, we'll have to try this one
Speaker 1: out later, all right, So what's your next one? Well,
Speaker 1: how about we move on to the stapler. So if
Speaker 1: you loved the classic movie Office Space, you probably remember
Speaker 1: the character Milton and his red swing Line stapler that
Speaker 1: he was obsessed with. So you know, after the movie
Speaker 1: came out, it bombed in theaters, but it did well
Speaker 1: on DVD, and Swing Line started getting tons of calls
Speaker 1: for their red stapler. The only problem was Swing Line
Speaker 1: never actually made a red stapler. The one in the
Speaker 1: movie had been custom painted by a prop designer I
Speaker 1: guess to make it pop off the screen or whatever.
Speaker 1: So people actually made a business of it. They started
Speaker 1: d I wining it, they spray painted their own, and
Speaker 1: suddenly there was this hot market on eBay for it,
Speaker 1: and eventually, like swing Line, wise and up and at
Speaker 1: least a quote rio red version to quality demand. I
Speaker 1: love that people can get attached enough to a concept
Speaker 1: in a movie that they like need a red staplers
Speaker 1: such a weird thing. All right, Well, here's a quick
Speaker 1: one about a post it notes. There's of course a
Speaker 1: well known origin story where scientists created a very weak
Speaker 1: glue that no one knew how to use, and eventually
Speaker 1: he used it for temporary bookmarks and his hymnal and
Speaker 1: it kind of took off from there. What's interesting is
Speaker 1: that for something so temporary, they actually have quite a
Speaker 1: bit of sticking power. So post it note actually survived
Speaker 1: on a trip from Vegas to Minneapolis on the nose
Speaker 1: of a jet. It was put there as a reminder
Speaker 1: for the Vegas ground crew, but it clung on through
Speaker 1: five hundred mile per hour speeds and minus fifty six
Speaker 1: degree temperatures. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, I mean it's like
Speaker 1: the little post it that could definitely was. But all right,
Speaker 1: so where do you want to take it from here?
Speaker 1: So I've actually got a great story that Christopher told
Speaker 1: me about, and it's about the highlighter. And you know
Speaker 1: how they always come in these fat and flat shapes,
Speaker 1: So this is something I've never thought about. But the
Speaker 1: story is really funny. So apparently this guy, Gunter Schwanhauser
Speaker 1: for from the Schwan pencil factory. You know the schwan
Speaker 1: pencil factory, right of pencil factory. Well, you've seen a
Speaker 1: highlighter in the US in this nineties seventies, and he
Speaker 1: wanted to release his own version back in Germany. So
Speaker 1: he had his technicians and designers bring him a bunch
Speaker 1: of these like clay prototypes for some reason. But when
Speaker 1: he saw them, he was completely irritated, like none of
Speaker 1: them had the right ergonomic field or something, and it
Speaker 1: didn't feel right in his hand. So in his anger,
Speaker 1: he slammed his fist down on the clay models and
Speaker 1: when he looked at the flattened shaped he was like,
Speaker 1: this is genius, Like that's the shape that feels good
Speaker 1: in your hand, and uh, I mean, I just think
Speaker 1: that's so cool. But he also called the product the
Speaker 1: boss because busses don't write things, they just point out
Speaker 1: important things that other people right, And I imagine a
Speaker 1: guy named Gunter schwan Hauser would would slam his fist
Speaker 1: down every once in a while. Definitely. Well here's something
Speaker 1: neither of us are fancy enough to own, and that's
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred dollar business cards for one card, or for
Speaker 1: like a set of them, apparently one card. So this
Speaker 1: is from two thousand twelve where a company called Black
Speaker 1: Ask from in England started making a card of Swiss
Speaker 1: metal construction and more than thirty carrots of diamonds were
Speaker 1: in each card. I mean, if I got handed one
Speaker 1: of those, I just think you're really bad at business. Yeah,
Speaker 1: someone must be buying the custom handcrafted cards are sold
Speaker 1: in packs of twenty, three, fifty or one hundred, and
Speaker 1: just because you're wealthy doesn't mean you can purchase them.
Speaker 1: They're only obtainable through an exclusive invite. I love that
Speaker 1: sort of pomposity, like you have to be invited to
Speaker 1: throw away your money. Here's right, right. I know we've
Speaker 1: got a couple more facts to share before we declare winner.
