Daniel Kahneman

Noise

1 Comment / Seen in the wild / / , ,

Daniel Kahneman’s new book will be out tomorrow.

His last book, released ten years ago, featured what appears to be a Mongol on the cover – with an extremely acute point, sharpened at 14°. At the time I did show a photo of the book cover with a Mongol on top so that you can compare the ferrule and the paint colour of the pencil to a Mongol.

It’s nice to see a pencil and also graphite lines on the cover of his new book as well. The pencil on the new cover seems to be the same pencil (same bite marks), mirrored in photo editing software.

You can find out more about Kahneman’s new book on Radio 4’s Start the Week programme.

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Sharpening, Acute and Obtuse

9 Comments / Pencils, Seen in the wild, Sharpeners / / , , ,

I’m not sure whether you’ve seen the cover of Daniel Kahneman’s book “Thinking, Fast and Slow”. On the cover is what looks like a Mongol with an incredibly acute point.

The angle of the pencil point seems to be 14°. I assume the image has not been stretched. Ok, the pencil looks as if it has been bitten specifically for the purpose of this photo. The eraser also looks as if it has been used up for the sake of using it up, uniform use with no trace of lead – but that point….

The pencil on the book cover next to a Venezuelan-made Mongol

 

14°… and it doesn’t look knife sharpened! Currently my list of sharpeners sorted by angle doesn’t have any sharpener that comes close to this. Unfortunately the book’s colophon doesn’t mention the photo on the cover. The UK edition states that the cover is designed by Yes, but there’s a good chance they just ‘rearranged’ the American cover and don’t have much to do with the pencil on the cover.

Any hint on what sharpener has been used to sharpen that pencil would be greatly appreciated.

 

I’d like to thank Sean because I got most of my Mongol pencils, like the one pictured, either through him or because he made me aware of where to get them. Thanks!

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