Yvonne LamShared whiteboard markers as synedoche for what happens when people don't take care of a shared common resource.
(No, I don't know why people don't throw out the markers that don't write, but they don't.)
I don't think it's inevitable, but I also have no idea what is going on in people's heads when they put the non-writing markers back on the whiteboard tray.
Preston Austin@yvonnezlam Oddly, I looked into this. I ran a co-working office in Madison for a decade and buildup of dry markers was a chronic nuisance. Ultimately I resolved it by just testing them all on the regular, but I did ask around and it came down to "I wasn't sure others wouldn't use it still" plus there wasn't a place to put it other than the trash 🗑️
Everyone had a personal standard for "this marker sucks" that they believed too strict, so they didn't want to trash markers good enough for others
@gl33p In my own struggles with shared equipment, I've pretty much landed on, "someone is going to have to check this stuff on a regular basis and deal with the bits of shared gear that don't work. Or we continue to live in the hell where it looks like we have working gear but we really don't."
@yvonnezlam 💯 emphatically agree - it's just so much lower interpersonal friction and better quality of outcome for most things to proactively and regularly check and stock all the things hotel snack fridge style
The other thing I did was get spares in advance for _everything else that wears out_ and store them right next to things. So there is always an unopened ream of paper, a toner cartridge, a fuser, next to each brother printer, and so forth