Editing The Pen Addict 611/transcript (section)

== Note-taking and paper preferences ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' This is kind of funny. So, yesterday, me and Idina were in a meeting. She was taking notes, and she was using a notebook, and she was saying, oh, the pen's not working on one side of the paper as well as the other. And I was just like, yeah, man. Yeah. It's just like that sometimes. That's literally truth. The roughness of the paper. And, like, so if you're running low on ink, which is what was happening, the ink wasn't drawing as easily on one side of the paper as the other. Like, it was just funny hearing you mention that and just remembering that happening to us yesterday. My answer was kind of just like, yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Stuff be weird. Like, there's nothing we can do.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes, that is correct. So, yeah, paper is a big deal, right? What type of paper is someone else using, you know, in relation to what I'm using? That's probably one of the larger variables, even without, like, the ink choices or the nib choice. Like, those are the three big things, right? And then you have some smaller things that could be changing how one person perceives one ink differently from another person. You know, like, you can have a filling system, like an eyedropper. I always feel like my eyedropper-filled pens flow a little bit wetter than, say, like a converter-filled pen. You know, that's a pretty minor adjustment. And you also have environmental aspects. Like, I live in a humid environment. Does someone live at altitude? Like, those are very minor things. Those usually don't come into play that much. But it's things to think about. And all of these things that line up, you know, on this list that make my experience good can just as easily line up for someone else's experiences and make them poor. And both of us are right. Like, that's how this works, right? So there's no, like, right or wrong in these aspects.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And before I'd even thought of this topic, I was streaming yesterday. And I had inked up Lamy Dark Lilac last week on Thursday. And I didn't get to write with it much the day that I inked it up. But I spent kind of all day Monday. I was like, okay, I haven't really used this pen and this nib and this ink, the Dark Lilac ink. So that was my Monday pen. And I used it a bunch. And I had a terrible experience. Like, as I was writing with this ink, I was like, I really don't like this ink. And trying to describe what I didn't like about it was difficult. It kind of hard started a little bit, which doesn't necessarily mean it's the ink. It could be the pen. It could be the nib, the way the nib's set. Different things like that. It could be because I haven't used it for three days, you know, something like that. So I kind of discount the hard starts for the first time. But I thought the way it performed out of an extra fine Yovo No. 6 nib, which is probably a nib I'm more experienced with than any and know what to expect from that nib, was extremely inconsistent. Like, I was getting, you know, thin lines, thick lines, uneven lines. I was like, is this the ink? Did it dry up? Did it not flow well? So, like, I tried to, like, manipulate it to get it back into a consistent state, right? You know, kind of making sure the ink's flowing well. Kind of cleaning it out with the shim. Making sure it, like, didn't gunk up. Which it really shouldn't after, like, three days. And I don't think it really did. I just thought it was a very inconsistent performing ink on a few different paper types. Like, I was doing a bunch of different writing and different types of paper. And, like, something as classically good with a fountain pen as original Tomoe River 52 GSM. I just hated writing with it on there because, like, my lines were not clean. And I don't like that from pens. I like a clean line. I don't care if it's thin or a thick line. It just has to be clean and consistent. And this was variable. And then I didn't like the color that much as well. It's a very dark ink. I like the sheen. The sheen is green. That was probably the highlight of the ink, which I do like. But Dark Lilac is very, very dark, as the name indicates. If you looked at it, like, if I was sitting at my desk writing and you were standing over my shoulder looking down at the page, you would just think it was a black ink, right? It's a pretty dark ink, which that's not necessarily a performance thing. But that just was, okay, one more thing. I don't love this ink. It's a little dark. So, again, that's my singular experience with that ink. And I'm going to keep using it because I want to understand. So, like, when someone like Jonathan makes his comment about not having a good time with wearing wool, and then I make my comment about not having a good time with Lamy Dark Lilac, and I would say both Jonathan in his case and me in my case are in the minority opinion. I want to learn why, right? Like, this is why I love this stuff so much. I was like, okay, like, huh, I wonder why Jonathan's saying that. And then in my case, I'm going, huh, I wonder why I think this about this ink. So, I don't give up on it, right? Like, I'm in a position where, okay, now I want to understand. Am I missing something? Am I doing something wrong? What are my expectations? Are my expectations wrong? And I try to sort it out with this ink. And Jonathan looks like he's gone through that and has had a very consistent experience with wearing wool. So, back to that comment that Jonathan made.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I've only tried four wearing wool inks. They've all flowed from various nib sizes very well. Cheshire Cat has been one of my favorite inks of the past year or two. I use it very frequently because it writes so well. And I don't recall ever having any feathering. But, again, our use cases may not overlap. It may not be the same ink, same nib, same papers, all these things, right? So, whatever he's doing, he's seeing these problems. And that's turned him off from the brand. And so, I just try to understand these bigger picture things when I get a comment as simple as this. Because this is like an all-day everything in the stationery world, right? Why does one person like this pen? And this person hates it or vice versa. And, you know, that's cool. That's why we have 611 episodes of this podcast is because we all have different needs, likes, wants, all of these things. And it's fun for me to see, you know, differing opinions and helps me learn more and be better educated about all of the things that I talk about. So, it's fun to think about. And Jonathan, unbeknownst to him, has made me want to do another little project here. Which will, it's not wearing a little ink related, but it's a product I talk about a lot. And maybe shortchange a little bit. And I'm going to think about that up next after we talk about our friends at Squarespace.