i pencil essay notes

I, Pencil | Summary & Analysis

Summary of i, pencil by leonard e. read.

I, Pencil is an essay written by  Leonard E. Read , which tells the story of a simple wooden pencil and explores the  complex network of individuals, skills, and resources involved in its creation . The pencil serves as a metaphor for the spontaneous order and creative power of free markets. The essay emphasizes the importance of individual freedom, voluntary cooperation, and the division of labor in driving economic prosperity and innovation.

I, Pencil | Summary

“I, Pencil” is an essay that  personifies a wooden pencil , narrating its journey from its humble beginnings as a tree to its complex production process involving a vast network of individuals and resources. The pencil expresses a sense of being taken for granted and overlooked despite its remarkable origins. It argues that it  symbolizes a multitude of miracles  and carries a profound lesson about the wonders of spontaneous order and the importance of individual freedom.

The essay begins by introducing the pencil as a  writing instrument  and stating that its sole purpose is to write. It highlights its intriguing story and laments being undervalued and seen as a common object. It emphasizes the need for people to wonder and appreciate the extraordinary aspects of everyday items. It invites the reader to examine it closely, revealing its components:  wood, lacquer, printed labeling, graphite lead, metal, and an eraser . The pencil then delves into its rich family tree, starting with the  cedar tree  from which it originates in Northern California and Oregon. It describes the intricate process of logging and the myriad skills involved in bringing the cedar logs to the mill,  including mining, steelmaking, rope production, and food cultivation . The essay emphasizes the interconnectedness of various individuals and industries in creating the pencil.

After the logs are transported to a mill in  San Leandro, California , the pencil explains the intricate millwork required to transform the cedar logs into thin slats. It highlights the use of  wax, kiln drying, and the addition of tint to enhance its appearance . The essay acknowledges the multitude of skills and processes involved, such as concrete pouring for power generation, transportation logistics, and the collaboration of countless individuals to transport the slats across the nation. Once in the pencil factory, the slats undergo a series of processes using complex machinery, including the  application of grooves, the insertion of leads, and the use of glue . These processes culminate in the creation of the pencil’s “wood-clinched” sandwich structure. The essay describes the extensive refining process for graphite, which involves miners, toolmakers, paper sack manufacturers, shipping personnel, and lighthouse keepers.

The pencil’s ferrule, made of brass, leads to a discussion about  the mining of zinc and copper and the skills required to convert them into sheet brass . The essay highlights the presence of black nickel on the ferrule and explains its application. It also explores the creation of the eraser, which involves a rubber-like substance made from rape-seed oil and various chemicals. The essay touches on vulcanization and the sourcing of pigments. The pencil concludes by emphasizing that the creation of a pencil involves the  collaboration of countless individuals, each contributing a tiny fraction of the knowledge and expertise required . It argues that no single person possesses the complete know-how to make a pencil, just as no individual could create a tree. The essay asserts that  the absence of a central planner or mastermind is a testament to the power of voluntary cooperation and the “Invisible Hand” at work .

I, Pencil | Analysis

The essay effectively employs  personification by giving voice to the pencil , which serves as a persuasive technique to engage the reader emotionally and anthropomorphize the object. By presenting the pencil as a narrator with feelings and a desire to be appreciated, the essay attempts to evoke empathy and curiosity in the reader. While the essay portrays the pencil as a marvel of interconnectedness, it  simplifies the complexity of modern production processes . 

The essay primarily attributes the pencil’s creation to individual human efforts and the spontaneous order of free markets. It does not delve into the  influence of external factors such as regulations, environmental impact, labor conditions, or the role of innovation and technological advancements . The essay’s narrow focus on the creative power of individuals and the absence of centralized direction might overlook potential challenges and issues within the economic system.

I, Pencil | Themes

The essay celebrates the  concept of spontaneous order , wherein the countless individual actions of self-interested actors contribute to the overall coordination and functioning of society. It argues that the marvel of the pencil’s creation arises naturally from the voluntary cooperation and exchange of individuals pursuing their interests. This theme emphasizes the idea that complex systems can emerge without central planning or a “master mind.”

