most of us do consider themselves to be digitally qualified and perhaps even being power users. Most of the stuff I am doing for work and also in private life is digitally supported in one way or the other.
However, there are things, which I deliberately do in an analog fashion, though there are digital solutions for it.
I am wondering what the other members of Mac Power Users are preferring to do analog, rather than digital?
To kick it off from my side:
I still write handwritten letters - not to the tax authorities, but friends, my special one, my family. I have a wonderful old fountain pen and I use handmade Japanese paper for those letters.
I read specialist literature in an ebook format - but real (good!) literature, I still read on paper (could you imagine Tolstoi as an ebook?!)
I do have an Apple music subscription which I use in the car, while jogging, etc. but when I want to concentrate on music (mostly Classical or Jazz in those occasions) I still have a vinyl record player and I still buy vinyl records, I have great speakers and the sound is incomparable to any Songs, HomePod, or such.
I write my journal handwritten - it makes me more thinking of what I write and which words I use. Also - as I am traveling a lot - I write a traveling journal and for that I am using a Midori traveler notebook.
That is a selection of what I am doing analog - how about you?
Tomoe River? Same here. Also in the business realm, I write thank you notes and stuff for top-tier clients and partners by hand. The extra effort you put into it is recognized most of the time and perceived as superior to any email.
I also:
still do a lot of photography on film, both 135 and 120 format.
listen to vinyl. But also digital music goes through a proper amplifier to good speakers. I agree with you, the sound of the Home Pod and friends just doesnāt cut it.
read books on paper
And after going paperless the whole way, I went back to note-taking on paper. In the end, for me, itās more efficient.
Hi hate the touchscreen interface in my truck (U-connect)
Wish I could assign functions to real buttons and knobs.
For example, the volume of the directions witch randomly changes. Now it takes 5 very distracting steps to change. While turning the knob would make that soooo much easier. etc etc etc
I do not play vinyl. But with good to great speakers and amps even well recorded CDs are excellent in sound and sound stage production. If Bluetooth is in the equation, incomperable is not. (This can change ā¦)
That said i listen to and enjoy music in my car. My Echo can through Amazon Music is hooked to a Pioneer sound barā¦ often good enough.
Non of the above holds a candle to live music in most roomsā¦ That is my analog system.
When sitting at a desk I use a fountain pen because the writing experience is better. FPs use capillary action to move ink, so you donāt need to press down - you just glide across the page.
Also Iāve learned that I like holding a fatter writing āsectionā when doing a lot of writing, and FPs offer a huge variety of pens with different section widths to accommodate every writing and aesthetic preference.
You can get usable pens for as little as $4 that either take ink cartridges or (much more affordable in the long run) bottled inks you manually pull into cartridges.
Main downside is that typical fountain pen ink is water soluble (you can get ābulletproofā ink that isnāt, but thereās less variety of colors, and they can take more of a toll on the insides of a pen) so you donāt want to use it for official signatures or addressing envelopes.
I take notes of all meetings in hardbound notebooks (usually Moleskine Project Pro) with any one of my fountain pens. My current favored pen is a Pilot Prera ā wonderfully smooth-writing nib. Note taking by hand focuses the mind and memory and I feel more engaged in the conversation than sitting with a keyboard fiddling with a computer.
I still prefer to diagram by hand on a whiteboard.
Itās probably because I have never found a really great app for it, but if I want to show someone how a system is built or integrated I reach for a marker.
I find drawing the diagram as you speak or think through it much more useful to learning / thinking then looking at the nice JPG system diagrams we have.
Yup. Iām a lefty overwriter so I have to choose faster-drying inks to avoid smearing, and I waver between F and M (Euro) nibs for that reason as well. Because fountain pen ink tends to bleed, feather and spread on cheap paper (most notebook paper, Post-Its) I have to use higher quality paper: Rhodia, Kyokuto, Maruman. (Canāt use the even higher-quality 90 gsm paper because of slower dry times.)
And for everyday use with Post Its etc I pocket-carry a small Kaweco rollerball.
Most of my notetaking is handwritten: Field Notes steno pads for work meetings, Explorerās Notebooks and Moleskineās when Iām out and about. I also use a whiteboard and a corkboard for some of my project management. I do a bit of handwritten journaling and keep a handwritten exercise log as well.
Depends on the ink. If you use carbon black ink then want to switch to another you might find it difficult to clean. And some bulletproof inks (eg from Noodlers) can be problematic wrt staining. I really donāt think you want to experiment with Baystate Blue in your Montblanc, to be honest. Save that for a Preppy, lol.
I do the same. I think because it is a huge canvas with no issues of lag or too much friction for input (unless you run out of dry erase lol). Something about thinking of big ideas on a big canvas makes a connection you canāt get by just zooming out on MindNode or something.
Iāve found others. But I generally donāt use bulletproof inks, so I would typicall recommend similar blues like Diamineās Asa Blue, Mediterranean Blue and Kensington Blue, as well as Monteverde Capri Blue and Visconti Blue.
I like blue a lot but this year Iāve been mainly using up a bottle of Rohrer & Kingner Verdigris, which is a dark, bluish-teal. I never found a green before in which Iād enjoy (or tolerate) seeing a full page of my handwriting. Itās a funny ink, sometimes drying bluer on some papers than others. Currently using it at my desk in a Platinum Cool demonstrator with M nib I got out of Japan for $20.
Same here. Also in the business realm, I write thank you notes and stuff for top-tier clients and partners by hand. The extra effort you put into it is recognized most of the time and perceived as superior to any email.
But I generally donāt use bulletproof inks, so I would typicall recommend similar blues like Diamineās Asa Blue, Mediterranean Blue and Kensington Blue, as well as Monteverde Capri Blue and Visconti Blue.