Why fix what’s cheap and barely does its job?
The kind of grace I yearn for in my performance reviews.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
It is broke though. Thing is shit. Dries up the nib, smudges, spurts. All round bad design
And yet people still buy them.
It does what it needs to, albeit poorly, for a handful of cents per pen. Once you start viewing them as disposable instead of trying to keep them until they’re out of ink, it makes more sense.
These are the pens put out where they’re going to get lost or taken, pocketed by the general public. I’d say their biggest flaw is that they don’t work on hard surfaces, so they suck for signing receipts on counters.
About the only thing they are good for is carbon copy paper. You have to press hard to make it work, and better pens tend not to like being pressed hard.
It’s also a use case that’s almost dead. Writing checks is a rarity, and most people only come across the odd contract like that once every few years, at best.
The nub drying is the no. 1 Problem with the thing. The amount of pens thrown away due to that problem is probably uncountable.
They’ve made more than 10 of these per human on the planet.
This pen was decades ahead of its time. Made as cheaply as possible, just functional enough, disposable, and replaceable is the new standard for US commodities.
Am I crazy or have BIC lighters gotten worse in the last 6 months. They feel lighter, don’t last as long, and seem to have flimsy construction in the metal guard and spark wheel.
See. This is where shit has gotten to.
People are now complaining about lighters being lighter.
not just you, I crushed a guard a week ago when I flicked it, and they have less fuel in them when they’re new. It’s… charming.
They feel lighter,
This is how a lighter should feel
I still remember putting a spring inside and shooting something out of them at my minis. they are soo old and bring many memories. Mostly how easily they broke. This thing always somehow ended up disassembled on my desk much faster than all the others. It was disappointingly simple though. I liked to take apart these with elaborate click mechanisms
Why? Don’t change a winning formula
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A hole was added to the cap in 1991.
Wait, the hole in the cap is that recent?
Dude… That’s 34 years ago.
It would had cost you zero dollars to not murder Godort
And I would do it again, not just for the money, but for the glee :D
Yeah, I know I’m approaching fossil age, but the pen itself was first made 75 years ago. I had always assumed that the hole in the cap was a change made much closer to the 50s than sometime within my lifetime.
smeagolnotlistening.gif
A very helpful comment
How dare you. I wont be 34 for 7 more months…
According to the Wikipedia article.
Was that to try and prevent choking?
Yes. From the BIC website:
Why is there a hole in the cap of BIC® Cristal® Pens?
Our vented caps comply with international safety standards ISO11540. These standards attempt to minimize the risk to children from accidental inhalation of pen caps. Traditionally the pen cap served only to protect the pen point. These vented caps allow more air to circulate around the pen point when the pen is capped. This further adds to the quality and overall performance of the pen.
So they dry up more quickly now? How is that supposed to add to the ‘performance’
As soon as the ball at the end rotates, you’ll get fresh ink again - the amount that dries at the very tip is miniscule. This change dries up the slight detritus that builds up around the tip, too - we used to wipe that off onto your other hand if it was the first bit of writing you were doing that day. But damn, that was a few years ago.
Oh, wow… I forgot all about that.
honestly, kinda refreshing to see a business not changing their shit constantly just to change shit. it’s not the nicest pen, but it works.
Honestly still one of my favourite pens, and they last so long. Don’t mess with perfection.
likewise, the uniball eco pen is the perfect pen for lefties.
Why does handedness matter?
Smudging
The guy on the line wants to stop the money printer? No, no no… you don’t change the top selling pen of the century. We can introduce a lighter though. Guess we’re doing fire now.
Maybe some razors.
They were actually updated in mid 90s when they made the cap have a hole in it.
What was the idea behind the drastic change?
To prevent choking if it gets swallowed.
A reminder that society is based off the lowest common denominator
Worth it. Some of those dim bulbs are still kind people who are great to be around.
I love this comment
Ditto!
I assume this is about infants not adults
Actually, adults are more likely to pick up this style of pen, stick the cap in their mouth and bite down on it to remove the cap to write. Then hold it in their mouth while they write. They then might cough, sneeze, try to talk, or get bumped and then the cap would get lodged in their airway.
When I was a medic, this was actually something we discussed in continuing education EMS classes/seminars a few times. I personally never needed to ever extract a Bic cap though.
babies?
If only. Babies don’t hate, they just poop, cry, and eat.
I wish more people did that instead of what they actually do
They do lighters too
And razors…
Very bad razors. They Never fail to leave cuts and bruises
They did perfum once. Big fail…
And boats
Really?
The lighters also got a safety update in the '90s – the child resistant spring over the spark wheel
Which is quite easy to remove luckily, shit really starts to become annoying when trying to light a fire with slightly damp wood. (Or having to relight a shitty joint every few hits)
What? No app connectivity?!
You joke, but I have a cheap composition style notebook that I bought because it had a durable plastic cover instead of the old fashioned cardboard covered notebook I usually carry around. Each page has a qr code in the corner and it wants me to download an app so I can scan my writing and upload it to The Cloud.
I mean, I’m sure that someone might find that useful, but the whole reason I write with pen on paper is so I’m not distracted by technology and don’t have to worry about booting an app and having connectivity while constantly worried that my work may not be saved/disappear.
The plastic cover is nice, though.
However will they drive engagement?
Why mess with perfection?