Speaker 1: But let's take a quick break for Welcome back to
Speaker 1: Part time Genius, and we're talking facts about office supplies. Now, Mango,
Speaker 1: it's your last fact, So what do you want to
Speaker 1: talk about. I want to talk about cubicles, which are
Speaker 1: always a touchy subject, and they were touching at our
Speaker 1: last office. And I'm sure you remember this, like some
Speaker 1: people love them, some people felt closed off from all
Speaker 1: the conversations around them, and and you know, we kept
Speaker 1: experimenting with the office design, like we had big cubes
Speaker 1: and then these more open office spaces. But but did
Speaker 1: you realize that cubicles were actually designed to free office
Speaker 1: workers from their uninspired workplace settings. Yeah, this is another
Speaker 1: thing Christopher told me. But the things were originally called
Speaker 1: the action office and was meant to free workers from
Speaker 1: the tyranny of those classroom style offices that you see
Speaker 1: in old movies where like all these deaths are in
Speaker 1: the big hall face the same way. But the designer,
Speaker 1: who's named Robert Probst, he designed them in the sixties
Speaker 1: and actually hated how they were used in the eighties
Speaker 1: and nineties. And and this is how he put it.
Speaker 1: The dark side of this is that not all organizations
Speaker 1: are intelligent. Lots are run by crass people who can
Speaker 1: take the same kind of equipment and create hell holes.
Speaker 1: They make little bitty cubicles and stuff people in these
Speaker 1: barren rat hole places. Wow, he was not a fan.
Speaker 1: You know. I always love that book from Quirk about
Speaker 1: how to wallpaper your cubicle and make it like tiki themed,
Speaker 1: or how to design it so it was like your
Speaker 1: cabin in the woods or something like that. I know,
Speaker 1: it's so great, So well, what's your last fact? All right, So,
Speaker 1: just like cubicles and open offices, another thing that goes
Speaker 1: in and out of fads seems to be desk chairs
Speaker 1: and and right now, standing desk are obviously super popular.
Speaker 1: We can just look around in the office here and
Speaker 1: see so many people using them. I know, I feel
Speaker 1: like it made this like progression right from like these
Speaker 1: super ergonomic chairs to yoga balls for a while, suddenly
Speaker 1: like everyone was bouncing on yoga poulse and now all
Speaker 1: of a sudden everyone is standing. Oh that's right. But
Speaker 1: apparently none of this is new. The ministers have been
Speaker 1: preaching standing desk since at least seventeen nineties seven, when
Speaker 1: this Presbyterian minister his name was job Orton, he was
Speaker 1: telling people that a sedentary life was dangerous and he
Speaker 1: claimed that quote, it must be your resolute care to
Speaker 1: keep your body upright as possible, never stoop your head
Speaker 1: or bend your breast. To prevent this, you should get
Speaker 1: a standing desk. That's crazy that he used this exactly where.
Speaker 1: It's like he kind of should have trademark them, right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And another minister in eighteen thirty six, this guy was
Speaker 1: named Ebeny's reporter claimed that the standing desk is good
Speaker 1: for those quote who have the animal vigor to sustain
Speaker 1: the exhaustion and occasions. Animal vigor, you know, that's what
Speaker 1: it takes. But if you're on the fence about using
Speaker 1: a standing desk, you should know there are some historical
Speaker 1: figures who were early adopters. Thomas Jefferson used what he
Speaker 1: called a tall desk to draw blueprints, and Winston Churchill
Speaker 1: also used the standing desk to lay out galley proofs.
Speaker 1: I mean, Churchill also used to spend half his day
Speaker 1: naked in a bathtub, like drinking straight in martiniz. So
Speaker 1: that's how. I'm not sure I need to follow his model,
Speaker 1: but I do like knowing that this trend has come
Speaker 1: full circle. And since you've changed my mind on standing this,
Speaker 1: I want you to take home today's trophy and use
Speaker 1: it as a paperweight. All right, Well, thanks so much,
Speaker 1: and that's it for today's episode. We will be back
Speaker 1: with a full length episode tomorrow. Thanks so much for listening.