6 ms·

The Write Stuff: How the Humble Pencil Conquered the World

76 points by NaOH 10y ago

mchahn 10y ago
This seems like a rehash of the book Pencil from years ago. A large book about only the pencil. While it was intriguing I could only make it through the first 100 pages or so.
dredmorbius 10y ago
Nabokov's "I Pencil". A rather refreshing riposte to the tired Leonard Read FEE / Mont Pelerin Society / Atlas Networks propaganda version. http://crookedtimber.org/2011/04/16/i-pencil-a-product-of-the-mixed-economy/#comment-355445 http://crookedtimber.org/2011/04/16/i-pencil-a-product-of-th... See also, "I, Collateralised Debt Obligation": http://crookedtimber.org/2011/04/16/i-pencil-a-product-of-the-mixed-economy/#comment-355404 http://crookedtimber.org/2011/04/16/i-pencil-a-product-of-th...
- cricalix 10y ago
  Freakonomics had a podcast on a similar theme, and referred to "I, Pencil". Was quite interesting. http://freakonomics.com/podcast/i-pencil/ http://freakonomics.com/podcast/i-pencil/
- mseebach 10y ago
  That essay seems to shoot entirely past the mark. Yes, you can plan a forest, you can plan several (but so can private actors, in a piece of fun trivia, Nokia started out in that sector). Yes, you can plan a railroad (but so can private actors). Yes, you can plan the implementation of mass education (hard to argue that this wouldn't look very different without government, but also hard to argue that the system is working very well -- and anyway, the pencil predates mass education by several centuries). But the fundamental point of "I, Pencil" (and the intellectual tradition it's part of) is that you can't plan the economy at large. It's becoming increasingly clear that you probably can't even plan a single company once it's over a certain size (the essay seems to touch on that point, but doesn't really follow through). It's not that private companies or markets are better at planning, it's that the sheer inherent complexity of an economy is so large that any kind of effective planning is impossible.
  - dredmorbius 10y ago
    And as I've pointed out at times previous when that claim's been made: there are companies whose annual revenues exceed many nations. WalMart has an annual income of $482 billion.[1] That's more than the annual GDP of Poland, as measured by the World Bank, the 25th largest economy in the world, and of Belgium, the Philippines, Thailand, Norway, Iran, Austria, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, South Africa, Hong Kong, Malaysia, ... and 153 other countries (163 total) in the world.[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12163564 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12163564
    - mseebach 10y ago
      I think the reason that can work is that (the vast bulk of) Walmart is entirely dedicated to executing on a single, very well defined (and easy to measure) task - their supply chain. Unfortunately, few problems in the world are like that, and that's why large companies (and governments) fail to address them effectively.
fastball 10y ago
Pencils are great, but ever since I started using whiteboard notebooks, like this[1] and this[2], I haven't looked back. 1. https://www.esquoia.com/ https://www.esquoia.com/ 2. https://wipebook.com/ https://wipebook.com/
- iQuercus 10y ago
  I have a feeling the pencil will be around after this is no more.
- CAAD10 10y ago
  That's really cool, any downsides from your experience? Like does the semipermanent ink smudge for left handed people? They say it doesn't... but maybe
  - fastball 10y ago
    Yes and no. I've used some pens that dry basically instantly and I didn't need to worry about smudging at all. However, I found that those pens were also a bit harder to erase for minor corrections. The pens I use now take a few seconds to dry, and so would probably be a problem for leftys. For me, they work great, and I only occasionally smudge something. Here[1] is a scan from today. This page (and the entire notebook it comes from) has been fully erased about 10 times. (I scan in all of the pages, and then wipe 'em clean once I've filled the notebook). Wiping can be a bit more time consuming than with a normal whiteboard. The manufacturers claim all sorts of things will work to wipe an entire page, but I've found that for best results you need to use cotton balls + pure acetone. 1. http://imgbox.com/RgLjEn3W http://imgbox.com/RgLjEn3W
- yourapostasy 10y ago
  Will these pages scan cleanly in a scanner that uses an automatic document feeder, or will the ink smudge going through the scanner's rollers?
  - fastball 10y ago
    Here's a scan I took today. This page has been erased and re-used at least ten times. http://imgbox.com/RgLjEn3W http://imgbox.com/RgLjEn3W
JetSetWilly 10y ago
> Most American pencils had pink or red erasers at the back by the 1920s. (Today these erasers are often made of vinyl, a type of plastic.) Almost everywhere else in the world, erasers have remained separate from pencils. It is very common for pencils to have a rubber at the end here in the UK - you can buy pencils with and without in any stationary section.
- igravious 10y ago
  Ireland also. But I wouldn't be able to say what percentage you'd find in a stationery store are enrubbered. By the way, what's the slowest kind of store? Write your answer in pencil on the back of a postcard to the following address: "Lame Jokes R Us" Graphite Way, Borrowdale, England, UK.
- woliveirajr 10y ago
  In Brazil too. In general pencils used by children have the eraser in the back, and those with with higher quality don't. Also, saw some documentary few days ago about Faber-Castel and found that the only abroad (?) factory is located in Brazil, something that I think that justifies theier almost monopoly around here.
woliveirajr 10y ago
Anedoctal remarks: 1 - some people even collect pencils, and most of the collection is from merchandise pencils, not commercial ones (source: one friend) 2 - pens are usually borrowed and never returned, even without knowledge of the owner. Pencils, on the other hand, are hardly borrowed, and are almost everytime returned to the owner (source: 2 unrelated friends)

