ost-it Notes (“stickies”), those bright, adhesive little pieces of paper are 30 years old. Like colour television, power steering, cheap sushi and other symbols of the modern age, Post-it Notes have integrated into our lives to a point that no one but historians remember a world without them. Such a wonderful invention. Perfect for those times when duct-taping a piece of paper in place is a bit too much and yet laying it down loosely is not enough. Stickies now come in a wide range of sizes, shapes and colours, but were originally only pale yellow. Why yellow? Maybe it has something to do with making lemon-aid from lemons. The light, reusable glue that makes Post-it notes so effective was invented in 1968 by 3M researcher Spencer Silver. Unfortunately Mr. Silver had no idea what the glue could be used for. It was 1974 before one of Mr. Silver’s colleagues had problems with a fly-away bookmark and remembered Mr. Silver’s glue.
The Post-it concept was born. Still it would be another six years before the product was ready for release to the office product world in 1980. How useful are Post-it notes? When film reviewer Roger Ebert lost his voice due to cancer, he communicated with stickies. When computers largely took over from paper in office workplaces, Post-it Notes also made the electronic jump. And the National Post likes Post-its too. In 2004, a Post series named Post-it Notes as one of “Five Items That Changed Modern Life.” At the beginning of this year, our “Guide to a Good Life” series was entirely illustrated with good advice written on stickies. It worked perfectly.
www.3m.com
