Introduction

Recently I watched this video. In it, he describes carrying around a pocket notebook for the purpose of more organic thought and fighting the constant battle for your attention on your phone. I'm by no means anti-phone or anti-social media. With as much time as I spend on Tiktok, I don't think I'm allowed to be.

It did get me thinking though. This organic thought process is probably better overall. I do have a couple of issues with it. Ultimately the goal of this post is to nail down the "Perfect Modern Notebook."

Fitting in your Pocket

Like in the video I referenced in our introduction. I think it is imperative that it fits in your pocket. This is great if you're like me and hate carrying things like bags around. And allows you to take it anywhere you wear pants. Making it perfect until Elon Musk designs mentally integrated technology, so we can still watch Tiktoks in the shower.

Carrying Pens is Stupid

I think it defeats the purpose of its ease of carry by having to carry a pen. I religiously don't carry writing materials with me despite being a full-time student. Note-taking is pointless if you ask me (I'll explain my reasoning behind that more below.) and even when I do take notes I use a text document on my laptop. So this "Perfect Modern Notebook" needs to have its "pen" fully integrated.

Why Taking Notes is Stupid, A Subsection to to Why Carrying Pens is Stupid

You can totally skip this section if you don't care. This is just the perfect rant opportunity.

I don't like taking notes. I've never felt any impact to my learning experience by taking notes. It is also just instutionally supported by a system that prioritizes memorization over understanding and learning.

Also the standard notetaking that we are taught in school doesn't even really work. Here is a video I watched on it. I recommend you just watch that.

All that being said, this sections header is an exaggeration. I could probably benefit from note taking, but I also enjoy my life and I find notetaking incredibly taxing. Hence the need for the "Perfect Modern Notebook."

Limited Space

An issue with your average pocket notebook is that sooner or later you're gonna run out of paper. Especially with its small size. For this reason I argue for it being digital hardware. Similar to that of a Kindle.

The Rocketbook already solves this problem, but I don't like that it's not small enough, it requires you to carry a pen, and it requires the use of an app rather than being stand alone.

This could also solve the problem stated in the "Carrying Pens is Stupid." We could alow for your average phone style touch keyboard, as an alternative to a stylus, which you could also use if you please. Maybe even include a flippable mini keyboard.

And if you're wondering why not just use the notes app on your phone, this is because much like the kindle, this wont be filled with apps and social media fighting to distract you.

Also unlike your typical notes app or even your typical notebook it may be able to better improve atomic note taking, like in the video I referenced in the "Why Taking Notes is Stupid, A Subsection to Why Carrying Pens is Stupid" section of this post.

Conclusion

The "Perfect Modern Notebook" would be a digital handheld device similar to a phone/kindle. It would allow for multiple interfaces of input, and would hold the capabilities for better, human-centric note taking.

I pretty much agree with this. Unless I need to write down something to not forget, I almost never use for my studies regarding academics and memorization. And yeah it's pretty much an ineffective way to learn if you compare it with other learning methods. I just put my pointers in anki and still get top marks in my classes.

But if I were to use a notebook, it would of course need to be a handheld device, with with a pen designed for it and also attaches to it, like the apple pen to an ipad. Typing down notes would be more efficient but I like the feel of organically writing it down with my awful handwriting.

is this chatgpt? if not, very epic high effort important post

THAT_otaku wrote:

is this chatgpt? if not, very epic high effort important post

it really does look like the post was made in chatgpt and that it was just copy and pasted LOL

[-Omni-] wrote:

THAT_otaku wrote:

is this chatgpt? if not, very epic high effort important post

it really does look like the post was made in chatgpt and that it was just copy and pasted LOL

Or he's just too thoughtful and cares about what he writes idk

[-Omni-] wrote:

THAT_otaku wrote:

is this chatgpt? if not, very epic high effort important post

it really does look like the post was made in chatgpt and that it was just copy and pasted LOL

It's probably actually written. I chucked the text into an AI checker and it said it was human. I'm not gonna go further into that though.

It's crazy that when we see a lot of text like this, our first reaction is to say if it was written by ChatGPT...

Times are changing after all. Rapidly too. Wouldn't be surprised if people are outing actual writing to be written by AI.

Stomiks wrote:

Times are changing after all. Rapidly too. Wouldn't be surprised if people are outing actual writing to be written by AI.

Humans are becoming slugs.

I AM VERY SMART wrote:

It's crazy that when we see a lot of text like this, our first reaction is to say if it was written by ChatGPT...

I take it as a compliment really. Although I think it might have more to do with the fact that I don't think "normal" people put this much thought into something like this, and even if they do most people don't post about it on the Osu forums. That being said, I was conditioned by my parents to write essays to defend my arguments and ideas.