Today we begin with a talk about future tech: Apple is working very hard to replace your physical wallet with a digital one; specifically, they're pushing to introduce digital driver's licenses. We'll address the ideas and concerns surrounding those. Then, automakers are introducing a spate of compact pickups. Trucks have gotten more popular and much larger, are these smaller variants an antidote to that segment literally growing too much? Finally, we end with a discussion about working from home–it's been 18 months of COVID, and we explore the role of products in our WFH environments these days. What works, what we really need, and some new tech aimed directly at folks with newly permanent home offices.
Government IDs on your phone; trucks are finally getting smaller; and after 18 months of COVID WFH, what products have endured, and what do we really need now?
Episode Navigation:
03:10 – Apple's Forthcoming Digital Driver's Licenses
16:00 – Compact Pickup Trucks: A Welcome Automotive Segment?
27:20 – The "Logi Dock" and Our Relationship with WFH Products 18 M0nths post-COVID
Featured and Related:
Nick Caruso:
This is the Gear Patrol Podcast for Friday, September 10th, 2021. I'm Nick Caruso. Thanks for joining us today, fair Gear Patrol Podcast listeners. Today, we are beginning with a talk about future tech. Apple is working very hard to replace your physical wallet with a digital one. Specifically, they're pushing to introduce digital driver's licenses and we'll address the ideas and concerns surrounding those.
Nick Caruso:
Then it's tiny truck talk. Automakers are introducing a spate, guys, a spate of compact pickups. These small trucks are coming along. As trucks get more popular and much larger seemingly every year, are these little tiny trucks and antidote to that segment literally growing too much? And who is the compact truck customer?
Nick Caruso:
Then we'll end with a discussion about working from home. It has been 18 months of COVID if you can believe that. And we will explore the role of products in our work from home environments these days. Lots of discussion about that spring of last year. But these days what's our take? What works? What do we really need? And we'll even address a specific new product aimed directly at folks with these newly permanent home offices. And the we I keep referring to includes two of my colleagues. With me in our virtual studio today is deputy photography editor, Henry Philips. Henry.
Henry Philips:
Good morning. Good morning.
Nick Caruso:
Good morning. And we've got platform producer, Scott Ulrich here, too. What's up, Scott?
Scott Ulrich:
Not much. Excited for this podcast and excited for the NFL season to start. It's starting tonight, or I guess last night, if you're listening.
Nick Caruso:
Yeah. Which you should be. Which I assume you are since you're... Yeah, I was going to say it's almost Q4. We're in the home stretch here of 2021.
Scott Ulrich:
Yeah. [inaudible 00:02:11] are coming.
Henry Philips:
I got an email about Black Friday is approaching the other day and had a mild panic attack.
Nick Caruso:
Isn't that crazy? Digital product media around Black Friday is a maelstrom. I also think it's worth noting that for the first time in a while, we're, all three of us, three people on the pod, are in different states. I'm in Michigan. Scott, you're broadcasting from home in Atlanta. And Henry, I assume you're still in Brooklyn. It looks like your apartment.
Henry Philips:
I am indeed in the Empire State.
Nick Caruso:
State of mind. Yeah, on that note, just for context in case I start making weird jokes, I am literally doing a podcast from parents' basement in Michigan. So it's an interesting experience for us all.
Scott Ulrich:
As they were intended to be done.
Henry Philips:
Yeah. You're living the dream.
Nick Caruso:
Yeah, this is inevitable. And that's actually a pretty good segue to our first segment in terms of inevitability and privacy. How about that? The guys are pleased with my segue. So yeah, first up, we're talking about digital privacy. Lately, there's been a lot of hype and discontent, shall we say, about vaccine passports, specifically as they relate to privacy and civil liberty issues. Are they a good idea? Are they not?
Nick Caruso:
But adjacent to that and sort of in the background, Apple has been developing digital IDs, driver's licenses with the aim to make physical wallets obsolete. They're going for big wallet here. An article on Vox's site Recode frames this and similar efforts by the TSA and other organizations as "creepy" invasions of privacy in which the government can store biometric data. So that article asks a great question. So I'll read it verbatim.
Nick Caruso:
Are digital IDs a good thing? From a privacy and security perspective, it's unclear, but they also seem inevitable.