76 points by NaOH 10y ago

This seems like a rehash of the book Pencil from years ago. A large book about only the pencil. While it was intriguing I could only make it through the first 100 pages or so.

dredmorbius 10y ago

Nabokov's "I Pencil". A rather refreshing riposte to the tired Leonard Read FEE / Mont Pelerin Society / Atlas Networks propaganda version. http://crookedtimber.org/2011/04/16/i-pencil-a-product-of-the-mixed-economy/#comment-355445 http://crookedtimber.org/2011/04/16/i-pencil-a-product-of-th... See also, "I, Collateralised Debt Obligation": http://crookedtimber.org/2011/04/16/i-pencil-a-product-of-the-mixed-economy/#comment-355404 http://crookedtimber.org/2011/04/16/i-pencil-a-product-of-th...

cricalix 10y ago
Freakonomics had a podcast on a similar theme, and referred to "I, Pencil". Was quite interesting. http://freakonomics.com/podcast/i-pencil/ http://freakonomics.com/podcast/i-pencil/
mseebach 10y ago
That essay seems to shoot entirely past the mark. Yes, you can plan a forest, you can plan several (but so can private actors, in a piece of fun trivia, Nokia started out in that sector). Yes, you can plan a railroad (but so can private actors). Yes, you can plan the implementation of mass education (hard to argue that this wouldn't look very different without government, but also hard to argue that the system is working very well -- and anyway, the pencil predates mass education by several centuries). But the fundamental point of "I, Pencil" (and the intellectual tradition it's part of) is that you can't plan the economy at large. It's becoming increasingly clear that you probably can't even plan a single company once it's over a certain size (the essay seems to touch on that point, but doesn't really follow through). It's not that private companies or markets are better at planning, it's that the sheer inherent complexity of an economy is so large that any kind of effective planning is impossible.
- dredmorbius 10y ago
  And as I've pointed out at times previous when that claim's been made: there are companies whose annual revenues exceed many nations. WalMart has an annual income of $482 billion.[1] That's more than the annual GDP of Poland, as measured by the World Bank, the 25th largest economy in the world, and of Belgium, the Philippines, Thailand, Norway, Iran, Austria, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, South Africa, Hong Kong, Malaysia, ... and 153 other countries (163 total) in the world.[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12163564 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12163564
  - mseebach 10y ago
    I think the reason that can work is that (the vast bulk of) Walmart is entirely dedicated to executing on a single, very well defined (and easy to measure) task - their supply chain. Unfortunately, few problems in the world are like that, and that's why large companies (and governments) fail to address them effectively.

fastball 10y ago

Pencils are great, but ever since I started using whiteboard notebooks, like this[1] and this[2], I haven't looked back. 1. https://www.esquoia.com/ https://www.esquoia.com/ 2. https://wipebook.com/ https://wipebook.com/

iQuercus 10y ago
I have a feeling the pencil will be around after this is no more.
CAAD10 10y ago
That's really cool, any downsides from your experience? Like does the semipermanent ink smudge for left handed people? They say it doesn't... but maybe
- fastball 10y ago
  Yes and no. I've used some pens that dry basically instantly and I didn't need to worry about smudging at all. However, I found that those pens were also a bit harder to erase for minor corrections. The pens I use now take a few seconds to dry, and so would probably be a problem for leftys. For me, they work great, and I only occasionally smudge something. Here[1] is a scan from today. This page (and the entire notebook it comes from) has been fully erased about 10 times. (I scan in all of the pages, and then wipe 'em clean once I've filled the notebook). Wiping can be a bit more time consuming than with a normal whiteboard. The manufacturers claim all sorts of things will work to wipe an entire page, but I've found that for best results you need to use cotton balls + pure acetone. 1. http://imgbox.com/RgLjEn3W http://imgbox.com/RgLjEn3W
yourapostasy 10y ago
Will these pages scan cleanly in a scanner that uses an automatic document feeder, or will the ink smudge going through the scanner's rollers?
- fastball 10y ago
  Here's a scan I took today. This page has been erased and re-used at least ten times. http://imgbox.com/RgLjEn3W http://imgbox.com/RgLjEn3W

JetSetWilly 10y ago

> Most American pencils had pink or red erasers at the back by the 1920s. (Today these erasers are often made of vinyl, a type of plastic.) Almost everywhere else in the world, erasers have remained separate from pencils. It is very common for pencils to have a rubber at the end here in the UK - you can buy pencils with and without in any stationary section.

igravious 10y ago
Ireland also. But I wouldn't be able to say what percentage you'd find in a stationery store are enrubbered. By the way, what's the slowest kind of store? Write your answer in pencil on the back of a postcard to the following address: "Lame Jokes R Us" Graphite Way, Borrowdale, England, UK.
woliveirajr 10y ago
In Brazil too. In general pencils used by children have the eraser in the back, and those with with higher quality don't. Also, saw some documentary few days ago about Faber-Castel and found that the only abroad (?) factory is located in Brazil, something that I think that justifies theier almost monopoly around here.

woliveirajr 10y ago

Anedoctal remarks: 1 - some people even collect pencils, and most of the collection is from merchandise pencils, not commercial ones (source: one friend) 2 - pens are usually borrowed and never returned, even without knowledge of the owner. Pencils, on the other hand, are hardly borrowed, and are almost everytime returned to the owner (source: 2 unrelated friends)