[cyberferret]

As another commenter mentioned - when writing something meaningful, doing it with a fountain pen adds an air of magic about it. I've just returned from a 'bucket list' overseas trip, and every day, I wrote in a journal about my experiences. Somehow, doing it with a cheap ballpoint doesn't seem as special as sitting down and getting my deepest emotions and thoughts down on paper with a nice fountain pen.

To re-frame your analogy to suit a more HN centric view: Why would most developers bother with the hassle and maintenance of Linux when they could just slap Windows 10 on a PC and code away in an IDE easily?

[rootusrootus]

I don't like your analogy much because Windows makes me much less efficient, not more. Everything is more hassle, getting the right tools is a pain, etc. I code primarily on OSX and even though I have PyCharm, I find I go much faster with vim. Yes I am old.

In any case, I love my fountain pen. Not expensive, just a Pilot Metropolitan. I don't have the hand stamina that I did back when I had to handwrite practically everything, so I really appreciate the effortless experience of using a fountain pen.