Nick Caruso:
So Henry, I'm going to go to you first. What do you think? Is this the inevitable path we're going down? Is it creepy? Is it both? What's your take?
Henry Philips:
I mean, it does feel inherently weird in a sense of growing up with paper documents and things that maybe aren't necessarily on your person all the time and could be left wherever and aren't particularly tied to your everyday existence. It does feel weird. But also I think it does seem completely inevitable. The amount of Apple Pay that I've been using over the last month and then even surrendering kind of vaguely intimate personal information fingerprints and things like that for services like TSA Global Entry and TSA Pre, I think it's becoming fairly clear that there is a larger scale push to digitize as much data as humanly possible. And I think ultimately it's kind of yet to be seen how good or bad of an idea that is, especially in a nation like the United States that hopefully has quite a few kind of blockades against really wanton misuse, but maybe that's me being optimistic.
Nick Caruso:
Yeah. There is sort of this... I mean, that was a leading question in a way, and I think in the article it was too. But it does feel inevitable, feels like sort of a logical conclusion of after many developments we've been through in terms of privacy and identification stuff. But it really, there is no answer. We have to sort of wait and see. Excuse me, you have to wait and see how this data will be protected, what happens to it. And I don't know if I can ever... I don't know. I feel wary of trusting completely without a definite answer.
Scott Ulrich:
I think it's definitely a reflection of the current times that when faced with this idea that could be exciting, the immediate thought and immediate conversation is, oh, that's scary. Because at face value, what a cool idea. And the optimistic part of me is really excited about this. They say it's going to be in, what, Georgia and Arizona first. I'm a Georgia resident. And I love the idea. I have loved, maybe this will get me in trouble with the EDC heads of the Gear Patrol audience. But I love the idea of just leaving my wallet at home or not even having to have one. I used to have to carry around multiple cards for different things. And Apple Pay has pretty much totally solved that for me. It's pretty rare that I buy something from a place now that doesn't offer that option. And it's been great. And this is one fewer thing that I need to worry about. And that's an exciting idea. I really do like that idea.
Scott Ulrich:
But yeah, I think I have maybe a healthy distrust of the government and authority. And it definitely is scary to see and to read how this could be misused and it's hard not to daydream about the dystopia that we could enter with this sort of thing.
Nick Caruso:
Yeah. That's an interesting way to put it because I was thinking when you're talking about being optimistic about this kind of thing and the ideal future state of it, I'm thinking utopia in terms of Star Trek utopia where everybody's cool, everybody's taken care of, everybody's protected, everybody's equal. But I sort of fear I think like you alluded to, with a healthy skepticism that we would trend in the opposite direction. But that may be me, my tinfoil hat, too. I don't know, Henry, what do you think?
Henry Philips:
Yeah. I don't know. I think I kind of followed a similar trajectory as Scott. I'm excited for it. I think the idea of digitizing more kind of cards makes a lot of sense. And then I also kind of realized that I don't use my ID all that often. So I might be hesitant to actually digitize it if it's really-
Nick Caruso:
Is that because people just know who you are?
Henry Philips:
No, it's as a result of kind of early onset male pattern baldness. So I don't get IDed at bars ever.
Nick Caruso:
I can relate. Yeah.
Henry Philips:
And so I just don't travel really is the use case. But I think if there were ever a situation where I needed to use it frequently, I would happily digitize it I think. I been running into this recently with New York has a particularly good kind of COVID proof of vaccination app with an equally excellent name called the Excelsior Pass. And it's been great. I've absolutely loved just having my phone, having Apple Pay, having this proof of vaccination all in one place. And it's been phenomenal. I went to a sports event the other day and didn't bring my wallet. It was cool.
Nick Caruso:
A sporting event. How enthusiastic of you. What about we've seen, it's like every so many months, it seemed like every other week for a while, we were seeing these massive data breaches and hacks of corporations we entrust with huge swaths of personal data. Does that kind of thing scare you guys? I mean, aside from, let's say, government intervention, what about the idea that literally all of your information is stored on a silicon chip that just needs to be hacked via wifi? Is that a concern?
