I could not agree with this more. I have been a compulsive pen-and-paper note-taker my whole life, and while I've watched others and made attempts myself to take notes on laptops or other electronic devices, I always reverted to chronological paper notebooks.
Interestingly, pretty much everything I take notes on ends up later in some electronic form (anaylst research, Facebook diary posts, Substack pieces, Excel spreadsheets, etc.), so between those and my Google calendar, I can usually search out the date I took the notes and direct myself to the original pages. I did jettison almost 40 years of work-related notebooks when I retired (too much to store, needed to go to the shredder for legal reasons), but the important content had been already transcribed, and I still have everything from college and high school, as well as my retired years. I also have some small notebooks in my fishing and shooting bags, as well as ones in my classic cars to jot both minutiae (that dry fly your guide suggested that caught a lot of fish, a kind of ammunition that was especially effective, etc.) impressions as they happen.
People remark that I have a photographic memory. I don't, but can find everything in my notebooks in minutes. I also find the physical act of writing serves as a great memory-reinforcer.
When I see someone *not* taking notes, who invariably say that they're remembering everything (sort of akin to how people who say "breakfast is the most important meeting of the day" are usually fat), I view it as insulting. I once had a boss who reprimanded me "why are you always taking notes?". I never thought of him the same way after that.
By the way, every time I see Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks (pages of which I viewed in person at the Queen's Gallery in London), I always think of Doug Kenney's March 1971 parody, pp. 31-35 of this https://1drv.ms/b/c/5ed4c22a9f7768df/Ed9od58qwtQggF5I8AIAAAAB78DECCPviW2G3HuhIuOM4Q . Along with French artist Daniel Maffia, Kenney shows us the "Hulus Hoopus" that can be used to alleviate "Eccesso Obesito Del Gross Stomacchi", a rolling mousetrap on wheels, Batman's bat signal, "Una Volante Pizza"), and a heart-transplant procedure involving "mio cane Fido" or "mio stupido e gullibilio assistante Mario" as the donor.
This is such a fantastic comment—thank you for sharing it. Your system of living, breathing note-taking is a masterclass in analog discipline. I completely agree: the physical act of writing does forge a deeper memory trace. There’s something about the friction of the pen on paper that helps encode thought more lastingly than a blinking cursor ever could.
Also, the da Vinci parody is hilarious!! I hadn’t seen it before.
On a related note—no pun this time—I’m also a fishing aficionado, and there’s something about taking notes in the wilderness—a quiet magic in those handwritten moments
P.S. I noticed as I aged that when I'd go to a broker corporates conference, in group meetings I'd be seated in front of a management team at a round table in a cramped hotel room with 3-6 other 20-30-something kids all typing on iPad keyboards simultaneously, the Chicklet keyboards of which created an annoying racket and made everyone look and sound like courtroom stenographers instead of analysts/fund managers. I'm certain I often elicited better answers because I could make better eye contact than someone staring at a screen ... with a 50% shot they were just bored and surfing the 'net!
"Perhaps the greatest tactic requires only a pen and paper. In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear suggests creating barriers to break our bad habits. Remove the TV from the bedroom, or store chocolate in a cupboard far, far away. Note-taking creates a barrier for the compulsive talker. Jot down everything you want to say during a meeting, no matter how big or small, then wait for your turn to speak, like a patient child. Before talking, review your notes to identify the points that deliver value. I assure you that few will. We are far less interesting than we assume. Note-taking provides visual evidence of overtalking, showing you all the things that you would have said, left to your own devices."
As well, the realization that most of us really don't have anything to say in the first place hits hard https://gunnarmiller.substack.com/p/dead-sea-scrolling . He echoes my "Dunning-Kruger for online humor" observations as well:
"Deleting social apps removes any doubt that social media is addictive. I experienced genuine withdrawal symptoms: a touch of irritability here, a hint of anxiety there. Small-scale Fomo washed over me, as though all the cool kids were hanging out on Elon Musk’s X. But the withdrawal symptoms soon dissipated and left me in a state of embarrassment – embarrassed by my past actions, as if I could not recognise the man I was back then, all those hours ago. The compulsion to opine on any given topic at any given time, that most universal form of entitlement, suddenly seemed a bit silly, a feeling captured by ex-overtalker Dan Lyons in his book STFU: The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut in a World That Won’t Stop Talking: “The world was not sitting with bated breath, waiting to hear what I would say.”"
