Editing The Pen Addict 494/transcript (section)

== Manifesting Future Projects ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' What do they call that? It's like, um, it's like putting something out in the world, but it has a name, but I don't remember what it is. Like when you, you put something out into the world and hope that it happens.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep. There is a word for it and I'm blanking. I'm blanking. Manifesting. Manifesting. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, you know what, Brad, we just manifested that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So future friend of the show, Craig Mod, I follow, I'm a, I'm a member of his, I'm subscribed to him and follow him on Twitter. So he posted this, he posted this link on Twitter, an intriguing Christmas present from IA, which we'll get into IA in just a second. The notebook for writers where the guides disappear, leaving nothing but plain, clear, aligned text. Do you want to give the IA background for people who don't know? Like just the general overview? I mean, I can, but I figured you might be even be better.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. IA, um, what is, uh, now I want to remember what, what it actually stands for. Is it Intelligent Architects? Maybe. I bet I don't even know. I think that's what the IA stands for. Um, but I don't remember. Anyway, IA have been around for a really long time in the kind of app space. Their main product, uh, is something called IA Writer, which is a mostly Markdown focused, um, text editor.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That was my first big boy writing app when I got a Mac. And it is for a lot of people.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They've been around for such a long time. Yep. Um, that I'm trying to find, I don't know if, I actually, I don't know if IA stands for anything anymore. Um, but I think it used to, you know what I mean? Like, I think it used to stand for something. And then over time they've, they've kind of moved away from that a little bit. Um, but they are like a company that does a bunch of things. Like they are. Digitally. Yeah. They are a consultancy company. Yeah. Um, and they work with a lot of brands on strategy, design, code, and that kind of stuff. But they also produce their own product, which is IA Writer. And that's like their product that they put out to the world. And it's a really, really nice, um, seemingly simple, but full of features, uh, text editor. I think they were one of the first that did like, um, uh, syntax highlighting in a Markdown editor. So structure, like in color and stuff. And they've had, they had, they've made some, I don't even remember what it was, like some weird moves in the past where everybody got mad at them for a while, but then they came back and everyone was cool with them again. But anyway, IA Writer has been like a consistent, uh, really good text editing application.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. And one thing you can do, this, this is not a digital podcast, but one thing I have done once I moved off of IA Writer for my writing is they actually allow you to download their font for free. The, um, I forget the name of the font and you can import that into like your other writing apps. If you like, yeah, they made a really, they did a good job. So I use that font pretty frequently. So anyway, Craig is obviously buddies with the IA people and they sent him this notebook. And normally those things just pass my eyes and go, okay, thanks for the notebook. This one is different in that it has raised, it's a lined notebook, but the lines that we would normally think are printed are physically raised on the page. And I'm having trouble with this whole, with this whole concept until I see it in my hands because like Craig's text, and I, this is from the, from the packaging, the guides disappear, leaving nothing but plain, clear, aligned text. So you basically have blank guidelines that you can see as you're writing. But the theory is that once the words are on the page, those things vanish from view, not like physically vanish, right? They're, they're scored into the book as, as best as I can tell, right? The lines, is that a fair way to say it? These lines look scored into the page, but by the time you write and have a full text page, you just, you stop visually seeing. It's not like the lines are like physically vanishing. I don't, I don't see how they could physically vanish when they're scored into the page. I am desperate to get one of these. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't really know what it means. Like my, my thought was like, does it change the composition of the page? Like as you write on it, does it like weigh the page in such a way that the, the lines actually disappear? Like I couldn't tell, right? Right. I don't know. They've said like it's made for fountain pens as well, which is just like a bananas thing

