What might a notebook do besides remember things? Journaling turns thoughts, observations, experiences, and information into an ongoing personal record—one that can organize thinking and make ideas easier to revisit. section 2.3.1
Journaling can function as:
- A thinking aid: recording ideas creates material to reread, question, and develop. section 2.3.1
- A commonplace book: collecting quotations, sayings, observations, or recipes alongside personal remarks helps turn borrowed words into personal understanding. section 2.3.1
- A knowledge-management habit: paper notebooks and digital records can preserve ideas for later reflection. section 2.3.1
A programmer’s commonplace page
Copy a useful quotation or observation, then add what it suggests about a problem you are exploring. Later, reread the page and look for connections rather than expecting every note to become immediately useful. section 2.3.1
Figure 2.2 The commonplace book of British voyager and entrepreneur Henry Tiffin (1760). These pages were used to contemplate sailing methods. If you, like me, love peeking into both ancient and modern notebooks, Great Diaries: The World’s Most Remarkable Diaries, Journals, Notebooks, and Letters, published by DK, makes for a beautiful addition to the bookshelf. Photo courtesy of the Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum.
A historical commonplace book makes journaling tangible: collected material becomes a surface for contemplation, not merely storage. section 2.3.1