Scott Ulrich:
It definitely should be. I've read many times why I should be more nervous about this and I am. I think that there are some pretty dangerous precedents that have been set on so many levels. Part one just being the conversations you have and then the ads that you get served. It's like, okay, yeah, I haven't Googled this. But it is also very funny, some of the ads I get. I got an ad for some Yankees gear the other day. And it's like, man, it's a layup. Go to any of my social media and you can see I'm not the guy to show this. So it's funny how often it will misfire and how often it just gets it wrong. But yeah, I think I fall into the camp of kind of feeling guilty. Yeah, I should be more worried about this or I should be turning off cookies more or setting up more restrictions. And I don't know. I guess I'm just kind of ignorantly walking forward in the brave new world and just kind of accepting whatever consequences are yet to come.
Nick Caruso:
Well, that's kind of, that's the thing, right? That's what we've been trained to do in our generation and yours, and I guess, Scott, if we have to put it that way. But that is the inevitable nature of this whole thing that we're talking about. Is it just kind of like resistance is futile? Henry, I interrupted you.
Henry Philips:
Yeah. No, I'm with you. I kind of get concerned about this idea of my ID lives online. And then I realize that in at least, I mean, it has to be five or more online databases of information, every single piece of data that is on that ID exists already and probably has been hacked. These large scale data breaches that give up social security numbers and literally everything about my being. I think to live a truly private life these days is incredibly hard and has been made to be incredibly hard by society at large, without dawning more tinfoil. I think it's hard enough that you begin to compromise quality of life if you're unwilling to give up a pretty significant chunk of personal information. So yeah. I think I might be like Scott here and just kind of willfully, slightly optimistically, just hoping my way to a better future with fewer everyday carry items.
Nick Caruso:
Yeah. Let's hope for Star Trek and not, I don't know, the Matrix.
Henry Philips:
All the other ones.
Nick Caruso:
You guys [crosstalk 00:13:56]
Scott Ulrich:
Yeah. Some of the criticism that I was reading, and not that this is something that I know a whole lot about, but kind of bringing up the idea of the Chinese social credit system and things like that, doing more and more to track things about your daily life and your place in society. And some common fears, I guess, are it becoming commonplace to have to download government apps to run stuff like this. And then it can be hard to know exactly what you're allowing these apps to do and what you're not. And yeah, I mean, it's definitely, I don't think it's a far cry to imagine what kind of stuff they could be checking about you. And it's easy to just blow off that kind of stuff when, oh, I have nothing to hide. Which is kind of how I feel a lot of the time, but as we've been saying, it does set a dangerous precedent. And if things do take a turn for the worse, it could be scary.
Nick Caruso:
Right. And it really is kind of a remains to be seen situation where we went through the Information Age, arguably still on it, but now we're in the Digitization Age. It seems like everything has become, after we got all the information, now we're putting all the information elsewhere, making things digital and electric and offloading a lot of physical stuff into the ether. So here's for Star Trek rather than Matrix. And we'll see where we end up. We'll do it. We'll revisit this episode in 10 years when we've all been digitized personalities.
Henry Philips:
I was thinking a 30 year reunion. Yeah.
Scott Ulrich:
I'm taking the blue pill and I'm just going to do it. I'll let y'all know how it goes.
Henry Philips:
You know what? I'm with you.
Nick Caruso:
Make sure to write.
Henry Philips:
Nick, you can hold out in the cabin in the woods.
Nick Caruso:
Yeah, there we go. I'll see you guys there. But you'll need a vehicle that can reach it. So how about we move on to segment two here. This is sort of less news than it is a question about the state of the automobile these days. So there's this phenomenon that's often referred to as car bloat, which refers to how much bigger cars have become over the past couple of generations. And specifically we're talking about trucks. So standard pickup trucks like the Ford F-150 or Chevy Silverado have become very big. They are very tall, they're very long, they're very wide, they're very heavy relative to what they were 5, 10, 20 years ago. And that's as new tech and regulations have been introduced and as new customer tastes have sort of trended into the "big car" direction and away from actual cars.
Nick Caruso:
And an article in the New York Times I shared with you guys, it's called The Mighty Pickup Slims Down, sites that "Today's mid-sized models like the Chevy Colorado, Toyota Tacoma and Ford Ranger are similar in size to a full size 1970s Ford F series."