The essay presents a  critique of centralized planning and governmental “master-minding.”  It argues that relying on central authorities to direct economic activities inhibits the natural creative forces and limits the potential for innovation and progress. It advocates for a decentralized, market-driven approach to economic organization.

I, Pencil | Character Sketch

I, pencil | literary devices.

The essay  personifies  the pencil, giving it human qualities and a voice. By doing so, it allows the pencil to narrate its own story and engage the reader on a more emotional level, fostering empathy and curiosity.

The text utilizes  anecdotes  and examples to support its arguments and engage the reader. It recounts specific instances, such as the roles of different individuals in the production of the pencil, to provide concrete evidence and make the narrative more relatable.

 “Does anyone wish to challenge my earlier assertion?”

 “Isn’t it because we realize that we could not make one?”

The  essay repeats certain phrases and ideas  to emphasize their importance and create a rhetorical impact. For instance, the repetition of the phrase “I, Pencil” throughout the text reinforces the pencil’s role as the central narrator and protagonist.

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Originally published in the December 1958 issue of The Freeman , this essay is written in the first-person from the perspective of a pencil, explaining its complexity and defending Adam Smith 's concept of an invisible hand acting in free markets.

• 1 Complicated Machinery
• 2 No One Knows

​ I am a lead pencil—the ordinary wooden pencil familiar to all boys and girls and adults who can read and write. [1]

Writing is both my vocation and my avocation; that's all I do.

You may wonder why I should write a genealogy. Well, to begin with, my story is interesting. And, next, I am a mystery—more so than a tree or a sunset or even a flash of lightning. But, sadly, I am taken for granted by those who use me, as if I were a mere incident and without background. This supercilious attitude relegates me to the level of the commonplace. This is a species of the grievous error in which mankind cannot too long persist without peril. For, as a wise man observed, "We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders." [2]

I, Pencil, simple though I appear to be, merit your wonder and awe, a claim I shall attempt to prove. In fact, if you can understand me—no, that's too much to ask of anyone—if you can become aware of the miraculousness ​ which I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing. I have a profound lesson to teach. And I can teach this lesson better than can an automobile or an airplane or a mechanical dishwasher because—well, because I am seemingly so simple.

Simple? Yet, not a single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me . This sounds fantastic, doesn't it? Especially when it is realized that there are about one and one-half billion of my kind produced in the U. S. A. each year.

Pick me up and look me over. What do you see? Not much meets the eye—there’s some wood, lacquer, the printed labeling, graphite lead, a bit of metal, and an eraser.

Just as you cannot trace your family tree back very far, so is it impossible for me to name and explain all my antecedents. But I would like to suggest enough of them to impress upon you the richness and complexity of my background.

My family tree begins with what in fact is a tree, a cedar of straight grain that grows in Northern California and Oregon . Now contemplate all the saws and trucks and rope and the countless other gear used in harvesting and carting the cedar logs to the railroad siding. Think of all the persons and the numberless skills that went into their fabrication: the mining of ore, the making of steel and its refinement into saws, axes, motors; the growing of hemp and bringing it through all the stages to heavy and strong rope; the logging camps with their beds and mess halls, the cookery and the raising of all the ​ foods. Why, untold thousands of persons had a hand in every cup of coffee the loggers drink!

The logs are shipped to a mill in San Leandro , California. Can you imagine the individuals who make flat cars and rails and railroad engines and who construct and install the communication systems incidental thereto? These legions are among my antecedents.

Consider the millwork in San Leandro. The cedar logs are cut into small, pencil-length slats less than one-fourth of an inch in thickness. These are kiln dried and then tinted for the same reason women put rouge on their faces. People prefer that I look pretty, not a pallid white. The slats are waxed and kiln dried again. How many skills went into the making of the tint and the kilns, into supplying the heat, the light and power, the belts, motors, and all the other things a mill requires? Sweepers in the mill among my ancestors? Yes, and included are the men who poured the concrete for the dam of a Pacific Gas & Electric Company hydroplant which supplies the mill's power!

