Editing The Pen Addict 235/transcript (section)

== Pilot Fiction ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. So let me give you the background here. So the first thing I did was was watch the video, which was kind of interesting. Interesting dudes behind this. And the premise of this book is that the paper that's air quote paper is like this polyesterish type material. OK. Mm hmm. So you write on that paper with a pilot friction. Yep. That reaction does not allow that ink in the friction does not get into that paper, but it absorbs it enough to where you can run your hand over it and it doesn't smear it. And then to erase it, which is the Everlast part of this, you just get like a wet rag and wipe it off like you would a whiteboard. So it's a little stronger. I guess the ink on the page is more stronger than a whiteboard, but you can erase it with water. Then it also ties into their app. Right. So they have the Rocketbook app and it goes into like you can scan it and upload it like any other attempted iCloud notebook things, you know, cloud, you know, G drive, Dropbox, box, anything you want to upload these scans to you can through their app. So what are your what are your thoughts on this? Because I have many.

'''Myke Dudek:''' You know, I don't mind when people are, you know, clever about stuff, you know, and they are trying to do something interesting or something new.

'''Myke Dudek:''' Yeah, I don't know. Like I try and look. I don't know when I see this type of stuff. Like, I don't know. I try and look a little bit past like the actual practicality of the product and think like, okay, ultimately from a business decision, like what's the play here? You know, is it, is it the, is the notebook the thing or is eventually it's going to be like the app and then connectivity of the app to other platforms or other apps? You know, like, I mean, I don't know, like, it's really hard for me to really kind of put words around what I think about it. I think it's cool. You know, I don't like the idea that, you know, it works generally with like one kind

'''Brad Dowdy:''' of pen, you know, that's a huge, huge issue for me, but we'll talk about that. Yeah, go ahead. So first of all, $300,000 in like a few days is insane. Second of all, when I watched the video, they released a previous Kickstarter called the Wave Notebook, which I remember coming out. What I didn't remember at the time was that it too required the Pilot Fiction to use because they touted it as the world's first microwavable, erasable notebook.

'''Myke Dudek:''' Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The notebook had nothing to do with that as we well know, right? It's the thermosensitive ink that the Pilot Fiction uses. So number one, I can't believe Pilot didn't have a conniption over that project. Yeah. Number two, you're buying into a project that's totally pimped in on a product that you have no control over. What if they change the formulation? What if they discontinue it? All these things. Like from a businessman's mind, it makes me, I would freak out, but I guess they don't care once they collect and deliver, right? From Kickstarter. Like, is it a long-term project? I don't know. Yeah. It's like, I wouldn't use this even if, I mean, app part, you know, cloud part, like totally discounting that, I would have no use for the notebook anyway. Like, I wouldn't, that's not something that appeals to me, but man, we're like almost up to 5,000 backers on this thing. It's kind of crazy. People are digging this and they, they dig the microwavable notebook, which was, I mean, that's this one. I can't claim this, but the last one seems like completely false advertising.

'''Myke Dudek:''' Well, cause then like my thought with, and I think I remember you and Myke talking about that microwavable one, particularly with the Pilot Friction, like what if you live on the East coast, you know, or the upper, I mean, I'm in the desert, so it doesn't get extremely cold here. But like the, the idea behind the Pilot Friction is that when the ink heats up, it goes away, but then when it gets cold, it could come back, you know? So it's like that idea of like, well, you leave it in your car, uh, you're going to have a full on notebook, you know, with, uh, with a bunch of words in it. Um, I don't know, like maybe can I, maybe like from a devil's advocate sort of standpoint with, with something like this, like the idea of it being maybe a short term type of thing. I don't know what, what maybe is the bothersome thing is that it's like trying to blend analog, like physically blend analog and digital together, you know? And kind of like you're saying like the short term nature of maybe if Pilot decides to discontinue the friction, like it's one of those things that like, okay, maybe in five years if the friction goes away, is this, you know, is this notebook that I paid, you know, 30 bucks for useless now? Right. Um, with, with like, I don't know, thinking about sort of the demographic of, of, uh, technology users and people that care about technology, like something like the iPhone or, you know, the newest iPad or, um, you know, the Apple watch or something like that. Like that's really technology that's designed to go away and, you know, within like a cycle, but because it's analog, is it like, well, that's annoying, you know, because I want it to be a, I want it to stay, you know, forever. I want to be able to use it forever. So I don't know. I don't know. It's, it's, it's interesting, but it's called the Everlast notebook. So it's clearly not going anywhere until the friction goes away.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And then, you know, whatever. So these guys have made a mint off of a product that's not theirs, which is kind of fascinating. Yeah. Kind of fascinating to me. So, all right, one more and then we'll take a break and I need a drink. You know, this is different, you know, me getting into podcasts at seven o'clock at night at East coast time. So I don't know when this is going to get released, but we're actually recording this on Monday night. So if anything, any hot stationary news breaks later this week, we're not going to be able to cover it. But, um, this was the, the most emailed product and the most linked product. Myke, have you seen the Axie draw? Yeah. Did you get links and emails on this thing? Yep. I did see this. Yeah. This looks, I mean, I hate to say it. It looks legit, which it kind of creeps me out that this looks so good. Like I'm really impressed with this thing.

