Editing The Pen Addict 441/transcript (section)

== Layout and Design Changes ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. So that's how I was doing it before. And then this just makes it makes it easier. The perfs worried me in the corners. In theory, they're good. In practice, they don't always work. These work. They rip immediately out and they're clean. Yeah. So this was the flaw. That's the fatal flaw with the perf, right? Like that's a that's a monstrous risk. And if they don't work, it's just going to make people mad. And these actually work. And so they were very particular about that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Three decisions for the three key decisions made here. One, I had to adapt the layout of the page so that you didn't tear off any of the box. Right. Right. Yep. Not really a big deal was a big deal to me. Two, it had to be circular because the corner circular. So I felt like it had to be circular in the other direction. I can't tell you why that was important to me, but it was important to me. Like again, like also the rounded edges on the book.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Not common apparently. Didn't know that. That's crazy to me. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's wild to me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Was difficult and more expensive to do. Oh, I am. Just rounding the edges. So that was weird. Absolutely. So also what was super key to me was that you could pull the perforation without needing to do no preparation. Yes. No folding first. I tested it both ways. Right. Yeah. Like no, you don't have to be careful about it. You just pull it comes right off. And I, and it's very satisfying. I really love pulling them like every, you do it every two days, right? Because yeah, say when you turn up, but like, I just find that so satisfying and it works.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I still have my, my habit perf page. My first habit perf page is as well.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Also what I like is those, those, the perforations they end up meeting at the end, which is cute to me. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So good job on the execution there because that's, that's a mega dice roll. Like that's a tough one to, to get right. And right now, like I, it just, it just works. Um, I guess last thing to talk about is paper. Um, it's, it's really good. Like I don't know how to compare it to the previous. I'm looking at, so I've tested, I haven't tested too much with fountain pens just because I don't like writing fountain pens right now. And, but I picked out my, my widest, wettest nib to write in and I see much less like ghosting on the previous pages that I do with this one. So it works out better. There's still a little bit, but like when you're using like a, I purposefully use like a heavy inky pen and it just kind of barely, you can see it a little bit. So I found a paper

'''Myke Hurley:''' weight that would allow it, that would basically stop it, but it was 140 GSM. Um, and we're, we're approaching cardboard at that point. It was too much.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You don't need that. And because it doesn't need to be a purely fountain pen product, right? That's not what this is supposed to be. So I've used pencil. The pencil feels great on it. Um, like you're saying you didn't want like a glossy type of page and you get good pencil, uh, feedback, uh, good tactical tactileness on the pencils. I'm using lots of pencils right now. I've used markers to write in my, my habit pages. Markers work great. Um, like I've been using Copics and things like that. It works great. So just overall, just general paper quality. Like I'm super happy with, uh, with how I'm using it. And, um, I don't know. I just think overall, it's a clear improvement. Like you can tell the differences, um, immediately. At least I can. Um, the paper's a little, uh, want to comment on the paper. The paper's a little brighter too, right? It was a little yellow in the previous version. This is a brighter page to me, at least. It is.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's whiter. Yeah, it's whiter. It's not a pure white, but it's still off white. Um, yeah. And that was just a case of like, I wasn't sure, uh, really if I had that much of a preference between white, off white, or cream. And it was just this paper that I wanted came in this color. And I felt like it was more important to get the qualities that I wanted than to try and match the color of the previous one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So, I mean, I think that's my overall take. I'm very happy with it. I do not, the best compliment I can give is that I want to use it and I don't miss a single thing from the previous version that I think this version should have. Like, I'm not going, oh, I wish it felt this way, or oh, I wish it looked this way, or oh, I wish it had this feature. There's nothing there. This is better in every way, top to bottom, front to back. And I think you did a really good job with it. So, let's end it on my main question, which you were kind of alluding to before the break. And I just kind of rambled it into the document. I said, is this your, is your idea for this notebook being executed to match your vision for it, right? Is what's in your head for what this notebook is, does it match the physical product?

