Why I’m Going Analog

Going analog isn’t about rejecting technology. It’s about making room for slower, more tactile, more human work in a life that’s already full of screens, deadlines, and digital noise.

Article: https://www.grenierdave.com/blog/going-analog

Show Notes:
00:00 I’m the Machine
01:30 Letting It Be Imperfect
03:00 The Notebook That Waited
04:30 Too Much Digital Input
06:00 Less Noise, More Intention
07:30 Returning to Tactile Work
09:00 Process Over Speed
10:30 Hobbies That Slow Me Down
13:30 Writing on a Typewriter
15:00 Showing the Red Marks
16:30 Feeding My Machine

Produced by:
124 Productions

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If I'm just trying to feed the machine, I should. But I'm not. I'm trying to feed my machine. You can't see it. If you're just listening, I'm I'm pointing at myself. I'm the machine. What's up everybody? Today I'm switching things up a little bit on my podcast. If you're watching me, you're probably gonna notice a little bit of a difference. Uh specifically, I am not using my podcast mic. I'm using one of the portable, what is this, the Rode 2, Rode Pro um wireless mic? Because what I'm trying to do from in this series is to reduce friction. And while I have my podcast mic and I have my light stand right there, um right above me, for those that aren't watching, um, I could easily just turn it on. But what I'm trying to do is just make things smooth and easy and not overly produced. And right now I have some nice lighting coming in through my windows. I got some shear curtains just to kind of diffuse in case the sun decides to pop back out. But um I know some people are gonna hate this look because I'm holding a square device and there's a lot of folks out there that don't like seeing people use a microphone the wrong way, you know, and this is one that you're supposed to put on uh, you know, like on your pocket. It's got a little clip, and then you have a lav that goes up, you know, and you hide it a lot of times. Anyway, I don't care. I am trying to just get things done the way that they feel natural. I think I've reached that point where I don't feel that I need this to be perfect. And I don't feel like I need this to be presented a certain way. Um and even to such a degree that I'm not even wearing my normal 124 hat. I'm just I'm just wearing what I felt like I wanted to wear. Um these are things that most people aren't ever really gonna care about or notice, but these are the things that you know you'll always think like, oh, I have the brand thing, you know, whatever. I don't care. Um so we're talking today um about going analog. Uh this is a project. You might well, I haven't I I posted it, and uh this is gonna be this video is gonna go onto my website along with that post because that post just had nothing but just the text and um couple photos that I I threw. And if you've been watching on Instagram, I have a couple. I was out on my porch with my typewriter. I got a little quiet deluxe sitting right here. This guy, so if you this yeah, look at that. I love this thing. Uh, this is one of my many typewriters. Um I I highly recommend it if you can find yourself a quiet deluxe. Uh they're not super quiet, they're much quieter than a lot of um a lot of typewriters that I've used. But anyway, that's not what this is about. Uh but I it's if you like typewriters, it's a good one. Um anyway, so this project called Going Analog is something that I've had for uh seven years, apparently. Uh back in 2019, I started this notebook. Um, this is something that I got, and it was like it's such a cool, it's a leather bound. Um, it's got some cool pages. I'll show you in a second if you're if you're watching it. Um it's something that I got on my anniversary, and it cost uh a bit of money. I think it was like 50 bucks, which is a lot of money for a notebook. But I got it at Pike's Place, and uh so it was a great memory, and it was such a it was probably the coolest notebook that I've owned up until that point uh of purchasing it. And um for years I didn't do anything with it because it was one of those like something really good needs to go in there. It it can't just be uh, you know, do journal, my day was great today. All right, bye. You know, it can't be the simple stuff. So at some point, the first page, um, I ended up saying starting a project called Going Analog. Right. I apologize if you heard that ding. Um, I don't know how there is a ding because all of my stuff is on airplane mode, but I apparently just got an email. Anyway, so uh going analog, there's this thing where I've had just too much input. I've noticed that uh I was always I had some sort of digital like influence going on. Um digital energy. Uh and I live digitally, right? So I'm a I'm a professional photo and video editor uh and uh