Nick Caruso:
Now that's a really long time ago, right? 60 years is a very long time and things change. But that trend is real. And depending who you are, that could be really cool. You might love the size and largess of a full-size pickup or annoying or even scary as a pedestrian, someone walking around a city. So anyway, that's all to say there's this new and arguably revived segment, this compact pickup trucks like the Hyundai Santa Cruz and the Ford Maverick, the small little tiny trucks that are being introduced right now. And Scott, you mentioned you're in Georgia. You're in Atlanta. I wanted to ask you first because that's more of a driving city than New York. So what's your take on the size of trucks in that context and just these new small trucks in general?
Scott Ulrich:
Yeah. This is something I've been talking about for years now because I would like to own a truck. I like trucks, but the trucks are simply way too big for me. My dad has an F-150 that I will sometimes borrow. And driving that around inside the city of Atlanta feels stressful. It's really, really big. A lot of the streets here are pretty small and you can do it. It's not impossible or anything. But yeah, it just feels so bloated. And there's no variety in size it seems like. Every truck that I've seriously considered buying, I just look at it and it's like, I don't need something this big. And it makes you think back on the good old days of the old Ford Ranger. And my dad had I think a 2002 Toyota Tacoma. And, man, what a great size. I loved that truck when I was a kid. It was big enough to haul stuff around when we needed to, but it was still fun to drive and ride around in.
Scott Ulrich:
And I mean, the F-150 he has now, it's just not even comparable. And I'd be willing to take a guess that most of the truck owners today aren't delivering payloads to their construction site or hauling huge amounts. Most people just don't need something that big. And especially with climate change and everything, I'm excited about things slimming down. I don't think that we'll ever be without a big truck option, but I'm thrilled to see that things are trending that way and that there's more interest in a smaller truck.
Nick Caruso:
[inaudible 00:20:00] Henry.
Henry Philips:
No, I totally agree. I think it's almost exciting that they even decided to make these just because my hope, my hunch is that Ford would not make something unless they really saw significant consumer demand, which makes me excited because that means that consumers are demanding a smaller truck, which seems awesome. Because, yeah, I think there will always be a place for the gigantic wrought iron fence grill Silverado. In the same way that there's always going to be demand for a Range Rover. I think there's always going to be people who want to just flex with the largess of their vehicle. And you know what? Fine, cool. But yeah, the fact that there wasn't a smaller, more inexpensive, more efficient pickup is kind of wild to me. And I'm glad that it's coming up because I don't think I'm in the market for a pickup truck. But yeah, like Scott, I'm all for things kind of slimming down and is it the base Maverick that's expected to get 40 miles a gallon in the city? That's-
Nick Caruso:
Something like that. Yeah. The front wheel drive version, pretty amazing.
Henry Philips:
And just completely overreaching for a second.
Nick Caruso:
Do it.
Henry Philips:
Pickup trucks have had this big stigma, not stigma. I don't know. They're just, there's a certain personality type that drives a big ass pickup truck. And if you get a small pickup truck, that's going to unite the world. You're going to have small pickup drivers talking to big pickup drivers. Everybody's going to agree that we're all not so different. The world will lead to kind of this utopian state.
Nick Caruso:
Star Trek.
Henry Philips:
Star Trek. But with people hanging out on the football field.
Scott Ulrich:
Star Truck.
Nick Caruso:
Good old boys and Star Trek.
Henry Philips:
See, this is why we hire Scott as the writer. Star Truck will commence.
Nick Caruso:
Yeah. I'd beam up into a small truck utopia. I think it's interesting. Scott, you mentioned the Ranger or the Tacoma, I guess, of the early aughts. I had a Ranger of that vintage that was possibly the perfect vehicle. I was always partial to things like the Subaru Baja, which was pickup wagony kind of thing. If anyone listening is in Australia or of Australia and you have been able to witness utes firsthand, I'm very jealous. These little pickup bed vehicles are just so cool to me. And Henry, you and I have actually been inside the Mercedes G 550 4x4 Squared together.
Henry Philips:
Oh yeah.
Nick Caruso:
Which is a-
Henry Philips:
Massive.
