Hi I'm Kyle from The Distilled Man. Have you ever noticed how we always celebrate new
technologies and novel ways of doing things? Change is exciting but after that
excitement wears off, we have to ask ourselves: does this actually make our
lives better? Sometimes more, bigger, better isn't
actually better. Occasionally we find that we actually got it right the first
time— or at least pretty close. So up next are
five classic things that I think are still better at the old fashioned way.
Real quick, I want to give a big thanks to OneBlade for sponsoring this video
and for supporting The Distilled Man. Number one, writing handwritten notes. So there's
no doubt that communication tools like email, IM, and text have made it a lot
easier and faster to keep people updated to share ideas and to maintain
relationships. But in many ways those technologies have also made
communication less personal. The ease of writing an email versus writing a letter
makes it easier to be sloppy and not be fully present while you're doing it, and
that's why I think writing handwritten letters and notes is even more important
than ever. First of all it's impossible to copy and paste a handwritten letter
so even if your your note is three to four sentences long, for the recipient
it's a very special thing because it shows that you gave your undivided
attention even if just for a minute just for them. So a few years ago my friend
Kyle Boureston, who in addition to having an awesome first name also has another
great site in the man space called Mantelligence, he came to a holiday party
of mine and a couple days later my wife and I got this card in the mail and it
was a thank-you note and you know it was only three sentences long or something
like that. But the fact that he took the time to write it down in a card and then
mail it physically just made it way more memorable and classy. Immediately I
thought, "damn it was bad enough that all the single ladies at the party wanted to
jump him and now he has to go and do this?! Freakin' overachiever!"
No but seriously, that old-school personal touch of writing a handwritten
note is something that can't be replicated by any kind of electronic
communication. Number two, traditional wet shaving. Have you ever noticed how with
mass-market cartridge razors they're always coming out with some new model
and everything is always about like extra blades, more whiz-bang
or more and more. "Get our newest cartridge razor system! It's the
Millennium Falcon Goose Maverick. It's got 16 blades and can
simultaneously take care of your stubbl, trim your eyebrow hair, and take care of
the pesky weeds in your garden." The thing is, when it comes to shaving more blades
are rarely better. Think about it. If you go to a get a shave from a professional
barber, what do they use? A single blade. Why is that? Because if done well, that
can actually give you a closer and more precise and more comfortable shave. So
even with a multi-blade cartridge razor it's usually one blade that's actually
doing the heavy lifting of cutting the hairs, and for the most part the other
blades are just sort of scraping against the skin, causing unnecessary redness and
irritation. Old school safety razors are great for getting a close shave but they
can be a little intimidating and sometimes they can take a little bit of
time getting used to. So a company called OneBlade has just introduced a razor
system that helps preserve the simplicity and precision of a single
blade shave. They've also added a few features that help incorporate some
modern comfort and forgiveness. It took them about two years and about a
thousand prototypes to come up with the OneBlade system. And after
deconstructing tons of other razors they found that the one thing that cartridge
razor had right was actually the pivoting head, because it can actually
help the shave be better and safer and closer because of the way that it
contours to your face. So the result is a single bladed razor that's actually
really easy to use and gives you a really extremely close and smooth shave
without the aggressiveness of the extra blades that can sometimes cause razor
burn and ingrown hairs. When OneBlade originally launched, they had a model
called the Genesis which, you know, was very well-regarded, won a bunch of
awards but it was also a bit pricier around three to four hundred bucks. But
now they have a new model called the the OneBlade Core which is a bit more
reasonably priced around 50 dollars. And I actually think it's a really good
transition razor from going from a cartridge to wet shaving because it
gives you very much the feel and precision of the single blade wet shave
razor but you also get a little bit more of that ease of use that you get from a
cartridge razor. So aside from kind of the sleek look of
the razor, it still feels very much like an old school safety razor. It's got a
solid aluminum core and it feels really well-balanced
and weighted. So since I have a beard I don't actually shave with a blade that
often but when I do I'll use my double edge safety razor. And sometimes it can
be a little bit cumbersome getting the blade on so one thing I like about the
the Core system is that it's a single edge blade so it's a little bit easier
to put on without sort of cutting your fingers. And then it also
has an audible click when it goes in so it's easy to know that you've got it in
there. So you can tell that the guys at OneBlade firmly believe that less is
more. I mean I like the fact that after all that R&D and after all that time
spent they didn't over complicate the design with, you know, a bunch of extra
features and bells and whistles. Instead what they did is they doubled down on
something that they knew already worked, which is the classic single blade system.
