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Pen sketch on recycled paper with a cheap pen, by me
My Mastodon-friend, Hyde (@[email protected]), the creator of the wonderful Bear blogging platform, has invited me to take part in a series he’s running on whether certain things are overrated or underrated. For most of these items it’s been a solid “Both”! Hard as it was, I’ve made my choice based on which side of the line the both leans.
Here is the post on Hyde’s site, along with his take on whether these items are over or underrated.
There was a time when I considered Moleskines so overrated I actually bought one to prove the point. It was the only way to be sure.
I don’t deny a part of me wanted to be wrong. I wanted to join the secret club of chill black notebook wielding creatives creating, recording, sketching, and generally just feeling the arty-notebook vibe.
My first Moleskine was a medium sized hardcover, ruled. I so admired its understated beauty and mythic traditionalist vibes that my creative juices dried up amidst the pressure I felt to perform; to live up to …something.
I’d committed to finishing the book, however, in the name of giving it a real go. Having written the experiment off as a failure after just a few days, I began to use a new page whenever I wanted to (gasp! how wasteful!).
With reckless abandon I wrote whatever came to mind with the aim of filling all the pages as quickly as possible, then moving on to something else. This was the stationery equivalent of lubricating the door hinges with truffle oil, but it changed everything!
I was stunned when I realised this was no longer an exercise in burning through pages to tick a box and hurry off to the next notebook. Opening the Moleskine was now, despite myself, something I looked forward to. Something that put a pep in my step and fueled creativity rather than sapping it.
Yes, I’m aware the experience had less to do with the brand of the notebook and more to do with me releasing my creativity from the bondage of false expectations. I get it. But it also opened my eyes to the virtues of a book I’d previously written off as over-hyped.
Since that epiphany I’ve graduated to the more economical and flexible Moleskine Cahier, even going so far as to rule one up as a monthly and weekly planner (two per year).
In summary, I feel that the arty creative genius mythology behind the Moleskine brand (and paper quality) is overrated, but the feel of the books, their proportions, and 6mm line spacing are underrated.
For fans of Obsidian with low tech skills (ie people like me who can’t wrap their heads around Git or SyncThing), Obsidian Sync is underrated. It’s the easiest way by far to have a great experience with Obsidian on all my devices. Start up time on iOS devices has improved with regular sync, allegedly, but my experiment with it was less than impressive.
I use Obsidian Sync (very carefully) in conjunction with Dropbox for another layer of back up and version control. I’m aware this is not a recommended path, but I know how to avoid the pitfalls and have had no issues over the nearly two years I’ve been doing it.
Obsidian Sync is a subscription I’m happy to pay. Even so, I’m looking forward to up-skilling so that one day I won’t need to.
Markdown is underrated by those still relying on menus in apps to add headings, emphasis, and lists to text, and it’s overrated by the crowd who think it ought to be able to do everything.
The way I see it, Markdown should be a basic skill learned by every child as they learn to type. If their own name is the very first thing they type on a screen, show them how to do it in bold and italic. It’s a great springboard to learning HTML, which should be the next progression in the digital learning journey of a child.
Oh I really want to love Vim! I do. And perhaps some day I shall.
As much as I’d love to work magic with dancing fingers that never leave the keyboard, the learning curve puts me off. That’s another way of saying it just hasn’t grabbed me yet. I’ll tell you this, though: the times I feel drawn to learning more about Vim are the times I am facing some work I’d rather avoid!
It seems to me that the acolytes overrate Vim, but I’m not really qualified to underrate it as I haven’t paid the price to feel the buzz (or lack thereof).
Pizzas with a white flour base, processed meat, and tons of cheese are definitely overrated. They taste great if your palate is attuned to that kind of food, but no one’s body is going to be more alive and energised after eating empty carbs topped with trans fats. Do that on a regular basis and your body will tell the tale in both visible and invisible ways.
Now, pizza made with a spiced smashed cauliflower base and topped with fire roasted red pepper, black olives, onions, and creamy nut cheese? Definitely underrated!! There are many delicious gourmet wholefood pizza options that add to one’s vitality rather than running up an increasing health debt.
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