Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Always Be Journaling (2018)

letterstoanewdeveloper.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 76 posts

Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)

#31

Post by asfarley »

inopinatus wrote: post #4

The latter part of this article presents a much more structured regime than I think is necessary. The crux is, write shit down. I carry a moleskine notebook and scribble my thoughts. I don’t doubt that the more rigorous approach suits the author. On reading the title, I thought “oh jolly good this will be a solid discussion of log structured filesystems, RDBMS transaction streaming, and double entry book-keeping etc”…

I would have titled this article something about keeping a diary for this reason.

Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)

#32

Post by wry_discontent »

ncphillips wrote: post #29
jsilence wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, since I strive to journal on a factual based tone. Barely do I jot down any emotions or opinions about people. Phrasing a situation down into facts helps to change perspective away from the ego pov and to dissolve any anger or other negative emotions.

Emotions _are_ facts. By not reporting your emotions around a subject, you're omitting the facts of the situation.

I'm not a very outwardly emotional person, which sometimes causes tension in my social life. I've been trying recently to regard my emotions more as a more primitive version of thinking, rather than some other kind-of-thing. They're automatic thoughts coming from my brain that manifest as "feeling" something rather than something I can articulate into facts. It's been somewhat helpful in trying to accept my emotions rather than hide or obscure them.

Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)

#34

Post by lastres0rt »

complianceowl wrote: post #14

Has anyone here ever refrained from being too honest in your journaling, out of fear someone read it some day?

I mean, I question the value of keeping track of what porn you looked at that day, but as years go by the level of damns given about what other people think about you and your opinions goes down.

I also think the level of security available these days is far superior to what you had growing up (e.g. the 50c padlock your sister could pick with a goddamn bobby pin), so the odds your immediate family is going to find out things you'd rather they not know has gone down a bit.

Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)

#35

Post by abnry »

Here's a simple way to get into the journaling habit. Add to your bashrc the alias:

alias today="vim $PATH/$(date +"%Y-%m-%d").txt"

Substitute vim with your editor of choice. Will automatically generate a new text file for each day. Then just write. Anything.

Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)

#36

Post by akkartik »

hathawsh wrote: post #5

I wonder if anyone has advice for someone like me who thinks writing a journal is probably a good idea, but I rarely write because I can hardly bear to read what I've written. I always want to edit it for clarity or just throw it out because I don't like it. I've been able to overcome my perfectionism in a few areas of life, but not this one. I like to read other people's words, but rarely my own.

Here's a Vim alias I used when I first started writing, to automatically start me off on an empty page so I didn't have to read my stupid words from last time (or trigger associations that drove out what I wanted to write this time).

    alias j='vim -c 'normal G' -c 'r !date' -c 'normal zto' -c startinsert journal.txt'

Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)

#37

Post by shoes_for_thee »

I kept rigorous journals from 1999 until about 2017.

I stopped because I felt it was necessary to make a break with my past self. I don't know if journaling was useful for my personal growth or not. I do know that reading old entries resulted in a cringe more often than not, which I took to be a good sign. If the old-you isn't a little embarrassing, are you growing?

There are a few books left, but I destroyed about 95% of them. It's a habit that is perhaps good for growth and reflection, but bad for revolution.

It's been three years since I last made an entry, and I miss it just like I miss my old friends who I also no longer talk to. These days I just make lengthy comments on websites but it's a poor substitute.

Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)

#40

Post by OnACoffeeBreak »

jackschultz wrote: post #2

I did that for a good 3 years, writing every day. Started out as a few sentences, and then turned in to bigger depending on how I was feeling that day. I absolutely love(d) being able to look back and read what I wrote and what happened on those days. It did get difficult at times to force myself to write. Many times I hated having to open up the computer and use that to type. On the other hand, typing was much bette…

> I absolutely love(d) being able to look back and read what I wrote and what happened on those days.

Did you actually look back or just liked the idea that you could? If you did what sorts of things prompted you to do so? I am asking because I have journaled on an off but never had the impulse to go back and read what I wrote.

Post reply on HN