Great writing by Julia Pott on the nature of pencils. I appreciate the way her newsletters deeply examine the ordinary. Especially love this quote of a quote:
One would imagine that in the era of computers, the pencil and notepad would have gone obsolete, but quite the opposite. If you walk down a High street, more often than not you’ll encounter a stationary shop, and if you wander inside, as I always do, you’ll find yourself getting lost in all the different writing implements and papers and potentials in front of you. Writer and technologist Kevin Kelly once claimed that “species of technology” are immortal, even if they no longer have an obvious use:
With very few exceptions, technologies don’t die. In this way, they differ from biological species, which in the long-term inevitably do go extinct. The invention of the lightbulb meant that people stopped using candles to light their homes, but the candle didn’t die - its purpose simply changed. It moved from technology to art, and we see it now as romantic rather than a gloomy fire hazard. The crackly imperfection of vinyl became the warmth and charm of the object when compared to the CD or MP3. The limitations of stationary - the fact that ink can smudge or that a page from the notebook can tear - are also part of its appeal.
