Field Notes

On keeping a paper notebook

I have tried, on and off, every productivity tool of the last decade. The ritual that has outlasted them all is the most unfashionable: a single ruled notebook, one page per day, finished or unfinished by bedtime.

Software promised search, sync, and analytics. The notebook gave back something simpler — a place that does not interrupt you.

Quiet engineering

The best systems I have inherited were boring. They logged carefully, failed obviously, and recovered without comment. Their authors were not famous on the internet. They were, by most measures, ordinary.

Walks, and thinking

The longer the problem, the longer the walk. I have not invented this rule; it is older than the bicycle. But I am the latest to confirm it.