'''Brad Dowdy:''' to say. Like, yeah. So like everything that is happening here is like really breaking my head. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So it's a product that they are working on making commercially available.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. I thought at first, the way Craig was talking about it, like, Hey, we just, you know, I made this for like their best customers or whatever. It's actually going to be a physical product.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Something I can't tell Brad is how big it is from these images.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It looks, I'm going to go with smart sized Myke. Like I don't know exactly what size it is, but I'm just going to assume it's smart sized.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Is that when, did you mean that they make it up as they go along? Like, yeah. Like the system journals. Yeah. A5 ish. You reckon it's just a five ish. I mean, I would hope so if it's a writer's book. My concern would be that it's pocket size.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I don't think that's the right. So it looks like it's five by seven to me. Yeah. Just looking at how many lines are on the page. It may be shorter than that. It may, it may be like B6 ish. I don't know. We'll see. Um, but yeah, it's whatever it is. It's smart size. It's, it's, uh, you know, well, we'll, we'll, you better believe I will, I will handle that bit of information once we physically get, once I physically get one. Um, but it doesn't look to be a five size. It looks to be smaller.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So here's what I'll say right now. This looks like a notebook built by a design agency. Yes. That's not always a good thing. Correct. We'll see. This feels very concept-y, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And we'll see. So this is going to be one of those times where I'm actually like, I'm going to reach out and try to get one where I don't normally do that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But around the time that they do decide to make it commercially available, they will want to have it in your hands if they believe.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, I'm just going to order one if it becomes commercially available, but I'm actually going to, I haven't emailed them yet. I've just put myself on the mailing list and look at all the stuff. Like they didn't, they don't look like they're ready to send, but I'm going to attempt.

'''Myke Hurley:''' When you see a product like this and you put yourself in the mailing list, do you use an email address where they could recognize you? Nope. Oh, interesting. That's not the move I take. Like if I'm signing up for like an app beta or something, I will use my RelayFM email address in the hopes that they recognize me and give me the access.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Obviously, when I directly email them, it will definitely come from the pen addict. If I'm signing up to a newsletter that I know is going to be more of a general newsletter, right? So like, that's how they say, sign up for our newsletter and we'll say, you know, when this is going to launch. I put it in, I direct that type of content into my feed bin. So I have a feed bin address that comes into my RSS feeds. So that's how I read newsletters.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, no, I will always try and do the like, I want you to like, please notice me kind of thing. Oh, yeah. That's what I do. Yeah, yeah. I'll do that differently. Like if I ask them. As someone says in the chat, the do you know who I am technique.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Which is exactly what it is. But subtle. But subtle. And you don't say, hey. You just send it from that address, but you don't say, hey, I am this person. You just say, hey, you know, I notice things you think. Yeah. So I'll try to get one. So we'll see. I'll shoot them an email. They don't know who I am from Adam, but, you know, maybe I can get ready for the long term follow up on this. Well, I can I can pull some strings in the relay chat and bet I could get some contact, some legit contact information.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I would say, yeah, you probably could. I that's generally not my move, though. I reckon Federico probably knows them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I don't roll that way, though. So. But you could. But I could. I could. I'm I'm tempted more than this because it's so different. And what they're telling me doesn't add up. Yeah, I can't walk it out. And I want to see it for myself. And but they're like. Yeah, this isn't just like a one off thing we're trying. Like they're like in like we're going in on this. And I want to see what the deal is. So, yeah, there you go. All right. Semi related notebook news. My plotter interview went up on the plotter website. I had a really fun time working with them in the kind of like a private beta test of the plotter. And part of that program was doing an interview with them to be published on their website, which is now upped up up up. It's now up on their site. I linked it on the penatic blog for those to read. It's a fun interview. It talks about like, you know, just my general background in stationery. But it talks about some of my thoughts on the plotter. And I don't know. I enjoy talking with April very much. They do a really good job. It's one of the most pleasant experiences I've had ever, like working with like a pre-launch product. Like they were very thorough and very diligent and, you know, knew exactly like the type of questions to ask. And we're very good about the whole process. And I think it's a really neat product. The thing is, and we're going to talk about this probably when I start talking about the Hobonichi, is how I'm going to use the plotter going forward. Right. That's the question I'm at right now. Like these last two months have just been a disaster as far as productivity and efficiency and actually working. So I'm ready to get, turn the calendar and get into a better work cycle and see how the plotter fits into that. But I think it's a great product. And I thought it was a fun interview and wanted to share.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I like that they called you a stationary therapist. Which I never heard. I really appreciate as a phrase.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I could get into that. Right. Because it's like content creator. You know, that's like just like, it's almost like a creepy word these days. Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, it's the problem with it is it's too, it's too simple because it's so broad. Right. It is. It is. But I do like that there is a word for it. Like I like the content creator exists.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. I make content. Right. Yeah. I make content. Like I'm not denying that. But like, I don't know. I just tend to say I talk about pens on the internet and that I lead with that. And then we just figure out from there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like something that I may be trying to say sometimes that I like is that I am a professional communicator. But that's about as broad as content creator. But it's just something that I like to say.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But stationary therapist, I can get behind that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. You are a stationary therapist. Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. So I'm good with that. So.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. When you need to set up your new website for stationary therapy.