I love listening to the Pen Addict podcast with Brad Dowdy and Myke Hurley. Its not just that I love pens--I do. I also like their banter--its great to be a witness to two friends chatting. But there is another level to my enjoyment of the show. As a guy with an enthusiast website I like hearing Brad and Myke's thoughts about products. They are an enthusiast podcast. Brad runs an enthusiast site. I do these things too. I have written about this before, but there is a bond among those that have an enthusiast mindset.

Recently Brad and Myke ranted against the positively overhyped Moleskine. They were hit with a barrage of angry emails and the like. For many the Moleskine is the epitome of the pocket notebook. I used them for a long time. Lots of other people still use them. But over time I realized that I was more attracted to the idea of the pocket notebook than the actual pocket notebook itself. Since then I have abandoned the Moleskine. In fact I have abandoned daily carry of a pocket notebook all together. I have some Doane books and some Field Notes stashed places, so I have easy access to them, but they are no longer part of my EDC.

Their rant on the Moleskine and its response reminds of the response I received for reviewing the Kershaw Cryo. In many ways the Cryo is the Moleskine of the knife world--a product built on a hype train like no other. It is a product that is made famous and popular not by its performance, but by the names associated with it. The Cryo is a great knife when done correctly (see the Cryo G10),

but the original is a overhyped underperformer. It is also the perfect knife for the non-enthusiast crowd. As Thomas put it both in his written response and on the podcast--this knife is not for us.

The Moleskine and the Cryo are not for us. They are for the non-enthusiast. Don't look for me to speak of them as lesser folks, hoi poloi. They aren't. They have different interests than enthusiasts. They are concerned with other things, but what they like in a product, usually its price or its image, is the exact opposite of what we care about. That's not a bad thing. Being an aesthete or a snob is a bad thing, but relishing quality is not.

But enthusiasts don't have to be snobs to have good critical points about mass market products. You know what? The paper on Moleskines, the small black version, is wretched. That's not a comment that comes from snobbery--its a fact. There are many metrics and specs associated with paper and the Moleskine paper fairs poorly on that front. The Cryo did so as well.

Here is the heart of the issue--true enthusiasts appreciate good quality and design regardless of price. Its not about $1,000 knives, its about appreciating quality and performance. Show me a Cryo SS and I will point you to the Strobe--a similarly priced knife with better performance and better specs. Brad pointed his readers in the direction of Fieldnotes or Rhodia pads. Its not about price and its not about snobbery, its about quality.

Brad's rant also reminds of Kyle Ver Steeg's rant on the Knife Journal podcast about Moras.

I have Moras in for testing right now. They are good out of the box, but they do not stand up over time. Sure they are cheap to replace, but again the ethusiast preaches the message of quality, durability, long term use. This isn't about a flash in the pan. Buying good stuff means that you consider how it will perform now and years from now You consider how it will perform AFTER you have to fix it (as opposed to just throwing it away).

There is lots of stuff that is not for us the enthusiasts. Its called junk. This isn't to say that people that buy it are stupid, its simply to point out that there is better stuff out there. I review gear to help folks find better ways to spend their money. There is high value and there is cheap. They are two vastly different things. Enthusiasts know the difference.