Nowadays, the most popular writing utensil is the computer keyboard. That sounds like a very old man complaint, one of those "you kids and your darn computers all day" sort of things. That is blatantly not who I am, and I absolutely prefer writing using a computer. It's a ton easier to get words on the page, and depending on your software it'll yell at you when you miswrite a word. It's easy to get those words other places, too - this entire website is basically just a bunch of words I wrote. If it was on paper, it'd be a lot harder to read it on a website, because it wouldn't be on a website.
That being said, there is a certain artistry to using a physical object to mark another physical object. I've had my preferences over the years on this. I think everyone went through a crayon phase when they were a little kid. I definitely had a marker phase, where if I couldn't use a marker for everything I'd be a little upset about it. Most people stick by either the pencil or the pen. And with pencils, I absolutely get it. As it is now, the pencil is definitely the most all-around good utensil. It's certainly the only one that you can undo mistakes on.
I'm definitely a pen guy.
The common thread with the utensils I enjoy is the colors. I will always like writing things in different colors no matter how grown up I get. It's just fun! You gotta have some whimsy in your life, especially if you're in work or school doing something you don't really want to do for a majority of the hours in your day. In high school, I always ended up with a small pile of colored gel pens. I always got them in big sets and they were usually not great to write with, but I liked the colors and I was younger so it was fine. Not being able to erase was never an issue, I'd just scribble it out and move on. One of the years the set was glittery. My teachers had to have been annoyed about this whole thing, but I never cared.
And besides, regular pencils suck. I always feel like I have to put in some force with them, and that hurts my hands. And I always hated colored pencils - they never felt good to use. When you have to write more than 3 words, it's just not an enjoyable experience. That being said, mechanical pencils are pretty good. I never felt like they needed force to mark the page - in fact, it's the opposite, because you'll break the lead if you use too much pressure. Mechanical pencils should be allowed on standardized tests. I know why they're not (you can smuggle notes in via the lead holder tube) but they should be.
As a working man, I've gotten more picky. Cheap pens aren't great. Those mass printed/branded plastic tube-and-clip pens are better chew toys than pens, even when considering the ink consumption. I have an average looking office supply pen on my desk and I only use it to break tape on boxes, because honestly that's all it's good for in my eyes. It writes kinda scratchy, and the ink dries often so you practically have to start it like a car. It's not necessarily difficult for me to find a pen I'll use, but it's not an immediate sell anymore like it used to be.
Tangentially, do y'all remember those pens that had like 10 different inks in them? You'd have the click-downs at the top that let you choose the ink color and if you wanted to swap you'd just click a different click-down. I remember them writing fine, although last time I had one of those I was in middle school, so I might not have cared. Those were sick. I liked having the gel pen sets, but it would've been better to have just one multicolor pen, because every so often I'd lose one of the gel pens.
The problem here is twofold - first, those pens were pretty large to hold 10 inks, and some of them were unnecessary. I'm not using a yellow or white pen. There's no point to writing with an ink color that you can't even see using a pen that's too big to be truly comfortable. We can downsize this a little bit. Secondly, they're usually pretty childish looking. If it's not fully transparent plastic, it's usually a flashy colorful design. This isn't a problem for me normally, but I do want to be at least lightly professional at work.
Thus brings us to the crux of the article. Is there a pen out there that writes smooth and allows for multiple colors, while still being good for work?
The Uni Jetstream 4&1 Bamboo. A multicolor pen with black, blue, red, and green inks, and a mechanical pencil, fit into a normally sized shell. A removable cap covers an eraser on the end. Looks classy with its metal parts, matcha tea green shell, and bamboo grip. Pen parts are completely interchangeable which allows you to swap in new ink, lead, or eraser bits when it runs dry. And it writes and doodles smooth as butter.
I feel like I have to specify this isn't an ad. I just really like the pen. I got it for Christmas, and when my dad saw it he eventually bought his own. I'm definitely playing up how amazing this thing is, it's a great pen but it's just a fun thing I have. It's not cheap either - obviously this isn't meant to be discarded, you're supposed to replace the inks and stuff, but it prices at around 20 to 30 dollars depending on the storefront. Amazon puts two of the shell options at ~$20 and one of them at ~$40, weirdly. You can probably get a good pen for less than that.
But I'm not gonna say that if I did spend my own money on it, it wouldn't have been worth it. I don't write a lot in my job, just some quick things on sticky notes to say "hey, this iPad is this model and it doesn't work because of this problem". This pen is overkill for that, but it's VERY fun. I can use green ink for the ones that work and red ink for the ones that don't! Color coding my writing is a very simple joy that I will never get tired of. And the mechanical pencil is there! I can sketch a doodle into perfection and be sad when the pen lineart doesn't land like I wanted it to! It's fantastic for that! I love this thing.
Quick side note, while I bought this to be a business class thing, they make limited edition versions of the Jetstream 4&1 non-bamboo that have various anime themed shells. That's pretty neat.
The lesson here isn't to get this specific pen but to get a pen that feels good in general, one you want to use. The Jetstream 4&1 is my recommendation, but there's probably many good options out there, and you can even build a custom pen from parts, just like a computer. I bet the rabbit hole on this goes deep, people care a lot about mundane things. I imagine there's a video somewhere with a title like "New Ink Technology Changes The Game! Blorbo UltraScrawl 3S Review" with 150,000 views and a wildly argumentative comments section fighting about if Blorbo's pens have been any good since 2004. And yes, there's other kinds of pens that aren't clicky style, and people are probably crazy about those as well. I've chosen my pen, and I'll probably stick with it until it breaks.
Although, if you are part of the pen community, feel free to reach out. Let me know if I'm right about something, or if you have recommendations, or if the Blorbo UltraScrawl 3S is actually worth the $350 dollars for a pen because of the Scrimblo Ink Mixture that allows it to write 7% more smooth compared to the Blorbo UltraScrawl 3, or whatever else have you. I genuinely want to hear some shit. I have a vested interest in hearing people ramble about things they care about without interruption.
Oh man, now I've got a concept of a website where the owner hires guest columnists to just infodump for a full article about their hobbies. God, that'd be fucking phenominal. That's not relevant, I just want that idea to be out there.