Editing The Pen Addict 523/transcript (section)

== Pen Addict Rating ==


'''Brad:''' So when, what the pen addict rating kind of boils down to is if I had two pens sitting side by side, which one would I choose and why? And then basically continuing that ranking on, take that winner of a pen and put another pen next to it. And why would I choose one pen over the other one? And I thought eventually I could have a scale that would answer those questions for myself and then I would share that with other people, right? So these are not product recommendations at all. This is Brad likes this pen more than that pen. And here's why. So I started writing this up. So I created a scale. It's a 20 to 80 scale. This is something I discovered from following baseball. It's a way that scouts would rate minor league players and young players who were before they got to the major leagues and how their skills translated compared to other players. and it was a way to kind of put player A versus player B and think about, okay, who do I think is going to be better and where to put those resources. This system came from, it's a scientific system that it kind of originated from. But it's a way to really kind of have a delineation of the best of the best versus the worst and everything in between.

'''Myke:''' Why not 10 to 60?

'''Brad:''' Yeah. I don't know. I don't have an answer for why it starts at 20 and ends at 80. Okay. I've looked that up before and I can't remember exactly what it was. It turns out you probably could do something. But there needed to be a middle grade, right? So we have 20, 30, 40, 50 is right in the middle, 60, 70, and 80. The key with this scale and another reason why I didn't like having a scale of a 1 to 10 or a star scale is because you can have an average grade on this scale and it'd be a good product, right? If I ever said a pen is a 5 out of 10, that's generally a poor rating, wouldn't you say? Just if you say a movie or an album or an article of clothing or an app was a 5 out of 10, you're not going to give it a second look, right? Like I wouldn't, right? But here in this grading system, it allows for the middle, the 50 grade to be excellent, like to be a very good product, right? It is the average. It is the average product and it's a discussion. It's part of the broader discussion of why average is good, right? Like average is a good product. So I was trying to describe things on that scale and that ends up, results in kind of a bell curve grading, right? The bulk of the products are going to be a 50, like right there in the middle and then probably 60, right? Because like we talked about last week and I've written about on, on in refill recently, like there's selection bias going into this to begin with, right? The products I choose are generally going to be good because why would I spend time with a bad product? So they're definitely products that rate, you know, average to better or where the bulk of the products and we'll talk about that later. So yeah, it was a way to kind of classify the, how I think about products where I can take a field notes, pocket notebook and relate that to a pilot vanishing point or an Orochizuku Shinkai ink or a Secura Pigma Micron, not saying that there's a one-to-one comparison, but in the way that I feel about these products and the way I personally think about these products that yeah, this is the 50 grade products or is this group of products and the 60 grade products or is this group of products in the 70s and the 80s and the 20s, you know, there's very few 20s, but like we'll talk about some examples here in a minute. So I write one of these up, one per week and the goal was to eventually get enough of these Panatic ratings to have some kind of context in the system. I thought it was a pretty slow start and I knew it was going to be this way until there were enough grades out there to explain to people how I view my own personal stationary products and we'll have a couple of examples you can download and you can download the PAR introduction. There's really no way for me to share this, but we'll in the show notes, we'll have a couple of PDFs you can download of the content that I just saved off the site. So we'll have the introduction with the scale and then there's a few examples I've put in the show notes of the ratings that I've done. So let's look at those real quick here. Sorry, I'm getting the pages out. So are you, any questions on the rating system itself? Why I do certain things? I know I just rambled through this and a lot of people are just kind of glossed over by now and going, what are you even talking about?

'''Myke:''' No, I mean, my main question is just like, I already asked, I don't understand 20 to 8. I just don't get it. But if it's a system that you latch onto, then go for it. Like at least it's weird and unique in that way. I wanted to ask how you choose the products.

'''Brad:''' Mm-hmm. So I just kind of, when I started, I brainstormed a list of like, what are all my most used or favorite or most talked about products or the products I think about the most. Again, so the main thing to remember is this is a very personal scale, right? I'm writing about how I feel about these products. Where in my reviews on penaddict.com, I talk about that, but I also contextualize it from, like I said, recommendations. Like would I recommend this to someone or what information do people need to make a good buying decision? I don't talk about that in these reviews, in these penaddict ratings. I talk about, hey, this is what I think about this pen and why I use it or don't use it. So-

'''Myke:''' But you know though that- How do I- You can kind of say that stuff as much as you like, but it doesn't mean there's a difference. Like if you have an opinion or something, people will take that opinion as like, this is some fact that I now have.

'''Brad:''' Yes, understood. I do understand that. That's why I try to, that's why I keep saying it over and over again. Because I do understand that. Yeah, you just keep trying, bud. You just keep trying. Because look,

'''Myke:''' I know that some members will do exactly what I do where when I get the email, the first thing I do is scroll down to see the score. A hundred percent. That's why I put it at the bottom.

