What's on your desk, Cameron Faulkner?

The Verge

a day ago

Cameron Faulkner describes himself as 'a New York City transplant who's lived in Brooklyn since 2012.' He continues, 'When I'm not at work, I try to get as far away from my computer as I can (I don't always succeed), spending time with my wife, 15-month-old son, and two cats. I enjoy walking around, playing video games, drinking coffee, and keeping myself busy with a never-ending list of tasks.'
He is currently commerce editor at The Verge, where he helps other commerce writers find good deals, edits their work, and writes about gaming accessories, monitors, and other fun gadgets worth knowing about. He is also the first Verge staffer to be featured twice on What's on Your Desk — and here's why.
When you first talked to us about your home office space, it was 2021 and you were working out of a studio apartment. What's changed?
Yep, we upgraded to a space where I have my own office that isn't five feet away from my bed. Now it's 10 feet away. A studio apartment is like a furnace to forge your relationship and your organizational skills. While I succeeded at the relationship part, it was always a challenge to live minimally enough so as to keep things relatively clutter-free, especially since we also had two cats in the mix. Needless to say, I don't particularly miss it — though my desk setup is close to the previous one as it was before.
Could you tell us about your desk and chair?
The desk that I'm using is a Fully Jarvis Bamboo Standing Desk, and it's the kind of thing that I love because I never have to think about it, or clean it often. I encourage anyone who's curious about a standing desk to give it a shot. There are some days / weeks / seasons when I use it while sitting, but it's nice to have the flexibility to stand if I want to keep my blood flowing. I bought this desk from Fully before that company was acquired by Knoll, which was later acquired by Herman Miller. That said, the Jarvis bamboo standing desk is still available to buy through Herman Miller, but I'm not sure if its build quality and feature set are the same.
As if I haven't already said Herman Miller enough, the chair is the Sayl from that company. It's breathable and comfortable.
Here's the long one: tell us about the various tech devices you're using. (And please be specific about the model, etc.)
My tech setup has changed a bit since my last WOYD appearance in 2021, but mostly in incremental ways.
I have the same dual monitor setup (the 27-inch Acer Nitro XV272U and the 27-inch LG 27GL650F-B). My webcam got a big improvement. It's the Insta360 Link. I reviewed it for The Verge back in 2022, but the one I have is personally owned. I don't take advantage of the gimbal or gesture-based controls as much as I thought I would — I just think it produces a nice, clean image.
I also got a set of Kanto YU2 desktop speakers that have just the kind of minimalist design that I'm looking for. Those connect to my computer via USB, but also have speaker cable inputs for use with a receiver or a record player. Fun fact: they also connect via USB to my Nintendo Switch 2, and I enjoy listening to game audio through them when I'm having a quick handheld gaming session at my desk.
Do you prefer the split keyboard?
I'll never go back to normal keyboards after buying this split ergonomic model from Kinesis. It's a gaming keyboard, technically, so it has mechanical key switches and programmable LEDs under each key. I couldn't find another split keyboard suitable for gaming at the time when I bought it (at least, not one with a design that didn't look atrocious), and I've been happy with this model. The downside is that it's now a lot tougher for me to find merit in laptop keyboards, since they quickly give me wrist pain.
Initially, most people I talk to about these keyboards are of the opinion that they'd never figure out how to use one, and that anyone who does is not from this planet. It does look strange, I'll give them that. But I think that they're a more natural way to type, since you can hold your arms and wrists more comfortably instead of contorting them unnaturally to type on a row-based keyboard.
I love that grouping of tchotchkes: the little plastic eggs, the 1960s-style timer, the sand art ornament.
Welcome to the fidget corner of my desk. The blue sphere that looks a little bit like the old AT&T logo spins around on a base. It's so satisfying to hold and tinker with. The red egg is none other than Silly Putty, which I'm frequently molding into various shapes off-camera during calls. The timer is a Pomodoro timer, and I use it when I need some uninterrupted time to focus on a task (all thanks to this 2022 piece from Victoria Song that inspired me to buy one). Lastly, the sand art display was a gift during Polygon's 2024 secret santa extravaganza. We all got together over Zoom and had a gift exchange. We had a lot of fun over there. Anyway, the sand art display is so soothing, and I love rotating it to see how the specks fall differently every time. It's simple, yet beautiful.
Tell us about the poster with the two people (you and your wife?) walking by a decorated wall.
I realized at some point in the last few months that I have an abundance of open wall space and a bunch of photos that I love to look back on. So, why not put more memories up on the wall? The one that I chose here is a photo from our engagement shoot, which was taken in front of a graffiti-covered building that has since been bulldozed. I just thought it was a nice photo back in the day, but it has evolved into a reminder that things can change around us, and sometimes within us, but that we're committed to walking together throughout the journey. I'm really glad that I get to look at it every time I walk into the office before work.
I understand there's a great story behind the coin / currency collection that you keep in your desk.
Yes! My grandfather gave me his coin collection before he passed, and it's one of those things where I wish I would have asked what made him take it up as a hobby, and how he obtained some of this stuff. I know he never went on the internet (bless his heart), and he never mentioned going to shops or auctions to look for obscure Buffalo nickels from the early 1900s. Based on how comprehensive it is, it's clear to me that he really loved doing it.
Now, I keep it near my desk to pull out and examine any time I need to lose myself in history, or in thinking about my grandfather. I wonder about all of the hands throughout time that these coins and bills passed through. Conceptually, I hate money and all of the power that billionaires who have a lot of it can wield (often to negative effect), but I really enjoy handling this old currency. It's lost to time and is no longer accepted as legal tender in society, but it still holds a lot of value to me.
Photographs by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge
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