And they just made it easier and more comfortable to use. By the way, if you're
interested in checking out the Core razor they actually have a Core razor
starter kit that includes the Core razor, a display stand, a premium shaving brush,
moisturizing shave cream, post shave repair gel, and 30 feather blades, and it's
about a hundred and twenty-five dollars including shipping. Number three, real
face time not just facetime. Now being able to chat with someone and see their
face across the country or even across the world in real time is pretty great.
But it's still no substitute for good old-fashioned face-to-face time. Now this
is true in your professional and your personal life. I remember when I worked
in advertising I discovered that I could get more done with clients in a two hour
face-to-face meeting than in two weeks over phone or via email. Was it because
they just liked having me around? Well as I mentioned in another video, it probably
didn't hurt that I used to bring Donuts to the office all the time. Donuts
are like kryptonite for marketing executives. Anyway the reason why we got
so much done when I was there in person is that me being there physically
removed all the friction to communicate with me. Essentially, normally you know if
they wanted to start a new project with me they'd have to you know think about
it, kind of figure out what they wanted to do, type an email. And in some ways
that can be a barrier to timely communication. But with me there in
person it was a lot easier for us to just chat about the project casually and
help them formulate their thoughts even before we got started. Of course it's
pretty obvious that face to face time is great for personal relationships too.
That's why sometimes it's easier to rekindle an old friendship by spending a
long weekend together, just you know 48 hours of concentrated
in person time versus, you know, a series of Skype calls or IM or other
electronic communication. Partly it's because it's much easier to read the
nuances of each other's body language, but also being there in person forces
you to give your undivided attention so you can really fully focus on the other
person. So as good as video chat technology is, it's still no substitute
for genuine face time. Number four, photos that you can hold in your hand. So I'll
be the first to admit that digital photography is a huge advancement and by
and large a really great thing. Back in the day I had a Kodak Disc and I it was
a great camera. But I remember I had to be really choosy about how I was gonna
use those 24 exposures. 24! it's crazy right? I mean some of you probably take
more selfies than that before 10 a.m. So being able to take like a thousand
photos and not pay for film is huge. But here's what I do miss about old-school
photography: having physical prints. So right now I mean we take tons of photos
all the time but where do those photos photos usually end up?
Besides the few that get posted on social media, the bulk of them probably
go into folders on our hard drives where we very rarely actually remember to
scroll through them unless we're lucky enough to create one of those snazzy
animated screensavers. But that's nowhere near as good as having physical photos
on display either in a frame or in an album that you can flip through while
sitting on the couch. That's why whenever possible, my wife and I try to make
physical prints of our digital photos or try to make those pre-printed booklets
especially if it's a special, you know, a special occasion like pictures from a
vacation. There's still nothing like having real physical photos around your
house. You know obviously they're a great memory of special times and they're a
great conversation starter with visitors. Number five, staying connected to local
merchants. Now being able to buy stuff online is a lifesaver. First of all, it
makes Christmas shopping way easier. I also recognize that I have a Pavlovian
addiction to buying books on Amazon and that I can actually feel my pulse
elevate slightly when my thumb hovers over the "buy now with one click" button on
the Amazon app, and then again when I see that smiling yellow package on my
doorstep. But there's definitely something lost in not patronizing local
stores. I mean first of all there's that relationship that you miss out on. I mean
how great is it to walk into a place and have, you know, get that that "Norm"
treatment from Cheers. You know, where everybody knows your name?
Aso before we relied on a snazzy computer algorithm to give us that
recommendation of "you might also like blah" that information used to come
from a real life store clerk. Which meant you actually had to talk to someone when
you were shopping. But that interaction and that perspective was part of the
whole experience. Aside from the personalized attention you often get a
better overall experience and better product from shopping with a local
merchants too. For example, if you go to a butcher where they do whole beast
butchery, often that butcher can tell you not only how fresh the pork chops are
but they can tell you, you know, where that pig lived and then when it was
actually slaughtered. So even though sometimes it seems like newfangled
things are automatically better and that more is more sometimes that's just not
the case. What other classic things do you think are still better the
old-fashioned way? Leave me a note in the comments below. Once again, big thanks to
our sponsor OneBlade for making this video possible. And if you're interested
in checking out the OneBlade Core razor system I'll go ahead and leave a
link to that in the description below. And finally, if you want to see more
videos like this you can subscribe to my channel, and you can do that by hitting
The Distilled Man logo, which should be somewhere right around here I believe.
Thanks again for watching and I'll see you soon.