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Musings on tools for thought
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Posted by Daly de Gagne
May 11, 2022 at 02:05 PM
Hi Satis - Those are good shops you named. If I was in the US I’d probably buy from Goulet Pens. I often watch his videos. Interesting similarity between Goulet Pens and Wonder Pens is both are husband/wife businesses, and both reflect the personality of their founders.
I don’t use ball points much, but when I do it’s usually a four-colour Bic. I will be in Toronto next month, and will probably buy a couple (or more!) of fountain pens, and stock up on inks.
Daly
satis wrote:
>
>Daly de Gagne wrote:
>
>> Fountain pens are great! It helps if you have a good shop
>
>I live in an area with a couple of specialist shops, as well as an
>active pen/ink group, but I’ve gotten nearly all my info and reviews via
>forums and YouTube, and I make all my purchases from retailers like Van
>Ness, Anderson Pens, Jetpens, and Goulet Pens. It’s the only way to get
>variety of stock that’s almost never available locally, not to mention
>good pricing.
>
>For handling a wide range of pens nothing beats a good pen group, or a
>pen show.
>
>Most of my writing is electronic, but fountain pens are superior for me
>to gels or ballpoints in ink choice and pen comfort (I use pens with
>thick sections). In extended writing sessions fountain pens also offer
>significantly less fatigue since ink is disbursed through capillary
>action so you don’t need to press on paper to make marks.
>
>For quick notes or extended travel I’ll grab a couple of Pentel gel pens
>and easily make do, though.
Posted by Sarah
May 11, 2022 at 03:22 PM
For business, my dad has only used a pen & legal pad throughout both his successful careers as a lawyer and later, buying & selling radio and TV stations. He hates minutia.
He makes that legal pad approach look easy. Silent generation.
Our minds aren’t weak. We’d figure it out without a computer, like he did. We think we’re dependant but with obvious exceptions, like software development, I think we’d be fine.
Posted by BrainTool
May 11, 2022 at 04:47 PM
Excellent pointer. I’ve been catching up on the ‘Tools for Thought Rock’ series and Maggie does a presentation on this idea, see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6uhvFGPUE0
While her examples are great, IMO they are all instances of a more fundamental concept - memes. Not (necessarily) in their current incarnation ala Reddit posts, but in the original self replicating gene-analogous mental constructs proposed by Dawkins and described in The Meme Machine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Meme_Machine). With maps for example the meme is that we can represent physical topology with a scaled down 2 dimensional model and thus enhance our ability to reason about spaces. Maybe I need to do a write up on ‘Memes - the original tools for thought’.
That said, I too love working with a nice pen on paper!
Posted by satis
May 11, 2022 at 04:51 PM
Daly de Gagne wrote:
> If I was in the US I’d probably buy from Goulet Pens.
I’ve heard good things about Wonderpens; I *think* a few years ago I ordered an inexpensive Platinum Carbon Desk Pen from them, but can’t remember for sure.
When I started using fountain pens I used Goulet. Brian Goulet seems like a really nice guy, and his company offers excellent service. But he’s friends and occasional business partners with Noodlers Inks owner Nathan Tardif, a person with some firm political opinions with which I disagree, and which leaked into his business. For example in order to mock political candidate Bernie Sanders he introduced Berning red “a red for lefties that dries fast” - a play on (a) “Bernie”, (b) Red = communist & (c) left-handed writers needing a quicker-drying ink to prevent smudges, as well as Brexit Blue (a permanent ink favoring Britain’s “independence” from oppression).
There are other examples.
I purchase a lot of ink sample vials and to replace Goulet I’ve switched to vanness1938.com - essentially the same stock and customer service. And if you like Brian’s excellent YouTube videos be sure to check out the ones from Anderson Pens. Anderson is located in the American Midwest, and they have a strong online presence in addition to brick-and-mortar stores.
Posted by Daly de Gagne
May 11, 2022 at 07:34 PM
Satis, I’m aware of Nathan Tardif’s politics, about which you and I would agree. However, I confess that I use Noodler’s inks, primarily the ones which are waterproof/eternal. Much as I love fountain pens, I am paranoid about damaging/losing notes due to water damage, so Noodler’s has an appeal to me. As well, I like the colours.
However, it seems some other inks are have some water resistant offerings - so I will be trying some of them..
I have recently watched a few of the Anderson videos where staff are asked to present their five favourite pens, and talk about them. It’s kind of laid back and enjoyable.
Daly
satis wrote:
>
>Daly de Gagne wrote:
> > If I was in the US I’d probably buy from Goulet Pens.
>
>I’ve heard good things about Wonderpens; I *think* a few years ago I
>ordered an inexpensive Platinum Carbon Desk Pen from them, but can’t
>remember for sure.
>
>When I started using fountain pens I used Goulet. Brian Goulet seems
>like a really nice guy, and his company offers excellent service. But
>he’s friends and occasional business partners with Noodlers Inks owner
>Nathan Tardif, a person with some firm political opinions with which I
>disagree, and which leaked into his business. For example in order to
>mock political candidate Bernie Sanders he introduced Berning red
>“a red for lefties that dries fast” - a play on (a) “Bernie”, (b)
>Red = communist & (c) left-handed writers needing a quicker-drying ink
>to prevent smudges, as well as Brexit Blue (a permanent ink favoring
>Britain’s “independence” from oppression).
>
>There are other examples.
>
>I purchase a lot of ink sample vials and to replace Goulet I’ve switched
>to vanness1938.com - essentially the same stock and customer service.
>And if you like Brian’s excellent YouTube videos be sure to check out
>the ones from Anderson Pens. Anderson is located in the American
>Midwest, and they have a strong online presence in addition to
>brick-and-mortar stores.
>
>