'''Myke Hurley:''' As much as one could, yeah. I mean, can you ever achieve perfection? Right. Right? Like, there are things that I want this product to do that are outside the laws of physics. Right. Right. Like, I just can't do them. It's like, I want zero bleed through. It's like, I can do that, but then, right, the thing is like two times the thickness, you know? And like, yeah, but this is, I believe I have hit this thing literally as close as I can make it to perfect. Like, I, there is nothing about this book that I would change. Like, I genuinely believe we have hit, like, the prime example of what this product will be. There is, I, like, these have not started arriving, they're shipping now, right? They will probably start arriving with people within the next day or two. You can go to cortexmerch.com, you can get one. I will say, like, we've solved, I'm very pleased with how many we've sold. We ordered more than we've ever ordered, and we've sold quite a large, quite a large double-digit percentage of them so far, which I'm really pleased about.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We are going to be promoting these on Gray's YouTube channel for the first time. We don't know what that's going to do to sales. Yeah, that could be good. If you do want one of these, I would recommend buying one now.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We will be able to restock these faster than we used to be able to, for sure. So if we do go out of stock, it's not going to be three months until we can restock them again, because they don't take so long to ship anymore.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But, yeah, unless, like, people tell, unless I get, like, huge feedback about something like I did about the habit tracking pages, the daily themes pages, of, like, a thing that I've not foreseen, I don't imagine us changing this design now. Like, I feel like it's locked. Like, I don't see there being any need to change it. There might be, as I said, some things I might want to add for fun in a later print. But I don't think that it requires any adjustment now. There's, like, other little things that we've done as well, by the way. Like, we used to brand every daily page. That's gone. Like, the journal pages, there used to be a theme system logo on them. That's gone. And I've extended, there's, like, a long box along the top now, next to the date. I did see that. So I write what pens I use in there. And that was, again, born out of use. Like, I was writing what pens I used at the top of every page. So then was like, well, let's put a box in instead so I don't have to keep doing that. So it's little things like that. I'm so proud of this, Brad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, you should be. You did really good. So the funny thing, and we can wrap it on this, is we just did this whole segment talking about it. I think we could continue to talk about it more. And we didn't even talk about why the book exists in the first place. That's why you have an entirely different podcast for that. Yeah. Right? Like, we didn't even get to that or talk about that. And that's like, you know, how much we, you know, Myke and I are into like the making things and like, what are the products about and how should a product be built? And then you can go listen to Myke and Gray talk about like, well, why does this product need to exist in the first place? You can get all that on

'''Myke Hurley:''' Cortex. Yeah. It's like, I would never have this. Yeah. We've spoken about elements of this on Cortex. Sure. But like, going into the GSM of paper is just like, it's just not a point.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, and I've talked about how I've set my book up on the show before, but like, we don't need to, we don't need to do that today.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I do. I would like to hear that from you though, maybe. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We can do that as we can do that at the beginning of the year. Like we'll talk about my theme. Let's do what, once we get into the new year, we'll do my theme. So like my theme has changed. And so that on that note, I implore everybody. If you're interested in this and you buy this, start it today. Don't wait till January 1st. The first date in my notebook is 1214. So like you just started today. Don't wait.

'''Myke Hurley:''' As soon, as soon as I'd settled on my theme for the year, I just started the new

