Chinese Fountain Pens of 2021

Hadn't had much interest in pens but a @leashless post from the end of 2018 stuck with me for a while, talking about various disruptively low priced items out there[1] & including the Moonman M2 (mentioned in this write-up) & I eventually bought one. One line summary:

> A very popular choice for a nicer Chinese fountain pen. This $20 eyedropper is nicely built and really shows of your ink. Watch out for fakes.

I found it surprisingly fun & enjoyable to use. I started going back to paper journals (field notes) because of it. I'll probably pick up another pen or two because of this article.

I just wish some of the other good buys were still options. The Epson L1800 ecotank printer probably wasn't all that fabulous a printer, but sure is appealing to think of a printer made for cheap ink costs. I haven't been able to convince myself to buy a decent Canon.

But I recommend Leashless's thread. I think it describes a modern condition we have, of having really bad information available to us when it counts. Sociality & pop-culture dominate, good comprehensive widely-ranged information is in short supply. Leashless says:

> Now, here's the point. This is market structure. There's almost always* a low cost, high quality alternative. Decathlon tents are far better than they have any right to be, for example. But the cheap-good option is always lost in a swamp of cheap-bad. The cheap bad could die.*

[1] https://twitter.com/leashless/status/1078097550886998016