'''Brad:''' I thought about just putting it at the top because I know that's only people start there, then go back.

'''Myke:''' Because that's where you look for it, right? Like everyone knows. If you want the score of a review, it's always at the bottom, so.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, and that's why I don't put it in the title either. Like I could put it in the title. Yeah. I don't do that either. So how do I choose? So at first, I did feel like there needed to be a big batch of standard products that I talk about the most needed to have scores attached to them. So when you can, you can look at, so the, I think this is in order of reviews that I did. So the very first one I did was the Blackwing 602. We'll talk about the grades, the scores here in a minute. Blackwing 602, Pilot Hitec C 0.3 millimeter, Rotring 600, Secura Pigma Micron, Lamy Safari, Field Notes Craft Memo Book, Pilot Orochizuku Shinkai, right? So I tried to take kind of a popular item in a lot of categories, a pencil, a micro tip gel ink pen, a mechanical pencil, a drawing marker, a fountain pen, a notebook, an ink, right? And then these were the products that I talk about the most, say like the Blackwing 602 or the Pilot Hitec C. And then what do I really think about them from a personal perspective? So on the scale, like the Blackwing 602 was a 60, right? So it's an above average, above average product. It's a really good pencil. And then the Pilot Hitec C 0.3 millimeter is a 40, right? Like I talk about that product all the time and how good it is when it's good, but it's really not a product I choose to use that much because it's only good, you know, it's a better option. So let me, let me say the scale real quick and I'll have a link in the show notes. You can look at the scale. When I say these numbers, you'll know what it means. So 20 is the lowest grade and that's avoid. Avoid this product, right? There's just no redeeming values on this product. Avoid it. A 30 is to use sparingly or specifically, right? Like if there's one like good thing about this product that you can find and there's a specific reason for you to use it, that's a 30. Like it's not completely avoid, but there's not a lot of great things about it. 40 is good, but there are better options out there, right? That's the Pilot High Tech C. Like it's a good pen. It's not great. I think it's probably below average. There are better options, but it's okay. Five is very good. A league average product. That's the most important thing to understand is that this scale kind of revolves around how good products that are rated 50 are. Then 60 is an above average product with only like a nitpick or two, something small or minor that, you know, that keeps it from being even better. 70 is exceptional across the board and it's 70 is a hard grade. Things tend to fall into like 60 or they're either like perfect in like 80. So like what keeps a product from being an 80 if it's a 70 or what keeps it from dropping into the 60? So 70 is always a good conversation point for me. And then 80 is the best of the best and elite option. There should be very few 80 grade products. I've done 25 reviews or 25 Panatic ratings. There are 280 products, which we'll talk about here in a minute and 120, right? And then in the middle, there's 550s and 1060s, right? So it's very much a bell curve in how this scale works. So again, and this is personal. These are my personal.

'''Myke:''' You only give 10s, scores in 10s, right?

'''Brad:''' Yeah, yeah. I don't think there's any point to break it down any further. I think that's just a little bit overly pedantic to have like 55s and 65s.

'''Myke:''' So again, it could actually be one to six, right?

'''Brad:''' Again, sure, sure.

'''Myke:''' I'm not trying to make fun. It's just like as a, you know.

'''Brad:''' No, it couldn't be one to six. It has to be an odd number. There has to be like a peak middle. I don't think there can be, there has to be a bang average, right? So it could be one to seven, I guess.

'''Myke:''' Yeah, sorry. I got my, I did the math bad on the 20 minus 80. Yeah, I knew what you meant though. It counts 20 as well.

'''Brad:''' Right. I knew what you meant by that though. Yeah, like it could be. There is a reason why it's 20 to 80 and I'll have to find that for you after the show. There is some scientific reason why it's this. It's not just necessarily made up, even though it sounds completely made up. And maybe by the end of the show, we'll have that link in the show notes for you. So I wanted a baseline of popular products to say, oh, this is what Brad thinks about this. So how can then we compare? Okay, so a Blackwing 2 is a 60. The other 60 grades, I won't read all of them, but like the Kaweco Sport.

