Pen To Be Extinct In A Decade?

[ravantra]

This is what I have how I feel like after watching the "news" and listening to experts in the media.


The world is always in decline.

Hardly anything important happens outside the US and if it does it can be covered in 45 seconds or less by the World News report.

Disasters are on the increase.

Morals are in decline and humanity is becoming more barbaric every day.

We are constantly under threat by "others".

Education is vanishing toward nonexistence.

Others live better than we do, have more stuff and are healthier and better looking than us.

TV (commercials) constantly tell us how much we need to improve ourselves through drugs, products or services. We are all defective.

The past was amazing, the present is unsatisfactory, the future is grim and extinction or rapture is right around the corner.

We long for the "simpler" past but covet the present / future technology.


These are the products I use on a regular basis. They are are ALL OLD technology.
Even the internet is 57 years old and the World Wide Web 25 years old.

The car has been around since 1879, running on the same basic technology since. 136 years.

The fax machine was invented in 1842. 173 years.

The first mechanical calculator appeared in 1642. 373 years.

The first film camera image was taken in 1816. 199 years.

The first wristwatch is created in 1812. 203 years.

The first patent for a fountain pen issued 1867. 148 years.

The first mass produced pencil in 1662. 353 years.

The umbrella has been around since at least 11 century China. About 1000 years.


Fountain Pens will be around for a while longer.

[JotterAddict62]

Unless he has plans to murder me, I can think of about a hundred pens with long lives ahead of them.

Even a Wearever FP survives.

[delano]

We long for the "simpler" past but covet the present / future technology.

 

 

Isn't that the truth!

 

Good insights. I just wish I could tell you that you've got it wrong.

[Scrawler]

- I suspect that Microsoft's programmers use pen-and-paper, or pencil, to draw design sketches or to write chunks of code.

 

- I remember when one of our development groups issued a "teach me how to code with this tool", rather than a written manual, to support a new interface development component. They insisted that no programmers wanted written documentation, pointing to a "Learn Java" program from Sun. Drove us nuts. I went to their office, looked around, and saw the same Java manuals we used. "So", said I, "How did you all learn Java?" Next version had a manual.

 

- I have been in the computer business long enough to remember six or ten "paradigm shifts". Not much changed.

 

- I also remember when Bill Gates promised that by 1987, we would all be using Advanced DOS, which would unify Microsoft's Xenix (a variety of UNIX) and OS/2. We are still waiting for that 1987 moment.

I am a very senior software designer. I design stuff for very large systems. I use pens with different colour inks to indicate different flows within a concept, to see the idea quickly and discuss it with others before anything goes into a design charting program. Pen and paper is still important to programmers, and when I teach I still insist they have a decent log book to write ideas in first.

[Scrawler]

They like to hide the fact by calling it "Hydro."

Edited May 15, 2015 by Scrawler

[Sebvelez]

I'm an architect and I use a fountain pen to design buildings, then later using BIM parametric software to actually create documents to build them. Nothing beats the intimate and expressive nature of communicating ideas with a sketch. Haven't heard of anybody talking about the fountain pen as a soon to be extinct technology since the 60s! Tangible object in the real world have a tendency to stick around for a while… Like the use of concrete, we been using it since the Romans...

[gweimer1]

I don't think the issue is the tool, but the skill. We are, as a society, moving away from the written word. I've seen (and with no kids of school age, this is new to me) where Common Core over here states that children should be proficient of keyboarding at the age of four. There's no mention of teaching how to write. We are steering towards a faceless, non-descript means of expression. Part of the joy of writing is seeing the personality behind the words.

And, by not teaching handwriting - cursive, script, etc. - we also don't teach our children how to read those words. I've seen it suggested that, even now, younger people have difficulty in even reading handwriting. Think of what that implies for understanding historical documents.

 

I am always in awe of some of the penmanship I see here. I might as well be scrawling with a nail, but at least it's not on a keyboard.

[prf5]

As I've noted before, Nadella was giving an off-the-cuff answer to a series of rapid fire questions. The answer "fountain pens" was prompted by his looking at the interviewer's pen, which appears to be a gel pen or ballpoint, but definitely not a fountain pen. So, he was speaking generically. Is he right? The consensus view here is, obviously not: There is a distinct need for writing instruments; their value may be subsiding, but to say that they won't be around in 10 years is either hyperbole, a corporate strategy, or sheer nonsense.

 

Here's the part of his answer that hasn't been discussed. Nadella wasn't asked about things, but about technology. His answer wasn't about pens, but about the technology of pens. Will pen technology be essentially dead in 10 years? Will production continue and new items be introduced, but the technology not move forward? That's a question that may warrant greater attention.

[torstar]

The skill of typewriting and the speaking of English as a business and conversational language was all gone by 2000, according to all the experts (who don't have a clue what they are talking about) I had to sit there and listen to from 1975 to 1985 or so.

 

Oops, the internet has made typewriting essential, even the snobbiest CEO with 15 secretaries on staff has to type.

[2feetplanted]

.....but, but, but -- I thought the fountain pen was dead by 1980!!!!

 

Look, they've (the educational intelligencia) decided that kids no longer need to learn cursive script, so perhaps the kids will be obsolete, but we who can still write might be hailed as artists because we can put beautiful squiggles that carry meaning onto paper with ink.

[gweimer1]

If we can write, but nobody can read it, what then?

[stevesurf]

If we can write, but nobody can read it, what then?

 

Ah, but therein lies the advantage. Automated login scripts trying to hack your merchant accounts cannot easily "read" handwriting or complex images that we as humans can interpret.

 

The very annoying but necessary "Captcha" security measures can use handwriting signatures as challenges; our handwriting can represent a wonderful way of distinguishing us from a machine and achieving trust.

