#HTE

Hilarious Fidget Cube Becomes Kickstarter Smash

Of all the things you could design that would be smash hits, here’s one that most wouldn’t have thought of. The Fidget Cube is an object that does nothing—in the same way that Seinfeld was a show about nothing. Yet they both deliver satisfying mini-experiences:

It’s hard to tell if inventors Matthew and Mark McLachlan did this as a lark, and their initial target was just $15,000. But backers have responded in force: Over 50,000 people pledged for the $19 object, landing them nearly $2 million at press time—and there’s still 40 days left to pledge.

Here’s a question for you: Do you reckon we fidget more today than we did a century ago? Humans have a need to manually manipulate things, and tapping glass rectangles all day isn’t very satisfying. I wonder if bygone activities—grinding our own coffee, installing typewriter ribbons, starting the car with a handcrank—ate up all that fidgety energy.