WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.520 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. To start today, 00:00:02.620 --> 00:00:04.099 I actually want to ask you to visualize something 00:00:04.099 --> 00:00:06.540 for a second. Okay, I'm ready. So you're walking 00:00:06.540 --> 00:00:11.179 down a long carpeted hallway. It's quiet, like 00:00:11.179 --> 00:00:13.699 maybe a little too quiet. And on almost every 00:00:13.699 --> 00:00:15.800 single door handle, you see these little colorful 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:18.660 flags hanging there. Some are red, some are green. 00:00:18.940 --> 00:00:21.000 Oh, right. It's a scene we've all walked through 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:23.160 a hundred times. The universal language of the 00:00:23.160 --> 00:00:26.879 hotel corridor. It is, but... I have to admit, 00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:28.879 when I first looked at this stack of research 00:00:28.879 --> 00:00:32.340 for today's deep dive, I was a bit skeptical. 00:00:32.520 --> 00:00:34.200 You didn't think there was much there. Right. 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:36.359 I thought, okay, we're talking about a rectangular 00:00:36.359 --> 00:00:39.520 piece of cardboard here. How deep can this really 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:42.399 go? We're pulling from encyclopedic records and 00:00:42.399 --> 00:00:44.979 industry definitions about a piece of plastic. 00:00:45.240 --> 00:00:47.200 It sounds incredibly mundane on the surface. 00:00:47.420 --> 00:00:49.640 Exactly. But then I started reading the sources 00:00:49.640 --> 00:00:52.700 and there's jazz legends and criminal investigations 00:00:52.700 --> 00:00:56.299 and even the psychology of user interface design. 00:00:56.579 --> 00:00:59.560 I realized I was completely wrong. This isn't 00:00:59.560 --> 00:01:01.500 just a piece of cardstock. No, it's a boundary. 00:01:01.640 --> 00:01:03.740 It's actually a really powerful boundary. We 00:01:03.740 --> 00:01:06.040 often overlook the humble door hanger just because 00:01:06.040 --> 00:01:09.099 it's so disposable. But if you analyze it, as 00:01:09.099 --> 00:01:10.700 we're going to do today, you start to realize 00:01:10.700 --> 00:01:13.939 it's one of the very few objects left in our 00:01:13.939 --> 00:01:17.459 modern society that functions as a strict gatekeeper. 00:01:17.579 --> 00:01:19.739 A gatekeeper for our personal space. Exactly. 00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:22.120 It manages the flow between the public world 00:01:22.120 --> 00:01:25.219 and your most private moments. And that is exactly 00:01:25.219 --> 00:01:28.099 the mission for this deep dive. We are going 00:01:28.099 --> 00:01:30.019 to look at how this simple die -cut rectangle 00:01:30.019 --> 00:01:33.700 functions as a communication tool, as a security 00:01:33.700 --> 00:01:37.060 device. a strangely aggressive marketing weapon, 00:01:37.219 --> 00:01:40.239 and as we'll see later, a shield that has tragically 00:01:40.239 --> 00:01:42.280 been used to hide some truly dark activities. 00:01:42.540 --> 00:01:44.840 Right. It's a tool that grants silence. But as 00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:46.959 we found in the sources, that silence can definitely 00:01:46.959 --> 00:01:49.099 be a double -edged sword. So let's just skip 00:01:49.099 --> 00:01:50.819 the physical description. I mean, everyone listening 00:01:50.819 --> 00:01:52.480 knows what a door hanger looks like. It hooks 00:01:52.480 --> 00:01:54.400 on a knob. Let's talk about the function. The 00:01:54.400 --> 00:01:56.900 classic hotel content. Yes, the most famous use 00:01:56.900 --> 00:01:59.319 case. It's a binary communication system, right? 