Please, Throw Away Used Whiteboard Markers via Postlight

day after day, year after year, people go to the whiteboard, use a faint marker, and then just leave that marker for the next person. After all, they think, it still has a little ink left. Maybe someone likes faint marker lines. Maybe someone will come along at night and refill it. Or it might naturally grow new ink. Really, who can say?

I think there’s a little gap of knowledge in all of us around how whiteboard markers work – which is why, when we pick one up and use it only to find its output faint and unreadable, we put the cap back on. “It’s probably got something left in it, I just don’t know how to coax it out. I’m sure someone else smarter than me will know how.”

This piece reminded me of someone I worked with who, whenever they found a used marker, would always put the cap back on and dramatically chuck it across the conference room towards the trash. It was beautiful thing.