Take a peek into the occasionally-updated public notebook of Scott Nesbitt — a collection of thoughts, ideas, advice, and whatever has caught my interest.
2026
You Don’t Spring Forth Fully Formed
On Nostalgia
Readership
Pulling Back
What I Don’t Care About as an EV Owner
Personal Tools
The Plain Text Files That I Use Most Days
My Writing Setup
On Writing as a Series of Index Cards
2025
On Used Bookstores
If I Ever …
Do I Use AI to Write Blog Posts?
Have I Given Up on Plain Text?
It’s About What You Need to Do
Focus on the Work
Simplifying
On Local Journalism
On the Cult of the Loud
How I Publish Blog Posts
Why Simple Tools Matter
Do You Really Need to Remember Everything?
On AI Slop
What Should Practice Be?
Not All Notes are Permanent
AI, Hallucinations, and Writing
On Meta-Work
Thoughts About the Second Brain
The Fallacy of Saving Time
On Being an Individual
On Effectively Using a Notebook
On Privacy
Expectations Out of Whack
My Litmus Test
Do You Really Need To Get More Done?
Why a Text-Only Blog?
Note Taking Tools: A Graveyard for Ideas
On Crafting The Monday Kickoff
2024
The Idle Hands Myth
On Lab Mode
On What I Really Need to Use
Mirrors
It’s Not (Quite) the Years …
Running
My Watch is Smart Enough
My Prized Possessions
It’s Not a Competition
Use Plain Text Email?
On TV as Repertory Cinema
On this Blog as a Numbers Station
Learning to Say I Don’t Know
Writing Should be Uncomfortable
On Flying Solo
Speed Versus Reflection
On Short-Short Blogging
Writing, AI, and Me
Does It Advance My Goals?
What Would Your 14-Year-Old Self Think of You Now?
A Message for Someone Now Gone
Short Review - A City is Not a Computer: Other Urban Intelligences
My Obsessions
Stay Humble, Stay Hungry
2023
Before You Go and Investigate ...
Giving ChatGPT Another Go
On an (Aborted) Gear Refresh
On Simple Things
My Clock is Ticking Down
On Writing with ChatGPT
Busy-ness Versus Productivity
On Reading Gibbon
Cast Your Own Shadow
Regrets
Announcing My New ebook: Random Thoughts
Tools versus Systems
The Importance of Having Fun
Do You Need a System For Taking Notes?
A Little Piece of Wisdom
On Reading More Books
Fearing Success
Escape
It's All About What You Want to Do
Guidelines are Just a Guide
Short Review - How to Run a City Like Amazon, and Other Fables
The Difference Between Information and Knowledge
Finding the Balance Between Simple and Complex
Beyond Getting Stuff Done
You Need to Do More Than Just Show Up
On the Text Playlist (Again)
See Deeper
Complex versus Simple
An Idea I Can Get Behind
On the Text Playlist
Finding Interesting (Personal) Blogs
Opportunities, Fear, Failure, and Taking Chances
Thoughts About Note Taking Tools
2022
A Reminder for All of Us
Do the Blurbs on Books Influence You to Buy Those Books?
Lessons in (Writing) Brevity from Borges
Something to Consider ...
What Makes You Productive?
Dealing with Acronyms and Jargon
Trying Hard to Like Something
The Fallacy of Doing More
Would You Rather Have a Blank Page or a Bad First Draft?
The Joys of Turning Off
Dealing With Your Ideas
A Thought About Technology
I Can't Understand Why ...
Writers and Envy
Some Wise Words
Choices
Avoiding the Trap of "More"
On Not Pushing Your Tools
My PKM Setup
Crushing the Domination
Impulse Buys
Too Busy Organizing to Be Productive
Being Yourself
Home
On Thinking in Bullet Points
Email Is My Social Media
The Value of Paying Attention
Chains
The Joys of Small and Simple
Sometimes, It's a Game of Millimeters
Ways of Blogging
On Using Plain Text
Pen and Paper are My Friends
The Most Powerful Tool For Productivity
Infinite Layaway
On Doing Things 'Like a Pro'
Methods and Goals
2021
Eliminate What's Not Essential
On Thinking and Acting in Increments
The Goal Behind Using Technology
Form Versus Function
Shavings of Time
Focus On One Thing at a Time
On Slower, Quieter Blogs
What's The Best Device For Writing?
Randomly Discovering the Web
On /uses Pages
A Home Page, Not a Website
512KB Club
On Being a More Productive Writer
Rewiring My Systems
A Letter, Not a Newsletter
It's Not the Path, It's the Destination
Don't Blame Your Tools
Doing a Periodic Purge
The Most Difficult Question
Do I Really Need To?
How to Deal With Frustration and Bitterness
There Are More Than Two Paths
Beauty Is Where You Find It
On Not Achieving Everything
There Is No One Way
Appreciation
Stop Fooling Yourself
When Will Your Writing Be Perfect?
A Thought About Education and Self Improvement
2021: My Year of Rereading
It's Not a Waste of Time
What's the Point?
On Being Constantly Connected
Thoughts About Feature Parity
It's Better
2020
Tools are Not Skills
Seth Godin on the Most Important Blog Post
Being Pigeonholed
Never Justify Your Choices
You Should Use an Outliner
The Need to Be Selfish
Thoughts About Choosing the Right Paper Notebook
Do You Write to Get Attention, or to Help?
The Writer You Were, the Writer You Are
The Fastest, Most Effective Way to Discourage Someone
How to Write Useful List Posts
Versus
On Content
What If?
The Urge to Create
Picking Nits
Honesty is Not Modesty
The Long Haul
Taking Sides
Should You Simplify Your Blog's Language for Non-Native Readers?
Passion Isn't Enough
Unhappiness
Time, Time, Time Look What It's Done to Me
Experiments
Bringing Blogs Back - Really?
Awesome
The Rain
Missing That Buffer
Do You Salvage or Abandon a Piece of Writing?
Gaining More Confidence in Your Writing
How My Reading Habits Have Changed
The Life That You Want to Lead
That One Song
Going Fallow
My Opinion Shouldn't Matter to You
Finding Good Notebooks in Unexpected Places
If I Had More Time ...
Dealing with Other Peoples' Writing
The 21st Century Isn't What I Thought It Would Be
2019
New Year, New Notebook
Small, Mobile, Self Contained
Not Pushing Your Tools
Deciding What You Want to Be When You Grow Up
It's a Long Road
Small is a Force Multiplier
It's OK to Take a Break
Houses of the Holy
On Selling Out
In the Shadow of the Mushroom Cloud
Dealing with the Doubters
Be Boring
Morning Pages
The Perfect World
Crossroads
In Praise of the Unadorned
Presumptions of Fear
Stop Being a Draft Blogger
Why Longer-Form Writing Still Matters
The Joy of the Notebook
Going Gray
Sometimes, It's the Simple Things
The Persistence of Memory
Confessions of a Lapsed Essayist
Smart Devices Aren't Smart
Speaking in Tongues
The Magical Place
Dreams
Music for Movies
Change
A Contrarian's Guide to Blogging
When a Place Has Its Greatest Impact
Some Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed
Rain
You Don't Have to Like Everything
Public Notebooks and Blogging
Journeys and Destinations
2018
Reading
Woolgathering
Making Choices
The Perfect Notebook
On Amassing Information
On Being Good Enough
Reading Between Lines That Aren't There
Watching Kurosawa
No, I'm Not Doing It Wrong
Numbers Stations
On Books, Electronic and Physical
On Exalting the Mundane
On the Price of Change
Some Days ...
On Not Letting Go