00:01:59.480 --> 00:02:02.439 You have makeup room on one side and do not disturb 00:02:02.439 --> 00:02:04.200 on the other. And you have to think about the 00:02:04.200 --> 00:02:07.000 power dynamic there for a second. When you are 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:10.099 in a hotel, you are in a strange building surrounded 00:02:10.099 --> 00:02:12.979 by staff who have a master key to your room. 00:02:13.300 --> 00:02:15.620 They have legal access to the space you're sleeping 00:02:15.620 --> 00:02:17.620 in. Which is actually kind of weird when you 00:02:17.620 --> 00:02:20.340 say it out loud. It is. The only thing stopping 00:02:20.340 --> 00:02:22.099 them from walking in while you're in the shower 00:02:22.099 --> 00:02:25.039 or working is that flimsy piece of plastic. Green 00:02:25.039 --> 00:02:27.979 means come in. Red means stay out. But it's more 00:02:27.979 --> 00:02:30.680 than just a traffic light. It's a nonverbal command. 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:34.400 It allows a guest to assert dominance over the 00:02:34.400 --> 00:02:36.860 space without ever having to actually speak to 00:02:36.860 --> 00:02:39.759 a human being. Right. It creates what the hospitality 00:02:39.759 --> 00:02:43.419 industry calls a sacred pact. If that sign is 00:02:43.419 --> 00:02:46.199 visible, the staff is trained to treat that wooden 00:02:46.199 --> 00:02:48.500 door as if it's a brick wall. You know, that 00:02:48.500 --> 00:02:50.759 actually reminds me of a very specific detail 00:02:50.759 --> 00:02:53.139 in the research that I absolutely loved. It wasn't 00:02:53.139 --> 00:02:55.340 about a hotel, though. It was about a jazz club. 00:02:55.689 --> 00:02:59.150 Oh, the Thelonious Monk story? Yes. This is such 00:02:59.150 --> 00:03:01.009 a brilliant example of that command for silence 00:03:01.009 --> 00:03:03.889 you're talking about. So picture this. New York 00:03:03.889 --> 00:03:07.449 City, 1968. The Village Gate. Thelonious Monk 00:03:07.449 --> 00:03:09.590 is playing there. He's an absolute legend. A 00:03:09.590 --> 00:03:12.229 total icon. Right. And obviously backstage at 00:03:12.229 --> 00:03:14.969 a jazz club in the late 60s is chaotic. People 00:03:14.969 --> 00:03:18.430 smoke noise everywhere. Literally the exact opposite 00:03:18.430 --> 00:03:22.250 of a private sanctuary. Exactly. Right. But Monk 00:03:22.250 --> 00:03:25.710 needed his headspace before a show. So the source 00:03:25.710 --> 00:03:27.909 noted that he actually used a custom door hanger 00:03:27.909 --> 00:03:30.750 that just simply said, please no guests. It's 00:03:30.750 --> 00:03:32.909 so fascinating because Monk was a public figure. 00:03:33.009 --> 00:03:35.469 He was literally there to perform for a crowd. 00:03:35.550 --> 00:03:39.189 But even he needed a mechanism to carve out a 00:03:39.189 --> 00:03:42.469 micro territory of privacy. A little bubble. 00:03:42.629 --> 00:03:45.270 Right. That little sign did the heavy lifting 00:03:45.270 --> 00:03:47.370 for him so he didn't have to be rude to people 00:03:47.370 --> 00:03:50.110 or hire a massive bodyguard to stand there. The 00:03:50.110 --> 00:03:52.270 cardboard did the work. The utility of silence. 00:03:52.629 --> 00:03:54.870 And the sources point out that this utility extends 00:03:54.870 --> 00:03:57.150 beyond just hospitality and entertainment, too. 00:03:57.310 --> 00:03:59.530 Like in schools. Yeah, schools use them during 00:03:59.530 --> 00:04:01.710 testing to signal students and staff. It changes 00:04:01.710 --> 00:04:03.310 the entire rules of the hallway from loud to 00:04:03.310 --> 00:04:05.469 whisper. But there's one use case in the notes 00:04:05.469 --> 00:04:07.189 that I honestly wasn't sure I believed at first. 00:04:07.289 --> 00:04:09.810 Which one was that? The idea of using the door 00:04:09.810 --> 00:04:12.870 hanger as a theft deterrent. The sources claim 00:04:12.870 --> 00:04:15.310 people will deliberately leave the do not disturb 00:04:15.310 --> 00:04:18.389 sign on the door, even when they leave the hotel, 00:04:18.649 --> 00:04:21.370 specifically to trick potential thieves. Oh, 00:04:21.370 --> 00:04:24.129 that is absolutely a real strategy. Oh, yeah. 00:04:24.230 --> 00:04:26.290 Think about it from a risk assessment perspective. 