Building solutions

For years, I've been a fan of writing at standing desks. Not exclusively; I'm also a fan of writing while lying down, or sprawling out on the sofa, or working sunk into deep chairs with footstools, as well as at my desk. But as I've gotten older, it's become more challenging to sit for extended periods of time while writing or doing Zoom meetings.? Granted, it doesn't help that my office chair was manufactured during the Teddy Roosevelt and shares his disdain for soft vanities like ergonomics and comfort; but I inherited from my father, who bought it when I was born and he started graduate school, so it's not going anywhere. Nor is my desk, which is actually a lovely dining room table, and the first serious piece of furniture I ever bought.

What I needed was a temporary, movable solution that would let me have a keyboard and trackball while standing, that also didn't take up much space (my office is small bedroom, and already packed with books and other work things). After playing around with some sketches, and a trip to our hardware store, my daughter (who's the real woodsmith, and also owns a drill that doesn't date from the Space Race) and I made this.

It consists of a plywood top with a 1/4 20 insert nut in the center, used to screw on an Arca plate. This lets us attach the top to an adjustable tripod ball head mounted on a mic stand. I'm inordinately satisfied with it.

For one thing, while it satisfies my needs very well, it's cheap and makes good use of materials we already had: I already had the mic stand and camera hardware (pandemic purchases, all well-used), so the board and insert nut were the only new things we had to buy. Designing and building it ourselves isn't just about exercising mechanical skill; I had to think a lot about the problem, play around with various different options, and come to a better understanding of what I really needed and how I would use it. Having built it, I'm freer to tinker with it: it's modular enough so I can try a tripod instead of a mic stand, maybe see if a bigger Arca plate makes a difference to the stability of the top, etc. This means we'll learn more from our own creation, better understand how to improve the design, and have the technical skills necessary to turn that design into a version 3.0. (It's a bit like a cross between participatory design and self-experimentation, since I'm both designer and user.)

This is the kind of dynamic I try to start with students in my 4-day week design course. Organizations that want to play client and buy a solution will come away disappointed; organizations who are willing to develop (or more usually, uncover) the skills they need to create and realized their own designs, and the smarts to improve on them, do quite well. That's a lot more satisfying for them; it'll yield better results in the short run; and they won't be scared of getting their hands dirty or messing things up by trying something new, because they'll have a much better understanding of how they work and the systems they've created to support a shorter workweek.

It also makes me reflect a bit about wealth and value. I've been thinking about this hypothetical: if I was rich enough to pay $500 for someone to buy a solution and not notice the money, does that make me richer than if I'm able to make an equally satisfying solution? The easy answer is yes, duh; but measured by the outcome-- a product that satisfies my needs, doesn't take up limited space, and will help me work more comfortably-- those two versions of myself are pretty equal. Rich Me who can unthinkingly outsource the problem to someone else has less of an advantage over Maker Me who possesses the skill and time to do it myself; indeed, you could take Rich Me to be a bit poorer, because he hasn't learned the things that Maker Me will be able to use in the future (and he didn't have the everyday pleasure of sharing the work with one of his children).

Anyway, I expect to make good use of this during my upcoming course, and it'll be good to be able to do this while standing, rather than sitting!