Editing The Pen Addict 735/transcript (section)

== Kura Toga ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. We got a topic that came in. It's kind of along the lines of what I've been talking about with the Kura Toga in previously in this episode. It's kind of what I'm talking about with the Heinz pen sleep near just now. And it's a bit of stationary advice I got from my friend Samar on Twitch last week. I was looking for topics and this one came up and I was like, oh, let me think about this. So the question is, VSM, what is one piece of advice you would give someone in every phase of their stationary journey? And that's a great question. This is something we talk about all the time. And again, I've talked about in this episode already. And so I couldn't instantly answer that question. I couldn't like snap answer that question. So I sat on it for like a week and I was like, oh, let me think about this. So the first part of the question is the phase part. What are the phases of a stationary journey? So I came up with three phases and I've titled them. And the names can change, but I think you'll get the general gist. So we have the beginner, right, which is obvious. Someone just getting started in their stationary journey, figuring out things. And then the second stage, the middle stage I call the hobbyist is where you're kind of like embedded now. And you're a little bit more experienced and you're figuring things out. And then the final phase I called expert, right, where you know what you're doing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Here's how I would put those.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Under $200.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Over $200. Over $1,000. That's pretty accurate, honestly. Those are the stages. I remember those stages in you. I remember that stage in me. Like, the numbers may be a little more complicated. Like, I actually would have said $100, but that doesn't count anymore. Yes. It's $200. It is. But that's kind of the... When you are willing to spend that money. Whether you have the money is a different thing completely. But you could at least get to a point where you're like, I believe I could spend $1,000 on this pen and understand why I'm doing it. Like, that is the key, I think. Yeah. More so than can I buy it or would I buy it. You get to a point where you're like, oh, I understand why I would buy it. That's what I think the stages are.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And I actually have a fourth phase that's probably rolled into the expert phase, which we'll get into there. It could maybe be its own phase. You're beyond help. We'll talk about it. Is that the thing?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Why are you even asking me anymore?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, it's good because this is what I focus on the most in my career of talking about pens is giving advice. And the challenge I've always said I've had is how you differentiate between what I like, me personally, what does Brad like versus what other people might find useful information. You know, how can you share this information? And so, these are things I think about all the time. So, if we take it from the top and go to the beginner phase, I think that's the phase where you want to try as many things as possible. And I don't mean spending money as much as possible. Like, I don't mean buying a lot of stuff, right? You want to, if you have the ability, and not everyone has the ability to get out and go to a stationary store or a pen show.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Go out of your way, basically. Like, make a point of you're going to do this kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Find, maybe you could find some, even if you're going to like an office supply store, and you're not even looking at like fountain pens. You know, this goes for any type of stationary.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And go somewhere where you can physically see stuff. Even if it's like a bookstore that carries notebooks. And you can see these different things. And then what you're doing is like, if you're looking, if you're at a bookstore, and they have a bunch of notebooks, you're looking at all these notebooks. It's like, oh, I don't know what all these notebooks are. You take something that looks interesting to you, and make a note of it, and then go home and research. Is this, you know, is this Leuchtturm good? You know, what do people say about this rhodia? Like, and try to just have information to think about. And then think about how it works for you. You know, some stores have testers, right? You want to go and try things as much as you can. Get as much hands-on experience as you can. And I know that's not something that everyone can do. So you might have to spend a little bit of money trying to figure out if, you know, if you're not able to get to a store, or have anything in your area, or have any friends that, you know, are into the same, you know, nerdy hobbies as you. Like, you know, you might meet up with someone for coffee that's, you know, just like a friend, and you don't know that they're into pens, but all of a sudden they bring a pen and a notebook to your meetup, and you ask them about that stuff, right? It's just really, the beginner phase is really information collecting and trying to understand, like, what makes products different from each other. And then, secondarily, how that would work for you. So, yeah, the beginner phase is really just finding as much opportunity