'''Myke:''' I think I can give you some background here, by the way. I did a very quick Google. So maybe I can give you this background to take a break and then we'll go over some of the examples. Okay. So this is from a website called fangraphs.com. Yeah, baseball. The invention of the scale is credited to Branch Ricky. And whether he intended it or not, it mirrors various scientific scales. 50 is major league average. Then each 10 point increment represents a standard deviation, better or worse than average. In a normal distribution, three standard deviations in either direction should include 99.7% of your sample. So that's why the scale is 20 to 80 rather than 0 to 100. That said, the distribution of tools isn't a normal curve for every tool, but it's somewhere close to that for the most. So really like that's the idea. You start at 50 is the average. Start at 50. And then you go three in each direction. And that helps you. So three increments in each direction.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. And that makes sense in the way that I end up come up with these scores, right? That an 80 product, like an 80 grade is so just unassailable to where a 70 is like a full standard deviation below that, right? Like there is something about that product that doesn't make it a 75 and doesn't make it a 79 and it doesn't make it an 80, right? There is a difference. There is a, there is a, I don't want to say a stark difference in each grade, but there kind of is, right? Like the products that land on these scores are very specifically in these categories. And it goes back to something as being as simple as would I choose this pen over that pen? Yeah. And that makes a difference in that score. That's, that's the simple version of how I come up with the scores and the 80 products are the ones that never get beat, right? And the 70 products, they get beat very rarely, but sometimes there's a product that I would choose over that. And then the 60, well, there's a group, that's a really awesome group of products, but yeah, there's a handful of products ahead of that. But then there's a big batch in that 50 to 60 range that's just the really good stuff that you use all the time every day. And, you know, you're enjoying using these products. But, you know, if I'm using, you know, the Uniball Curitoga, if you're telling me the Curitoga's on my desk and the Rotring 600's on my desk, which one's better? It's never going to be the Curitoga, right? For me, right? So that places it into this score that I've given it into this rating and how the Rotring will continue to just matriculate up the charts until nothing else beats it. And that's what makes an 80-grade product. And the only other 80-grade product is, so far, like, and there'll be other ones in the future, but the only other one is the Pilot Orochizuku Shinkai fountain pen ink. There's no other ink that is that highly rated for me, right? If you're just asking me, like, what ink do I just want to put in all my pens? It's that one. Sure. Do I love all my green inks and my orange inks? Yeah, I use them all the time. I use them most of the time. That's what 50s and 60s are. But if you're telling me to pick the one, well, that's the one. And there might be another 80-grade ink. There might not be. Like, I don't think that far ahead, right? I have a lot of things. There's a lot of stationery I can grade out here. But then, you take both of those 80s, you say, oh, the Rotring 600 and Pilot Orochizuku Shinkai. It's like, oh, like, that's the top of the scale of Brad's scale. Like, those are like the elite products. And then you can have other 80s in there, right? And then, you know, the Pilot Custom 823 fountain pen, that's a 70. Like, it's not quite an 80. You know, and I wrote up a whole reasoning why, you know, it's not an 80. Basically, because I want to pull my hair out when I clean it. But luckily, I don't have to clean it that often, right? I don't have an 80-grade fountain pen right now. Like, 80 grades are super, super rare for me. And they should be. Just like 20s are super rare. I have the, I had to actually hunt down a product that I owned that I would grade it a 20. And it's the Statler Wopex pencil. I put that as a sample, Myke, for people to download in the links. You can download the PDF of my article. I also keep these articles short, like, between 300 and 500 words, right? This is just kind of like bite-size ratings that I do for each of these products once a week. Well, mostly once a week. I've done 25 this year so far. So, a little less than one a week. And, you know, I just talk about just, there is, under no circumstances would I ever choose to use this product, right? That's a 20-grade, right? So, it's really hard to have this discussion because it is so context-based around what all the grades are, what I think about all these individual products in, you know, combination with each other. Like, how does this product rate against this product and why? Right? Why is the Statler a 20? Why is the Hitec C.3 a 40? You know, why is the Rhodia Dot Pad a 50? Well, that's one of the most, like, mainstream, popular products out there and it is just exceedingly average and that's good, right? It is an exceedingly average notebook. It is great and it is right there in the middle of the rating. Like, I can't think of a more perfect grade 50 product than the Rhodia Dot Pad. It's just useful and there's a lot of things that are better and there's a lot of things that are worse.

'''Myke:''' So,

'''Brad:''' it's a challenge.

'''Myke:''' I'm charging in to pause you, all right? Because we need to take a break and then we can talk. I want to talk about the bell curve and a little bit about average with you as part of this. Let me tell you where you're going to be able to go and find all of the 80 products, right? You want to get some 80s? I'm going to tell you where to go. Pen Chalet because they have the best products from all the best companies and they do their very best to get these things to you at the best possible prices, the best possible shipping. I love Pen Chalet. They are an 80 all around. They're adding new styles of pens every single month. Every couple of weeks you can find new discounts, new great prices and tons of great products. But it's not just fountain pens and rollerballs and ballpoints and mechanical pencils. They also have accessories like carrying cases, inks, converters, the whole lot. They have all of your favorite brands and they do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the United States which is awesome. They also sell internationally too with very reasonable shipping rates. Pen Chalet has low prices on high quality pens and they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go right now to penchalet.com that's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com and click the podcast link at the top of the website. When you're there you want to enter the password penaddict and you will get your hands on a 10% code to save on anything at Pen Chalet and also a selection of offers for Pen Addict listeners. What have we got Brad?