Nick Caruso:
Yeah. Truly, literally a monster truck for the road. And there's a time and a place kind of thing. Those trucks are huge or rather huge trucks are... I said that sentence backwards. Huge trucks are really fun. They're cool. You feel amazing driving them. But yeah, I have also tried to pilot a Nissan whatever the heck. What the heck's the Nissan truck? The-
Henry Philips:
Frontier?
Nick Caruso:
No, the big guy.
Henry Philips:
That's the big guy.
Nick Caruso:
Wow. Drawing a blank. Car guys, figure it out. But I've tried to pilot huge trucks down my street in Brooklyn. And it is actually terrifying.
Henry Philips:
You know what it's called? How dare we forget.
Nick Caruso:
The Titan.
Henry Philips:
Yeah.
Nick Caruso:
Right. Oh, it just came to me. Yeah. Perfect name. But there's something really cool about a truck. The potential of utility is there, the cool factor and having it in a smaller, accessible, practical size is a pretty neat thing. So which would you guys get? You guys trending toward any particular compact truck right now?
Henry Philips:
It's got to be the Maverick.
Scott Ulrich:
Yeah. I'm still kind of waiting. I don't know. I'm so nostalgic for that old truck shape. And I know that so much has changed about just vehicle design. Even the Maverick, just it still looks kind of like an F-150, just smaller. I don't know. I'm still kind of holding out hope that someone's going to put out just, for lack of a better word, just a cute truck. I don't know. I'm really nostalgic for that. My dad and I used to, he used to buy these Izuzu pickup trucks on eBay Motors from all over the country and we'd fly out and drive them home. And he was just obsessed with those things. And so I did a dozen road trips and those specifically-
Nick Caruso:
He did that multiple times?
Scott Ulrich:
Yeah. He'll just fixate on one type of vehicle for a decade and just like, "Oh yeah, I love these things." And a couple of times a year, he'll just find one and then fix it up and flip it.
Nick Caruso:
Oh, that's the dream. That sounds great.
Scott Ulrich:
Yeah. So I'm hoping for something like that, but I don't know. I think the Maverick is cool and it's something I would definitely consider.
Nick Caruso:
You know what I'm really looking forward to seeing on the road or witnessing, so much so that I think the only vehicle to date that I've put in a registered interest for a deposit kind of thing, is this Alpha Motors electric pickup. Have you seen this?
Scott Ulrich:
No.
Nick Caruso:
Look it up. It's so cool. It's totally electric. It's retro cool, rugged truck. It looks like... Fully kitted out, they look like Marty McFly's truck from Back to the Future.
Scott Ulrich:
The Wolf.
Nick Caruso:
Yeah, the Wolf. So cool. I can't wait to have one of those in Brooklyn, just silently all, I don't know, plywood.
Scott Ulrich:
That is a cool look. That's a nice-
Henry Philips:
Oh, they do look cool.
Henry Philips:
And do you feel like, without the kind of aggressive Marty McFlying of it, I think we might be approaching cute truck territory here. You get some smaller wheels, you remove all the threatening black painted wheels and roll bars. And I think you might have your cute truck, Scott.
Scott Ulrich:
Yeah, I work on a computer. The most I have to haul is a couch if my friend needs help moving. I don't have anything to prove, man. Just give me a small truck.
Nick Caruso:
Let's be Alpha Wolf truck twins in Star Truck future.
Scott Ulrich:
Yes, please.
Henry Philips:
This universe is getting more and more complicated.
Nick Caruso:
Well, speaking of, yeah, speaking of the universe becoming complicated and life being complicated, mentioned up top for our third segment, we're talking about working from home. It's been 18 months since COVID sort of ravaged the world and changed everything. And our last segment is inspired by a discussion I saw on Reddit about a new product from Logitech. It's called the Logi Dock, which is not my favorite name. I'll be honest right up front. It's $399. It's a computer dock. So it was a hub meant specifically for folks who are working from home more. Sits on your desk, connects multiple devices like monitors and computers and peripherals, and also has a built-in speaker for video meetings or podcasts maybe. It's an all-in-one device for our brave new work from home professional world.