00:04:26.829 --> 00:04:29.889 If you are a thief or even just a dishonest staff 00:04:29.889 --> 00:04:32.589 member walking down a hallway, you are looking 00:04:32.589 --> 00:04:36.050 for the path of least resistance. A door with 00:04:36.050 --> 00:04:39.310 no sign is a question mark. A door with a makeup 00:04:39.310 --> 00:04:42.899 room sign. is an open invitation. You know for 00:04:42.899 --> 00:04:45.379 a fact the guest is gone. But a do not disturb 00:04:45.379 --> 00:04:48.439 sign implies there's a human being behind that 00:04:48.439 --> 00:04:51.120 door right at that moment. Correct. It creates 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:53.170 immediate uncertainty. Is the guest sleeping? 00:04:53.509 --> 00:04:55.329 Are they in the bathroom? Are they standing right 00:04:55.329 --> 00:04:57.410 on the other side of the door? It raises the 00:04:57.410 --> 00:05:00.089 risk profile of that room significantly for a 00:05:00.089 --> 00:05:03.149 thief. Wow. So by leaving the sign up, you are 00:05:03.149 --> 00:05:05.970 essentially hacking the social signal to create 00:05:05.970 --> 00:05:08.050 a layer of security for your valuables. That 00:05:08.050 --> 00:05:10.110 makes total sense now that you lay it out. It's 00:05:10.110 --> 00:05:12.850 like psychological armor. But, and this is where 00:05:12.850 --> 00:05:14.610 the research took a turn that I really wasn't 00:05:14.610 --> 00:05:18.310 prepared for, that same psychological armor works 00:05:18.310 --> 00:05:20.529 for the bad guys too. Yeah, we have to talk about 00:05:20.529 --> 00:05:22.810 the other side of the coin here. If you have 00:05:22.810 --> 00:05:25.790 a sign that legally and socially forbids anyone 00:05:25.790 --> 00:05:28.009 from checking on a room, you have effectively 00:05:28.009 --> 00:05:31.149 created a black box. A blind spot. You've created 00:05:31.149 --> 00:05:33.430 a massive blind spot in the building's security 00:05:33.430 --> 00:05:36.410 apparatus. The sources refer to this as the dark 00:05:36.410 --> 00:05:38.329 side of privacy. Yeah. And we're not just talking 00:05:38.329 --> 00:05:40.670 about people sneaking in an extra guest or smoking 00:05:40.670 --> 00:05:43.269 in a non -smoking room. We're talking about serious 00:05:43.269 --> 00:05:46.329 criminal concealment. We are. The do not disturb 00:05:46.329 --> 00:05:49.300 sign has been explicitly blamed and cited in 00:05:49.300 --> 00:05:51.740 police reports regarding suspicious deaths, drug 00:05:51.740 --> 00:05:54.279 manufacturing, and homicides. Because what does 00:05:54.279 --> 00:05:57.519 the sign buy a criminal? It buys them time. Like 00:05:57.519 --> 00:06:00.500 that case in 2009 on a cruise ship. An elderly 00:06:00.500 --> 00:06:03.279 couple disappeared. And the source notes that 00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:05.860 the investigation was delayed significantly simply 00:06:05.860 --> 00:06:08.060 because the sign was left on the door. Right. 00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:10.879 And on a cruise ship, staff are usually highly 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:14.509 attentive. They check the rooms constantly. But 00:06:14.509 --> 00:06:17.430 because that sign was up, the cabin steward respected 00:06:17.430 --> 00:06:20.149 the pact. They didn't enter for days. Wow. That 00:06:20.149 --> 00:06:22.209 delay meant that by the time anyone realized 00:06:22.209 --> 00:06:24.370 something was terribly wrong, the trail was already 00:06:24.370 --> 00:06:27.610 cold. The sign literally acted as a shield against 00:06:27.610 --> 00:06:30.230 discovery. But the example that really stopped 00:06:30.230 --> 00:06:32.689 me in my tracks, and I think the one that fundamentally 00:06:32.689 --> 00:06:36.250 changed the entire hotel industry, was the 2017 00:06:36.250 --> 00:06:39.560 Las Vegas shooting. That is undeniably the pivotal 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:41.860 moment in the history of this object. We have 00:06:41.860 --> 00:06:43.240 to look at the mechanics of what happened there. 