Great Men Keep Journals • Hacker News Board

Re: Great Men Keep Journals

#61

Post by joe_the_user » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 8:00 AM UTC

dstorrs wrote: post #13

This is obvious selection bias, on several axes. Here are two of them: - There is more/richer information available on people who keep journals, so it's easier to make the case for their greatness. - If someone does great things but no record is kept, they are not acknowledged. I enjoyed the stories of his grandfather, but the flawed reasoning in the argument annoyed me.

I've kept a regular journal for most of my adult life.

I don't think it means much either way as far as whether I'm "great", whatever that means anyway.

I think keeping a journal has been vaguely useful.

That might be a better argument for it.

Re: Great Men Keep Journals

#62

Post by bergie » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 8:04 AM UTC

Here is a quite easy way to add journal entries via Emacs org-mode: http://phunculist.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/adding-a-journal-...

I'm currently looking at syncing org-mode files through a private GitHub repo.

Re: Great Men Keep Journals

#63

Post by Andrew_Quentin » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 8:29 AM UTC

kentosi wrote: post #58

Andrew_Quentin wrote: post #38

I have written a journal almost constantly since I was perhaps 15. I love it. I can express on it all of my emotions, but still secrets are kept. I can write on it all of my thoughts. It is, I must say, because of the journals I have kept that I have overcome so much adversity and it is journals which help me to push myslef further, and become better, every singl day. More often I do not know it, but the simple act o…

I'm sorry but could you please explain the difference between a diary and a journal? I just realised that I have no idea what the difference is ...

I used the terms interchangeably.

Re: Great Men Keep Journals

#64

Post by philwelch » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 9:38 AM UTC

omouse wrote: post #54

sleight42 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. Somewhat off-topic but what on earth is their business model? Journals are private. There are no advertisements. The service is free. YCombinator hopes to make money from this how? Don't get me wrong: it's a simple and clever idea. Just... it's not philanthropy, is it?

Some things don't need a business model. They should release the code as free/open source software if they haven't already. Just think of it as a gift to the world and you can rest easy at night :D

Y Combinator is supposed to invest money in startups with the hope of making bucketloads of money. It's not a charity for establishing cool web apps as a gift to the world.

Re: Great Men Keep Journals

#65

Post by rahoulb » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 11:28 AM UTC

For work I have weekly text files, where I write down what I'm doing.

Originally this was to help me compile the weekly timesheets that my (then) employer required.

But the notes saved me from a lawsuit and I know find it useful for keeping notes on why I'm building things a particular way (especially when coupled with grep/ack/Spotlight).

For personal stuff, I have an A5 hardback book and a fountain pen - nothing beats it.

Re: Great Men Keep Journals

#66

Post by wladimir » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 11:54 AM UTC

ChuckFrank wrote: post #37

Always remember that diaries are admissible in both the courts of law and public opinion. Contrary to actions, diaries can unequivocally prove state of mind. Furthermore diaries will not speak in the voice of those that wrote it, but will speak in the words of those that read it. So when deciding to keep a journal, ask yourself "what would Bob Packwood do?" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Packwood Knowing what he kn…

Proper encryption can be a help, there, I guess. Especially if you write your innermost motivations and feelings, you'll never want it to be available to anyone else (at least until you're dead).

Re: Great Men Keep Journals

#67

Post by bmj » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 1:42 PM UTC

jw84 wrote: post #19

bmj wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read the article? Blogging is mentioned. Personally, while I do blog periodically, my journal is entirely different than what I publish online. My journal is for my own consumption. Some things that are written down there (I prefer pen and paper) may end up online or in an essay, but others won't see the light of day (often for good reasons).

I write the same way in my blog as I do in a diary and leave it open with my name attached. I prefer it. Other than that I'm not sure what we're arguing about. Though it is interesting you have things to hide.

You are confusing having something to hide and keeping your thoughts to yourself. There is a difference.

Re: Great Men Keep Journals

#68

Post by atoumey » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 2:16 PM UTC

dabent wrote: post #5

I used to journal for years and stopped. Then I messed with OhLife (a YC startup) and kept going with it. I'm not connected with them other than being a user, but if you're online anyway, it's a pretty handy tool to keep a journal. http://ohlife.com/ It's also a good example of a clean design and user experience.

That looks like a great site. I've been using http://www.memiary.com for over a year now. Its method of encouraging use is to present five small text boxes. Seeing that you only need to enter in a few list-like entries encourages me to actually write _something_ down.

It also has iphone and android apps (I actually wrote the Android version), which make it really convenient to update.

Re: Great Men Keep Journals

#69

Post by dctoedt » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 2:52 PM UTC

ChuckFrank wrote: post #37

Always remember that diaries are admissible in both the courts of law and public opinion. Contrary to actions, diaries can unequivocally prove state of mind. Furthermore diaries will not speak in the voice of those that wrote it, but will speak in the words of those that read it. So when deciding to keep a journal, ask yourself "what would Bob Packwood do?" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Packwood Knowing what he kn…

You'll also spend money on the legal fees required to have your lawyer (or paralegal) review your diaries / journals to see what parts must be produced to the other side and what parts can be withheld.

Here's an example of what can happen if you don't screen your document production. I once took the deposition of a guy who was suing my client, his former employer, claiming that he owned an invention he'd made for them. The guy kept a diary. Instead of giving me only the diary entries that had to do with the invention, his lawyer just turned over the entire diary for the relevant period -- including entries about feeding live mice to his pet snake. Needless to say, in the deposition I asked the guy about that. Snake-feeding was completely irrelevant to the case, but if we'd gone to trial, I imagine I would have tried to find some way to put that testimony and those diary entries in front of the jury. (We didn't go to trial because the judge granted summary judgment for my client.) My guess is that the lawyer wished he'd screened the diary before producing it to me.

Re: Great Men Keep Journals

#70

Post by jw84 » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 5:51 PM UTC

bmj wrote: post #67

jw84 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I write the same way in my blog as I do in a diary and leave it open with my name attached. I prefer it. Other than that I'm not sure what we're arguing about. Though it is interesting you have things to hide.

You are confusing having something to hide and keeping your thoughts to yourself. There is a difference.

No, I'm pretty sure I know the difference. But the older I get, the more sure I am of my opinions, the more educated I am of my thoughts, the better I am of writing, the less I care the more I start to see something to hide and hiding thoughts are too similar.