Keeping an Engineer's Journal

One of the key things I learned in architecture school (in a former life) was to keep a journal with thoughts, ideas, and neat things you find walking around. You never know when inspiration will strike, so having a safe place to collect these flashes of insight is incredibly important.

The journal started in grad school is now retired

I have kept writing the journal, although it became an engineering journal when I switched majors. At that point, it became much more textual rather than visual, but I am a literal person so that made things easier. Now that I am retiring a journal and moving to a fresh clean one, a process that only happens once every few years, I wanted to share my thoughts about journal-keeping.

No editing allowed until the ideas are written down

Over the years I have accumulated plenty of things to write in my journal. Putting it down on paper helps to lock the concept into my brain, usually to the point where I never needed to consult the written words again. But it is essential to write it down, because if I ever lose the idea I can always go back to refresh my memory.

The new journal, a nice leather bound gift from the wife

Many of the ideas presented on this website were once just a line or two written in my journal. A high percentage of the ideas are abandoned because they can't all be winners. Essentially I agree with the quote "If you want to have a good idea, get lots of ideas".

Tabula Rasa

There is a level of self-editing that needs to be done, and the journal plays a key role. There is absolutely no editing in the journal, everything can be written down. Bad ideas are given just as much attention as prima facie brilliant ones. Preparing the thoughts to be presented on the website requires a much more significant effort, so in the end you only choose the topics that can be presented effectively and are actually interesting.

Architects are basically required to keep a journal in school. However, it doesn't even get a mention in engineering curriculums. It should. As an engineer, one's most important resource is creativity. Don't risk losing all those great ideas!