Is this $30 cardboard standing desk awesome or just plain stupid?

The standing desk phenomenon may have just sunk to a new low. Switch Stance is a cheap piece of cardboard that promises to turn your boring old desk into a standing model. Personally, I think there’s something to its foldable design, which also happens to be made from recycled materials, but my editors don’t exactly agree. So we though we could debate this one out in the open and let the public decide.

First, here’s Roy Choi, our fearless editor-in-chief, with a quick takedown of the cardboard standing desk:

“Is this seriously a thing? Our parents’ generation sent people to the moon. And our generation’s brightest minds came up with stacking two boxes on top of each other to make a desk?

I used to do this when my parents would get a new TV or appliance. But instead I’d make a fort. Is there a fort I can kickstart, instead?”

Next up is Todd Haselton, Executive Editor extraordinaire, to deliver the finishing blow:

“This is probably the dumbest product I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been covering tech for more than a decade. We’re basically looking at two boxes stacked on top of one another. Don’t pay for this: go to your local liquor store and ask them for spare boxes. You can build your own standing desk without shelling out $30 for what most people consider trash.”

this $30 kickstarter standing desk* is so dumb it’s making my body reject my brain pic.twitter.com/DgVean8iQf

— Todd Haselton (@robotodd) April 14, 2016

Finally, here’s my rebuttal:

As TechnoBuffalo’s resident crowd-funding reporter, I’ve seen some really dumb Kickstarter projects over the years. Here are a few ridiculous products that make the Switch Stance look genius by comparison.

everything about this kickstarter project is absurd… https://t.co/GOZsxKDuUIpic.twitter.com/HkLx9uIcev

— (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ ǝʞɐɾ (@jacobkleinman) January 19, 2016

new kickstarter trend…https://t.co/RdNEdAkpEThttps://t.co/Kcyeyst2Alpic.twitter.com/ixHFUr1rBa

— (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ ǝʞɐɾ (@jacobkleinman) September 21, 2015

This cardboard setup is also pretty appealing for a few reasons. It’s extremely portable, with a clever design that folds up into a tidy rectangle you can slide into a backpack or messenger bag. It’s also cheap, which is great if you’re not ready to commit to the standing desk lifestyle but want something better than a stack of books.

Temporary, and very unwieldy, stand desk pic.twitter.com/pm9AIpA4hQ

— (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ ǝʞɐɾ (@jacobkleinman) May 5, 2015

As a remote employee, I also need to be ready to work pretty much anywhere. That can mean the desk in my bedroom, the cafe across the street, or a random hotel lobby with free Wi-Fi in the middle of Manhattan. So the thought of being able to whip out a standing desk and assemble it in just a few minutes wherever I go sounds pretty awesome.

Sure, this isn’t exactly rocket science. It’s not even science. More like a clever art project, but I’m not surprised to see that Switch Stance hit its crowd-funding goal in just a few days. Clearly, there’s a demand for a standing desk that’s lightweight, portable and, most important of all, cheap.