This is a random post. Not even sure it’s blog worthy, but I thought I’d let you into the strange world called my brain. Last week I feel in love with Len Sweet’s study. So many cool books. So many cool artifacts. But I couldn’t put my finger on why I loved it so much. I finally figured it out. Here’s how.

I finished a Walt Disney biography on my plane ride home and one little factoid put all the pieces together. When Disneyland was built, they intentionally altered the size of everything to alter the feeling it created. For example, the train was built to five-eighths scale. On Main Street, the lower floors were built to nine-tenths scale, the second floors to eight-tenths scale, and the third floor to seven-tenths scale. In the words of Walt Disney, the altered size “made the street a toy.”

Back to Len Sweet’s study. I had to duck to get into it. It was designed like a ship door. And there was something about the small size that made it feel like you were crossing a threshold into a different place.

Long story short, if I ever design a study I’m going to design the door so that only children can walk through standing straight up. All adults will have to enter like a child.