Nick Caruso:
So the question I have has to do with that, sure, but also with products designed specifically to answer this prevalent new issue of work from home setups. It's been these 18 months, forced a lot of us and office workers to set up shop from home. And a lot of us weren't ready for that. And we've seen the sort of knock-on effect of these demands rattle around the mainstream product space for a while. But my question to you guys is because all three of us are in this situation, what are the realities of work working from home and the product demands, the product needs? When we work, what issues, in your experience, have been the hardest to solve? What products have been crucial? What products perhaps don't exist, but should? I want to kind of explore that idea 18 months on. So Henry, let's go to you first. What's your sort of work from home product take and how do you feel about this Logitech product?
Henry Philips:
Yeah, I was actually really excited when I saw the Logitech product because it seemed to answer kind of a lot of my issues with work from home, especially as a lot of us have kind of come from a workplace using laptops to a home setup using laptops where you're not necessarily bouncing in and around meetings. You're really just kind of there. And so at the office, we, my kind of creative department, would always use these docks. They were made by, I don't even remember the name of the company.
Nick Caruso:
CalDigit?
Henry Philips:
CalDigit?
Nick Caruso:
CalDigital? Something like that.
Henry Philips:
And it was just to simplify inputs and outputs on our MacBooks. We'd have all sorts of stuff connecting to it and it just made things easier. But the fact of the matter is that when you're working from home, you're working with your laptop closed or whatever. So you need a speaker, you need a camera, you need a mic. If the speaker's not working, you need headphones with a mic or something in them. And it gets super, super complicated. So for me, the goal, at least at the beginning, was kind of radical simplification and making sure that if someone wants to have a Google Meet call or something, that I could hop on it without any sort of futzing. And being a Gear Patrol employee, I've completely gone the opposite direction. Or I've gone a completely different tack to try and solve that problem. So now I have a heinously complicated computer set up.
Nick Caruso:
Can you describe it?
Henry Philips:
Oh god, don't make me.
Nick Caruso:
Just a little bit.
Henry Philips:
No, no. I worked from a laptop for the first few months and then got kind of somewhere between frustrated and bored and built a big PC setup. And we've got the podcast, so we've got microphones for that. And then you have to have inputs and outputs for that. And you get a big old screen and you upgrade the camera and it just goes on and on forever. But the end result now is that everything's plugged in and on all the time. So I'm actually kind of at my Google Meet utopia where I can just hop on a call and not think about it. But my desk is not very clean.
Nick Caruso:
Well, this is seems to help that. How about you, Scott? I know you sort of relocated and had to set up work from home stuff in the middle of all this. What's your take on this product? And sort of what products have facilitated that or what you found yourself needing most crucially?
Scott Ulrich:
Yeah. The product seems cool. I think that it will make sense for a lot of people. And I like the top comment on the Reddit thread that I saw about this one was addressing the comments saying oh, this is so overpriced. And the comment was saying I don't think a lot of you have experience looking at office equipment and furniture because that stuff gets really expensive really fast. And I think that it's actually a pretty reasonable price. But I have kept my workspace really pretty minimal. And I'm lucky because I got to just take a lot of this stuff from the Gear Patrol office. I've got my second monitor. That's become pretty crucial to my workflow. But the monitor that I have, the same cable that plugs it into my laptop is the one that charges it. So I've got that. I've got a laptop stand. I have a keyboard and a mouse. And I am still rocking the $120 desk that I bought from Target in the first... I think I got the last one from the Atlantic Center Target in Brooklyn.
Nick Caruso:
Oh, in Brooklyn. Yeah.
Scott Ulrich:
Yeah. Which I can't believe I managed to get because it was-
Nick Caruso:
Speaking of dystopias.
Scott Ulrich:
Yeah. And I was like, I better get a desk because I can't work in my bed or from my weird table. But yeah, it's got two plugs in it, which has been great. It's really cheap and the drawers are kind of falling apart, but it's still working for me. So yeah. Nothing about my job really requires that much as far as inputs and things like that. It's all pretty straight forward. So I've been good with my very minimal setup. And that's just kind of how I like it. But I think that this is a cool product. And I think that their sense is correct that work from home is here to stay and it will be interesting seeing these products kind of start to be developed more for that, which I think is a step in the right direction.
Nick Caruso:
Yeah, for sure. Do you guys have any examples, off top of your head putting you on the spot, of sort of essential office elements that you really used a lot that don't translate to work from home to a home office thing aside from obviously conference rooms, that kind of thing? I don't know. It feels very different to be in my home office than it does in the actual office for many obvious reasons. But I wonder if there are any little things that come to mind to you. That really did put you on the spot.