00:06:43.519 --> 00:06:46.040 Steven Paddock, the shooter, didn't just snap 00:06:46.040 --> 00:06:48.980 one afternoon. This was a highly calculated, 00:06:49.199 --> 00:06:51.439 prepared attack. The logistics mentioned in the 00:06:51.439 --> 00:06:53.819 report are just staggering. He brought in 10 00:06:53.819 --> 00:06:56.819 suitcases. 10 suitcases filled with a stockpile 00:06:56.819 --> 00:06:59.310 of rifles and ammunition. Now you have to ask 00:06:59.310 --> 00:07:01.670 yourself, how do you get an arsenal like that 00:07:01.670 --> 00:07:04.009 into a standard hotel room over the course of 00:07:04.009 --> 00:07:06.290 several days without a housekeeper noticing a 00:07:06.290 --> 00:07:08.709 literal stack of guns on the bed? Keep them out. 00:07:08.810 --> 00:07:12.550 You utilize the do not disturb sign. He kept 00:07:12.550 --> 00:07:14.990 that sign on his door essentially the entire 00:07:14.990 --> 00:07:17.519 time he was staging the room. It's chilling. 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:19.759 It prevented the staff from performing their 00:07:19.759 --> 00:07:21.779 routine cleaning, which meant it prevented them 00:07:21.779 --> 00:07:24.540 from acting as the eyes and ears of the hotel 00:07:24.540 --> 00:07:27.399 security. It's terrifying to think that a flimsy 00:07:27.399 --> 00:07:30.000 piece of plastic provided the cover needed for 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:32.759 something so horrific. But this brings up a big 00:07:32.759 --> 00:07:34.480 question I have while reading those aftermath 00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:37.639 reports. Did hotels actually change anything? 00:07:37.860 --> 00:07:40.139 Because I still see these signs everywhere when 00:07:40.139 --> 00:07:42.850 I travel. They did, but the shift is subtle to 00:07:42.850 --> 00:07:45.709 the average guest. The industry had a massive 00:07:45.709 --> 00:07:48.410 wake -up call after Vegas. That absolute right 00:07:48.410 --> 00:07:50.410 to privacy that we talked about earlier. The 00:07:50.410 --> 00:07:52.470 secret pact. It's gone. It doesn't exist anymore. 00:07:52.810 --> 00:07:55.829 Most major hotel chains instituted brand new 00:07:55.829 --> 00:07:58.730 policies after 2017. They're often called 24 00:07:58.730 --> 00:08:01.529 -hour rules or welfare checks. So even if I have 00:08:01.529 --> 00:08:03.110 the Do Not Disturb sign up, they're coming in 00:08:03.110 --> 00:08:06.199 anyway? Eventually, yes. If that sign stays on 00:08:06.199 --> 00:08:08.240 a door for more than 24 hours, and sometimes 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:10.759 it's 12 depending on the specific property security 00:08:10.759 --> 00:08:13.399 or management is now legally mandated to knock 00:08:13.399 --> 00:08:15.459 and enter. They just override the sign. They 00:08:15.459 --> 00:08:17.959 have to visually verify the room is safe and 00:08:17.959 --> 00:08:20.839 the guest is okay. The do not disturb sign is 00:08:20.839 --> 00:08:23.699 no longer a shield. It's just a temporary request. 00:08:24.300 --> 00:08:26.899 That is a massive shift in how we handle public 00:08:26.899 --> 00:08:29.810 spaces. The tragedy essentially broke the pact 00:08:29.810 --> 00:08:32.269 we started this deep dive with. It had to. The 00:08:32.269 --> 00:08:34.690 liability and the public safety risk were just 00:08:34.690 --> 00:08:37.470 too high to ignore. So we've looked at the door 00:08:37.470 --> 00:08:40.629 hanger as a way to keep the world out. It's a 00:08:40.629 --> 00:08:44.190 barrier for privacy or a barrier for dark secrecy. 00:08:45.049 --> 00:08:47.529 But I want to bridge over to a completely different 00:08:47.529 --> 00:08:50.429 use case from the sources where the door hanger 00:08:50.429 --> 00:08:52.929 is actually used to force the outside world in. 00:08:53.129 --> 00:08:54.809 You're talking about when the door hanger leaves 00:08:54.809 --> 00:08:56.889 the hotel corridor and shows up on your residential 00:08:56.889 --> 00:08:59.269 front porch. Exactly. The guerrilla marketing 00:08:59.269 --> 00:09:01.350 war. We've all been there. You come home from 00:09:01.350 --> 00:09:03.529 work, you're tired, and there's a giant glossy 00:09:03.529 --> 00:09:05.470 picture of a pepperoni pizza hanging from your 00:09:05.470 --> 00:09:07.590 front door handle. Direct -to -door advertising. 