Vietnamese street vendors, and why we sit on the floor.

We’ve been on a roll with floor sitting content on YouTube recently, so maybe it’s a good time to revisit a short story you may or may not have heard (or remember).

In 2014, we visited Ho Chi Minh City for the first time. As we were strolling and taking in the sights along the busy streets, something mundane caught our attention and intrigued us.

Every street stall vendor was in a textbook full squat as they were preparing ingredients or minding their goods. Some of them were not young at all — we would not hesitate to give up our seats to them on buses or trains — yet, they were able to stay in that position comfortably, and get up and down with relative ease.

For those of us with more modernized lifestyles, squatting can feel like a torturous position. It’s “hard on our knees”, many would say. For these street stall vendors, squatting is simply their resting position.

They can do the “Asian Squat” not because they’re Asian, but because being close to the ground, squatting, and getting up from a squat, are movements ingrained into their daily lives.

That’s why since then, we’ve been believers of low furniture and living closer to the ground. If we make that a natural part of our lives, then perhaps we could reap the benefits in the long run.

This random observation on the streets of Vietnam, taught us a lesson that would later play a big role in our decision to set up floor desks in our home office: our environment shapes us, but what we can do is shape our environment.

We were seriously impressed, watching elderly folks with their incredible vitality and impeccable squatting form. We hope that in the future, we can be on the side of the “impressive”, squatting up and down comfortably in our old age, rather than the side of the “impressed”, thinking…

“I wish I could still do that. But, my knees…”

And that, is why we sit on the floor!

If you’ve not heard, we’ve said goodbye to the iconic floor desks in our office. Well, not exactly, since they’re still in our apartment serving other purposes for the time being. But yes, we do not work at the same wooden floor desks anymore.

In honor of their service, here’s a final picture of our old workspace.

It’s amazing to know our humble workspace has inspired others to create theirs:

Thanks to Jan and @jonthesquirrel for showing us pictures of their workspaces on Instagram!

We also saw this incredible setup by u/Ok_Space_8613 on the the r/floordesks subreddit.

If you have a floor desk setup you’d like to share with us, just go ahead and send them over via email or DM!

Don’t miss these updates:

We don’t send these newsletters as often as we should, so you’ve probably missed a ton of content that we’ve posted in between. Here are some of the most important ones that you should not miss!

🖥️ This is THE THING that made us say goodbye to our iconic floor desks. (YouTube)

🪑 Comfort is nice, but it’s not always good for us. (YouTube)

🧘 Here’s what we really think, after sitting on the floor for 5 years. (YouTube)

💪 No matter your age, try this sit-stand test. (Instagram)