to try stuff as possible. And again, that's not easy, so maybe you do have to buy some stuff. And just don't go nuts in the beginner phase, because we've all done this where we just all of a sudden outgrow things, right? We found a product that's really good at the time, and then it gets usurped very quickly once you kind of get into these next phases. So, take it slow, take it easy, try as much as you can. Ask a lot of questions, you know, look at things on the internet. You know, a lot of different sources, you know, not just one source, not just three sources, you know, try to decipher. Like, everyone has different tastes. That's what I was saying in the beginning. What I, you know, can like for myself is going to be different than what Myke likes, for example. And what you like now will be different to what you like in the future. Yeah, sheesh, Louise, for sure. So, yeah, that's kind of like the beginner phase. Like, it's hard to be patient in the beginner phase, and I've seen it many times, you know, where people buy just one of everything that's like, you know, $30. And it's like, that's cool, but like pretty soon, now you have a favorite, and now there's five other pens sitting there that you're never going to use again. And that's good. Maybe you give those to another beginner and get them along their journey. So, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be expensive. So, once you get past this initial beginner phase, I think you're starting to get into the hobbyist phase. And that's a wide range of people, and that's probably where most people are who listen to this show. And this is where you take that informational learning and that testing to try to narrow it down to your specific use case, right? So, I write in a certain way. Like, my letters are block style. They're very rigid, very, you know, square shaped, and I print so I don't write in cursive. And then my handwriting is small. So, all of those things, in totality, there is a category of pen that works for that style that I have better than others, right? So, it's not a universal thing. It's like, oh, you know, this nib is great. It's like, well, how do you write? And how does Myke write? Myke, guess what? Myke's left-handed. And, you know, so he has other... A whole new world of possibilities. Yeah. He has different considerations than I have. I can sit here and talk about, like, a stub nib all day. But guess what? Myke rotates that in his hand differently, right? So, Myke has had to learn, well, maybe that's not for me, but maybe this is based on his style. So, when you're getting into that hobbyist phase, you have this baseline of knowledge, and now you need to tailor that knowledge and logic into you personally, right? Do you... How does... What works best with your handwriting? You know, everything in how you hold a pen and how you write is going to be different than pretty much anyone else. It's going to be very unique to you. So, maybe a 7mm gel pen works for you, or is it a 0.38mm gel pen? A medium pelican nib could be amazing for someone and awful for others. Like, medium pelican nibs are awful for me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' There's a lot of intense testing and trying at this point, but this is where you're building on your beginner stage, right? Like, in theory, at this point, you've already found places in your world where you're able to get access to products and, you know, and that kind of stuff. So, I guess you're able to play more.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And, like, even if you're not, like, crazy into this, like, you know, myself or Myke, like, say you live in Atlanta and they don't have a great, you know, retail shop, but they have some, you can go test, but once a year they have a pen show and maybe it takes you an hour. You can go spend, like, a day at that show and try to, like, narrow down all these questions that have built up now that you're in this phase and then go there, get that next bit of knowledge, and then take that back the next year when you're, you know, going back again. It's not, it doesn't have to be fast. That's a great thing about this hobby is, like, we all try to make everything fast and quick these days, but this is, you know, it can be a slow-moving hobby and that's a good thing, right? Like, you know, a pilot fine nib is not technically going to change year over year. It's either going to be good for you or it's not going to be good for you, but you're going to learn that at different points along your journey, you know? You're going to learn these things in different stages, right? And then they all just kind of build on each other. Okay, I found a nib. I found a nib. Oh, look, Japanese nibs work for me better than German nibs. And, like, where in the beginner stage, you didn't know that there was a different size, that those things were different size. A medium German nib is different than a medium Japanese nib. Like, you don't know that stuff in the beginner phase. But in the hobbyist phase, you start to learn these things and then you dial it in, you know? Like, how does paper work for how you hold the pen and what you use? And, like, it all builds on each other, right? You might have found the pen and you had some crappy paper and it makes you think the pen's bad. You know, the medium Pelican nib is very, you know, inky, wet nib. And you're using it on this paper that doesn't allow that nib to work well, right? So you try to figure these things out. Is the paper the problem or is the pen the problem? And this is where you're learning this in the