00:09:08.090 --> 00:09:10.730 It's a fascinating and, frankly, cutthroat industry. 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:13.679 It exists because it solves a very specific problem 00:09:13.679 --> 00:09:15.919 that direct mail, like your standard junk mail, 00:09:16.059 --> 00:09:18.539 simply cannot solve. The problem being that I 00:09:18.539 --> 00:09:21.019 throw my junk mail away without even looking 00:09:21.019 --> 00:09:24.179 at it. Precisely. We are all trained to filter 00:09:24.179 --> 00:09:26.919 our mail. We stand over the recycling bin and 00:09:26.919 --> 00:09:29.600 toss the envelopes without opening them. But 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:32.279 the door hanger has a unique psychological advantage, 00:09:32.679 --> 00:09:35.700 what the industry calls the guaranteed impression. 00:09:36.120 --> 00:09:39.590 I really want you to explain that term. Guaranteed 00:09:39.590 --> 00:09:43.110 impression. It relies entirely on physical interaction. 00:09:43.549 --> 00:09:46.210 To enter your own home, you have to turn the 00:09:46.210 --> 00:09:49.029 knob. You cannot turn the knob without touching 00:09:49.029 --> 00:09:50.950 the advertisement. You have to remove it with 00:09:50.950 --> 00:09:52.830 your hand. Yeah, you can't ignore it. In that 00:09:52.830 --> 00:09:55.090 split second where you grab it and look at it 00:09:55.090 --> 00:09:57.110 just to see what it is the advertiser has won, 00:09:57.350 --> 00:10:00.090 you have absorbed the marketing message. That 00:10:00.090 --> 00:10:02.289 is maddeningly brilliant when you think about 00:10:02.289 --> 00:10:04.879 it. It utilizes the friction of the physical 00:10:04.879 --> 00:10:07.419 world. You can't just swipe it away like an email. 00:10:07.559 --> 00:10:09.519 You have to physically disengage it from your 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:12.259 house. And unlike your mailbox, which is totally 00:10:12.259 --> 00:10:15.000 stuffed full of bills and competing flyers, the 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:18.399 door handle is a solo ad space. There is no competition 00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:21.200 in the envelope, so to speak. It's a single advertising 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:24.320 message. And it must be incredibly cost effective 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:26.960 for driving traffic or local brand awareness. 00:10:27.220 --> 00:10:29.320 But I've always wondered about the actual logistics 00:10:29.320 --> 00:10:32.860 of this. It seems incredibly inefficient to pay 00:10:32.860 --> 00:10:35.240 people to physically walk up to thousands of 00:10:35.240 --> 00:10:37.659 individual houses. And honestly, half the time 00:10:37.659 --> 00:10:39.620 I see these flyers blowing into the gutter down 00:10:39.620 --> 00:10:41.820 the street. You've hit on the dirty little secret 00:10:41.820 --> 00:10:44.080 of that industry. For a long time, companies 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:46.360 wasted millions of dollars on this because of 00:10:46.360 --> 00:10:48.940 a practice called dumping. Dumping. Yeah, they'd 00:10:48.940 --> 00:10:52.720 hire teenagers or extremely cheap labor to distribute, 00:10:52.759 --> 00:10:55.600 say, 5 ,000 flyers. And the distributors would 00:10:55.600 --> 00:10:57.820 just dump stacks of them in a dumpster or a storm 00:10:57.820 --> 00:11:00.129 drain and go back and say they did the job. So 00:11:00.129 --> 00:11:02.649 how did the industry fix it? Because the source 00:11:02.649 --> 00:11:05.289 mentions this has actually gone high tech recently. 