Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

A cable you need ten years later

Developer Tyler Gaw wrote on Bluesky that he had just dug to the bottom of his Big Box of Cables to find two cables he needed for something. They had been lying at the bottom for more than ten years. “So, ‘when are you ever gonna use these?’ was today,” he wrote. “Don’t ever let anyone take your Big Box of Cables away.”

The skeet caught the attention of Jim Nielsen, who writes a blog about web development. He laughed, and then he did something about it.

FAMILY TECHNO BOX

Nielsen screenshotted the post, printed it in black and white on an old Brother printer, cut it out, pulled out his own big box of cables — the one his wife had labelled “FAMILY TECHNO BOX” — and taped the printout to the front of the box with clear packing tape.

The photograph he published shows a battered cardboard box with cables hanging out of it, the handwritten marker label, and the printed post stuck over the front. The box is, by his own description, the kind of object that invites the question: why do I keep this box?

YAC: yet another cable

From now on, every time Nielsen opens the box to add YAC — yet another cable — he will see the message instead of the question, and be reminded why he keeps it. He describes the effect as a spark of joy, motivation and purpose rekindled, and notes a practical side benefit: the printout also serves as a warning to family members who think the whole thing should be thrown away.

One day, he writes, his children will find the box in the attic among his other belongings. He hopes they will pay heed to the advice taped to the outside.