 

My boss, who is a great coach was noticing that staff members weren't taking notes on their tablets and such, they were doing email and ignoring presentations. "Put away your laptops and take out your notebooks" was a welcome phrase for some, a learning experience for others that forgot how to take notes.

 

Happily, the "analog" can well compliment and actually strengthen our digital world.

[fpenluver]

Printed books have not disappeared yet.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160124-are-paper-books-really-disappearing

 

I guess it will be the same with fountain pens.

As long as there are manufacturers who still can make profit and interested buyers, it will still exist.

As for how long? who knows?

[escribo]

HMmph! I plan (well, hope) to be around another decade, and when that time comes I'll be using pens--mostly fountain pens, and also to some extent dip pens, and ballpoint or gels or whatever those things are when my wife shoves a slick-paper greeting card in front of me to sign.

esc

Edited March 14, 2017 by escribo

[fpenluver]

Assuming it's true and fountain pens disappearing in a decade time and everyone threw his/her fountain pens away (except me). Wouldn't that make my collections museum worthy and worth tons of money? - Not going to happen - I believe most of FPNers will keep their pens.

[escribo]

How cool would it be to be able to write a letter with a pen, perhaps on a touch sensitive, intelligent desk blotter, and for the letter to be detected, digitised and transmitted to a device and then on to a recipient and rendered back to the original handwriting.

 

We can do all of the above already with the exception of reliably detecting, interpreting and converting highly personal handwriting.

 

Cool if the following conditions were met:

The sender writes the letter using the ink and paper of his/her choice, and

That paper is encoded as to exactly what it is, as is the ink,

Upon arrival the letter is decoded as an exact replica of the original.

 

Because when you write a letter don't you consider the recipient when choosing the paper & ink to use? Unless you just have one type of paper and/or ink, that is, which is cool--writing letters is better than not, regardless the other niceties.

Edited March 14, 2017 by escribo

[pajaro]

Given Microsoft's track record, I think we are pretty safe.

 

If Microsoft does it it has in the past, Microsoft will buy all the pen companies and gut them, and then start buying up pens and incinerating them, and recycling the metal.

[JotterAddict62]

 

If Microsoft does it it has in the past, Microsoft will buy all the pen companies and gut them, and then start buying up pens and incinerating them, and recycling the metal.

They want the gold nibs.....

[Zeeppo]

First I would like to state that when I read that article my two google adds were moleskine and Pilot's Varsity Pens that are apparently available at Staples. So that was a bit amusing.

 

Technology is a funny thing. Fountain Pens were close to being killed at one point. Faber-Castell and other major manufacturers stopped making them in the seventies. If the trend had continued into the eighties we would all be using vintage pens and they might be holding on in Japan and parts of Asia.

 

The market dictated that Fountain Pens were something you could make money on in the eighties so look who is making fountain pens again, Faber-Castell and the folks that gave up forty years ago.

 

This guy is an engineer of some sort I would imagine. You would think someone leading a powerful company would understand the market. Granted they also brought us the Zune, MSN Watch, Windows ME and Microsoft BOB. So even the leader of a powerful mutinational does not know all of the ins and outs of the market. So maybe Microsoft if not full of marketing wizards.

 

It is also fare to say that this was a question thrown at him among dozens of other questions. He could not have said the Microsoft Surface was not going to exist in ten years. Granted that probably does not reach the level of popularity FPs current enjoy.

 

We as a community should take this as a possible future for our beloved Fountain Pens. We should take an active role in getting people to use them. We should not take it for granted that Parker, Pilot and all these new smaller manufactures will be there forever. We should support those folks with kickstarters who are pushing the limits of FP Tech. There are notebooks that you can digitize. There is a cartridge converter Glass nibded FP that is entering productions.

 

If you have children, grand children or other kids in your life give them a fountain pen. I was born after the Faber-Castell Massacre in the Untied States. The only reason I started using them is because someone gave me one when I was a kids. Now I give them to all the young people in my life.

 

The existence of Fountain Pens is not a given. We need to curate it like consumers of art support painters or the ballet. Instead of calling this guy ugly we should send him a fountain pen.

[Anne-Sophie]

There has been a resurgence of handwriting instruction to children and an attraction to Calligraphy by millennials.

 

 

Historians were quite worried that people would not be able to read handwritten documents, then people who study child development showed that handwriting surpassed keyboarding as far as ideas retention and psycho-motor skills are concerned.

 

Many parents started to use handwriting instruction at home, made it a trendy subject, as a result, many school districts have reversed the no handwriting study fad.

 

There has also been a tremendous boost in the production and use of paper planners, journals, notebooks which helped rise the use of writing instruments.

 

Just when I thought, the demise of Franklin Covey brand meant, the end of the planner, Filofax blogs started to appear.

They attracted collectors of these vintage planners then Etsy vendors started to make planner pages and accessories, then their own planners.

 

Now, everyone has multiple sizes and paper quality of notepads and/or notebooks and collections of writing instruments, some of which are fountain pens.

 

In a decade, our forum has grown considerably.

 

 

This doesn't not take into account the boom in color and watercolor pencils, markers, pastels to use for paper art, be it coloring, sketching, painting or scrapbooking/card making.

 

All of the above are multi million dollars industries with their own trade shows, online as well as brick and mortar businesses, designers and users, multiple platforms social media interactions.

 

 

As far as Microsoft being on trend, please.

 

They missed the boat on the importance of the internet for so long that, at least, 2 web browsers came and went, then were replaced by others before they realized that "the exploring one" was considered a joke.

 

It was renamed, still asks all the time to be made the default browser, which would be a resounding, no.

 

 

We would be writing on black screen with dot green square letters if it hadn't been for Jobs taking a Calligraphy class.

Edited April 7, 2017 by Anne-Sophie