Editing The Pen Addict 551/transcript (section)

== Exhaustion with special and limited edition fountain pens ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Sarah says, I'm starting to feel exhausted by the constant barrage of special and limited edition fountain pens. It feels like pen companies release their next must have pen before the last one has even finished shipping. My stationary budget stays maxed and it's hard to tame the feeling of FOMO when I see everyone's beautiful photos and videos. And it always feels like if I don't buy this pen, there will never be another one this good. And the cycle continues. How do you deal with the constant onslaught of new products?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So the fact, and I say that it's a fact that I had to convince myself is that there will be another good one this good eventually. So it's okay to not have this one. Yep. And that took years of me buying like literally everything because there's never going to be one as good. And then all of a sudden I would do it again because, hey, look, there was one that was as good and I buy it. And there was one that was as good as I buy it. So now I've actively been able to stop because I know for a fact there will be another one this good. Pen, ink, paper, pencil, whatever you want to talk about. That's why related to the previous question, I don't stockpile the things because absolutely for a fact, even like if you take the extreme of Tomoe River paper, like I've said before, no one's ever going to make this exact paper. And that's okay because there's going to be something out there that's just going to be as good, if not better for you in the long run. And you'll find it eventually. So I've never worried about having to stockpile things. But FOMO is one of those things we talk about pretty frequently because like you and I will talk about, we'll see all these things and we'll talk about them and ooh and ah over them. And you know, 95 times out of 100, we're not buying them. It's fun to look at because, you know, we talk about new releases here. But like I've gotten over the fact that I have to have all these pens because I know when the time comes and the budget's right, that I'm going to be able to find something really awesome for me. And even if I missed or skipped, you know, the last 10 of the thing that went by, like the 11th one is going to be pretty dope and I'm going to be pretty happy. So I've gotten that through my thick skull. It took a long time to get there, but I am super comfortable not buying the thing now and just waiting. So yeah, but that took, it took years to get to that point. I'm not going to lie, Sarah. It is not, it's not easy because we're, we're in a very visual hobby, right? Where we see a lot of things and they, they just check all our boxes. It's like, Ooh, look at that color. Oh, look at that nib. You know? Oh, check out this notebook. And like, I'm the worst, right? I'm the ooh and ah guy, like constantly. But I've got to the point finally to be able to just say, yes, that is amazing. And it would be perfect for me. And I don't need it today. So yeah, that's just kind of how I've looked at it. And it was a process to get there. I just had to stop and realize once I convince myself that tomorrow there's going to be something just as awesome and I can wait, then it, then it's been easy for like the past several years to just not buy everything.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I, like one of the things for me that really changed this was that idea of like feeling like I understand what I like and once I really understand what I like, not feeling the need to buy everything. But that took, like you say, a long time. I had the same stuff of like same process of keyboard stuff. So like there, you know, the keyboard stuff works in group buys, right? So like you go in on a pre-order, pre-orders can take a long time. But when, you know, back in like 2020, early 2021, I was doing one of these group buys every month. And now I'd maybe do one every three months because I'm much more aware of what I like and what I don't like. But it takes that experimentation process. And I don't recommend that, you know, I recommend people try and take that experimentation process as slow as possible with their budget. Like Sarah is saying, right? Sarah has a budget and the budget stays maxed. That means that Sarah, you're probably still like working out exactly what you like and what you don't like. I think that there is a lot, there is like a tail. Then you're in a long tail scenario where like I'll add something new to my pen collection every few months now, at most, rather than every single month. Right. Or a few weeks. Like Brad says, like I've been, we've been looking, watching this stuff long enough to know like, yeah, something seems amazing. There'll be another one that comes along. Like there just will be. It probably won't be the same, but something will. One of the good things about keyboards though, is if something's successful, they run it again. Yeah. Right. So like that, that's one of the things of like, you might see a keycap set that you really like and you missed it. But if you wait long enough, if it was successful enough, the designer will do another run of it. But that doesn't really happen the same way in pens. If something's limited, it kind of stays limited. Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And you made a good point that there are phases of all of our levels in the hobby. Like if you're new, you're kind of like a little bit timid and trying to find things out. And then once you kind of, you know, cross a certain, certain threshold of figuring things out, then you were like, well, I just need to try all the things now. Right. But it's like, Hey, look at this. And then you kind of reel it in eventually, like you're saying to figure out, okay, this is exactly what works the best for me. And then you're able to like manage it a little bit better. So yeah, it's tough, Sarah. Like there's, there's no doubts, but I just implore everyone to, to not overspend, to stick to a budget and to be patient because like, you're going to have more opportunities than you think.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Definitely. Rob says, my wife and I seem to be in the slim minority who really do not like Schmidt refills. So the retro 51, I guess also, you know, mark one or insert your other pen here that takes this. Yeah. We love the pens, but hate the refill. It constantly skips for both of us and is a terrible writing experience. However, I think the tornado support a Parker G2 refill as well. Any suggestions for good refills of nice color options? The ones from retro 51 are only blue and black.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So a few things. I actually don't think it's a minority of people who don't like the Schmidt refills. Like I get why people don't like that refill for like all the reasons Rob saying, although I don't have like a skipping or terrible writing experience. I happen to enjoy them, but other people don't like just really how wet and wide the lines are. Like they can be super annoying on, on certain papers. And like, I get that people don't like that refill. Um, I don't think it's necessarily a minority, um, case my favorite, um, type of refill to use for this is the, um, Oto flash dry, which is a needle tip, um, which I think looks funny out of the retro 51s conical tip sometimes, but I use it because the refill is so good. It's a 0.5 millimeter. It's only in black. Um, there aren't a lot of great color options, which maybe Rob's looking for, um, Monteverde does make some gel refills that are in the G2 international size that you can find. Like they'll have blue, black, and orange, and purple, uh, things like that, that you can find. And that's kind of the, that G2, the international G2, or as we call it, the Parker style refills, they're very restrictive in color options, right? It's just not a very common thing because most of the time those refills are just blue and black ballpoints. And that's what most people make them. So Monteverde does a gel option. They have maybe eight colors, something like that. I've used the blue, black pretty successfully. Um, but you're not going to get just a huge, huge range there, but I would look at that. If you want to try a cool black refill, I would definitely recommend the Oto flash dry. It's just one of the great refills period. And it fits that Parker style, international style, uh, G2. Um, after that, yeah, it's, it's, you're pretty limited. That's like, that's one of the challenges, uh, for this category of pen and always has been is you're kind of refill limited. You don't get all of the broad gel ink options, um, that you get into other types of pens.