Henry Philips:
That's an [crosstalk 00:34:55]
Nick Caruso:
Free pencils.
Scott Ulrich:
No free pretzels. I don't use a pencil, but I use pretzels and now I have to buy them myself. Other than that though, I was in an Office Depot the other day for some reason. And it was so funny looking around there. It's like rubber bands and binders and folders and so many things that it's like, I haven't thought about this product in so long. And maybe I just entered the workforce late enough to where that stuff is just kind of obsolete. And we had that stuff in the office.
Nick Caruso:
They're all on your phone now. They're all digital.
Scott Ulrich:
Really. Yeah. I mean, I don't need any of it. And I'm really trying to think of something that I've needed and not had. And yeah, I'm coming up blank. The work has just changed so much and organization has changed so much that yeah. I've been so well set up with my small collection of things.
Henry Philips:
I thought for about 10 minutes about buying a printer. And I need it about once a month. And I can't even get close to justifying the space and the size. But yeah, that's the only one that really... I've gone into the kind of husk of our office multiple times to just print off a single document. But other than that, I think we've had 18 months. So I feel like everybody I know has a fairly established home office or desk set up. I went through probably four or five different kind of iterations of what my work from home looked like. And I think I've kind of arrived at something that feels really nice and functional at least as far as working out of a bedroom goes.
Nick Caruso:
Yeah. Something that occurred to me, a product that I've kind of found to be really helpful for working is something that separates my, like you say, so I'm in a second bedroom in my apartment is kind of my office now. But separating the look of it from the rest of my apartment has been really crucial in helping me concentrate and try to separate everything. And the way I've done that is with lighting. And I picked up, so the company Wise, the electronics, all the app controlled, connected stuff, I have a lot of their products. But one of them that just came out with is this floor lamp that's kind of like a task lamp. It's tall, it bends over, arches, hooks over and it's adjustable. But it's these really bright, single temperature, adjustable rather, dimmable LEDs. And they bathe my desk in this bright white, crisp light, and it feels like an office. And then I step away and it feels like a warm home everywhere else. So that's something that's really helped me and helps my eyes see. Yeah. It's really been cool. I like it a lot.
Henry Philips:
Because I, for all of my talk of finding something sustainable, have very little separation between work and not work. It is really just kind of this seamless roll out of bed situation. And even beyond that, it's cutting to my nerd core a bit. But in building this computer, it kind of turned some leisure time into the same time spent at the desk that is used for work. And it's really just finding that kind of balance between, okay, I am not at the computer, I'm not at my desk, I am not available, has been hard. I think that's been the biggest kind of hurdle for me.
Nick Caruso:
Yeah. Early on a lot of guides and we're, depending on your opinion on this, you could say we're guilty of this, or we being Gear Patrol, guilty of this, or just sort of facilitated people doing this for themselves is a lot of the products we would recommend early on are things that made your space more livable as you work from home. And I think that was a great instinct. And I did a lot of sort of decor and sort of environmental adjustments. But I have found that products or the removal of products in order to make that barrier more solid for me have been really helpful. So I think early on that adjustment period may have been dulled by good-looking designy stuff. But right now I'm focused more on utility, I guess is the gist of my vibe right now, particularly with that light and other stuff like that.
Henry Philips:
Yeah. It's weird to think. I mean, I've worked remotely for Gear Patrol longer than I ever worked in an office for Gear Patrol. And getting through the winter it's like, okay, you're working until 5:00, 6:00. You get off of work and it's dark already. It's a weird feeling. And then you're just already in your home. And you've been head down all day. And something that has been really nice for me is kind of alternating between music and my AirPods or on my Sonos system. And my Sonos is something that I've expanded on a lot. But just having music out loud has been a really nice way to switch up different segments of my day. It just makes the tone feel different. Kind of sit back a little bit, kind of hear it throughout your house a little more. Also they have Alexa built in. So it's nicer to just ask quick questions, too. So yeah, that's something else I have on my desk, which has been very helpful.