hobbyist phase, right? And then you can dial in, well, this paper works better. And then that goes into ink, right? It's like, well, the paper's good, works with this other pen and ink, but this ink doesn't work on this paper, right? Trying to figure out all of your specific use cases, this is where you're dialing it in in this hobbyist phase because you have enough experience to ask the questions. You may not know the answers, but then that's what, you know, learning is about and trying to find those answers and, you know, reaching out to people like myself or going to pen shows and asking vendors and retailers, you know, asking other people, you know, joining community groups and asking other people how these things work. And can you explain, you know, the difference between bank paper and why won't people shut up about Tomoe River paper? And, you know, what does all this mean? And as far as me, then you go, then someone tells you and you go, oh yeah, that sounds terrible. I wouldn't use that anyway. So it's just this, it's this refinement of knowledge phase in the hobbyist phase. So then you move on and you're an expert. And I'm calling this one the customization zone. This is where you know what's up. You know how a product works for you. You can tell quickly that a product is for you or not for you. Like the more I've done this over the years, the faster I can tell something about a product. Good, bad, indifferent, how it works. Oh, it's, you know, there's some slight difference here. Like before we were talking about the Kreatoga, how I can instantly feel it the second it hits the page that I do not like this because it moves. And I hate that. Right? Where before, I might be going, oh, this is an interesting mechanical pencil. Look how it writes. Yeah. And it wouldn't be till over time I was like, why is this different? And now I can tell that instantly.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You're just impressed by the technology of it or whatever. Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. So, you know, you learn these things. Like I'm having a conundrum right now with the Jetstream Light Touch ink. And I'm using that exclusively in this one pen that I have. And it is not performing as well as the standard Jetstream ink. And it's actively bothering me because this is supposed to be an even more premium product. And it's doing things better than a standard Jetstream ink. But it's not as clean of a line. Right? Ballpoint pens can get messy and you don't want that. And Jetstream has historically not been. So I'm having this real challenge with this ink. But that's where the expert phase comes in where to something like that is probably not noticeable by 90% of people. Wouldn't even register. But this one is actively bothering me. So you get into these areas of proficiency for yourself, like me, with like a fine, you know, ballpoint or gel ink pen or a mechanical pencil where I can tell pretty quickly there's differences here. That's when you're getting into the expert phase. So then you're trying to nail down, like, why is it this way? Is it good for me? Is it bad for me? You're willing to take on experiments like a Kuretoga dive, right? That's not a pencil you're going to recommend to a beginner or a hobbyist, right? There's an expert level that you're going to need to spend $50 on a weird mechanical pencil, right? You're going to be working on, if you're a fountain pen user, you're going to be working on your nibs, right? To make them even better for your writing experience. You know, you're not going to have necessarily, you take a medium Pelican nib and turn it into a stub nib. You're going to turn it into, like, a Kodachi nib and do these different grinds and architect nibs and, like, needle points and, like, the extreme ends of the spectrum. Once you've figured out stubs and cursive italics.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You're into marginal gains territory. Yes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. That's a great way to put it. So, yeah. And that's just, you're dialing in what works for you even more and what you enjoy. Like, there's going to be a lot of aesthetic options in the expert phase where you can make a decision because you know you're getting a cool nib and you know this pen is going to work well. What other materials does this product come in? Does it come in a different finish, right? Do you have, like, a metal pen with, like, all kinds of engraving on it or do you like a, you know, some Arushi work, right? Like, classic Arushi can be beautiful to some and some people aren't going to really pay it any attention. That's where the expert zone is. And it's like, it never ends, right? There's always more. Well, yeah, this is the endless part. Beginner and hobbyist

'''Myke Hurley:''' have an end where either you decide not to continue going further or you can't or whatever, right? Or, like, you're like, I'm good with this, right? Yeah, I'm good with this. I hear that all the time. Yes. But the expert phase has no end. Correct. Now, what I would say is, like, you can kind of move between them a little bit. Like, I think I've gone down a bit to hobbyist just because I'm learning new stuff. Okay. So, you know, like, as I've kind of, I think, jumped down into learning a little bit more about pencils over time or now more about rollerballs and ballpoints than I have before, right? Like, I think I don't feel like I'm bringing an expert's mind to those things as such. It's like, let me go and learn a bit about this. But I don't think you ever, you don't leave expert.