The changes that smartphones have brought to our lives include a movement to EDC. I think it comes from two things: 1) a realization that in our busy lives it actually helps to simplify if we can do more things on the go, which I will explain more in a minute, and 2) our electronic worlds give us a craving for the tactile, and so objects have become more relevant to us.
EDC now includes things like pens, pencils, and notebooks. As I mentioned, the tactile elements draw people now, and writing/journaling has taken off over the past 5 years or so. I am sure the folding knife market and the multitool market have heated up as well, and will continue to get hotter over the next 5 years.
When reading about why people EDC a knife, there are lots of examples of what they do with their knife on a daily basis, which is fun, but that is not why I EDC. I carried a SAK in my briefcase/bag for years, and over that time I realized that while it’s great that I knew exactly where my SAK was, it would be a lot better if it was on my person; and I also realized that the tool I used on it more than any other by a large margin was the knife. My problem with the SAK was that it was too fat to carry in my pocket.
So I decided to split my needs into a very small multitool (I got a Leatherman Micra) and a folding knife (I got a Delica, mostly because I am left handed and in addition to its perfect size and pocketability, it has a backlock and reversible clip).
Anyway, my main point is that with these items, I no longer have to look at something that needs attention and add it to a mental list to get to when I have the tool to do it. For example, I’ll open a cupboard drawer and notice that the drawer-pull is a bit loose. So I think to myself, I will have to get a Phillips-head driver out and fix that. Then a week later I open that drawer and think the same thing again. A week after that, I go to open the drawer, and wonder where the pull has gone…As another example, as boxes arrive in the house, they are part of some other task (like groceries, etc.), so I tend to throw the box into the basement to tear apart later when I have the boxcutter. A month later, I have another task to add to my mental list, which is to spend 20 minutes some time breaking down the pile of boxes in the basement. EDC takes care of these incidental tasks at the time, without getting in the way of the main task at hand. This morning I was sitting in my backyard with my wife, and next to my BBQ was a stray sapling that was now over 4 feet tall. I got up, walked over and cut it out with my EDC. Before having that EDC, I would have been hiring a guy 15 years from now to come cut down an accidental tree that never should have been there in the first place.
In the same way that my smartphone helps me to accomplish things while on the go (like the best way to get home to avoid traffic, or whether I should be buying a Delica or a Lil Native), my EDC helps me to take care of tasks that would otherwise not receive attention until they move to the top of my (always) long mental list of stuff to do. In this way, EDC saves me both time and stress, and provides the comfort that I can take care of most issues/problems that come up over the course of the day.
So when people ask me what I can do with that knife I just pulled out of my pocket that I can’t do with a boxcutter, I tell them that it’s not what I can do, it’s when I can do it.