Conscious analog creator or digital consumer slave?

Make the choice before AI makes it for you.

Oh I kid. Sort of.

There’s this sweet spot in human history when a person, multi-fingered, interacted with machines and the dance was thunderous. At least, it could be heard from the neighbor’s house.

I once lugged a Groma Kolibri through France and Spain, in a suitcase which I’d procured from a thrifts store, which didn’t have wheels. When I arrived in Paris, it was just after the metro closed, so I had to lug this suitcase many miles to the hotel.

So I got there, pulled out the machine…

and instantly fell asleep. Ok, another day!

I was in Spain a few days later, Jaca, and staying at a little inn with Patates Bravas and strands of lights illuminating the night, with a picturesque view of mountains behind.

I took out the machine, the Kolibri (Which means ‘butterfly’) [Correction, ‘Hummingbird’. I knew that. Unconscious mechanisms at work!] and began to type. Someone thundered in Spanish something to the effect of ‘Stop that racket!’ Ok! Thwarted again!

This was just before my daughter was born. Around that time I also wrote a novel on a 1940’s Smith Corona Silent, which didn’t make it, and was indeed never submitted to publishers. It is in a box.

It was just too bulky to lug through France. And was by no means as ‘silent’ as the moniker implies. All of Cazadero could hear my clack, through redwoods, out to nearly as far as Guerneville.

The point is, I’ve re-assessed why we do what we do. I write to process things, not necessarily for the fame and fortune. None of which has come from that department, really.

Likewise, I lugged a typewriter through France and Spain, thinking that I was anchoring the process of writing. When what I was really anchoring in, was the typewriter. Little did I know that typewriter restoration would support my future daughter during the Covid years!

Fortunately, you don’t have to know exactly what you write for, yet. Just do it.

Things get in the way, and most of them are called ‘computers’. Because you sit to write and you start to ‘research’. Don’t fall for it.

Sit to write, and refuse the urge to research at first. Instead, plumb the depths of your soul for inner-knowledge. Instead of being ‘right’, seek to be distinctly YOU.

As I recently read in a marketing book, ‘Different is better than better’. Most people are second-rate someone elses. Instead, be a first rate yourself.

And by god use a typewriter if you’re called to.

If you don’t want to careen quite so far into analog, consider an AstroHaus Freewrite, a digital writing machine that is distraction-free and syncs with the cloud.

Or consider the quite paper-like digital writing device, the Remarkable 2, of which I use and am still somewhat dubious. (Because the word ‘paper-like’ is overused and I’m a connoisseur of marking paper). (They also recently released a Type Folio, which I’ve purchased but have yet to use).

Or get a vintage typewriter from my site, let it decorate your shelf SOMETIMES, and WRITE most of the time. I’ve made it as easy as possible to get one and everything you need to get up and running on it.

What will it be? Conscious analog creator or digital consumer slave?

The choice is, as always, yours.

Write on

,

Steven Budden Jr.

PS. Investor, Entrepreneur, Coach, Obtainer of rare antiquities.

Classictypewriter.com

Illustrious, if quite antique, Corona Four.