'''Myke Dudek:''' Yeah. It's like, I don't know. It's, it's pretty sweet. Like I think some of the application that the, so anyway, it's like, it's like, it's way like the back background of this, right. Is it's, is it's in essence like a desktop, uh, CNC for a pen, right. Or a fountain pen or, you know, so it's like you program in what, you know, you want it to draw or what you want it to say. And then based on, you know, the programming, it'll draw what you want. So it'll write, you know, it'll write out your addresses on your Christmas cards for you or whatever. Right. So there, there's applications of it that like, I think it's cool, you know? Um, I'm just, again, trying to see like the application of it for like the standard person. Right. Um, like what would be the benefit of using a tool like this to do say graphic art or, you know, something like that where rather than me just doing a print of a piece of artwork, I could do an original technically with, you know, this tool so I could program it within the computer. But some of the applications of like it drawing your label on your, you know, priority mail, like I am kind of like, you know, it's like a $500 label writer. Like, and that to me just doesn't seem like super practical, but, um, you know, if you wanted to do calligraphy or something like that, like, I mean, I could see some of those, like maybe more of a, in a professional or a commercial applications versus say like, you know, your normal kind of normal consumer. Like to me, I'm not sure if I would see it as like, as super practical, but it's neat. Like nonetheless. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I definitely see it more as a commercial application for like, um, you know, the stationary shops who are like the invitation shops. Yep. Um, cause these invitations came out really nice. You can probably program the, you know, whatever you need and have them like the next day type of thing or very short turnaround. I imagine once you get the hang of this thing, um, I was impressed with the appeared softness of how it used a fountain pen. Like it kept it at a really low angle and seemed to be very tame with it where the, like the gel and rollerball pins are like very vertical and the fountain pen is, you know, at a, gosh, it's really low, like a 30 degree angle. Um, and the output seemed extraordinarily nice.

'''Myke Dudek:''' It looks like the, uh, the kind of little mechanism that holds the pen is like adjustable, you know, based on like, it's got a little knob that you can unscrew and then put your pen in and then, um, it looks like it's on like a swivel for you to be able to tighten, tighten it down. But I mean, it's, it's cool. Like, I'm not going to lie. This thing is, is super neat.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And it was actually cheaper than I thought it would be. Yeah. You know, I thought it might be like twice as much, but I mean, it's $475, so it's not inexpensive, but like you see these, like when the, all the 3d printers came out, there were thousands of dollars.

'''Myke Dudek:''' Oh yeah. Yep. Well, the only thing though is, is if you're paying somebody to handwrite your Christmas cards for you, your holiday cards for you, uh, you may want to inquire whether they're using an AxiDrop, but actually, I don't know, maybe that doesn't matter. You know, that's a new business, right? If the output's the same, you know, and, uh, you know, we, we might even get into some of that, like both of us being, you know, manufacturers of production goods, uh, you know, automation sometimes, uh, if done well and mixed in well enough can actually be a way to kind of grow things or make things happen faster. But anyway.