My company shares its office with two other companies — Buildzoom and Flexport. Judging from their names, Buildzoom manufactures high precision microscopes and Flexport ships fluorine to dentists in China. We all have a common investor named YC. YC is the venture capital arm of the YMCA. They invest in a lot of companies every year, many that seem outrageous on paper. E.g. they invested in a company called Swapbox, which, I believe, is cloud storage for swingers.

Now, you must be thinking — “Isn’t it stupid to judge a company by its name?” No. It’s not. Most companies in the Bay Area have obvious names:

Evernote makes note taking apps

Optimizely lets you optimize your websites

Google lets you google anything on the Internet

Our office, like most modern startup offices, has an open floor plan. In an open floor plan, desks are organised like tables in a college cafeteria. However, instead of food and noise, you have computers, food, and noise.

The noise mandates that you wear headphones while working. Be careful, though. Your choice of headphones reveals a lot about your character:

Beats headphones: You are wasting your life’s earnings on fashion, hopelessly trying to look like a cool teenager.

You are wasting your life’s earnings on fashion, hopelessly trying to look like a cool teenager. Headphones that come with your phone: You value a simple life. Buddha smiles on you.

You value a simple life. Buddha smiles on you. Giant noise cancelling headphones resembling electric shock equipment: You are Chuck Norris.

An assorted collection of desks and chairs adorns our office. People reflected on their lack of fitness and concluded that the blame lay squarely on their choice of furniture. So some people have standing desks — desks so high that you have to stand to use them (or as short folks like myself like to call them, any other desks).

Markets are chockablock with these desk+gym hybrids — standing desks, treadmill desks, cycling desks. This is why I feel bullish about my swimming desk idea — a big water tank with an infinity pool and a computer bolted on one side. Noise cancelling scuba masks, snorkels, and fins come as standard equipment.

My favourite mutant furniture, however, is the “balancing ball chair”. This chair has an exercise ball in place of a seat cushion. Let me repeat that: in place of a seat cushion, this chair has, a giant ball. It’s a great way to lose weight (Pronounced: ˈdiɡnədē).