Don’t overlook the ancestors present and distant who have a hand in transporting sixty carloads of slats across the nation from California to Wilkes-Barre!

Complicated Machinery

​ Once in the pencil factory—$4,000,000 in machinery and building, all capital accumulated by thrifty and saving parents of mine—each slat is given eight grooves by a complex machine, after which another machine lays leads ​ in every other slat, applies glue, and places another slat atop—a lead sandwich, so to speak. Seven brothers and I are mechanically carved from this "wood-clinched" sandwich.

My "lead" itself—it contains no lead at all—is complex. The graphite is mined in Ceylon . Consider these miners and those who make their many tools and the makers of the paper sacks in which the graphite is shipped and those who make the string that ties the sacks and those who put them aboard ships and those who make the ships. Even the lighthouse keepers along the way assisted in my birth—and the harbor pilots.

The graphite is mixed with clay from Mississippi in which ammonium hydroxide is used in the refining process. Then wetting agents are added such as sulfonated tallow —animal fats chemically reacted with sulfuric acid . After passing through numerous machines, the mixture finally appears as endless extrusions—as from a sausage grinder—cut to size, dried, and baked for several hours at 1,850 degrees Fahrenheit. To increase their strength and smoothness the leads are then treated with a hot mixture which includes candelilla wax from Mexico , paraffin wax , and hydrogenated natural fats.

My cedar receives six coats of lacquer. Do you know all of the ingredients of lacquer? Who would think that the growers of castor beans and the refiners of castor oil are a part of it? They are. Why, even the processes by which the lacquer is made a beautiful yellow involves the skills of more persons than one can enumerate!

Observe the labeling. That's a film formed by applying ​ heat to carbon black mixed with resins. How do you make resins and what, pray, is carbon black?

My bit of metal—the ferrule —is brass . Think of all the persons who mine zinc and copper and those who have the skills to make shiny sheet brass from these products of nature. Those black rings on my ferrule are black nickel . What is black nickel and how is it applied? The complete story of why the center of my ferrule has no black nickel on it would take pages to explain.

Then there's my crowning glory, inelegantly referred to in the trade as "the plug," the part man uses to erase the errors he makes with me. An ingredient called "factice" is what does the erasing. It is a rubber-like product made by reacting rape seed oil from the Dutch East Indies with sulfur chloride . Rubber, contrary to the common notion, is only for binding purposes. Then, too, there are numerous vulcanizing and accelerating agents. The pumice comes from Italy ; and the pigment which gives "the plug" its color is cadium sulfide .

Does anyone wish to challenge my earlier assertion that no single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me?

No One Knows

​ Actually, millions of human beings have had a hand in my creation, no one of whom even knows more than a very few of the others. Now, you may say that I go too far in relating the picker of a coffee berry in far off Brazil and food growers elsewhere to my creation; that this is ​ an extreme position. I shall stand by my claim. There isn't a single person in all these millions, including the president of the pencil company, who contributes more than a tiny, infinitesimal bit of know-how. From the standpoint of know-how the only difference between the miner of graphite in Ceylon and the logger in Oregon is in the type of know-how. Neither the miner nor the logger can be dispensed with, any more than can the chemist at the factory or the worker in the oil field—paraffin being a by-product of petroleum.

Here is an astounding fact: Neither the worker in the oil field nor the chemist nor the digger of graphite or clay nor any who mans or makes the ships or trains or trucks nor the one who runs the machine that does the knurling on my bit of metal nor the president of the company performs his singular task because he wants me. Each one wants me less, perhaps, than does a child in the first grade. Indeed, there are some among this vast multitude who never saw a pencil nor would they know how to use one. Their motivation is other than me. Perhaps it is something like this: Each of these millions sees that he can thus exchange his tiny know-how for the goods and services he needs or wants. I may or may not be among these items.

