I have a new toy, and I love it. Yes, I’m one of those people who get excited by paper. It’s a Moleskine Squared Notebook. I’ve wanted one for a long time, ever since I read about them in Presentation Zen. Even though I’m a tech guy, and I work for an internet company, I love paper notebooks. I use them for a couple reasons:
- They’re handy. I’ve got one with me most of the time, and you never have to wait for it to boot up, find a file or install the right software.
- I can be random in new an exciting ways. Witness the wierd picture I drew to illustrate relative risk for types of joint venture partners. You try doing that in Microsoft Excel!
- It’s a permanent record. It’s too easy to have your computer die, or overwrite your changes. I use Google Documents more and more, but even that isn’t foolproof.
- There’s a cool little pouch attached to the back cover of my moleskine! (I’ll take a picture later)
- It’s good to go analog. You get creative in new and unexpected ways. It’s the same reason I love whiteboards, and something I noticed at Google this past August. Analog everywhere!
I like the square one because it’s still writiable but easy to draw on. I also like drawing graphs and stuff, and sometimes I have to crunch numbers. They come in lined
