Surprising to see this on HN. Yes, fountain pens are a rabbit hole. No, they are not really useful - it's hard to edit or search through what you wrote on paper - but the feeling while writing is pretty amazing.
I was also confused. Your first comment was poorly worded to convey the meaning you had intended.
More to the point though:
> it's hard to edit or search through what you wrote on paper
You'd be surprised how fast queries can be done in the type of physical organization systems that existed before computers! People weren't stupid, they came up with many brilliant systems. There's a great art to organization, summary, and consolidation. Maximum flexibility is usually not synonymous with maximum efficiency. And we've never quite mastered the input system for computers.
Editing is generally much better on a computer though, but even that shouldn't be overestimated. As humans we are much more often limited by the speed at which we can think, than by the speed with which we can record that information.
Yep, and I am old enough to have actually worked several years at a time when certain official documents/registers had to be hand-written.
I am not talking of one line per day, I am talking of tens of pages per day.
When you have to write at length (hours per day) there is nothing as "light" as a fountain pen, using ball pen or rollers invariably get your hand more tired.
Up until the 2000s, in Hungary, CVs and cover letters had to be written by hand. Mostly, because handwriting was considered a precursor to how literate and educated is the candidate.