Great find Gunnar, thanks for sharing. I love the quote “the world was not sitting with bated breath…” It should probably be taped to every laptop lid in every meeting room. I didn’t know the book, will definitely check it out. As we’re discovering, there’s a lot more to the note-taking habit than meets the eye. It’s humbling, in the best way.
Also, in the latest Huberman Lab podcast episode, he interviews the author of The Comfort Crisis. They touch on many of the themes we’ve been discussing. My favourite takeaway? How spending just three days camping in nature can reset the circadian rhythm; an effective “reset button” for our overloaded modern lives.
Interesting—thanks for sharing! I didn’t know about the weather-resistant ones. Eager to try them out. Lately, I’ve been using blank-page notebooks, as I find they encourage more creativity—diagrams, mind maps, and free-form drawings—compared to lined ones.
Best reason to start journaling that I've run across! I do much of this process while exploring on my computer, but definitely worth taking a notebook with me when I leave the house. A path to deeper thinking and reflection is something we can all use today! Fabulous post!
You have combined my two passions, investing and stationery.
Most of my investing journey, certainly the education part, has involved me writing down everything I could, including re-writing by hand, verbatim, many of the guru’s investor letters. I have stacks of notebooks filled with my handwritten letters of Buffett, Marks, Munger speeches and investment lessons from my father that shares with me via email.
I have a YouTube channel about the wonders of notebooks and writing things down (YouTube.com/@blankfirstpage).
I could not agree with this more. I have been a compulsive pen-and-paper note-taker my whole life, and while I've watched others and made attempts myself to take notes on laptops or other electronic devices, I always reverted to chronological paper notebooks.
Interestingly, pretty much everything I take notes on ends up later in some electronic form (anaylst research, Facebook diary posts, Substack pieces, Excel spreadsheets, etc.), so between those and my Google calendar, I can usually search out the date I took the notes and direct myself to the original pages. I did jettison almost 40 years of work-related notebooks when I retired (too much to store, needed to go to the shredder for legal reasons), but the important content had been already transcribed, and I still have everything from college and high school, as well as my retired years. I also have some small notebooks in my fishing and shooting bags, as well as ones in my classic cars to jot both minutiae (that dry fly your guide suggested that caught a lot of fish, a kind of ammunition that was especially effective, etc.) impressions as they happen.
People remark that I have a photographic memory. I don't, but can find everything in my notebooks in minutes. I also find the physical act of writing serves as a great memory-reinforcer.
When I see someone *not* taking notes, who invariably say that they're remembering everything (sort of akin to how people who say "breakfast is the most important meeting of the day" are usually fat), I view it as insulting. I once had a boss who reprimanded me "why are you always taking notes?". I never thought of him the same way after that.
By the way, every time I see Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks (pages of which I viewed in person at the Queen's Gallery in London), I always think of Doug Kenney's March 1971 parody, pp. 31-35 of this https://1drv.ms/b/c/5ed4c22a9f7768df/Ed9od58qwtQggF5I8AIAAAAB78DECCPviW2G3HuhIuOM4Q . Along with French artist Daniel Maffia, Kenney shows us the "Hulus Hoopus" that can be used to alleviate "Eccesso Obesito Del Gross Stomacchi", a rolling mousetrap on wheels, Batman's bat signal, "Una Volante Pizza"), and a heart-transplant procedure involving "mio cane Fido" or "mio stupido e gullibilio assistante Mario" as the donor.
This is such a fantastic comment—thank you for sharing it. Your system of living, breathing note-taking is a masterclass in analog discipline. I completely agree: the physical act of writing does forge a deeper memory trace. There’s something about the friction of the pen on paper that helps encode thought more lastingly than a blinking cursor ever could.
Also, the da Vinci parody is hilarious!! I hadn’t seen it before.
