Subscribe to Love Mondays newsletter updates via email »
LM: #348: Ode to the cheapest tools
This may feel too obvious to mention, but I can’t get over how some of the most valuable things can be made with the cheapest tools.
Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld wrote the most successful television show ever with BIC pens on yellow legal pads. (If you want to take it really far, Socrates just talked.)
So I find it entertaining to try to find the cheapest possible paper and pen. It is just so damn cool to me that I can use them to write a book that sells thousands of copies, or write the script for a reel with millions of views.
WANT TO WRITE A BOOK?
Download your FREE copy of How to Write a Book »
(for a limited time)
The cheapest I’ve found yet is 10 BIC pens for $1.29 (when I bought them 6 months ago, at least), and a 200-page notebook for 3,800 COP (~$1) at a neighborhood papeleria.
There’s definitely something to be said for a nice pen and paper, especially when you’re looking for a reminder that your thoughts are valuable, and worth writing down.
But this exercise does something else for me. I think it spreads to other areas, where next time I’m thinking of buying a new camera or audio equipment, I tell myself to snap out of it. Using cheap tools reminds you not to be too precious – that you’ll have to do a lot of work to get good at the stuff that matters, and that – maybe this is uncomfortable to admit – you already have what you need to get started.
Aphorism: “To one who can understand reason, you will find ten who admire wit.” —Maria Edgeworth
Cool: These acoustic blankets pack a lot of sound-dampening into simple (but heavy) blankets.
Best,
David
P.S. A tool that is perhaps even cheaper in the long run and very much still worth writing on is a typewriter.
