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5/ Many of today’s Western women are eternally stuck in the mindset of high school. The office is just an extension of that time period. Stationery madness begins in school and continues until retirement. The new notebooks and pens of each school year form a lifelong habit.pic.twitter.com/TJexVNROXO
6/ The callback to school stationery use is the crux of the obsession. New notebooks and pens promise a fresh start with every purchase. New stationery gives a false sense of new beginning and infinite potential, when in reality it’s used just to jot down notes from a meeting.pic.twitter.com/j5nVnh1OLK
7/ It also offers the illusion of creativity: a feeling very important to many women. Rather than creating something truly original, the same feeling can be generated more easily by constantly buying more stationery. The blank page, the untouched pen... both promise great things.pic.twitter.com/mDbrO1svno
8/ Some women truly believe that just the right combination of Mont Blanc pen or Moleskine notebook can unlock their hidden potential. Yet I would wager that Shakespeare didn’t agonise over which brand of quill he should use. He just got on with it.pic.twitter.com/QOkIV7QI9j
9/ The right pen and the right paper brought into conjunction, runs the unspoken thought, cannot help but result in a sudden influx of bold, brilliant and original ideas. No. Hard work, practice, perseverance, talent and knowledge creates brilliance. Not pens.pic.twitter.com/4hOwmoGoqV
10/ The other allure of stationery is the promise of organisation. Concertina files, ring binders, and plastic wallets all promise to help the muddled mind, clouded with fuzzy thinking and illogic, to reach new organisational heights and achieve more.pic.twitter.com/VEdOKmJDQV
11/ Stationery really can help in organising things. This is doubtless. However, when too much time is spent focusing on the stationery itself rather than its usage, then the whole thing is meaningless. 17 newly-purchased Muji binders aren’t going to help you if they’re unused.pic.twitter.com/XQl4m1FR53
12/ Whether the purpose is creativity or organisation, the incompetency created by Obsessive Stationery Disorder is still the same. It’s a surrogate activity. It’s a replacement for action itself.pic.twitter.com/Lhg8Lkw9xK
13/ It’s avoiding what really needs to be done but pretending you’re doing it. It’s putting an almost magical belief & faith in objects rather than confronting ones own strengths & weaknesses. And that’s why the women in the office with the most stationery are the most useless.pic.twitter.com/SYEJ8ZsIyo
14/ It’s also my belief that there is something very fundamental being expressed in female stationery obsession and that it is connected to both gender and genius. This goes much deeper than a love for pretty pens.pic.twitter.com/s8hYF56ZZb
15/ Edward Dutton (@jollyheretic) and Bruce Charlton in their book The Genius Famine talk about the differences between “The Head Girl” and “The Genius”.
The genius is typically a high-IQ male loner with low social agreeableness but who is talented or compulsive in one area.pic.twitter.com/8cj50ikPm5
16/ The Head Girl is your average office female. An all-rounder with high social agreeableness and who cares deeply about what others think of her. The Head Girl can never be a creative genius because she only does what other people want by the standards they most value.pic.twitter.com/Xd6b3vVl44
17/ “She will work harder and at a higher standard in doing whatever it is that social pressure tells her to do - and she will do this by whatever social standards prevail, only more thoroughly.” Stationery is this. It allows the Head Girl’s work to be “seen” by others.pic.twitter.com/poI46jbRMv
18/ The bright colours of marker pens and Post-Its show those around her that she is “working” when really she isn’t. Gathering around a flipchart and writing words in bubbles is really about social validation and intra-group cohesion building. Not work.pic.twitter.com/CqVr4o694j
19/ The lone genius meanwhile doesn’t care about social validation so quietly grinds away without the need of stationery to announce his work. This is how geniuses create great work. This is how good workers get things done. This is why the woman with 5,000 pens is useless.pic.twitter.com/D2Jo46ztD3
20/ All the above said, I warn anyone reading this about confronting women at work over their Obsessive Stationery Disorder. I have noticed that the compulsion can run so deep in some that criticism of their stationery is almost like a criticism of their soul or person.pic.twitter.com/OeALCjVwD1
21/ This is female bugmanism. Just as the male bugman builds his identity around his nerdy Funko Pop bobbleheads, the bugwoman sees stationery as an extension of her very identity. Calling her collection of Post-Its “excessive” is tantamount to saying she has an ugly face.pic.twitter.com/BPIXWeomAp
22/ If you’re a manager, understand the warning signs of Obsessive Stationery Disorder and delegate around those people who exhibit the symptoms. Look out for excessive stationery in interviews. Consider asking screening questions about how many ring binders they own.pic.twitter.com/0i2ejLlwEY
23/ In particular be most wary of those who exhibit a penchant for bright multicoloured stationery. These are the same kind of people who coordinate their book shelves by colour. Insane people who are all surface and no substance.https://twitter.com/moldbugman/status/1079660162489638912 …
24/ Stationery has now also taken over most bookstores. Further proof if any was needed that stationery is a vehicle for endless introspective narcissism rather than genuine talent. Stationery. Colour-coordinated bookshelves. Reusable tote bags. They are all the same evil.pic.twitter.com/QeAyX3ycp4
25/ I leave the final word on stationery to Dorothy Parker.pic.twitter.com/UIYEFJvXld
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