So it’s beyond time for someone to go directly after and destroy Excel. Clearly, Google and Apple are not doing a good enough job at this. The issue, I believe, is that Excel is perhaps the quintessential power user tool. People take classes on it to memorize macros. It’s basically another computer language cloaked in a shitty, rudimentary user-facing UI.
To state that Microsoft Excel has a cultish following is an understatement. I have learned to maintain a spreadsheet for everything. Clients I serve maintain a spreadsheet for everything. My boss maintains a spreadsheet for everything. I'll bet there are even spreadsheets maintaining other spreadsheets.
If it wasn't for Excel, I would be able to banish Microsoft Office from my daily workflow entirely. But I can't. I won't. I don't even want to. Even I can create some cool stuff in Excel.
Uprooting Excel would create tremendous uproar. Excel has dominated its market forever. And at this point, I doubt anyone would gladly give up Excel, even if a competing product was better.
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<p data-preserve-html-node="true">I love New York. The smells, the sounds, the spectacles, the luxury. I could have never dreamed of such a city. </p>
My wife and I chose New York City as our honeymoon destination. Our hotel was a block from Columbus Circle, which meant I had to venture into the first Moleskine store in the United States. Obviously I couldn’t just look. I had to buy. And I came home with a pen I use every day.
The Moleskine Light Metal Roller Pen is the first high end[1] pen I have ever purchased. The pen came in a svelte box which could not duplicate the elegance of what was inside. The weight to the pen felt right in my hand and rolled perfectly on the Moleskine Cahier I bought alongside. The pen and paper were made for each other.
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<p data-preserve-html-node="true">I proceeded to work through three ink refills in the next four months, increasing the cost of my “super expensive” pen. I had been a fan of the 0.5mm line until my recent Amazon blunder — when the 0.7mm refill arrived, my mistake turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The 0.7mm refills yield a smoother roll and a more comfortable glide across the paper but can be blotchy at times. I don’t know if I’ll go back to the thinner line. Despite the friction of the 0.5mm and the spotty 0.7mm, I’ve been a happy writer. </p>
My Light Metal Roller may be slightly defective, however. The pen’s lid has no sense of commitment to the rest of the pen’s body, meaning it has narrowly avoided losing its head countless times. I don’t know if this is representative of the entire product line but the lid’s ease of removal has caught me by surprise.
<p data-preserve-html-node="true">Removing an empty ink cartridge is simple and has taught me to value a specific pen. I choose not to haul the pen around everywhere I go as my prized honeymoon souvenir is safer on my desk than on the go.[2] When at my desk, putting pen to memo book creates a more intimate passage than jotting notes in my phone. </p>
Despite its problems and its relative cost, the Moleskine Light Metal Roller introduced me to the world of stationery. I never fathomed the idea of wasting paper and ink when writing notes. Once I bought this pen, my thoughts changed. It may not be the best pen in the world[3], but it created a new respect for the written word and the tools which create them.
For this reason, and for the inevitable fact of it being a honeymoon souvenir[4], I keep the Moleskine Light Metal Roller Pen on my desk.
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By high end, I mean greater than $5. I’m a Mennonite after all. ↩
A couple weeks ago, Chris Gonzalez over at Unretrofied.com began curating a series of interviews with some well known online personalities. The series discusses the objects they carry around on a daily basis and what they throw in their bag every morning. I lovethesetypes of series. They give a neat look into how other people do their work and they offer new ways to improve how we do our own work.
These series outline objects people carry while on the go and software applications people use on their devices. However, I have yet to find a curation of products which people use while sitting at their desk. Our jobs are increasingly office-oriented which forces users to work within the confines of a small desk and an even smaller chair. I want to know how people cope with office life, which products they swear by, which products improve their life, and which products offer unique ways to finish a job or task.
This is a very broad topic and there is no chance I'll be able to outline entire workspaces. I want to review one or two products at a time using some photography to showcase the product and some positive writing to spread the word. I'll let The Wirecutter, The Sweethome and The Sweet Setup inform you on the best products. I want to discuss items that work best for you — sometimes, the best products on the market don't apply appropriately for everyone. I love learning about new and different products and I want to share those products with you.
I'll start off my series in the next few days with one of my favourite pens.
I hope you enjoy the series. If you ever want to let me know about a product you really enjoy, please don't hesitate to let me know.
