[sublinear]

I was going to comment similar.

I already know I'm going to annoy some people by saying this, but I've gone through both messy and neat phases of life. Every messy phase was almost entirely forgettable and inexperienced noise. Eventually, I'd find stability in my life and become neat again.

I'm not saying messiness is inherently shameful, but it is absolutely worth looking at the bigger picture to find answers. I probably prolonged the messy phases by avoiding self-analysis. I now realize that it was insecurity and avoidance behavior.

Of course, neatness can also be a coping strategy. I'm intrigued by the author's premise.

> I'm somewhat enamored with the concept of shitty / messy notebooks, like this or this.

It sounds like they want to explore messiness as an aesthetic, not genuinely experience it. I've already said enough to imply what I think about that. I think deliberately chasing aesthetics might be more detached from reality than what I had going on.

[WCSTombs]

I think you're completely missing the point. The "messy" notebook isn't supposed to have any aesthetic value or qualities, it's just a tool for the user to record stuff in the moment. It also has nothing to do having a messy phase in life. It literally is just there for you to write stuff down whenever you need or want to.

[sublinear]

Unless you live off the grid, paper notebooks are not purely functional. Neither is living off the grid for that matter. I'm not saying there aren't huge benefits to those things, but they aren't strictly necessary.

People find aesthetic value in keeping a neat notebook. It's been a social media trend for many years now. It has to be the majority of jetpens.com customers.

Why wouldn't a messy notebook be similar?