The Curious Engineer

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Noted

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Tips from the world's best note takers. Click to read Noted, by Jillian Hess, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

Essays / personalHistory

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297 from 7 Aug 2022 to 26 Oct 2026
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2026 42

  1. Re-Noted: Bram Stoker's Notes for Dracula
  2. 100+ Quotes to Celebrate the September Commonplace Book Club
  3. P.S. How To Create a Monster
  4. How John Steinbeck Actually Wrote East of Eden
  5. P.S. How to Prepare for a Speech When You Fear Public Speaking
  6. Gloria Steinem’s Playboy Bunny Notebook
  7. 45 Quotes To Brighten Your September
  8. Dolly Parton’s Kleenex Boxes
  9. The Commonplace Book Club Begins Today!
  10. Why I Redesigned My Courses Around Notebooks
  11. An Invitation: Join the September Commonplace Book Club!
  12. Picasso, the Poet: A Notation
  13. Re-Noted: 3 Ways to Take Travel Notes
  14. John Milton's Notes on Marriage and Divorce: A Notation
  15. Ludwig van Beethoven's Conversation Notebooks: A Notation
  16. Katharine Hepburn's Promptbook
  17. Three Notebooks Behind Thomas Jefferson's Legacy
  18. Re-Noted: 3 Lessons on Writing from Joan Didion's Notes
  19. P.S. I Indexed 70 Notebooks. Here's What I Learned.
  20. Note-Taking Rituals
  21. How Austin Kleon Keeps it Fun and Weird
  22. P.S. Florence Nightingale's Private Notes of Survival and Reform
  23. 43 Quotes For Readers, Writers, & Notebook-Keepers
  24. Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing
  25. Re-Noted: Jack Kerouac's Introspective Notes
  26. The Commonplace Book Club (CBC) Begins Tomorrow!
  27. P.S. 3 Ways Richard Feynman Used Drawing to Think
  28. The Spring (Cleaning) Commonplace Book Club Begins May 1st!
  29. Richard Feynman's Notes For Self-Education
  30. Mason Currey's "Inefficient and Glorious Research Process"
  31. P.S. How to Finish a Creative Project: A.A. Milne's Notes
  32. How E.H. Shepard Brought Winnie-The-Pooh to Life
  33. Re-Noted: Pablo Picasso's Stunning Repetitions
  34. Susan Sontag on Style: 5 Ideas From her Notebooks
  35. Susan Sontag's Playground of Ideas
  36. P.S. Inside Emily Brontë's Writing Desk
  37. Re-Noted: Benjamin Franklin's Productivity Notes
  38. The Brontës' Scribble Mania
  39. Surround Yourself With Quotes
  40. P.S. Frederick Douglass and the Notes of a "Self-Made Man"
  41. Frederick Douglass's Liberation Notes
  42. The Paradox of Failed Resolutions