capturer. I uh I I go outside on site and capture stuff. And so when I'm not out on site, I'm sitting at my computer. And um, so there's a lot of digital stuff going on. And at the time I was at an office, an agency office, and there's a lot of people in the agency office, and a lot of them come up to the desk, and you know, there's just a lot of energy moving around, and people come by 10 times a day to ask you questions. Um and so there was energy with that, with just normal, like busy work. Um, and then I noticed that I was I was constantly using headphones either to drown people out, um, like people at the office, because there's just all that background noise, and to get into a good flow state for me, I need uh some good music, or at least to drown people out. Um so then that started. I noticed that I was using music all the time. Uh so I would be, you know, doing um making coffee or walking my dog, whatever. And so I was I would just have that constant input of something, you know, just no quiet. And um it got worse. So I I I'm sorry. So I realized that. I realized that um that I had that constant input. And so I was like, you know what, let me let me not do that so much. Um and that helped. So um I I what I wanted to do with this whole going analog thing is to do less digital influence in my life. There's no way nowadays, that at least for me, that I can completely remove digital as part of my work, and I think just even personally, there's too many things digitally that are of too much value, right? And it's and I don't mean the doom scrolling. Uh sometimes there's value in that, but I was looking to be more intentional with what I was doing all the time. So um, so what I did was I said, you know what, I'm gonna try these different things, I'm gonna try out some new hobbies, and I'm gonna dive into uh woodworking a little bit more. I had I dabbled with woodworking, I'm a son of a carpenter. Um I worked in my dad's handyman business uh for ever 12 years more, I'm not sure. Uh, but I grew up with even before I started working in his business, I was, you know, I was a little kid in his shop, and uh like sawdust is a great uh nostalgia hit for me. So anytime I have some yellow pine, just taking a whiff of it, and it's like it just brings me right back to being a kid. Um so that was a natural place for me to start. Um and so there's these other hobbies that I started to get into uh bread baking, um typing on a typewriter. I actually for a while, it was an electronic typewriter, uh funnily enough, that I had written my first story when I was like seven or eight, and I got it from my dad, and uh I don't have it anymore. Uh I had that I sold that before I moved back from California back to the East Coast. Um, but I have multiple manual typewriters now, which I just love because they they provide they force you to slow down. And I think that's the thing about my hobbies that I've really kind of gotten into. You can't rush the process. Um especially, let's say, like woodworking. I have a bunch of power tools, I know how to use them, and that's great. And I think that power tools are are good for a lot of reasons, but I started to get into hand tool woodworking uh because the process for me is the more important thing. I'm not I think work is so much about getting the thing done. Get as much done as you can, hurry up, you get deadlines, um, time is money, and you know, depending on how the contract is, sometimes it's you know, it's it's just way better to sometimes you're paid hourly, sometimes you're paid by the project, and like even if you are paid hourly, they they don't want you to take six hours on something that should take an hour, obviously. Uh so it's all about speed, right, with the quality. But anyway, we're not talking about work. Um the idea of enjoying the process and going slowly is is really what going analog is about. Um it was born from being too tense, work being way too much, especially once 2020 hit. I my skill set meant that I was training far more people and working way more. Uh when a lot of people I I'm blessed because that was I know a lot of people worked less. Uh as a matter of fact, those are the people that I was training. So it was even more important as of 2020 and on for me to get my hands dirty with with doing these analog things. So anyway, that's what this whole going analog thing is. And um and so that's where where my venture is right now. Uh I've I have a lot of different hobbies. Like I said, I I think I said bread baking, which was uh which ended up being something I did for my wife uh because she loves bread. And I really got into history um from the Boston area, and when I was in California, I missed the Boston area. So then I started getting into the like 18th century stuff, the um Revolutionary War kind of era, and uh it became a place of comfort for me. So I do a lot of like my cooking now, where I really enjoy cooking, is doing 18th century reps recipes and just just enjoying the process. Sometimes it frustrates my wife if she really wants to, like if we're trying to cook together, and she's like, just cut the onion. Just just just do it. You could do it in three chops. And I'm like, listen, I'm not the guy for that. Okay, I do that all day at work. I don't want to turn on speed. Let's let's just you want it, you want it done quick here. You do it. You know, she a lot of times she'll just grab the the knife and the cutting board. And I understand that's annoying, and she's a saint for dealing with me, but like, and she gets it, she gets it, she's not mad at me. Uh, but I I understand that it can be very annoying if we're trying to speed run dinner. Um, but anyway, so going analog, it's something that I think uh maybe you want to try. If you do, great. Um, I have what I'm working on is is um a longer, I'm not gonna say it's a book, but it's a longer piece of kind of like the things that I've learned with the the um the hobbies that I have been doing. Um it's you know, so as like I said, woodworking, gardening. Uh I didn't say gardening, uh bread baking gardening, um I kind of dabbled in play clay a little bit. I just fairly recently started leather craft. I touched that a little bit a while ago. I have done some mini painting. I haven't done nearly as much as I want, but I I think that I'm gonna try doing that a little bit more. Um but some of these, like just manual, tactile, forcing you to slow down kind of things. Um I think it's been good. Uh and so going back to the typewriter, I went way off track, and I'm sorry about that. I'd mentioned that it forces you to slow down. And uh I think it's pretty much what I focused on with that uh going analog article. I actually wrote the article on the typewriter, and then I made the edits in red. Yeah, there you go. You can see it there. Okay. So I made the edits in red, and then I hand-typed it up rather than like scanning it. I just typed it all up again uh with my edits, and so that became the article, but that picture, the you'll see in the article currently it's the hero image, the featured image, which is the first thing that you see for the article. Uh, and then in the article, there's a picture of the typewriter uh sitting outside because I was very excited. I was able to finally um get a table that's just the right height so that I can I can type out on my porch. Um and it's quiet enough. If for those of you who are worried about my neighbors, it's quiet enough that like you do hear some tap- tap-bit it's really not like insane. I've I've between the typewriter itself and the little pads that I've developed for it, it's it's pretty darn quiet. Um But anyway, so I I might flip those by the time you see or or hear this. Um, but uh I think it's important to show the process because how did I put this at the end? Uh the end says, remember, no matter how polished we present something, there was always a beginning. And that was the whole point of that was there's a process to it. And seeing the red marks is actually a good thing. Um, rather than just typing something up and then just hitting backspace and not seeing the progress that you've made uh because you're worried about the mistakes. And so what I'm gonna do is whenever I write an article with the typewriter, I'm going to include a picture of it with the the red marks, whatever edits I make. Because I think it's uh it's really important, especially because of the way that social media does everything to present the perfection. And uh we're human, we're not perfect. And I think that should be celebrated. And uh yeah. That's it. I'm gonna do more of this stuff uh when I can do this stuff. So I don't have a weekly cadence. I tried that, just can't do it. Sometimes uh I'm too busy, sometimes my mental capacity because I'm I'm working, but I own a business, so I'm uh and and I've tried to develop the hamster wheel so I'm not overwhelmed, but sometimes even just thinking about the business all the time, or it's like, oh, I've been doing even if I'm not actively working for clients, it's like trying to find clients and um, you know, doing the finances and and taxes and you know all the admin stuff that goes with it. It's just tiring, right? So I uh sometimes I just don't feel like it. I don't feel like turning this on. Um because I also don't think that it would be a very like it yeah, if I'm just trying to feed the machine, I should, but I'm not. I'm trying to feed my machine because you can't see it. If if you if you're just listening, I'm I'm pointing at myself. I'm the machine. Um anyway, uh that's it for today. And uh until next time, be good to each other.