Editing The Pen Addict 322/transcript (section)

== Baron Fig Notebook Discussion ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' I want to talk about a cool product that flew by my radar yesterday, which is the Baron Fig Wonder Dream Journal. This is genuinely one of the smartest ideas I've seen in a notebook in a while. I think this is frigging genius. Baron Fig have created a dream journal.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Which, that's always the dream of a lot of people. Like, I have dreams. I should write them down. Well, they made a thing to prompt that, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, it is a really good-looking notebook, right? It's got, like, stars and stuff on the front. It looks really, really nice. But the star is the paper inside. So, it is specifically designed for you to record your dreams in. So, the pages are laid out. They've got these big sections, right, on a double-page spread. It's called Recall, Visualize, and Interpret, right? You can understand what they mean, right? So, you write down in the Recall. In the Visualize, you can draw some stuff. And then, I guess, in the morning, you interpret it, right? It's like a double, like, either you've woken up, you write it down, go back to sleep, or however it is you want to record your dreams. And on the edges of the pages, they have these things that they call page bars. And they have little icons for you to check off so you can denote your emotion, your sleep quality, when your dream took place in the night, so, like, the beginning, middle, and end. If your dream was in color or not, what your viewpoint was, was it first person or third person, and basic categorization of your dream. I think this is a really good-looking, really smart notebook. Like, I think this is an awesome-looking product. I don't really have, like, dreams that I consider worth recording. I don't really have vivid dreams very often. So, this isn't, like, something that I would personally buy for myself. But for a person who does a dream like that, or wants to record your dreams, or whatever, this is, like, a perfect product. I love seeing stuff like this, where it's, like, really cleverly thought out, single-purpose things. Especially when you're thinking about, like, we all have so many notebooks, right? Like, everyone has so many notebooks. Isn't it nice to have a notebook which has such a singular purpose that...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Is it? That's, that's, so, that's my argument. Like, I have lots of things to say about this.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right, go on then.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And it's all, I mean, it's all positive. Like, I love single-purpose use products like this. This is a very specific, built a specific way. I was actually just talking about this, I think, last week in Refill for a different product. Or two weeks ago, there was an auto journal log on Kickstarter. It's like, I love the idea of this. I will never use this product, right? Yep. Those two things can coexist, right? I absolutely love the highly specific products. Like, but on a personal level, this is a product I would never use. Because why do I need the fifth notebook I have active today? I've already got four notebooks active. Do I need a fifth one now, right? But, you know, if you are a, an avid dreamer, you know, maybe you want the specific tool to help you capture those things. And what they delivered was a very good product for that. Now, it's funny that this was in the show notes today because I'm not a dreamer, except I had a freaking insane dream last night.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like, I was lost, I was lost in a hotel. Like, that was the whole dream. And it felt like it went on for like two or three hours, you know, when it was probably like a five minute dream.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But, you know, I am not of the mental awareness state that I need to like write that down and describe to myself and psychoanalyze, you know, what I just went through. Maybe I should. Maybe I need the dream journal to figure out what's wrong with me. But, like, I see it as a great product and I simultaneously see it as something that I would never in a million years use and would hardly see why a lot of people would use them when they have, you know, their regular journals to write their, to write their dreams.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think it's the structure can be useful, right? That you have this specific structure if you're not sure necessarily how to describe what you're seeing. I think, I think this is nice. Like, you know, this, this to me, it's like, okay, I understand your point. But then why do you need a diary with dates in it? You know, like, maybe not you, but anyone. Like, I understand what you're getting at, but.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's just like the previous product, I don't have the name in front of me, where they did the half pages, right? The blank, like, creative page up top and then the line page down below. So you could, like, write the image up top and then describe it down below. It's like, they're making, you know, they're delving into, like, the highly specific use cases, which I get. Like, I think being able to design, there's nothing more satisfying than designing a product and then making it exist, right? And so they are, like, taking that with everything. Like, everything gets its own thing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And they've done a good job with, like, the, just the creative aspect and design aspect of it. So, you know, we'll see who actually do, are they getting used? Are people using these things? So we'll have to see. But people like to have specific use cases for things, even if it's their fourth or fifth journal. It's just not my particular style.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think that's fine.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But then it doesn't mean it. But I think it looks good. Yeah. Just like the, I thought the, whatever the purple cover one that I keep referring to was one of their best looking designs. But also unnecessary in the scope of a regular journal, which I think this kind of falls in the same category for my use case. Some other people have, you know, five journals for five different things, right? So everyone uses their journals differently. That's why there's so many on the market, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. And I think this is a very cool, very valid entry into that kind of, like, single purpose, single use. Because I've never, you know, I've never seen a product like this, you know, before. And I think that they've designed it very well. I think it's well thought out. Like, because you could just take a confidant and put a cover on it and say, this is the dream journal. Right. Or, like, you could do that thing where you just split it into half, just it's every single page is just half blank, half lined. And just say, like, oh, you draw your dreams, you write about your dreams. But all of the additional stuff that goes around it and all of the wording and all that kind of stuff, that shows real product development and real thought and real research that went into the, just having the cool idea. So, I really respect it. I think it's a cool product.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Like I said, there's nothing cooler than, like, getting your ideas down and, like, making a thing from it. And I think this is what this is, right? This is something that they were probably pretty excited to do. And then once you start building something like this, you get really hyped about, you know, okay, let's fix the layout and what needs to go here and what needs to go there. And then, okay, it's at the printer now. Then you start freaking out and like, okay, now we got to sell this thing. So, it's fun. It's fun to create things like this, I think.