2025 73

  1. The January Commonplace Book Club (CBC) Begins Tomorrow!
  2. Re-Noted: Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Wide World"
  3. The New Year Commonplace Book Club (CBC) Begins January 1st!
  4. Diary and Planner Templates for the New Year
  5. 5 Ways to Deepen Your Diary Practice in the New Year
  6. P.S. The Notes Behind MGM's The Wizard of Oz
  7. Glinda, the Good Witch's Notes
  8. P.S. W.E.B. Du Bois's Innovative Calendar Design
  9. W.E.B. Du Bois's Remarkable Data Visualizations
  10. P.S. Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley's Shared Diary
  11. Re-Noted: Mary Shelley's Notes for Frankenstein
  12. P.S. The Grimm Brothers' Most Shocking Edits
  13. The Brothers Grimm and the Notes that Saved Our Fairy Tales
  14. 3 of My Favorite Fictional Notebooks
  15. Re-Noted: Jane Goodall's Chimpanzee Notes
  16. Notes as Collage: A Rumble of Thoughts
  17. P.S. 5 Tips for Revision Inspired by Walt Whitman
  18. Walt Whitman's Fragmented Process
  19. P.S. Alvin Ailey's Diaries & The Sacrifice of Dance
  20. Alvin Ailey's Revelatory Notes
  21. Re-Noted: Keith Haring's Public Notes
  22. P.S. Gaudí’s Only Remaining Notebook
  23. Antoni Gaudí's Marvelous Designs
  24. A Tapestry of Notes: Celebrating Noted's Third Anniversary
  25. Reflections on Noted's 3rd Anniversary
  26. The September Commonplace Book Club Starts Next Week!
  27. 3 Ways to Take Travel Notes
  28. A Call for Notes!
  29. Jane Austen and What Remains Of Her Notes
  30. I Have a Bone to Pick with Jane Austen
  31. P.S. How Guillermo del Toro Created a Monster: the Pale Man
  32. Re-Noted Guillermo del Toro's Mystical Notes
  33. Collecting Words, Slowly
  34. P.S. 5 Creative Lessons From Sondheim
  35. Stephen Sondheim's Musical Puzzles
  36. Re-Noted: 4 Cures for Writer's Block that Actually Work
  37. 47 Quotes to Inspire Your Creative Practice
  38. Re-Noted: P.S. Roald Dahl's World War II Notes & His Writing Ritual
  39. Re-Noted: Roald Dahl's Diaries & Idea Books
  40. The June Commonplace Book Club (CBC) Begins Today!
  41. 3 Lessons on Writing from Joan Didion's Notes
  42. The Summer Commonplace Book Club (CBC) Starts June 1st!
  43. P.S. Process Notes from Joan Didion's Archive & the Question of Privacy
  44. Joan Didion's Notes From Her Former Selves
  45. Celebrating the April Commonplace Book Club (CBC)
  46. Re-Noted: Franz Kafka's Ambivalent Notes
  47. P.S. Take Naturalist Notes Like Thoreau!
  48. Henry David Thoreau's Economic Notes
  49. 50 Quotes from the April Commonplace Book Club
  50. P.S. Picasso, Photography, and Guernica
  51. Pablo Picasso's Stunning Repetitions
  52. The April Commonplace Book Club (CBC) Begins Tomorrow!
  53. P.S. Paul McCartney's Sketches
  54. The Spring Commonplace Book Club (CBC) Begins April 1st
  55. Re-Noted: The Beatles' Collaborative Notes: 3 Ways to Write a Song
  56. P.S. Notes Misused: the Case of Nietzsche and the Nazis
  57. Nietzsche's Literary Remains
  58. Carl Linnaeus's Note-Taking Innovations
  59. Maya Angelou's Drafts
  60. P.S. Eminem's Visual Imagination
  61. Re-Noted: Eminem's Boxes of Notes
  62. P.S. Six of My Favorite Notebooks on Substack
  63. 5 Love Notes
  64. Commonplacing as Transcendent Connection
  65. How Commonplace Books Got Their Name
  66. Process Notes: 4 Ways I Use this Newsletter as Preparation to Write a Book
  67. P.S. A Conversation about Notebooks with Helen Sword
  68. Helen Sword's Pleasurable Notes
  69. P.S. How to Write a Speech: Tips from MLK’s Notes
  70. Re-Noted: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Organizational Systems
  71. Guest Essay: Hilma af Klint’s Notes from the Spirit World
  72. An Exciting Announcement: I'm Writing a Book!
  73. How 6 of Noted's Readers Use Diaries to Support Rituals