00:11:05.570 --> 00:11:08.269 It's surprisingly sophisticated now. The big 00:11:08.269 --> 00:11:11.330 distribution companies use precise GPS tracking. 00:11:11.730 --> 00:11:14.610 Every single distributor carries a tracker on 00:11:14.610 --> 00:11:17.169 their route. The client, like the pizza place 00:11:17.169 --> 00:11:20.110 or the local real estate agent, can literally 00:11:20.110 --> 00:11:23.389 log into a portal and see a digital map of exactly 00:11:23.389 --> 00:11:25.470 where the walker went right down to the individual 00:11:25.470 --> 00:11:27.929 driveway. Wow. So they can audit the entire route. 00:11:28.250 --> 00:11:31.750 Exactly. And some even require proof of performance 00:11:31.750 --> 00:11:34.429 photos. What does that mean? The walker has to 00:11:34.429 --> 00:11:36.830 pull out their phone and snap a picture of the 00:11:36.830 --> 00:11:39.129 hanger actually on the door every few houses 00:11:39.129 --> 00:11:41.450 to prove they're doing it. It turned a super 00:11:41.450 --> 00:11:44.730 shady, unverifiable industry into a highly data 00:11:44.730 --> 00:11:47.269 -driven one. Okay, so the marketing is effective 00:11:47.269 --> 00:11:50.830 and trackable. But there is a huge downside here 00:11:50.830 --> 00:11:52.809 that brings us right back to the security conversation 00:11:52.809 --> 00:11:56.250 we just had. The source called it the burglar 00:11:56.250 --> 00:11:59.210 beacon. Yes, this is the ultimate tension. Marketers 00:11:59.210 --> 00:12:01.789 love door hangers, but home security experts 00:12:01.789 --> 00:12:05.029 absolutely hate them. Because if I'm on vacation 00:12:05.029 --> 00:12:07.970 for a week. And I have three pizza flyers and 00:12:07.970 --> 00:12:10.950 a landscaping ad just hanging on my door gathering 00:12:10.950 --> 00:12:14.090 dust. It is a neon sign telling the entire neighborhood 00:12:14.090 --> 00:12:16.950 nobody is home. It flags the property as completely 00:12:16.950 --> 00:12:19.590 unattended. If a hanger sits there for days, 00:12:19.590 --> 00:12:21.950 it creates a massive security risk for the residents. 00:12:22.250 --> 00:12:24.250 But wait, isn't that a terrible marketing strategy 00:12:24.250 --> 00:12:27.350 for the brand? If your pizza flyer gets my house 00:12:27.350 --> 00:12:29.909 robbed, I'm probably not going to order a pepperoni 00:12:29.909 --> 00:12:32.009 lovers from you when I get back. You would think 00:12:32.009 --> 00:12:35.259 so. It's a massive reputational risk. In fact, 00:12:35.320 --> 00:12:38.460 many cities have passed strict bylaws banning 00:12:38.460 --> 00:12:41.740 door hangers specifically for this reason. They 00:12:41.740 --> 00:12:44.200 create litter and they actively lower neighborhood 00:12:44.200 --> 00:12:47.120 safety. But they still do it. The return on investment 00:12:47.120 --> 00:12:49.539 for the businesses is apparently high enough 00:12:49.539 --> 00:12:51.539 that they take the legal and reputational risk 00:12:51.539 --> 00:12:54.960 anyway. It's amazing how this one object swings 00:12:54.960 --> 00:12:58.679 wildly between extremes. In a hotel, it protects 00:12:58.679 --> 00:13:01.909 the room and signals you are there. On a front 00:13:01.909 --> 00:13:04.370 porch, it exposes the home and signals you are 00:13:04.370 --> 00:13:07.330 gone. Context is everything with this tool. So 00:13:07.330 --> 00:13:09.970 we've covered the history, the criminal concealment, 00:13:09.990 --> 00:13:12.330 and the guerrilla marketing. I want to look at 00:13:12.330 --> 00:13:14.850 the future before we wrap up. Is the cardboard 00:13:14.850 --> 00:13:17.649 rectangle dying out? Because I feel like everything 00:13:17.649 --> 00:13:20.049 else in our lives is going digital. It is certainly 00:13:20.049 --> 00:13:22.809 evolving. If you go to a high -end modern hotel 00:13:22.809 --> 00:13:24.970 right now, you might not find a physical hanger 00:13:24.970 --> 00:13:26.990 on the handle. You'll find a digital panel on 00:13:26.990 --> 00:13:28.830 the wall by your bed. The electronic buttons? 