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(Archived) Samuel Pepys vs Evernote


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Hmmm, topical or not? The past few years, I have been following the daily publication of the diary of one Samuel Pepys, a British naval administrator in the 17th century, who is today better known his diary, which he kept for 10 years, while he was still an up-and-coming naval clerk. He remembered and recorded everything... the people that he met, the places he went, the things he saw, office politics, the theatre and music, relationships with his family -- particularly his wife, his infidelities, jealousies, intrigues, infirmities, his inner thoughts and weaknesses.. everything. The span of the diary covers the restoration of the monarchy, the Great Fire of London, outbreaks of plague, the Anglo-Dutch War.

Oh, and he wrote it all in code, or at least in a sort of shorthand, which wasn't deciphered until over a century after his death.

As it's now drawing to a close (less than a month before it ends), I was wondering about Sam and his diary, and the tools we have today, most notably the one that we're all near and dear to: Evernote. What he wrote and thought lived far beyond his own being, since he wrote it down (probably better for him, since some of the people he wrote about might have been mighty offended by his opinions of them). How about us? Any diarists out there? (I'm not one). Diarists who use Evernote? What will happen to your words after you're gone? Do you worry about that? Or care? What would Sam have done with a tool like Evernote? His diary shows that he had a fine and inquisitive mind about everything that humans do -- I feel certain he would have liked Evernote (but probably one of those characters who agitate for whole notebook encryption).

Anyways, just another darn thing to chew up our time, but one that's pretty interesting. You can follow it here: http://www.pepysdiary.com/. As I said, it's done in less than a month, but it will start up all over again, and in the mean time, you can go back and read the previous entries.

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Yeah, I actually have a project to figure it out, i.e. what's the best way to go about this .

I don't write a diary per se but I do take videos(sometimes) and pictures and write down my thoughts, projects and etc. (in addition to just clipping stuff all the time).

One could always just sort by date and then it would work as some sort of super detailed diary. (since I might add hundred of notes somedays)

I also orgainize things into browsable categories which are possible to navigate without relying on any specific software feature other than search and an ability to read HTML. Everything is backed up additionally in the cloud, locally and (in addition to Evernote servers).

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  • Level 5*

I keep a "journal" of items that I work on, on a daily basis, but that's mostly aimed at the time reporting aspect of the job (i.e. admin), not anything rigorous like an engineer's notebook.

Interestingly enough, Pepys was also a Fellow of the Royal Society, and eventually became its president, under which office he gave the imprimatur for the publication of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica.

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I've kept a diary, sporadically, since my late teens. Originally in large black sketch books, then in whatever wordprocessing program I had available. Of late years, I've used Evernote. I have a notebook called "Journal". In addition to traditional journal entries, i keep logs of text conversations, the occasional email. I have IFTTT.com save my tweets, FB posts, Instagram photos and calendar events to that notebook as well. Sometimes, my journal entries are typed directly into Evernote. Other times, i send brief personal "updates" from my phone using PostEver.

I'm still trying to work out how to preserve all this for..... well, I don't know for whom but I still want to. Perhaps someday, I'll print it all out and get it bound.

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I'm still trying to work out how to preserve all this for..... well, I don't know for whom but I still want to

Yeah, I'm in the same boat, I have an idea about how this would work in general but I'm just 25 years old and there's still a lot of time left hopefully. I mean the due date for this project is my death basically. There's a lot of time left so it's not high on priority but it's a very interesting topic nonetheless

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Yeah, I'm in the same boat, I have an idea about how this would work in general but I'm just 25 years old and there's still a lot of time left hopefully.

LOL! I just turned 50. Also, my father recently died and I've come to realize how little I know of his life beyond facts and dates. He was never much of a story teller.

I also find myself concerned with the idea that electronic formats become obsolete. I have diaries of my great-grandfather's from the civil war. Will my diaries still be readable in 100 years? Paper books have proven themselves surprisingly durable.

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I have IFTTT.com save my tweets, FB posts, Instagram photos and calendar events to that notebook as well.... I'm still trying to work out how to preserve all this for..... well, I don't know for whom but I still want to. Perhaps someday, I'll print it all out and get it bound.

I've recently started a journal. So far, I've just been writing down (typing) a combination of what happened that day and my thoughts and feelings at the time of writing. I never thought of including my tweets or FB post. That would be part of my life and an interesting addition to a journal. As for what to do with it in the future? I think printing it out would be the last thing that would be needed. In our mostly digital world, many of us are going paperless and the trend will only continue. I say keep it in Evernote. I'm sure people will "find" it just like an only lost (paper) journal.

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Having lost an Aunt a couple of years ago and being tasked with sorting the house out, it is amazing the things that are not there!

Looking through old photos and having no idea who was who.

Bits of paper and snippets of information that just don't stack up. I have one Aunt left and you have reminded me that I must take this information to her before it is too late.

So diary keeping and correctly identifying data/photos will be of use to our hopefully historically hungry ancestors!

Best regards

Chris

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