'''Myke Hurley:''' If you would like to send in a question for us to answer on a future episode of the show, go to penaddictfeedback.com and you can leave a question there, or you can email them to hello at penaddict.com. Uh, if you want to find Brad online in the meantime, go to penaddict.com and spokedesign.com. You can go twitch.tv slash penaddict three times a week. Brad is penaddict on Instagram and what is your Mastodon?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Uh, penaddict at mastodon.social.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Penaddict at mastodon.social. I'm on Mastodon now. Yes. Which is a change for me. Recently, I've wanted to be where, I want to be where the community is. The community is there. I want to be there. Uh, I want to have a presence there. I want to share what I'm up to. Um, I've found some real, uh, understanding about myself and my social media habits and I'm building something around that going forward about how I use these types of things, but I still want to be where everybody is. So I have my own instance. So I'm I Myke at Myke.social on Mastodon. Uh, you can check me out there if you would like.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Real quick aside. Yeah. If, if anyone has any like Mastodon questions, let me know because I am like super not like I am, I'm a tech nerd, but not in like a details level, right? Like I like to try all the toys and check out all the bells and whistles. But if you're like intimidated by Mastodon, don't be. It's, it's, it's dead simple to join and participate. Yeah. Um, so don't be intimidated by like all like complicated. Yes. But you don't need to be intimidated by all the, like the panic articles of like, oh my God, it's so hard. It is dead simple.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Once you signed up. Yeah. And there, there are some weird parts, but you'll just get used to it. I'm still getting used to it. Like, but there are for sure. For sure.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But again, it's a, it's a not to totally derail, but like you said, it's part of the broader social media adjustment overall. Like I need less, like I don't need all of the things. And that's been a good place to participate that in micro.blog. So yeah, it's great.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Uh, thank you so much to express VPN and Squarespace for the support of this episode. But as always, thank you for listening and we'll be back next time. Until then say goodbye, Brad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Bye, Brad.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Bye.

[[Category:Podcast Transcripts]]
[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]