00:13:29.269 --> 00:13:31.909 I've seen those. Right. You press a button that 00:13:31.909 --> 00:13:34.629 says privacy and a red indicator light turns 00:13:34.629 --> 00:13:37.289 on in the hallway outside your door. It's cleaner, 00:13:37.470 --> 00:13:39.789 it's sleeker, and it really helps the staff because 00:13:39.789 --> 00:13:41.629 they can just look down the whole hallway and 00:13:41.629 --> 00:13:44.330 see the lights instantly. It feels a little colder 00:13:44.330 --> 00:13:47.029 though. There's something very tactile and deliberate. 00:13:47.659 --> 00:13:49.980 about physically hanging the sign on the door. 00:13:50.179 --> 00:13:52.659 Hotels know that, too. And that's why even with 00:13:52.659 --> 00:13:55.620 the shift to tech, they are doubling down on 00:13:55.620 --> 00:13:57.960 the branding of the privacy experience when they 00:13:57.960 --> 00:14:00.419 do use physical signs. Did you see the note in 00:14:00.419 --> 00:14:02.960 the sources about embassy suites? The design 00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:06.539 contest from 2007? Yeah. Back in 2007, they ran 00:14:06.539 --> 00:14:09.039 a massive public contest letting everyday people 00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:11.559 design their new do not disturb signs. Which 00:14:11.559 --> 00:14:13.700 is brilliant marketing, actually. getting the 00:14:13.700 --> 00:14:16.539 public invested in your hotel supplies it proves 00:14:16.539 --> 00:14:19.019 that the sign isn't just a utility tool anymore 00:14:19.019 --> 00:14:21.840 it's a personality piece think about it it's 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:23.340 the very first thing you see when you approach 00:14:23.340 --> 00:14:25.159 your room and the last thing you see when you 00:14:25.159 --> 00:14:28.679 leave hotels use it to set a specific tone whether 00:14:28.679 --> 00:14:31.940 it's funny or serious or luxurious speaking of 00:14:31.940 --> 00:14:35.259 tone and design there was one final nugget in 00:14:35.259 --> 00:14:38.379 the research that i as a bit of a computer nerd, 00:14:38.480 --> 00:14:41.340 found really satisfying. It seems the door hanger 00:14:41.340 --> 00:14:43.820 has actually migrated out of the physical world 00:14:43.820 --> 00:14:46.820 entirely and into our software. The Firefox example. 00:14:47.159 --> 00:14:49.519 Right. The encyclopedic source mentions that 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:53.320 in computer user interface design, or UI, there's 00:14:53.320 --> 00:14:55.779 a specific digital element officially called 00:14:55.779 --> 00:14:58.899 a door hanger. It's a perfect example of digital 00:14:58.899 --> 00:15:02.179 skeuomorphism, taking a familiar concept from 00:15:02.179 --> 00:15:04.700 the real physical world and applying it to digital 00:15:04.700 --> 00:15:07.480 design so users intuitively understand how to 00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:09.460 interact with it. But help me visualize this. 00:15:09.820 --> 00:15:11.960 Where have I seen a door hanger in my web browser? 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:14.759 Okay, so imagine you're using Firefox. Specifically, 00:15:14.820 --> 00:15:16.820 the source mentioned this in relation to version 00:15:16.820 --> 00:15:19.759 85. You go to a website and it asks to save your 00:15:19.759 --> 00:15:22.460 password. That little notification panel doesn't 00:15:22.460 --> 00:15:24.159 just pop up in the dead center of the screen 00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:25.899 and block everything you're reading, right? No, 00:15:26.019 --> 00:15:28.059 it usually drops down from the little key icon 00:15:28.059 --> 00:15:30.879 or the address bar at the top. Exactly. It literally 00:15:30.879 --> 00:15:34.500 hangs from the digital handle. In UI terms, that 00:15:34.500 --> 00:15:36.659 notification panel is technically called a door 00:15:36.659 --> 00:15:39.360 hanger. It's attached to a specific element, 00:15:39.559 --> 00:15:42.379 the handle, and it provides context just for 00:15:42.379 --> 00:15:45.039 that one specific action. So unlike a standard 00:15:45.039 --> 00:15:47.240 pop up, which is basically like someone jumping 00:15:47.240 --> 00:15:49.620 in front of your face, waving their arms. A pop 00:15:49.620 --> 00:15:51.919 up is like an aggressive salesperson tackling 00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:55.159 you in the hotel lobby. A door hanger is a polite 00:15:55.159 --> 00:15:57.899 note left on the handle. It demands your attention, 00:15:58.019 --> 00:16:00.340 but it's highly respectful of your current context. 