There is a fact still more astounding: The absence of a master mind, of anyone dictating or forcibly directing these countless actions which bring me into being. No trace of such a person can be found. Instead, we find the Invisible Hand at work. This is the mystery to which I earlier referred.

It has been said that "only God can make a tree." Why do we agree with this? Isn't it because we realize that we ourselves could not make one? Indeed, can we even describe a tree? We cannot, except in superficial terms. We can say, for instance, that a certain molecular configuration manifests itself as a tree. But what mind is there among men that could even record, let alone direct, the constant changes in molecules that transpire in the life span of a tree? Such a feat is utterly unthinkable!

I, Pencil, am a complex combination of miracles: a tree, zinc, copper, graphite, and so on. But to these miracles which manifest themselves in Nature an even more extraordinary miracle has been added: the configuration of creative human energies—millions of tiny know-hows configurating naturally and spontaneously in response to human necessity and desire and in the absence of any human master-minding! Since only God can make a tree, I insist that only God could make me. Man can no more direct these millions of know-hows to bring me into being than he can put molecules together to create a tree.

The above is what I meant when writing, "If you can become aware of the miraculousness which I symbolize, ​ you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing." For, if one is aware that these know-hows will naturally, yes, automatically, arrange themselves into creative and productive patterns in response to human necessity and demand—that is, in the absence of governmental or any other coercive master-minding—then one will possess an absolutely essential ingredient for freedom: a faith in free men . Freedom is impossible without this faith.

Once government has had a monopoly of a creative activity such, for instance, as the delivery of the mails, most individuals will believe that the mails could not be efficiently delivered by men acting freely. And here is the reason: Each one acknowledges that he himself doesn't know how to do all the things incident to mail delivery. He also recognizes that no other individual could do it. These assumptions are correct. No individual possesses enough know-how to perform a nation's mail delivery any more than any individual possesses enough know-how to make a pencil. Now, in the absence of a faith in free men—in the unawareness that millions of tiny know-hows would naturally and miraculously form and cooperate to satisfy this necessity—the individual cannot help but reach the erroneous conclusion that mail can be delivered only by governmental "master-minding."

If I, Pencil, were the only item that could offer testimony on what men can accomplish when free to try, then those with little faith would have a fair case. However, there is testimony galore; it's all about us and on every hand. Mail delivery is exceedingly simple when ​ compared, for instance, to the making of an automobile or a calculating machine or a grain combine or a milling machine or to tens of thousands of other things. Delivery? Why, in this area where men have been left free to try, they deliver the human voice around the world in less than one second; they deliver an event visually and in motion to any person's home when it is happening; they deliver 150 passengers from Seattle to Baltimore in less than four hours; they deliver gas from Texas to one's range or furnace in New York at unbelievably low rates and without subsidy; they deliver each four pounds of oil from the Persian Gulf to our Eastern Seaboard —half-way around the world—for less money than the government charges for delivering a one-ounce letter across the street!

The lesson I have to teach is this: Leave all creative energies uninhibited . Merely organize society to act in harmony with this lesson. Let society's legal apparatus remove all obstacles the best it can. Permit these creative know-hows freely to flow. Have faith that free men will respond to the Invisible Hand. This faith will be confirmed. I, Pencil, seemingly simple though I am, offer the miracle of my creation as testimony that this is a practical faith, as practical as the sun, the rain, a cedar tree, the good earth.

• ↑ My official name is "Mongol 482." My many ingredients are assembled, fabricated, and finished by Eberhard Faber Pencil Company, Wilkes-Barre , Pennsylvania .
• ↑ G. K. Chesterton .

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was legally published within the United States (or the United Nations Headquarters in New York subject to Section 7 of the United States Headquarters Agreement ) before 1964, and copyright was not renewed.

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Works published in 1958 would have had to renew their copyright in either 1985 or 1986, i.e. at least 27 years after they were first published/registered but not later than 31 December in the 28th year. As this work's copyright was not renewed, it entered the public domain on 1 January 1987.

