A stupid blog post about pens

_posts/2018-08-26-good-pens.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "Inky and the Brain"
+tags:
+- opinion
+---
+
+You might not be surprised to know that among my many views and opinions, I
+have given serious consideration to writing instruments. While much of my day
+is consumed by typing away on the keyboard, I carry no fewer than three
+notebooks with me at all times, filling each with tasks, ideas, designs, and so
+on. The paper notebook for me is a scratchpad for my own thought process. There
+are numerous spiral bound pages in my office which hold early designs for many
+of the products I have built, and probably more from those more crazy designs
+which I was not able to build.
+
+What makes writing enjoyable for me, depends on a number of qualities which
+aren't found any pencils nor in most pens:
+
+* _Wet_: since I'm right-handed and don't run the risk of dragging my hand
+  through my own writing, I find that a very fluid and wet pen allows me to
+  comfortably scribble notes as fast as I possibly can.
+* _Smooth_: Related to the wetness of a pen, a smooth roll is very important. I
+  find that ballpoint pens don't glide as effortlessly across the page as I
+  would like. With pencils, I always feel like I have to etch the page to get a
+  decently thick stroke.
+* _Clicky-top_: While I can work with capped pens, I abhor those pens which
+  screw outward. I've never understood their appeal. I most often see them in
+  hotel rooms, which leads me to believe they're intentionally dysfunctional to
+  prevent theft, just like those curve-less hangars in the wardrobe.
+* _Comfortable_: I consider my hands to be very dextrous but they are large
+  and my fingers long. The strain from holding a narrow writing utensil
+  results in too much frustration to be worth the trouble. Pens with a larger
+  section towards the point tend to sit more comfortably in my hand for
+  extended periods of time.
+
+For over a decade, I have been a big fan of the **Pilot G2** "Gel" pen. I would
+purchase boxes of these pens and then snarl at anybody who attempted to pilfer
+one for their own uses. Consistently, I would use a single G2 all the way until it
+had expended its last bit of ink. Then, assuming nobody else had exhausted my
+supply, I would start in on the next pen sitting in the box.
+
+
+Recently however, I have adopted a simple fountain pen. One which I purchased at an
+office supply store over a year ago, with which I hadn't previously bothered
+spend time.
+
+The flow on the fountain pen is **phenomenal**. It is strong enough that I
+intentionally purchased some new notebooks with a bit more thickness in the
+page in order to reduce bleed-through. The heavier weight of the fountain pen
+also feels much nicer in
+my hand, and in turn makes my notes feel much more consequential, even the
+trivial scribblings in between meetings.
+
+One aspect of the fountain pen which I didn't fully appreciate, when compared to the G2
+and other such pens, is that the fountain pen results in _far_ less waste.
+Rather than throwing out a 7" piece of plastic every few weeks, I'm plopping a
+little cartridge into the same pen over and over.
+
+If you're not already happily writing notes, don't consider this an endorsement
+for a specific type of pen, but instead, a challenge to explore the wide variety
+of pens and pencils out there.  Even with poor quality hand-writing like mine,
+the right tool will make your written words that much more enjoyable to write.