The first reason is that there is so much going on! It helps me process stuff.
The second is that I enjoy the process of thinking about things in an abstract way that brings together my obsessiveness about topics and lets me ramble on without annoying people. Writing has always been my least favourite medium, but I like that it lets you focus on the content above all else.
The third is that as a founder, you're pretty much forced to work on one thing. That's one of the parts I like most, about being able to go deep into problems and have a very thorough understanding of an area. But this equally means not actively thinking about a whole host of other things, things which you sometimes wish you had time to explore a little bit further. One of the great things with AI, as someone who can code, is the ability to explore technical ideas in a heartbeat of the time. Before, the process was just too frustrating to explore certain things because the executing them got in the way of the core idea itself. This post on beauty contests is one of them. Now, I feel so good about coding because I don't need to really think about software engineering or testing or the fiddly parts I used to despise, AI takes care of that whilst I can focus on what it is I'm trying to learn or explore.
The fourth is that it takes you away from the flow state of X things needs to be done to achieve Y goal, and helps to reaffirm why you are doing what you are doing, and stopping you in your path if it doesn't make sense. It sounds trivial, yet people go years and years doing things that don't make sense and regret it in later life because they just didn't stop to think or reflect.
The fifth is that I'm a bit of a hoarder. Aside from the usual hoarder stuff of old stuff, also data like the content I consume, photos and videos I take and much more. I believe that we are amongst the first generation to consume as much media as we do, and so our brains are basically forced to forget things quicker. I hoard this data just in case I want to help remember things in life and how I felt when you experienced them. Not for anyone else, but for myself.
The sixth is related to this point on consumption. There is so much amazing content that exists in the world. I don't really believe in note taking, it is something I have almost never practiced, not even during school and something I used to get told off a lot about. Reflecting on and posing questions about the things you consume is an extremely fulfilling task. It helps you practice and train your mind. It is a shame that consumption is eroding the ability to think in so many people, and sadly what is happening even more because of AI. Whilst the education system has been long overdue a reset button, at least AI will accelerate this, otherwise we may think models are getting smarter when in actual fact people are getting more stupid. The stat about 75% of 8th graders in the US are not proficient in basic maths is scary.