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“I, Pencil” is an essay by Leonard Read. The full title is “I, Pencil: My Family Tree as Told to Leonard E. Read” and it was first published in the December 1958 issue of The Freeman. It was reprinted in The Freeman in May 1996 and as a pamphlet entitled “I… Pencil” in May 1998. In the reprint, Milton Friedman wrote the introduction and Donald J. Boudreaux wrote the afterword. Friedman (the 1976 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics) used the essay in his 1980 PBS television show Free to Choose and the accompanying book of the same name. In the 2008 50th Anniversary Edition, the introduction is written by Lawrence W. Reed and Friedman wrote the afterword.

“I, Pencil” is written in the first person from the point of view of a pencil. The pencil details the complexity of its own creation, listing its components (cedar, lacquer, graphite, ferrule, factice, pumice, wax, glue) and the numerous people involved, down to the sweeper in the factory and the lighthouse keeper guiding the shipment into port.

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I, Pencil: A Brilliant Vintage Allegory of How Everything Is Connected

By maria popova.

In 1958, libertarian writer and Foundation for Economic Education founder Leonard Read (September 26, 1898–May 14, 1983) set out to remedy this civilizational injustice in a marvelous essay titled “I, Pencil,” published in Essays on Liberty ( public library ). In a clever allegory, Read delivers his enduring point about the power of free market economy. Casting the pencil as a first-person narrator, he illustrates its astounding complexity to reveal the web of dependencies and vital interconnectedness upon which humanity’s needs and knowledge are based, concluding with a clarion call for protecting the creative freedom making this possible.

Read begins:

I am a lead pencil — the ordinary wooden pencil familiar to all boys and girls and adults who can read and write. Writing is both my vocation and my avocation; that’s all I do. You may wonder why I should write a genealogy. Well, to begin with, my story is interesting. And, next, I am a mystery—more so than a tree or a sunset or even a flash of lightning. But, sadly, I am taken for granted by those who use me, as if I were a mere incident and without background. This supercilious attitude relegates me to the level of the commonplace. This is a species of the grievous error in which mankind cannot too long persist without peril. For, as a wise man observed, “We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders.”

Half a century before Thomas Thwaites set out to illustrate the complex interdependencies of what we call civilization by making a toaster from scratch , Read writes:

I, Pencil, simple though I appear to be, merit your wonder and awe, a claim I shall attempt to prove. In fact, if you can understand me — no, that’s too much to ask of anyone — if you can become aware of the miraculousness which I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing. I have a profound lesson to teach. And I can teach this lesson better than can an automobile or an airplane or a mechanical dishwasher because — well, because I am seemingly so simple. Simple? Yet, not a single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me .

Tracing the pencil’s journey from raw material — “a cedar of straight grain that grows in Northern California and Oregon” — to the hands of “all the persons and the numberless skills” involved in its fabrication, Read considers the rich cultural and practical substrata of all these skills and production mechanisms:

Consider the millwork in San Leandro. The cedar logs are cut into small, pencil-length slats less than one-fourth of an inch in thickness. These are kiln dried and then tinted for the same reason women put rouge on their faces. People prefer that I look pretty, not a pallid white. The slats are waxed and kiln dried again. How many skills went into the making of the tint and the kilns, into supplying the heat, the light and power, the belts, motors, and all the other things a mill requires? Sweepers in the mill among my ancestors? Yes, and included are the men who poured the concrete for the dam of a Pacific Gas & Electric Company hydroplant which supplies the mill’s power! Don’t overlook the ancestors present and distant who have a hand in transporting sixty carloads of slats across the nation from California to Wilkes-Barre!

