Weird/fun prompt—how much marginal problem-solving capacity could you create by making good domestic whiteboards way more viable?
Domestic whiteboards are usually either too small or too obtrusive. There's rarely enough unbroken wall space; free-standing boards eat huge sqftage.
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A ceiling-mounted retractable solution is appealing, but it seems hard to get the rigidity you'd need.
Switchable glass seems promising. It's available as an aftermarket film @ ~$50/sqft. But it'd feel obtrusive to leave writing up for days, though, which is no good.
…AR? :/
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Whiteboards—particularly whiteboards persistent and big enough to accumulate writing for many days—create a change in consciousness! I straight-up think different thoughts when one's present. Doubly true in a collaborative situation.
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Lots of people mentioned putting whiteboards in their home offices, but I think if you really did this right, you would be able to have one on demand in your living room, for spontaneous use when conversation turned in that direction.
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One clear barrier to having domestic whiteboards anywhere but home office seems to be that one can hide them on demand. Persistent scribbles on an enormous surface in a living space are too visually noisy.
And yet persistence is important. Tough tension.
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Curtains seem like a good solution though I suspect few homes can sacrifice that much precious contiguous wall space.
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brilliantly suggests: use the back faces of closet and pocket doors. Easy huge retractable domestic whiteboards! Seems broadly deployable.
e.g. We've got pocket bedroom doors (normally hidden). I can slap some melamine on these to make a 64x80" retractable whiteboard!
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Follow-up one year later—this has been working great! I used this cut-to-size whiteboard film from Post-it: amazon.com/gp/product/B06.
No issues yet with stains or un-erasable ink.
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I still pine for an apartment in Brooklyn where I dedicated an entire corner to large “dual aspect” whiteboards. Great with a chair on casters. Heaven.
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this is something i’ve been thinking about — i think i’d find it stressful. we used to have a separate office & will again, but the idea of having my office stuff like, next to my kitchen, bothers me
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