Pen and paper are superior to your AI bullshit

3 hours ago 1

There are currently 5 notebooks on my desk. Actually, I'm lying! There are 7 notebooks on my desk if you count the 2 Rhodia scratch pads I use for throw-away notes.

If there's one thing that "AI" and the general enshittifcation of modern tech has achieved for me, it's an intensified love for all things analogue. I'd rather go out for a walk, read a book, play music with my orchestra, and use pen and paper for my writing and thinking than be stuck behind a screen. I'm not completely averse to writing on my computer, for blogs such as this one it works well enough! But for deep thinking? No, I have found out I need to step away from the computer to be successful at that.

In the analogue world, there are no algorithms to distract me into endless scrolling (a real danger for me!), there's no sycophantic ChatGPT bot telling me my ideas are amazing (I would feel repulsed to have my boots licked by a bot constantly, but it seems people are actually going insane from it. Was ChatGPT Psychosis on your bingo card for 2025?).

Anyway! Did you know that you retain knowledge better by using pen and paper? I also feel way more creative and less restricted when I work with my notebooks. I draft presentations this way, cultivate new ideas, record my thoughts during meetings, and I start every morning by sitting down and thinking of what I want to achieve today at work.

The barrier to starting is as low as it can get, and that is exactly what my brain needs. I've said this before, but thankfully my perfectionism isn't triggered by note-taking, so I don't give two shits about how pretty my writing looks.

I can almost hear the tech bro croak from the back of the room: "But how do you find anything back?!"

Read this as if I'm speaking in a kind, patient teacher voice: "Well, dear tech bro, we have lived thousands of years with paper systems before computers were invented, believe me, it is possible."

ActUaLly, pen and paper are often vastly superior alternatives for solving a problem compared to being stuck behind a computer, desperately prompting ChatGPT for a solution to a situation your brain barely understands.

Have you considered stepping away from the computer, taking a break and writing (or sketching) out the problem? I can't begin to tell you how often I've debugged myself with pen and paper. I even use this method to debug mental health problems (I have plenty of those!).

But to come back to the largely irrelevant problem of organising analogue things, every notebook I use has a clear goal, and everything's labelled. The easiest way to start structuring your notes is to put a clear date above everything you write + the main topic for that bit of writing. Use a highlighter for that portion if needed; it's not that hard.

Some of my notes find their way into the digital systems I use at work, I'm not averse to that notion at all. But for my personal workflow, writing by hand is the clear winner for clarity, effectiveness, and fun.

We seem to have forgotten this, but personal enjoyment can be a valid reason to choose how you approach work. Big tech wants us to use AI in our work, but I find zero joy in that. So, I don't.

The fearmongering around how I'm supposedly missing out on increased productivity leaves me cold, tbh. The book Four Thousand Weeks has drilled into me that things take the time they take. Rushing things so you can do more things (for the sake of doing more things, so you can....profit...how....???) is a trap.

To close off this section, here are some pictures from two of my notebooks (work one, and a personal one for study/orchestra board work):

Mundane news about my life

Next Saturday, I will go to my local HIFI store to shop for a new stereo receiver. I've upgraded my speakers at the end of last year, and my current receiver is now the weakest link in the set-up. Am I really going to drop 2k on a receiver? Quite possibly. Another perk of being child-free, y'all. The current options are: NAD c399, or the Marantz 40N. If you have experience with either of these brands, do let me know.

I'm having a lot of fun picking out the music for the test! The list is already too long, but I need a good mix of metal, classical and electronic music. Opeth is always the starting point, I will bring my vinyl copy of their latest album to the store.

Are you optimistic about GenAI as a normie?

In that case, Ed Zitron has a question for you.

Why do you want these companies to win? What is it you want them to win? Do you want them to be rich? Do you want to be the person that told people they would be first? What is the world you want, and what does it look like, and how does doing your job in this way work toward creating that world?

For the love of all that's holy: STOP saying that these tools "work for you". Think BIGGER.

The tools created by big tech make a select few people richer, at the small cost of making more jobs miserable, and the planet hotter. Nothing to see here, move on to the next prompt? Is the cost really worth it? Just so you can be a more productive slave, eroding your brain capacities while you're at it? Please.

These models are dangerous and chaotic, built with little intention or regard for the future, just like the rest of big tech’s products.

Here, Ed strikes the heart of why this all sucks so much.

Nobody seems to give a damn about the future! The future of the planet, the future of humanity. It's all about making money, and fucking the planet over while doing so.

JFC, I don't even have kids, so what do I care?! I wrote about this before, so I'll stop now.

Ending on a happy note

Did you know that the Netherlands is awfully flat? If only there was a little hint in the name of my country. I love mountains, so this poses a bit of a problem! Thankfully, this year will give me some mountains. I have just seen mountains in Germany, Austria and Slovenia.

I will see mountains again very soon in Wales. And then again in September in Scotland! That should tie me over for a little while. Mountains for the win!