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Can I just say something about reviews before we do? Please. So, one of the things that I feel like I have learned over time, and I think that this is especially great in the age of content creators, is with any person reviewing anything, one of the things that I find valuable is like you pay attention to someone for long enough and you try things that they try. And then you can align yourself to that person, but not exactly mirror them. So, like, there are content creators that I follow where some things that they may say about a video game or whatever, things that I know that they like or don't like are things that I like or don't like and they're different. So, if they're like, oh, I don't like this game because of X. Well, that X might actually be something I like. And so, like, if you follow people for a long enough time, you can kind of, like, set your clock to them and their preferences, but they don't necessarily align with yours. So, like, for example, with me and you, I know that you like fine lines and not thicker lines. So, sometimes if you might say, like, this pen's great, da-da-da-da-da, but the line is a little too thick for me, I'm like, bang on, I love it. And I think that is the real value I find in reviews. Like, you don't just trust blindly what someone's saying, but you, and I also feel like these days it's not so great to just, like, read a review from a random person you don't know. I think that there is a benefit in finding people whose voices you trust and aligning yourself to them in some way, whether that is positive or negative. Like, there are people who, like, they'll say, like, they don't like a movie and I'm like, great, I'm going to love this movie. Right. Because I just know every single time something you don't like, I do like. And so, I find that to be valuable and that's my recommendation for, like, paying attention to reviews of any kind.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. It's just one data point and there's lots to consider other than just, like, the literal black and white review piece, right? There's, you know, a lot you can take away from it. So, and again, that's, like, that's why I found this comment so valid. And I'm going to keep going back to it the entire show and you'll see why here in a minute.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This episode is brought to you by our friends at Squarespace, the all-in-one website platform for entrepreneurs to stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just starting out or managing a growing brand, you can stand out from the crowd of a beautiful website, engage with your audience and sell anything. Your products, services, or even the content you create. Squarespace has got everything you need, all in one place, all on your terms. Maybe you want to be a reviewer of your own. Squarespace is the perfect place to get started for blog of your own and you can write your content, share it with the world, and they make it so easy to do that. Squarespace's blueprint AI and SEO tools make it even easier than ever before to get started. You can start up a personalized, completely personalized website with their new guided design system, Squarespace Blueprint. You can choose from a professionally curated layout and styling options to build a unique online presence from the ground up, tailored to your brand or business, and optimized to look fantastic on every device. You can then launch your website and get discovered fast with integrated, optimized SEO tools so you show up more often to more people and to grow the way that you want. You can also integrate with flexible payments too to make checkouts seamless for your customers with simple but powerful payment tools. You can accept credit cards, PayPal and Apple Pay, and in eligible countries, offer customers the option to buy now and pay later with Afterpay and Clearpay. One of the things I have loved about Squarespace for the decade and a half that I have used them is how often they are improving and updating and adding functionality into their system to make it easier for people to get started and easy for you to manage your website once you've got it going. Like they've really taken, I think, some of the best stuff I've seen in AI here to make their system work. So you can kickstart or update written content on any website, a product description, or an email with Squarespace AI, generating instant personalized results that know and show your brand identity. They can explain what your site's about, you can choose your tone, and then enter what you need to get short or long form text. No matter the placement, Squarespace AI makes it easier than ever to go live, stand out, and succeed online. Go and check it out for yourself today by going to squarespace.com and you can sign up for a free trial, see what their tools are, and build your website. Then when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com slash penaddict and you will save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That is squarespace.com slash penaddict when you decide to sign up to get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for the show. Our thanks to Squarespace for the continued support of the Penaddict and RelayFM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So one quick hidden Squarespace setting that I use, since we're talking about comments, you can have comments on your blog. And you can also limit the time that the comment windows are open. So someone who's been on Squarespace for like over a decade, I don't want a post from eight years ago to just have this open comment section. So like I want people to comment on my current post and after 90 days, you can no longer comment on a post. And I think that's pretty fair. It's kind of not needed at that point, right? Yeah, it's kind of not needed. Like we've run past that. And, you know, any future, if you have, if you find like an old article and you want to comment on, well, that's when you can hit the contact page or email me or find me other ways. But yeah, like that's one way I manage my Squarespace site that I actually really, really enjoy that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' See, that's smart.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's smart. All right. We got a shout out of the week, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Shout out of the week, Brad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So we have wait at Jerry underscore you on Instagram. So Jerry Yu is a super fan of Japanese pens. I believe lives in Japan. And someone pointed me to this account probably like a month ago and I've been following him. And what's interesting, one post that popped into my feed is he's doing basically an Instagram post about Pilate's 1968 bankruptcy crisis. And I thought this was just so fascinating. Wow. And like he's going to continue to post some of this stuff on there. So like I really, really like this. So it's kind of an amazing account.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Getting a history lesson over here, you know?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Not only just so Jerry also loves like short pocket pens, like right, which is speaking my language. So that's the style of pen that I like. So y'all will put a link in the show notes for you to go follow his Instagram account. He's got a couple of other spaces online, like on YouTube, but there don't seem to be as active as the Instagram right now. But definitely go give him a follow and read some of these posts there. It's very fascinating stuff. So thank you, Jerry, for putting this out there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Love to see it. All right.