On a related note—no pun this time—I’m also a fishing aficionado, and there’s something about taking notes in the wilderness—a quiet magic in those handwritten moments
P.S. I noticed as I aged that when I'd go to a broker corporates conference, in group meetings I'd be seated in front of a management team at a round table in a cramped hotel room with 3-6 other 20-30-something kids all typing on iPad keyboards simultaneously, the Chicklet keyboards of which created an annoying racket and made everyone look and sound like courtroom stenographers instead of analysts/fund managers. I'm certain I often elicited better answers because I could make better eye contact than someone staring at a screen ... with a 50% shot they were just bored and surfing the 'net!
100%!
The most undervalued investment tool costs $2.
A notebook.
This interesting Manchester Guardian article https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/jun/26/i-was-one-of-those-men-who-couldnt-stop-talking-heres-how-i-learned-to-shut-up-and-listen has another good reason for note-taking:
"Perhaps the greatest tactic requires only a pen and paper. In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear suggests creating barriers to break our bad habits. Remove the TV from the bedroom, or store chocolate in a cupboard far, far away. Note-taking creates a barrier for the compulsive talker. Jot down everything you want to say during a meeting, no matter how big or small, then wait for your turn to speak, like a patient child. Before talking, review your notes to identify the points that deliver value. I assure you that few will. We are far less interesting than we assume. Note-taking provides visual evidence of overtalking, showing you all the things that you would have said, left to your own devices."
As well, the realization that most of us really don't have anything to say in the first place hits hard https://gunnarmiller.substack.com/p/dead-sea-scrolling . He echoes my "Dunning-Kruger for online humor" observations as well:
"Deleting social apps removes any doubt that social media is addictive. I experienced genuine withdrawal symptoms: a touch of irritability here, a hint of anxiety there. Small-scale Fomo washed over me, as though all the cool kids were hanging out on Elon Musk’s X. But the withdrawal symptoms soon dissipated and left me in a state of embarrassment – embarrassed by my past actions, as if I could not recognise the man I was back then, all those hours ago. The compulsion to opine on any given topic at any given time, that most universal form of entitlement, suddenly seemed a bit silly, a feeling captured by ex-overtalker Dan Lyons in his book STFU: The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut in a World That Won’t Stop Talking: “The world was not sitting with bated breath, waiting to hear what I would say.”"
Great find Gunnar, thanks for sharing. I love the quote “the world was not sitting with bated breath…” It should probably be taped to every laptop lid in every meeting room. I didn’t know the book, will definitely check it out. As we’re discovering, there’s a lot more to the note-taking habit than meets the eye. It’s humbling, in the best way.
Also, in the latest Huberman Lab podcast episode, he interviews the author of The Comfort Crisis. They touch on many of the themes we’ve been discussing. My favourite takeaway? How spending just three days camping in nature can reset the circadian rhythm; an effective “reset button” for our overloaded modern lives.
Thanks for the compliment. I find these Rite In The Rain #954s are perfect https://www.riteintherain.com/3-5x5-soft-cover-book#374-M for the field. My everyday is just a standard ruled hardcover A4 https://www.amazon.de/Leitz-Notizbuch-Hardcover-Karierte-46640095/dp/B073QYZD5Q/ref=asc_df_B073QYZD5Q .
Interesting—thanks for sharing! I didn’t know about the weather-resistant ones. Eager to try them out. Lately, I’ve been using blank-page notebooks, as I find they encourage more creativity—diagrams, mind maps, and free-form drawings—compared to lined ones.
I just learnt so much from you! thanks for the great comment!
Fascinating read!
Thanks
Well said. I've always seen my substack as my personal notebook.
Indeed, you have the additional effect of having an audience, an external focus to bounce ideas.
Best reason to start journaling that I've run across! I do much of this process while exploring on my computer, but definitely worth taking a notebook with me when I leave the house. A path to deeper thinking and reflection is something we can all use today! Fabulous post!
Thanks Susan!
Thank you for this fantastic piece.
You have combined my two passions, investing and stationery.
Most of my investing journey, certainly the education part, has involved me writing down everything I could, including re-writing by hand, verbatim, many of the guru’s investor letters. I have stacks of notebooks filled with my handwritten letters of Buffett, Marks, Munger speeches and investment lessons from my father that shares with me via email.
I have a YouTube channel about the wonders of notebooks and writing things down (YouTube.com/@blankfirstpage).
Thank you again.
Loved it, great channel as well, just subscribed
Thanks John, good catch! Corrected.