00:16:00.659 --> 00:16:03.460 It is wild. It really is. A piece of die -cut 00:16:03.460 --> 00:16:06.559 cardboard from the 20th century literally dictates 00:16:06.559 --> 00:16:08.519 the architecture of how we interact with modern 00:16:08.519 --> 00:16:11.039 web browsers today. It really shows that good 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:14.259 design is universal. Whether it's paper or pixels, 00:16:14.419 --> 00:16:17.100 we clearly need reliable ways to manage our boundaries. 00:16:17.299 --> 00:16:19.480 We absolutely do. And I think that brings us 00:16:19.480 --> 00:16:21.379 right back to the big picture of what we've been 00:16:21.379 --> 00:16:23.460 looking at. So let's synthesize all of this. 00:16:23.559 --> 00:16:26.419 We've gone from Salonius Monk carving out silence 00:16:26.419 --> 00:16:30.059 backstage to a tragic staging ground in Las Vegas 00:16:30.059 --> 00:16:35.039 to high -tech GPS tracking for pizza flyers and 00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:37.539 finally into the UI architecture of the Internet. 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:41.240 What is the ultimate through line here? I think 00:16:41.240 --> 00:16:44.179 the real through line is control. The door hanger 00:16:44.179 --> 00:16:48.659 is a primitive analog control mechanism in a 00:16:48.659 --> 00:16:50.940 world that is just becoming increasingly chaotic 00:16:50.940 --> 00:16:53.830 and constantly connected. It's a way to hit pause 00:16:53.830 --> 00:16:56.330 on the outside world. It is. But as we learn 00:16:56.330 --> 00:16:58.429 with the Vegas tragedy and those new hotel security 00:16:58.429 --> 00:17:00.950 policies, that that pause button is no longer 00:17:00.950 --> 00:17:03.029 absolute. We are actively trading our privacy 00:17:03.029 --> 00:17:05.250 for safety. That's the real tension, isn't it? 00:17:05.269 --> 00:17:07.089 We desperately want to be left alone, but we 00:17:07.089 --> 00:17:09.250 also want to be perfectly safe. And apparently 00:17:09.250 --> 00:17:11.049 you just can't always have both at the same time. 00:17:11.130 --> 00:17:12.490 And that's the exact thought I want to leave 00:17:12.490 --> 00:17:14.230 the listener with today, because we live in an 00:17:14.230 --> 00:17:16.640 age of digital surveillance, smart cameras. Constant 00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:19.680 GPS tracking. The do not disturb sign was really 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:22.839 one of the last true vestiges of total unquestioned 00:17:22.839 --> 00:17:26.119 privacy. But now even that is eroding. So the 00:17:26.119 --> 00:17:28.500 question you have to ask yourself is this. Is 00:17:28.500 --> 00:17:31.519 the death of that absolute privacy just a necessary 00:17:31.519 --> 00:17:34.299 luxury we can no longer afford for our own security? 00:17:34.759 --> 00:17:38.200 Or are we slowly losing the last line of defense 00:17:38.200 --> 00:17:41.380 we had for our personal space? Something to really 00:17:41.380 --> 00:17:43.640 mull over the next time you hang that little 00:17:43.640 --> 00:17:46.069 plastic sign on your door. Are you just trying 00:17:46.069 --> 00:17:47.849 to sleep in, or are you making a fundamental 00:17:47.849 --> 00:17:50.549 statement about your boundaries? Thanks for joining 00:17:50.549 --> 00:17:52.650 us as we analyze the sources on this deep dive. 00:17:52.769 --> 00:17:54.569 Keep questioning the everyday things around you.