[JohnBooty]

    pens that you won't find at Staples or Walgreens (or the 
    office supply closet)

You'll still have to hit up the office supply closet or one of those other places for "decoy pens." You leave the decoy pens in a cup on top of your desk, while you keep the good stuff inside a drawer. That way your officemates and/or partner and/or housemates borrow (steal) the decoy pens and not the good stuff.

[maeln]

This bring back memory of middle school. I grew up in one of the poorest overseas territory of France, and if you left anything on your table while the teacher was calling you to the board, you had a 50/50% chance of having them stolen before you came back to your seat. Therefore, we all got into the habit of picking our pencil case with us when we went to the board.

Then I moved back to metropolitan France and all the teacher and kids where looking at me like an alien when I was picking all my stuff up before coming to the board ...

[harlanji]

This is me bringing my backpack and laptop to the bathroom with me at cafes. Nothing has happened to make me do that, except knowing how fast things can happen. I leave something like a mouse or charger cable behind to show that the seat is not abandoned, and that's easier to replace.

Most people just get up and leave it there. Being homeless, losing anything expensive is going to ruin my year. It's the little things that give our social status away, even if we work and shower every day. Status illegibility is a key to climbing the ladder; going off on a bit of a tangent there, but indeed conformity in things like these is rational.

[ericmay]

> Most people just get up and leave it there.

I used to get very anxious about leaving stuff laying around even amongst people I know wouldn't steal things (think like a meetup or something) and eventually got over it. If I'm concerned I'll ask someone if they can watch my stuff. It depends on where I'm at though obviously. I think in Columbus where I live most places you can do this and 99.9% of the time it would be fine. I don't begrudge someone who doesn't trust this though. I'm familiar with "if you lose contact with it, it's compromised".

> It's the little things that give our social status away

I'm not with you on this one. I don't think a single person at a coffee shop is looking at you like you're "of low social status" for taking your backpack to the bathroom. They probably just think you don't want your stuff stolen...

[neilv]

I now carry decoy pens in my backpack.

It goes back to when someone in the MIT student center asked to borrow a pen to fill out an ATM deposit slip, I had only a Cross pen engraved with my name and the first project team I was on, and I reluctantly handed it over while emphasizing that I needed it back...