Nick Caruso:
Very nice. I've found that going into my kitchen for coffee and talking out loud to people who aren't there, kind of like I would in the kitchen at work has really helped me these last-
Scott Ulrich:
Yeah. Just talking to the voices. They're mostly friendly.
Nick Caruso:
Yeah. I've been doing that a lot more. I don't...
Henry Philips:
Yeah. How long until we set up a remote water cooler? Walk to the kitchen, turn on the other camera, see who else is hanging out by their refrigerator.
Nick Caruso:
Right. Just a static cam that's always on.
Henry Philips:
Yeah. Cameras everywhere.
Nick Caruso:
See, we're coming up with product. This is what I wanted to do. I wanted to find the things that were missing. Like a CCTV always on camera situation with the water cooler. I like that.
Scott Ulrich:
Yeah. I really can't envision what that would look like, but it does suck. There are people at Gear Patrol that I've never even met or that I don't talk to anymore at all because I don't have a reason to. And yeah, you can do virtual happy hours and stuff, which we've done a couple of times. But I think I'm a fan of work from home. It's been good. I think that's the way that things are going. But yeah, it is kind of a bummer to not have a reason to talk to people and get to know-
Nick Caruso:
No, it's tough to replicate. And I imagine things will get even harder with kind of these hybrid solutions where you've got some people remote, some people not remote. And then you have to have a meeting with three people in the same room and sick people who aren't. It gets real fuzzy, real fast. And I'm curious to see where it all kind of lands. I'm definitely a fan of in-person work, but I don't think I'm going to be fishing my wish for a long time.
Henry Philips:
Well, we'll get to the Star Truck utopia and you'll be at the office and Scott will be in his little pickup truck. And I'll be in my parents' basement. And we'll all-
Scott Ulrich:
There's probably a beam me up, Scotty, joke in there somewhere.
Nick Caruso:
No, that can't be, I don't think [crosstalk 00:43:22]
Henry Philips:
Something like Star Trek cars kind of hybrid. You won't be allowed to leave the car. It's remote work, but you're in a car. Workplaces designed around everybody continually sitting in cars. I like this.
Nick Caruso:
That's basically the end of WALL-E as I recall.
Henry Philips:
I think it's most of WALL-E, it's not just-
Nick Caruso:
No, it's not. It's not right. Well, hopefully it will trend toward the positive. I think what we're coming away with here is that there are products that have helped us certainly be more productive. And the thing that's really missing in the work from home situation is that socialization. And it's kind of hard to bridge with products right now. But I think we're onto something with the water cooler camera, WCC. I mean, I call that for this group right now. We get the dibs on the trademark. And if anybody listening has any specific products that have sort of surprised them in how much they've been helpful during all this, or during your transition into working from home, I would love to hear about them. That'd be a really cool thing to share with other readers and listeners.
Nick Caruso:
And we'll just have a Slack conversation about you after you write in, which is always fun for people internally. Well, cool. We've taken up a lot of time. We've gone through all three topics and I want to thank everybody listening for their time and Henry and Scott for yours. You guys are always great, always got the good takes.
Nick Caruso:
So if anybody listening has any questions or wants to know more about anything we talked about in this episode, whether it's articles we referenced, products we referenced or beyond like the Nissan Titan. Is that who I was talking about?
Henry Philips:
The Nissan Titan.
Nick Caruso:
Yes, for instance, or the Alpha Motors Wolf. Can't wait. Scott and me, truck twins. You can check out links in the show notes or on the site if that's where you're listening. If you are listening, that means you must love this podcast. And if that's the case, I hope you'll subscribe and drop us a five star review because we really appreciate it. It also really helps us get more listeners involved. And if you want to reach out, like I asked a second ago about work from home products, you can hit us up on social media. Scott here will be the one who will see those comments and he will pass them along. Our handle everywhere is Gearpatrol, one word. Or you can email us at podcast@gearpatrol.com and I will see the email because I read them all. And lastly, Henry, Scott, always a pleasure guys. Even from my parents' basement, it's working for me. Thanks for being here.
Henry Philips:
Thanks for having me.
Scott Ulrich:
Thank you for having us. Yeah, it's good talking.
Nick Caruso:
Yeah. Good talk. Good talk, everybody. And everyone at home, really appreciate you being here. I'm Nick Caruso. And until next time, take care.