Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

On the Proper Use of Post-Its

tylercipriani.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 44 posts

Re: On the Proper Use of Post-Its

#11

Post by hamandcheese »

dexzod wrote: post #7

I don't get it, you are still applying the force in the same direction. I mean if you rotate the 'wrong' picture by 90 degrees you will see that they are both the same thing

You can’t really tell in the photo, but I believe that in the “correct” picture on the left, the adhesive is on the bottom near the thumb, or the side opposite to that.

If the adhesive edge was an axis, the article is saying to peel along that axis, whereas more typically folks peel perpendicular to the adhesive axis, causing the post-it to curl up and out from wherever it is placed.

Re: On the Proper Use of Post-Its

#12

Post by mparramon »

musicale wrote: post #2

> "If you peel post-its from the side, they don’t curl up." Right, they curl to the side instead. Though possibly not as much if you peel close to the adhesive.

The advanced trick is to grab the post-it stack with one hand, and with the other grab the top post-it and apply force in parallel to the stack, from top to bottom of the post-it. This way the post-it remains uncurled.

Re: On the Proper Use of Post-Its

#13

Post by steebo »

"A Post-It’s easy unstickability is its biggest feature and its downfall.

When you yank a note from the bottom, it curls. That curling is just enough force to lift the note off the paper, the whiteboard, or whatever it’s stuck to."

What do the properties of the adhesive have to do with this? Nothing.

Re: On the Proper Use of Post-Its

#15

Post by davisoneee »

steebo wrote: post #13

"A Post-It’s easy unstickability is its biggest feature and its downfall. When you yank a note from the bottom, it curls. That curling is just enough force to lift the note off the paper, the whiteboard, or whatever it’s stuck to." What do the properties of the adhesive have to do with this? Nothing.

...the adhesive has everything to do with this. If the adhesive was stronger, the curling would not have enough force to lift it off the wall. Post-its only exist because of their weak adhesive...and it's because their adhesive is weak that curling is an issue for them.

edit: by which I mean...if the adhesive was stronger, the post-its could curl and still stick to the wall. Post-its' soft adhesive lets them easily peel from each other, but also lets the minor force of a curled post-it unstick it from the wall.

Re: On the Proper Use of Post-Its

#16

Post by politelemon »

jauco wrote: post #5

The real trick is to not pull up, but pull in the horizontal direction opposite to the sticky bar. That way the paper doesn’t curl

That's what I do, the authors seem to have missed an obvious trick. Another one is to lift the entire note along the sticky bar so the paper comes off, uncurled, still flat.

Re: On the Proper Use of Post-Its

#17

Post by andrelaszlo »

An agile coach (Jeff at https://rebelalliance.se/) I worked with had very strong feelings about this and would start meetings by demonstrating the proper way to detach a Post-It. Off brand sticky notes were also verboten IIRC.

I think his method was to lift the sheet just a little, then pulling down instead of up/out. That way they stay perfectly flat.

Not sure if you are on HN Jeff, but if you are: Iam Lusum perdidisti.

Re: On the Proper Use of Post-Its

#18

Post by rkangel »

TuringTest wrote: post #8
dexzod wrote: post #7

I don't get it, you are still applying the force in the same direction. I mean if you rotate the 'wrong' picture by 90 degrees you will see that they are both the same thing

In the "Right" photo, the glue is at the top of the image. In the "Wrong" photo, it is at the top of the image too. The wrong movement detaches the glue from the center of the pad to the edge. The right one detaches it from the right side to the left side of the glue bar. Both directions are orthogonal.

Thank you for this clarification - this is what I was missing too.
Post reply on HN