In praise of notebooks
"Don't play the notes, play the meaning of the notes" - while acclaimed cellist Pablo Casals meant it in a different context, it's inspo enough to be a feral polemic against the digital diktat.
Just do it: Ditching note-taking apps for old-fashioned pen and paper could do us good. #scribe
“Now I recognize there is a school of thought which will say something like “Whatever it is that will get you to successfully take notes is correct.” This is true if you are some kind of loser who doesn’t care about pens and paper, in which case, vaya con dios I guess.
Let’s start with what Altman is doing right: physically writing stuff down. I love my colleague David Pierce, but he is hideously wrong about basically every productivity tool because he insists on using a computer. At this point, we have multiple studies showing that writing by hand is better for learning and memory. You want to remember something? Write, don’t type.
And now we will continue with what Altman is doing wrong: most of the rest of it. I am not the world’s biggest fan of spiral-bound notebooks, but if you are going to use them, I recommend a reporter’s notebook. Besides lying flat, a top-bound reporter’s notebook is sized such that you can easily hold it in one hand and write with the other — making it much more convenient and portable than the one Altman is holding, which looks like an A6.”
The OG: Moleskine launches an advertising campaign to raise awareness of the importance of handwriting. #scrivener
“A notebook is a record of both solitude and connection. It’s a place for making real the quiet, flickering thoughts that otherwise might pass unnoticed, where words and sketches can stumble and fail. In a notebook, failure is less consequential because it’s not failure at all; it’s a necessary part of the messiness of exploration, of letting the unknown and the uncertain find form.”
Thoughts are precious: How journaling helps Gigi Hadid and Simone Biles manage anxiety, and how it could help you. #scribble
“I’m just one of tens of thousands of people around the world who’ve picked up journaling as a mainstay of my mental health hygiene over the past few years (the search term “journaling” surged on Google Trends in April 2024). And although people have journaled about their lives for centuries, journaling is having a modern moment in the spotlight.”
Consistent churn: The diary of the dead soldier…described the reckless tactic…and a “longing” to return to his homeland. #script
“In a 1998 essay about the release of a posthumous novel by Ernest Hemingway, a writer she idolized, Didion cast the publication as a betrayal of the author’s wishes. “You think something is in shape to be published or you don’t, and Hemingway didn’t,” she wrote.
Throughout her life and even in death, Didion remained an enigmatic figure, revered for her elusive, skeptical demeanor and her chiseled, penetrating prose. She rose to fame chronicling the turbulent cultural upheaval of the 1960s and ’70s, which she captured in groundbreaking essays that were collected in works like “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” and “The White Album.”
She also wrote extensively, often with the same cool detachment, about herself.”
Back to the future: America was futuristic once. Now all the crazy things are from Asia. #scrip
“This might be WIRED, and we do love some of the latest gadgets, but there's no more tried-and-true technology than a nice pen paired with a good paper notebook or journal. There's something about putting pen to paper that's infinitely more satisfying than hammering keys or tapping screens. The physical act of writing can be therapeutic or personally enlightening, and it might even help you remember things.
Like any technology that's this old, there’s a dizzying selection of notebooks to choose from. Spiral-bound, perfect bound, softcover, hardcover, pocket notebooks, bullet journals, daily journals—the list goes on. Then there's paper. Do you want Tomoe River paper? Clairefontaine paper? 100 gsm paper? 120 gsm? 80 gsm? Lined? Dot grid? Blank? It can overwhelming. To help you out, we've waded through the morass of details and spent two years testing notebooks of all types to come up with the best options for all kinds of writers, journalers, sketchbook lovers, and diarists.”
ICYMI - This Is Chappell Roan’s Grammys Notebook
“I was learning a hard lesson about the power of the brand. Others, however made a better go of it. From 2005 Leuchtturm, whose speciality had been stamp collectors’ albums, took on Moleskine, matching them for quality while offering—the vulgarity!—a range of colours; older companies like Clairefontaine, Rhodia, and Paperblanks refreshed their offerings. Western hipsters, always alert to high-end Japanese design, started to import notebooks from companies like Midori, Hobonichi, and Stalogy, which bested any of the European brands with their exquisite papers and bindings (Moleskine and Leuchtturm both use mainly Taiwanese paper). In the US, Field Notes struck a utilitarian chord with a mid-century aesthetic. All presented a fresh spin on the basic product, and all benefited from the product building that Moleskine had done. If you cared for upmarket stationery, the 2010s were a golden age.
At the same time, the Moleskine became a potent status symbol. Tech CEOs toted them, as did the designers, journalists, and writers whom Sebregondi had envisaged—and even more people whose aspirations perhaps outran their actual creativity.”
― Roland Allen, The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper
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