He goes on to delineate the global reaches of the production process — from the pencil’s lead derived from graphite mined in Ceylon to Mexican candelilla wax used used to increase its strength and smoothness to the rapeseed oil Dutch East Indies involved in the creation of its “crowning glory,” the eraser — ultimately pointing to the pencil as a supreme example of Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” at work:

Actually, millions of human beings have had a hand in my creation, no one of whom even knows more than a very few of the others… There isn’t a single person in all these millions, including the president of the pencil company, who contributes more than a tiny, infinitesimal bit of know-how. From the standpoint of know-how the only difference between the miner of graphite in Ceylon and the logger in Oregon is in the type of know-how. Neither the miner nor the logger can be dispensed with, any more than can the chemist at the factory or the worker in the oil field — paraffin being a by-product of petroleum. Here is an astounding fact: Neither the worker in the oil field nor the chemist nor the digger of graphite or clay nor any who mans or makes the ships or trains or trucks nor the one who runs the machine that does the knurling on my bit of metal nor the president of the company performs his singular task because he wants me. Each one wants me less, perhaps, than does a child in the first grade. Indeed, there are some among this vast multitude who never saw a pencil nor would they know how to use one. Their motivation is other than me. Perhaps it is something like this: Each of these millions sees that he can thus exchange his tiny know-how for the goods and services he needs or wants. I may or may not be among these items.

Above all, Read suggests, the pencil attests to the godliness of the human capacity for connected imagination. In a sardonic dual jab at religious creationism and excessive government control, Read summons the last line from Joyce Kilmer’s 1918 poem “Trees” and writes:

It has been said that “only God can make a tree.” Why do we agree with this? Isn’t it because we realize that we ourselves could not make one? Indeed, can we even describe a tree? We cannot, except in superficial terms. We can say, for instance, that a certain molecular configuration manifests itself as a tree. But what mind is there among men that could even record, let alone direct, the constant changes in molecules that transpire in the life span of a tree? Such a feat is utterly unthinkable! I, Pencil, am a complex combination of miracles: a tree, zinc, copper, graphite, and so on. But to these miracles which manifest themselves in Nature an even more extraordinary miracle has been added: the configuration of creative human energies — millions of tiny know-hows configurating naturally and spontaneously in response to human necessity and desire and in the absence of any human master-minding! Since only God can make a tree, I insist that only God could make me. Man can no more direct these millions of know-hows to bring me into being than he can put molecules together to create a tree. The above is what I meant when writing, “If you can become aware of the miraculousness which I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing.” For, if one is aware that these know-hows will naturally, yes, automatically, arrange themselves into creative and productive patterns in response to human necessity and demand — that is, in the absence of governmental or any other coercive master-minding — then one will possess an absolutely essential ingredient for freedom: a faith in free men . Freedom is impossible without this faith.

Just a few years earlier, pencil-lover Steinbeck had written in East of Eden : “The free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.” Whether Read read Steinbeck and succumbed to cryptomnesia or arrived at this strikingly similar sentiment independently is only cause for speculation, but his larger point — one as pertinent to public policy as it is to the private creative endeavor — is what endures with its own timeless miraculousness:

If I, Pencil, were the only item that could offer testimony on what men can accomplish when free to try, then those with little faith would have a fair case. However, there is testimony galore; it’s all about us and on every hand. Mail delivery is exceedingly simple when compared, for instance, to the making of an automobile or a calculating machine or a grain combine or a milling machine or to tens of thousands of other things. Delivery? Why, in this area where men have been left free to try, they deliver the human voice around the world in less than one second; they deliver an event visually and in motion to any person’s home when it is happening; they deliver 150 passengers from Seattle to Baltimore in less than four hours; they deliver gas from Texas to one’s range or furnace in New York at unbelievably low rates and without subsidy; they deliver each four pounds of oil from the Persian Gulf to our Eastern Seaboard — half-way around the world — for less money than the government charges for delivering a one-ounce letter across the street! The lesson I have to teach is this: Leave all creative energies uninhibited . Merely organize society to act in harmony with this lesson. Let society’s legal apparatus remove all obstacles the best it can. Permit these creative know-hows freely to flow. Have faith that free men will respond to the Invisible Hand. This faith will be confirmed. I, Pencil, seemingly simple though I am, offer the miracle of my creation as testimony that this is a practical faith, as practical as the sun, the rain, a cedar tree, the good earth.

Half a century after Read penned his brilliant essay, it was adapted into an animated film illustrating how the same “complex combination of miracles” plays out on various scales in our modern lives:

For an equally pause-giving contemporary counterpart, see The Toaster Project .

Perhaps Ada Lovelace, the world’s first computer programmer — and what, if not computing, is the height of Read’s miraculous web of know-hows? — put it best when she wrote that “everything is naturally related and interconnected.”

— Published June 3, 2015 — https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/06/03/i-pencil-leonard-read/ —

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“Eloquent. Extraordinary. Timeless. Paradigm-shifting. Classic. Half a century after it first appeared, Leonard Read’s ‘I, Pencil’ still evokes such adjectives of praise. Rightfully so, for this little essay opens eyes and minds among people of all ages. Many first-time readers never see the world quite the same again.” ~ Lawrence W. Reed

Hundreds of thousands of Americans of all ages continue to enjoy this simple and beautiful explanation of the miracle of the “invisible hand” by following the production of an ordinary pencil. Read shows that none of us knows enough to plan the creative actions and decisions of others.

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27 pages • 54 minutes read

I, Pencil: My Family Tree as Told to Leonard E. Read

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Discussion Questions

Why did Read chose to write his essay from the first-person point of view of a pencil, and how does this unusual perspective impact the essay’s thematic effect?

Read’s argument centers on the notion of “the Invisible Hand ,” but he never actually defines the term. What are the origins of this term, and how has its meaning been analyzed and debated by modern economists? Which interpretation does Read employ?

Read repeatedly refers to “freedom” and “free people.” What do these terms mean to him, and why are they so important? Are there other ways of understanding “freedom” that might call into question Read’s absolute faith in the societal benefits of laissez-faire capitalism?

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“I, Pencil: My Family Tree” as told to Leonard E. Read, Dec. 1958

• Leonard E. Read (author)
• Milton Friedman (introduction)

A charming story which explains how something as apparently simple as a pencil is in fact the product of a very complex economic process based upon the division of labor, international trade, and comparative advantage.

• EBook PDF This text-based PDF or EBook was created from the HTML version of this book and is part of the Portable Library of Liberty.
• ePub ePub standard file for your iPad or any e-reader compatible with that format
• Kindle This is an E-book formatted for Amazon Kindle devices.

I Pencil: My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Reed (Irvington-on-Hudson, New York: Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., 1999).

Published online with the kind permission of the copyright holders, the Foundation for Economic Education.

• Economic theory. Demography

Related Collections:

• Popular Political Economy

Related People

Connected Readings

Read’s essay is inspried in part by the pin factory Adam Smith describes in Book I, Chapter 1 of the Wealth of Nations.

AdamSmithWorks

What can we learn about our own world from Smith? Join the workers in an 18th century pin factory to find out more…

Competitive Enterprise Institute

A guided exploration of Smith’s classic text.

These Are the Rules of the CNN Presidential Debate

W hen President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump meet on the debate stage on June 27, they will do so under a new set of rules designed to avoid the chaotic scenes and frequent interruptions that marked their debates during the last election .

The new rules, introduced by CNN ahead of this year’s first presidential debate, include measures such as muted microphones to ensure each candidate's uninterrupted speaking time and the absence of a live audience to minimize external disruptions, a departure from the traditional framework governed by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates.

The rule changes were proposed as a way to prevent a repeat of the first debate of the 2020 presidential cycle, during which the candidates regularly attacked each other’s character. Trump repeatedly interrupted and heckled Biden, prompting Biden’s memorable retort, “Will you shut up, man?” The moderator often failed to get the discussion back on track.

Both Biden and Trump have endorsed the new rules and committed to participate in the televised debate. Here are the biggest changes.

Commercial breaks

For the first time in recent history, the debate will feature two commercial breaks during the 90-minute broadcast, a departure from past commission-hosted events which did not include corporate advertisements. (This year’s debates are not being overseen by the commission.) However, campaign staff will be prohibited from interacting with their respective candidates during these intermissions, denying them the opportunity for strategic consultations or to touch up the candidates’ appearance.

