Editing The Pen Addict 211/transcript (section)

== Mission Statements ==


'''Ed Jelley:''' So yeah, I think Heather's last statement she made, she says, maybe thinking about a mission can be a source of energy when the spark of fandom sputters. Like we're addicted to the fandom part, right? And that means, you know, people come to us, people ask us questions, you know, that's Ed keeps talking about looking at the stats. That's the fandom part of it. You know, that's a thing like just like money. No one wants to talk about that. But the fandom is another thing that you're not talking about very much. You know, that's hard to give up to hard to give up those numbers and those clicks and those people, you know, those Twitter followers and Instagram followers and things like that. But what she's saying about a mission, I don't know if I've ever had a direct mission for the blog. I know when I started the blog, I was obviously not interested in making anything from it at all. And when I, at some point I decided to put Google AdWords on there or AdSense, I should say, ads, and I would donate that money every few months to Pens for Kids International. I just write them a check and it was very minimal money. It doesn't, didn't make, you know, much difference to me, but I thought it was good to send a pen to Pens for Kids and I would send them boxes of pens from time to time. But that organization kind of petered out in the U.S. So I've never really done anything since. And I do feel some guilt about that. Like I should do a little bit more and I can do a little bit more for just, you know, stationary as a whole, as, you know, you know, different charities, different school charities, things like that to help promote stationary and promote pens. So that's something I'm going to look at. And then separately, I think having a mission statement for the blog is probably a good thing just to kind of have a baseline to, to work from, if you will. So I thought those were really, really good questions. So this next question from Kevin Egan, he says, how do you and Myke know the difference between burnout and other forms of work overload, like stress, imposter syndrome, imposter syndrome, or balancing between work and family concerns? Have you ever thought about that, Ed, as a, you know, how everything all works together? Is it, are you just, you know, trying to do too much, stressing yourself out? And then that makes, gives you this negative view on, you know, things like, you know, dealing with the blog.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Um, I don't think the blog has enough serious consequences, like to where I would let it get in the way. Right. Because like, I'm not going to like miss deadlines at EDC because that's like, you know, like I said, that's like a, that's like a second job for me. Right. And this is more of a labor of love than anything. Um, you know, with a little bit of money on the side, but like, if I'm, if it's like getting in the way and like ruining my new marriage or I'm like not walking the dog because like I need to go post about a pen, like, I don't think the implications are as serious for this. So like, I definitely think it's more of, um, more of a burnout on writing about stationary than a work overload. I mean, I'm, I'm a pretty busy guy, but like, I don't think this necessarily is the biggest factor in that. So it's like, it's easy to kind of be like, yeah, we're going to go to dinner or it's like, we're going to go somewhere this weekend. Like, I'm not going to be like, I got to write for the blog. So leave me alone and like slam my office door. So I think, I think it's like more so burnout than, than overload. If those are different. Yeah. I think they're absolutely different.

'''Ed Jelley:''' What do you think, Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think that there is a big difference between stress and overload and imposter syndrome and like the burnout thing. But I think some of them contribute towards each other. I think the difference is like, if you're stressed, then you're worried about something. The burnout means you just don't want to do it anymore. And an imposter syndrome is like way out on the other side. That is just like, I don't belong here. I think there are different feelings, but I think most of them can lead into burnout.

'''Ed Jelley:''' Yeah. I feel some of the stress since I'm newer in doing this for a living than you, Myke. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm afraid to say that doesn't go away though.

'''Ed Jelley:''' Yeah. I, and I don't expect it to. I stress.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's just like any job. Sure. Any job is stressful. There are things that happen in a job and it just is a stress. It's a worry. I mean, the idea of being independent isn't to me no different than losing my job. Like the same stress is there, right? Like I could screw up and lose my job or I could screw up and lose my company. Like those, but those stresses are good because it makes sure it helps me inform the correct decisions. Exactly. But I don't think that there's any real difference between those things. I don't know different people look at them differently. I feel happy in that I can see those things as being similar.

'''Ed Jelley:''' Yeah. I think imposter syndrome was my big hang up when I was making the decision, not work and stress. And in family, I was like, am I really, you know, able to do this? Like would people, you know, believe in me or do I have the skill to do this and things like that? And I still fight some of that sometimes, but I've gotten, gotten better, gotten over some of those things, gotten over some of those hurdles. You know, things are starting to, to swim along pretty well as far as that goes. So, but I definitely think it's the thing. And there's definitely a difference in burnout from the, these other things. So a couple of, a couple of different questions here, not necessarily related to the burnout stuff, but a little bit related. Ed, what, this is from King of Bar. I got a bunch of these questions from the Slack channel. So thank you all of y'all for asking these. I'd be interested in the tension of using your pens as a tool for creation and the pure desire to use your pens. So this is, this is a weird question, but I found it very interesting.

'''Ed Jelley:''' What do you think?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Um, like I know a lot of people are like writers or like I'm writing my novel or I'm, writing for fun or I write fictional short stories or non-fictional history pieces. I'm like, admittedly, I don't do that. Like, like at all. I'm not a, I wouldn't consider myself a creative writer. Um, I definitely write a lot of copy. I definitely write a lot of guides, uh, informational type stuff. And of course reviews. So, um, really the pens are kind of what I write about. So it's kind of like, uh, I don't know, I guess it's kind of meta where you're using a pen to write about pens. Um, but for me, like I feel totally lost if I don't have like a pad and a pen, like just open next to me on the desk. Because like right now it's just a mess of doodles everywhere in whether it's cursive or my block writing or just drawing little pictures. Like I find that I can let my brain kind of go instead of, I don't know. I don't really sit down with like a quill and a pad on the writing desk. I'm like, let me bang out 2000 words today. Like that's just not what I do. Like most of my writing is on mechanical keyboard. Um, which I know don't kill me, but, uh, most of my writing is on a keyboard.

'''Ed Jelley:''' Oh, we have tons of mechanical keyboard fans that listen to the show.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So if anybody's wondering, it's a Nova touch TKL, uh, with the Topra switches. And I have, uh, the DSA, uh, Eve keycap set on there right now, just in case anyone's

'''Ed Jelley:''' wondering, do you have a picture of it in use? We won't put that in the show notes. We'll send, shoot that. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'll send it over after. Yeah. Um, but I don't know for me, it's really, I just kind of use them as doodling tools and note taking, not so much a creative tool, even though, I mean, I guess it's being creative in its own way. It's not like, I don't know. You know what I'm, you know what I'm saying?

'''Ed Jelley:''' Yeah, no, I'm the exact, I, I 100% agree with everything you just said it for me in even more so it's just the pure desire to use my pens. Like I don't have this, this whole creation thing. I'm not doing necessarily creative writing, like you said, but I have to have these things around and handy and available and it doesn't matter the type of pen or pencil or paper or anything. It just has to be there and I find the desire to use different things at different times and, uh, focus on those and those things, um, you know, I really go for. What about you, Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Um, I mean, the majority of my writing happens when I'm recording the shows, like just writing down little time codes and stuff. But what I have found myself doing more recently after I got over a different type of, uh, a different issue, right? Like I was going through a, I don't know what to do about pens anymore type issue. Um, I'm finding myself now with the desire to just pick up different things and use them every day. Like I'm out of my mechanical pencil phase for the time being. And today I'm using the Baron Frick Squire. And yesterday I was using a retro 51 and the day before that I was using the pilot M90. So I don't know. I feel like it goes in waves.