James Brown actually seemed to prefer working above the desk.

I consider myself something of an expert in workplace ergonomics. Years ago – before I personally spent much time at a computer – I remember chuckling at the sight of people who had plunked down a bunch of extra dough for those weird ergonomic computer chairs with the shin rests. Much later, when I finally learned how to use a computer and set up a home office, I had been happily clacking away on the keyboard for months, often working fourteen hour days, before a friend sat in my chair and said “Oh. My. God! How can you WORK sitting this low?!?” It had never occurred to me that I sat – as my friend put it – like “a pimp cruising in his Cadillac”. The fact is, my low-slung, reclining posture let me work with my arm extended comfortably, and I never experienced the kind of elbow/shoulder repetitive motion discomfort many people complain about. Not long after that, while nonchalantly pacing the entire length of my house while on a business call, another friend who was visiting practically screamed “Jesus! Do you EVER sit down while you’re working???” While he had a point – I do seem to have some sort of restlessness disorder – I pointed out that I must be able to sit down to work once in a while, because I had learned long ago to blink intentionally while working, because I was routinely working for such long stretches that I would get vivid red stripes on my eyes from not moving my lids. All of which is why it doesn’t surprise me that stand up desks are suddenly all the rage. Amongst their many benefits, they seem to offer a solution for the eternal fidgety student problem, and the American Cancer Society says they may actually save your life. It’s not like the idea of a standing desk is anything new though; more recently Donald Rumsfeld was held up as an example of a sprightly old geezer who “thinks on his feet”. And in spite of the fact that maybe some of that thinking was flawed, we can hardly blame it on the desk. According to this 43 Folders Wiki entry, other notables who worked at a stand up desk include Vladimir Nabokov, Winston Churchill, Leonardo Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Napoleon. Of course, it’s possible we’re all just being conditioned by the oligarchic media power elite to get used to not having a cushy desk job any more as we plunge into a Dickensian era of servitude in which the only job you can get in spite of your grad degree is as a cashier at Wal-Mart, but when I scan the herd in the average cube farm, I think maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Which is why we’re going to leave you with some James Brown.

James Brown Understood The Benefits Of Working Standing Up: