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  • I would suggest that the Dixon Ticonderoga is the most reliable, most cost-efficient, and easiest-to-use writing utinsil in the history of humanity.*

    Each other option has more points of potential failure and additional complexities over the Ticonderoga. While more complicated tools may net you some improvement in writing style or sharpness, they are massive trade-offs in more basic areas.

    This would be much the same question if it were "what car would you drive for the rest of your life" between fancy ones like Ferraris and Lambos to cheaper, more reliable ones like Corollas and Civics. Everyone likes the look of the Ferrari -- but the only car for the rest of your life? It's got to be reliable, or you're going nowhere. You want to be able to keep driving.

    The Ticonderoga guarantees you can keep writing.

    *intentionally overselling it for humor. But it is a nice, simple, good-quality pencil.

    1. I like the Zebra.Got them at Dollar Tree or one of the Dollar stores.

  • 6 every time.

    Also fuck 7, those butcher broke so easily.

    I had one similar to (not literally exactly) 6 back in high school, and some really dumb jock took it from me and I've wanted it back ever since.

    The Bic one is okay, but pushing directly on the eraser to push the lead out isn't ideal. I always thought that was a design flaw. Having the button on the side of the pencil but away from the index finger is ideal honestly.

    And even though we're not deciding based on lead size for this, I prefer the finer.5 to the more common .7.

    Plus the top has a pretty large eraser that you can twist to expose more, so it had a mechanical refillable eraser too, which was pretty cool.

    And I got mine in my favorite color, and that fucked just took it.

    I was a super sheltered kid, coming fresh off being completely homeschooled (except for a Christian kindergarten), and that year of school was my first social contact with other people outside grocery stores and church. So I didn't do much about it, as I didn't have a clue about how anything in real life worked. I wouldn't figure a lot of it out for still another 16 years, but that's a different story.

    Also at this point I haven't actually written anything at all with a pencil, pen, or marker for.... 15ish years now? Outside of signing my name anyway.

337 comments