2024 79

  1. The January Commonplace Book Club (CBC) Begins Tonight!
  2. How 5 of Noted's Readers Keep a Diary
  3. The Winter Commonplace Book Club Begins January 1st
  4. P.S. Bob Dylan's Love of Archives and Notes for "A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall"
  5. Bob Dylan's Creative Notes
  6. P.S. In Praise of Hand-Made Notebooks
  7. Re-Noted: Creative People and their Notebooks
  8. P.S. Kerouac's Notes Written On the Road
  9. Jack Kerouac's Introspective Notes
  10. Roland Allen's Notes on Notebooks and How to Tell a Great Story
  11. How 5 of Noted's Readers Create With Notes
  12. P.S. Carl Jung's Art Therapy Notes
  13. Re-Noted: Carl Jung's Midlife-Crisis Notebooks
  14. Presidential Doodles
  15. P.S. How to Write a Novel: Tips from Stoker's Dracula Notes
  16. Bram Stoker's Notes for Dracula
  17. P.S. Jean-Michel Basquiat's Jazz Notes
  18. The Mini Commonplace Book Club Starts Today!
  19. Re-Noted: Jean-Michel Basquiat's Notes from NYC's Underground Art Scene
  20. Mini Pop-Up Commonplace Book Club (CBC) Starts Oct 15th!
  21. How 9 of Noted's Readers Think with Notes
  22. P.S. Emerson's Tips for Finding Notes
  23. The Magic of Communal Commonplacing
  24. Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Wide World"
  25. P.S. Robert Caro's Power Broker Notes
  26. Re-Noted: Robert Caro's Cork Board
  27. What Do You Call your Notebooks?
  28. 3 Quotes from the Commonplace Book Club: Week 1
  29. Noted's Two-Year Anniversary Edition
  30. The Commonplace Book Club Begins Today!
  31. The Commonplace Book Club Starts September 1st!
  32. Learning with Notes
  33. Re-Noted: Beatrix Potter's Naturalist Notes
  34. A Call for Notes!
  35. 4 Cures for Writer's Block that Actually Work
  36. In Praise of Doodles
  37. Pictograms from the Aztec's Ancient Notes
  38. Re-Noted: Sylvia Plath's Visual Notes
  39. Siegfried Sassoon's War Journal
  40. 3 of Seneca's Metaphors for Taking Notes
  41. Frida Kahlo's Notes from Casa Azul's Archives
  42. Re-Noted: Francis Ford Coppola's "Godfather Notebook"
  43. Sofia Coppola's Pink Notes
  44. Three War Diaries
  45. P.S. Our Notes Want to Move!
  46. Noted Lab #2: Niklas Luhmann's Zettelkasten
  47. Introducing the Noted Lab: Ask Me Anything
  48. Franz Kafka's Ambivalent Notes
  49. P.S. Kurt Cobain's Riotous Art
  50. Re-Noted: Kurt Cobain's Spiral Notebooks
  51. P.S. Jane Goodall's Chimpanzee Notes
  52. 3 Ways to Keep a Naturalist's Notebook
  53. P.S. The Three-Body Problem's Silent Spring
  54. Rachel Carson's Field Notes for Silent Spring
  55. P.S. Tupac Shakur's Love Notes
  56. Tupac Shakur's Revolutionary Notes
  57. P.S. My Marginalia, or How I Write in Books
  58. Re-Noted: Marginalia, or 5 Ways to Write in Your Books
  59. P.S. How I Take Recipe Notes
  60. Delicious Notes II: How Amie McGraham and Domenica Marchetti Record Recipes
  61. Delicious Notes: How Colu Henry and Jolene Handy Record Recipes
  62. P.S. Kinsey's Punched Cards
  63. Alfred Kinsey's Notes on Americans' Sex Lives
  64. P.S. Jonathan Larson's Bohemian Notes
  65. Jonathan Larson's Notes for Rent
  66. P.S. How to Write a Bestselling Novel: 4 Tips from Octavia Butler's Notes
  67. Re-Noted: Octavia Butler's "Essentials of Success"
  68. P.S. Six of My Favorite Notebooks on Substack
  69. All the Love Notes!
  70. P.S. Eminem's Visual Imagination
  71. Eminem's Boxes of Notes
  72. P.S. Five Ways I Use My Diaries
  73. Re-Noted: 6 Ways to Use a Diary
  74. How to Write a Speech: Tips from MLK’s Notes
  75. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Organizational Systems
  76. P.S. Leonard Bernstein's Daily Planner
  77. Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story Notes
  78. P.S. How I Organize My Daily Planner
  79. A Short History of the Daily Planner

