I’ve been keeping a notebook with multiple entries a week since about 2005. I’ve got 30 of them, full. Which makes me feel pretty nice. But in reality, I don’t

I’ve been keeping a notebook with multiple entries a week since about 2005. I’ve got 30 of them, full. Which makes me feel pretty nice. But in reality, I don’t actually revisit my notebooks very often. Their main purpose is to be a canvas on which I work out my thoughts. I’m an external processor, which means I need to get my thoughts out of my head in order to flesh them out. I talk them out often (see my burgeoning YouTube channel) but a notebook is an effective and societally acceptable way for me to work them out while in a coffee shop, during a lecture, or on an airplane. I tell people often when I am taking to them: “I’m writing while you talk because it helps me listen better.”