The toilet brush
I think the toilet brush is one of the dirtiest and most disgusting items in any household. A brush to remove poop stains from the poop bowl that stands there in its puddle of poop juice? The concept stinks. If the poop sticks, I prefer to fold some toilet paper and remove what needs removing manually. But I’m the only one, so even my household has a toilet brush. I detest it, ignore it, and wish it didn’t exist, but it does.
A few weeks ago, I installed our bathtub. Access to the bath's underside is through the toilet area, and I needed to insulate the bathtub from below, which involves crouching and climbing through a tiny opening next to the toilet bowl. I hardly fit in; it’s dusty and dark, and there’s no room to move. I work my way in, lay on my back, and then pull in the insulation from between my legs and position it all around me. I use natural wool instead of synthetic stuff. It’s waterproof, warm, and smells nice. It also doesn’t itch as much as the synthetic stuff.
It does take up a lot of space, so I stored it outside, where it got a little soggy. So here I am, in a highly uncomfortable position, in the dark, pulling damp wool over myself and stuffing it around the bathtub around me. As I’m doing this, I’m surprised at how wet the wool had become. It’s now leaking over my chest and my head, and some of it is dripping onto my face. But I keep at it, as it is too much work to climb back out and dry the wool first. Then, as I pull in the last bits of wool, I feel something sturdy stuck in the wool. I try to make sense of it in the dark until it dawns on me: the toilet brush. It got stuck in the wool: the brush itself and the stinky poo juice bowl. I realize the gooey, chunky fluid covering my head and face is not rainwater.
This all happened a few weeks ago, and it took me until this week to come to terms with it, and now I can share it with you. And then I want to tell you about TNW Spaces: TNW has a terrific building in the centre of Amsterdam, which rents offices and desks. It’s a curated workspace for tech startups, and I can honestly say that startups there grow faster and better than anywhere else. Also, the toilets have toilet brushes.
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten Founder, TNW
What else we’re writing about
🐛 Borobotics' robot worm digs for geothermal energy in your backyard. It promises to make harnessing geothermal heat cheaper and more accessible for everyone.
⚡ TECH5 is bringing the ‘Champions League of Technology’ back to Europe. Applications for the scaleup competition are now open.
💊 Google DeepMind spinoff Isomorphic Labs expects testing on its first AI-designed drugs to begin this year, as tech startups race to turn algorithmic magic into actual treatments.
🤖 Sereact has secured €25mn to advance its embodied AI software that enables robots to carry out tasks they were never trained to do.
🌍 A startup called Scenexus has unveiled plans to build digital twins of cities around the world. Planners and engineers then use the replicas to precisely analyse the impacts of their ideas.
Sponsored by TNW Conference
TNW Conference 2025: first speakers announced!
Check out some of the world-class experts who will take the stage on June 19-20 in Amsterdam, including C-levels from Sequoia Capital, Picnic, Northzone, and Stanford University, with more to be revealed!
With only 4,500 tickets available, this year’s event is expected to sell out fast. Get your ticket now! Prices increase this Friday, so today’s your last chance to secure the best price. Use TNWXMEDIA2025 for an exclusive subscriber discount!