2023 79

  1. 4 Writing Tips from Benjamin Franklin's Notes
  2. Benjamin Franklin's Productivity Notes
  3. P.S. Jim Morrison's Notes and "The Doors of Perception"
  4. Re-Noted: Jim Morrison's Poetry Notes
  5. P.S. Toni Morrison's Beloved Drafts
  6. Toni Morrison's Research Notes for Beloved
  7. P.S. In Praise of Hand-Made Notebooks
  8. Creative People and their Notebooks
  9. P.S. Julia Child's Notes for Public Television
  10. Julia Child's Culinary Notes
  11. P.S. Houdini’s Notes on Spiritualism
  12. Re-Noted: Harry Houdini's Secret Notes
  13. P.S. Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley's Diary
  14. Mary Shelley's Notes for Frankenstein
  15. P.S. Lewis Carroll's Alice Notes
  16. Lewis Carroll's Playful Notes
  17. P.S. James Baldwin's Debate Notes
  18. Re-Noted: James Baldwin's Doodles
  19. P.S. Carl Jung's Book of Dreams: The Red Book
  20. Let's Talk Notes: Do You Record Your Dreams?
  21. P.S. Paul McCartney's Sketches
  22. The Beatles' Collaborative Notes: 3 Ways to Write a Song
  23. P.S. Carl Jung's Art Therapy Notes
  24. Carl Jung's Midlife-Crisis Notebooks
  25. P.S. Mark Twain's Notes for Huckleberry Finn
  26. Re-Noted: Mark Twain's Innovative Notes
  27. P.S. Jean-Michel Basquiat's Jazz Notes
  28. Jean-Michel Basquiat's Notes from NYC's Underground Art Scene
  29. P.S. Noted's Notes: My Writing Process
  30. 12 of My Notebooks for 12 Months of Noted
  31. P.S. The Problem with Commonplace Books
  32. 3 Ways Students Took Notes Before Computers
  33. P.S. Virginia Woolf's Notes for Mrs. Dalloway
  34. Re-Noted: Virginia Woolf's Handmade Notebooks
  35. P.S. Three Ways I Organize Quotations
  36. Let's Talk Notes: How Do You Organize Quotations?
  37. P.S. John Lennon's Love Notes
  38. John Lennon's Childhood Notebooks
  39. P.S. Emily Dickinson's Secret Collaborator's Notes
  40. Deciphering Emily Dickinson's Notes
  41. P.S. Jim Henson's Film Notes
  42. Re-Noted: Jim Henson's Red Notebook
  43. Newton's Alchemy Notes
  44. Newton's Eccentric Experiment Notes
  45. P.S. Mozart's Obscene Notes
  46. Mozart's Music Notes
  47. P.S. Kasturba Gandhi's Diary
  48. Gandhi's Sacred Diaries
  49. Frida Kahlo's Illustrated Diary
  50. P.S. Keith Haring's Poetry
  51. Keith Haring's Street Notes
  52. P.S. Roald Dahl's World War II Notes & His Writing Hut
  53. Roald Dahl's Diaries & Idea Books
  54. P.S. Five of Sylvia Plath's Writing Goals
  55. Sylvia Plath's Visual Notes
  56. P.S. How Guillermo del Toro Created a Monster: the Pale Man
  57. Guillermo del Toro's Mystical Notes
  58. Edward & Josephine Hopper's New York Notes
  59. Oscar Wilde's "Criminal" Notes
  60. Francis Ford Coppola's "Godfather Notebook"
  61. Leigh Hunt's Scrapbook of Hair
  62. Kurt Cobain's Spiral Notebooks
  63. Beatrix Potter's Naturalist Notes
  64. Contemporary Notes: Alex Dobrenko and Michael Estrin
  65. John Locke's Pursuit of the Perfect Notebook
  66. Marginalia: 5 Ways to Write in Your Books
  67. Marilyn Monroe's Psychoanalysis Notes
  68. Charles Dickens's Performance Notes
  69. How to Write a Bestselling Novel: 4 Tips from Octavia Butler's Notes
  70. Jimmy Carter's White House Diary
  71. Contemporary Notes: Scott Nedrelow
  72. Lady Caroline Lamb's Heart-Break Notebook
  73. Contemporary Notes: Dr. Bronwen Tate
  74. Octavia Butler's "Essentials of Success"
  75. Contemporary Notes: Jane Ratcliffe
  76. Rosa Parks's Radical Notes
  77. Archive Notes: Octavia Butler's Papers at the Huntington Library
  78. Charles Darwin's Portfolios
  79. 12 Ways to Use a Diary

2022 24

  1. Jim Morrison's Poetry Notes
  2. The Wilde Friendship Album
  3. Jim Henson's Red Book
  4. Agatha Christie's Exercise Books
  5. A Notebook from the First "Thanksgiving"
  6. Interview Notes: Anne Kadet
  7. A Report from James Baldwin's Archive
  8. Mark Twain's Inventions
  9. Interview Notes: Mark Dykeman
  10. Harry Houdini's Secret Notes
  11. How Successful Novelists Take Notes
  12. The Notebooks that Launched Michael Faraday's Career
  13. Frida Kahlo's Illustrated Diary
  14. Walter Benjamin's notes, written while fleeing the Nazis
  15. Interview Notes: Dr. Amanda Watson
  16. Robert Caro's Cork Board
  17. Hilary Mantel, In Memoriam
  18. Read like Virginia Woolf
  19. Leonardo da Vinci's Zibaldone
  20. Queen Victoria's Mourning Albums
  21. Patricia Highsmith's Cahiers
  22. What's with the bees?
  23. Noted, a welcome
  24. Coming soon