No opening statements

Unlike previous debates, there will be no opening statements. Instead, each candidate will deliver a two-minute closing statement at the conclusion of the debate. The debate will begin with a question, with candidates each allotted two minutes to respond. This will be followed by one-minute rebuttals and responses to the rebuttals, along with additional time at the moderators' discretion. Visual cues, such as flashing red lights, will alert candidates to their remaining speaking time.

Muted microphones, no notes

Both Biden and Trump will stand at identical lecterns, with their positions on stage determined by a coin toss administered by CNN. Microphones will be muted throughout the proceedings except when it is the candidate's turn to speak, a measure aimed at curtailing interruptions that have marred previous debates. CNN has said that moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash  “will use all tools at their disposal to enforce timing and ensure a civilized discussion.”

Each candidate will be provided with a pen, notepad, and a bottle of water on stage; however, no props or written notes will be allowed. 

No live audience 

In a departure from tradition, there will be no studio audience in an attempt to minimize disruptions during the debate. Typically, audience members are instructed to remain quiet while the candidates are speaking, but that rule has not always been followed.

No White House pool reporters

The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) President Kelly O’Donnell said in a statement on Thursday that CNN has rejected “repeated requests to include the White House travel pool inside the studio” for the Biden-Trump debate. The press pool includes journalists from many major news organizations that accompany the president on trips, usually having access to any public event he appears at.

O’Donnell said WHCA had been informed that one print reporter will be allowed in the studio during a commercial break “to briefly observe the setting,” but insisted that was “not sufficient” and “diminishes a core principle of presidential coverage.”

“The pool is there for the ‘what ifs?’ in a world where the unexpected does happen,” O’Donnell said.“A pool reporter is present to provide context and insight by direct observation and not through the lens of the television production. A pool reporter is an independent observer whose duties are separate from the production of the debate as a news event.”

CNN responded to the WHCA’s concerns in a statement , saying that while it respects the role of the association, the debate “is being held without an audience in a CNN studio and is closed to press.”

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It could happen that your iPad model can install GoodNotes 5 but does not support Apple Pencil. We strongly recommend using the Apple Pencil for the best note-taking experience, however not all iPads will be functional with the Apple Pencil, as such, here is a list of the devices that are compatible with both Apple Pencil 1st & 2nd generation:

Apple Pencil 1st generation works with the following iPads:

• iPad 10 (2022)
• iPad 9 (2021)
• iPad 8 (2020)
• iPad Air 3 (2019)
• iPad Mini 5 (2019)
• iPad 10.2in (aka iPad 7, 2019)
• iPad 9.7in (aka iPad 6, 2018)
• iPad Pro 12.9in (2nd gen, 2017)
• iPad Pro 10.5in (2nd gen, 2017)
• iPad Pro 9.7in (1st gen, 2016)
• iPad Pro 12.9in (1st gen, 2015)

Apple Pencil 2  works with the following iPads:

• iPad Air 5 (2022)
• iPad Air 4 (2020)
• iPad Mini 6 (2021)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch/11-inch 6th gen (2022)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch/11-inch 5th gen (2021)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch/11-inch 4th gen (2020)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch/11-inch 3rd gen (2018)

The following models can't use Apple Pencil (first or second generation):

• iPad 9.7in (aka iPad 5, 2017)
• iPad Mini 4 (2015)
• iPad Mini 3 (2014) *
• iPad Mini 2 (2013) *
• iPad Mini 1 (2012) *
• iPad Air 2 (2014)
• iPad Air 1 (2013) *
• iPad 4 (November 2012) *
• iPad 3 (March 2012) *
• iPad 2 (2011) *
• iPad 1 (2010) *

Logitech Crayon works with all iPads model above that were released in 2018 or later.

See also:  Which styluses does GoodNotes 5 support?

 * These models can't run GoodNotes, but are included in the list for the sake of completeness.