'''Brad Dowdy:''' book. Just go guys. I'm just, I'm telling you there's no wait until January 1st. Just put down today's date and go. All right. All right. Theme system it is, Myke. We have a follow-up topic that I went a little overboard on.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because apparently, like we kind of giggled last week, even though we knew it was a thing when the Maddow fans Twitter account has dropped some ass TPA for us concerning, you know, which pencil a certain television host should continue to use. And Maddow fans, the Twitter account has actually like has been a pen addict follower for a while and has asked questions before. And, you know, it's, it's cool. You know, there's lots of fan accounts out there for everything. And so Rachel Maddow, the, you know, has a, has a, has a fan account. Well, as I was goofing around on Twitter, I got forwarded a reply from Rachel Maddow to the Maddow, Maddow fans account about this pencil problem she's having. So apparently this is a whole thing with Rachel Maddow is her pencil and it being discontinued, which is why the question kind of came up generically last week, but I didn't spend the time to do the full research on it. So the pencil she used is something called the Statler Riptide.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Terrible.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This might be the worst pencil I've ever seen in my entire life. I cannot believe what I am seeing with what, does she really use this pencil on air? Apparently she does. It is horrific. Rachel, I am so sorry. Whoever got you into this pencil and made you fall in love with it. They have not done you any favors whatsoever.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They did you a disservice. Oh my God.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This is, but okay. So Rachel Maddow's.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It has traction though, Brad. So, you know. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So Rachel Maddow's tweet says, true, Statler's making Riptides hard to find. So I'm trying a new thing. 0.5 millimeter, not 0.7 for one thing. Nuts. I know. So she's, she's bemoaning the fact that her beloved Riptides are no longer being made. And I am like, oh my God. I, I, I, I cannot stand for this. Myke, I cannot stand for what she's putting herself through trying to find more of this absolutely. Yes. Pencil. I feel so bad saying that, but oh my God. So I thought about it and I was like, now that I have more details. So like I answered a very specific high end kind of drafting pencil, platinum pro use last week, not knowing the full details of the pencil she was using previously. So in an effort to fully research this and maybe find a better pencil for Rachel Maddow to use on the air to replace this awful thing that she's using. Um, I came up with a few answers, Myke. So the first one, I think she might like the best and it's the Rotring Tiki because it too is an ugly mechanical pencil that features red, black, and blue barrels. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' If like, maybe there's something about her style choices. No, this is no judgment that like, she just likes this garish style. So then go for something else.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Um, but this is a much better pencil in every way, shape, and form. Now the grip is not as rubberized as on, on whatever that, the riptide, I'm going to call it the shark pencil for some reason. Um, the riptide, but it's, it's a more plastic feeling grip. You know, it's may not be as grippy, but style wise, I think this would be a really good option if you're going for style. Now, if Rachel were willing to branch out a little bit, something like the Tombow Monograph Shaker would be good because it too has some wild colors. Like there's blue barrels, there's clear barrels, there's orange barrels, but this is a sturdy, heavy duty, can take a beading type pen pencil, which I think is maybe one of the features of the riptide as well. Like the riptide is not an expensive pencil. It's like a $3 pencil. So I'm not trying to pick out like $20 and $30 mechanical pencils here. Um, the Mono, the Rotring Tiki is like $5, the Tombow Mono $6, right? So these are not expensive pencils and it comes in just crazy colors. It comes in various, uh, graphite sizes, mostly 0.5, which it says that's what, that's what she's using anyway. And it's just a very, very high quality. So, um, that's a good choice. I think the best choice, but it's probably like the least comparable would be the Uni, uh, Uni Alpha Kurutoga. And not because it's a Kurutoga, you know, necessarily because of the lead mechanism, but because of the grippiness of the grip section, right? The Alpha Gel grips are the big soft squishy grips. Kurutoga is great though. Like Kurutoga is great on its own, but I would choose this one because of the grip more so than the mechanics of the pencil. Although I could see the Kurutoga being like something useful if you're using things live and don't have to worry about, you know, rotating the pencil, you pick it up, you know, it's always going to be giving you a good line because it's, it's, it's rotated. Um, and it's not as loud color wise, but it's cool looking and it's the most expensive one of the ones that I picked out. It's $11. But if you need that really soft, comfortable grip, you know, that is kind of a way to go. And then the last one, if you just want to go straight up like office supply cabinet type, like Riptide, um, is there the, the Pentel Quick Clicks are kind of like a good basic office style pencil. They're mostly clear barrels with color grip sections, you know, red, blues, greens, limes, purples, everything's like that. And they're like the $2. This is like, this is what you would stock in the office cabinet, which is kind of what the Riptide represents to me. So maybe the, the Pentel Quick Click would be a good option. It's, it wouldn't be my favorite choice, but if you're going for bulk, you know, for $2 a pencil, like this is probably kind of your, your best choice there. But, oh my gosh, I felt so bad when I saw that pencil, how much she loves it. Riptide. Riptide. Yeah, Riptide. And, uh, holy cow, and it's terrible looking. I'm, it's going away for good reason. You know, it's going to be one of

'''Myke Hurley:''' those things, like, someone gave it to her once, and then she just grew to love it, right? Yeah. Which is, I think we've all been in

'''Brad Dowdy:''' these kinds of situations.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We all have those things. In these kinds of situations. Yeah. But now it's like,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' man, that's just it. Life has moved on, right? Yeah. It needs to go. So, I will send, uh, the link to, to the Maddo fans account, uh, that we followed up a little bit more thoroughly from our first question once I saw the, the level of catastrophe that is currently taking place. So, there you go. Uh, it felt like I needed to spend some time on that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. You can make your next move with Squarespace because they will let you easily create a website for your next idea or project. They will give you everything that you need because Squarespace is an all-in-one platform to help you take care of the work that you want to produce. You can very quickly register a unique domain name to give your website the brand that it requires. You can customize and take advantage of beautiful, stunning, award-winning templates that look fantastic but also allow you to go in and tweak to your heart's content. But you don't need to know any code to do this. It's all drag and drop. It's all on the website. It's all in their apps. It's fantastic. No matter what type of website you want to make, whether it's an online store, a portfolio, or a blog, or even a website for your journaling system. So I mentioned earlier the themesystem.com. I made that on Squarespace because when I want to produce something online, I don't want to go through all the hurdles of trying to build a website from scratch. I just want to go to Squarespace, get my ideas out there, and show it to the world. Super great. You can try it out today for yourself by going to squarespace.com slash penaddict. Their plans start at just $12 a month. But when you decide to sign up, you can use the offer code penaddict to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain and show your support for this show. Once again, that is squarespace.com slash penaddict and the code penaddict for 10% off your first purchase. Our thanks to Squarespace for the continued support of this show and all of RelayFM, Squarespace. Make your next move. Make your next website.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. Let's hit some Ask TPA this week. We got some good questions. You know what I just thought about,