Supported by Digital Ocean
Sponsor: Digital Ocean

Dream it. Build it. Grow it. Sign up now and you'll be up and running on DigitalOcean in just minutes.

‘I’m a techie, but I’ve fallen for paper notes again’

Jared Newman at Fast Company rediscovers paper note-taking (because Field Notes):

I’ve never been much of a paper person. Although I did carry around a reporter’s notebook for a newspaper job in the pre-iPhone era, I prefer to file my thoughts away in digital form, where they can be categorized, backed up online, and accessed from any device.

By contrast, I love stationery and notebooks and have dallied, on and off for over twenty years, with ink-on-paper for my note-taking. But, for many of the same reasons Newman gives, it doesn’t tend to keep. Plus, I type infinitely faster than I write, and seldom struggle to decipher my own typing.

However—

Perhaps best of all—at least for me—is that you can’t delete what you’ve written in ink. I’ve tried using an iPad with an Apple Pencil for handwritten notes and have reviewed a few digital writing tablets, and they always feel counterproductive to me. As an obsessive self-editor, I can’t resist the erase and undo tools that digital notepads provide. The only option with paper is to forge ahead.

This resonated deeply. I, too, am an “obsessive self-editor”—for me, writing and editing are inextricably linked. (Or, as I first wrote, the act of editing is inextricably linked to the act of writing.) I’ll often spend more time editing a piece than I writing it, as I get bogged down on how to express this thought here rather than getting the broader ideas out.

When I use an iPad and Apple Pencil, I end up with the worst of both worlds: a slower, harder-to-decipher output that I still endlessly edit as I write—truly a hell-on-earth scenario.

I’m going to experiment with drafting a few future pieces on paper. Will I find it “relaxing” and “less stressful,” as Newman did, or be frustrated by my inability to refine as I go? It’s been years since I wrote more than a few sentences by hand. I’m as worried about cramps in my hand as I am in my writing style.

‘Twenty Years of Kraft’

From “Bryan” at the Field Notes Dispatches blog:

The anniversary date of “Field Notes” varies a bit, depending on who you ask. Aaron Draplin first used the name (typeset, of course, in all-caps Futura Bold) on a customized one-off red hardcover notebook in 2002. Our “official line” sets the birth of the company in mid-2007, when Coudal Partners and Aaron first printed a batch of 3-Packs for the “Swap Meat,” followed shortly by the establishment of “Field Notes Brand” as an actual thing.

But a good case can be made that the very first Field Notes were made in “early January 2005,” making this, January 2025, an important 20th anniversary.

I’ve been using Field Notes since September 2007[1], and a subscriber to their gorgeous quarterly Limited Editions since at least June 2016 (possibly 2014)—though I reluctantly admit that most of them have become collector’s items rather than daily carries.

Field Notes and a favored pen[2] have long been my preferred capture tools. Even as I’ve shifted toward using my iPhone as my primary capture device[3], I still gravitate toward Field Notes for capturing unstructured notes (like whiskey tastings) where I might need to scratch out, annotate, or revisit an entry, or for times when fumbling with a phone might seem boorish. (No one has ever raised an eyebrow as I scribbled in my notebook—except, perhaps, in appreciation on those occasions when it’s impeccably dressed in rich leather attire.)

Tapping on a phone feels weightless—ideas are recorded, then dismissed, permanent yet inconsequential. Scratching words onto paper feels momentous, at once discursive and considered, ephemeral yet archival.

Unsheathing my Field Notes is a declaration: This moment matters.


  1. I know because three days after my first order, I received an unsolicited (Unconfirmed Opt-In) email from Coudal Partners, sparking righteous indignation and a 500-word rant on my now-defunct personal blog. ↩︎

  2. At any given moment, a Pentel Energel 0.7, a Uniball Signo Ultramicro 207, or a Uni JetStream 0.7. Or when I feel fancy, any number of inexpensive fountain pens, like this Lamy Studio ↩︎

  3. Photos, voice memos, and instant searchs are crucial—almost overwhelming—advantages. ↩︎