u/cherrybearr

Daming tao

Jordan Mechner is a game designer (made the original Prince of Persia in 1989). He started keeping a journal at 17 and has filled over a hundred notebooks since 1982. He still does it daily, in his sixties, in a Hobonichi Techo -- one page per day, a decade fits in a shoebox.

Stripe Press republished his 1985–1993 journal in 2020. The format is the diary plus his own thirty-years-later notes in the margins. Two voices on every page.

The single most useful thing he writes about journaling:

"In the four years it took me to make the first Prince of Persia game on the Apple II, my journal did more than record my creative process: it was part of it. I used my notebook as a sounding board -- wrestling with design challenges, discarding ideas and sparking new ones in the act of writing. More than once, my journal brought me back from the brink."

I've been writing in Apple Notes for a couple of years and realized I've been doing the wrong half of journaling. I've been recording. He was thinking on the page. Those are different practices.

If your journal feels like a chore, try writing about the actual problem you're stuck on this week -- wrestle with it on the page instead of just describing it. Different muscle.

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I wrote a longer piece on what reading the book did for me: link in comments. Maybe it gives someone else a kick of energy too. Would appreciate any feedback

Ang hirap maging girl’s girl kung ganito lang rin