Why You Should Write “Every Day”

The world’s foremost psychologists, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, did a clever experiment with cold water. Participants were asked to immerse one hand up to the wrist in ice-cold water and not remove it until instructed to do so. Instead, participants tapped the keyboard with their other hand to record the intensity of the pain. It was to record the experience as vividly as possible at the time of the experiment. The experiment was first conducted in two rounds.

The first is to immerse one hand in water that is painfully cold, but not intolerably cold, for one minute. After one minute, a warm towel was given to them.

After 7 minutes, a second experiment was conducted that took longer than the first experiment. This time, soak your hands in cold water for 1 minute and 30 seconds. However, there was some manipulation in the experiment. During the first minute, the temperature was the same as in the first experiment, but then the water valve was opened so that slightly warm water flowed into the bucket. During 30 seconds, the water temperature rose by 1 degree, and most of the participants in the experiment were able to feel a slight decrease in the intensity of the pain. Of course, the participants in the experiment were completely unaware of the temperature of the water and that the warm water raised the temperature by 1 degree.

Participants were informed that a third experiment would be conducted soon, and they were asked to choose between the first experiment and the second experiment. ‘Which experiment would you choose?’ Probably the first, one-minute experiment without question. Unless you’re a masochist, there’s no reason to foolishly choose the second one-and-a-half minute experiment.

However, the results were shockingly close to 80% of the participants chose the second experiment. The memory that the pain was reduced at the end made me choose the longer pain as a result. How surprised were they at their foolish decision when they learned what the experiment was about?

So, how can we get out of this stupidity? When the participants were wet with one hand, the other hand was able to record the experience vividly on the keyboard. If they had recorded the experiences of the two experiments as vividly and accurately as possible, and if they had carefully looked at the records at the moment of choice, how would the results have come out? Didn’t many of the 80% of participants who made stupid choices make the right ones?

Do you have your own memorandum? A memorandum is a record written down in order not to forget a fact, and it was loved by many people who left a mark in the intellectual history of mankind. Charles Darwin’s 『Origin of Species』 is the crystallization of his memorandum. In his memorandum, he thoroughly recorded good writings from other sources, new ideas that came to him spontaneously, and questions he had. And he developed his thoughts by examining them from time to time. The memorandum was a wise milestone on his path.

English philosopher John Loke developed not only memoranda, but also an elaborate system for indexing memoranda. John Milton and Francis Bacon, like many other great intellects, meticulously recorded memoranda and based their work on books.

So Charles Darwin said of the memorandum:

“A memorandum is a great book.”

I am also a person who is fascinated by the memorandum. Of course, I didn’t make it into one bundle like the old intellectuals, but I organize wonderful quotes, important content, and inspirational phrases into a word file every day. Even if it’s annoying, the idea that comes to mind must be written down on the iPhone and uploaded to the cloud so that it can be checked at any time.

There are times when I am surprised to see what I wrote later. It is because ideas that were completely unthinkable for me now are waiting for me, embracing the experience of the time. Currently, many things related to my personal business, such as my usual columns, podcasts, and books, rely on my memorandum. As Charles Darwin said, memoranda are truly great books.

Confidence is necessary, but you shouldn’t completely trust yourself, your memory, or your intuition, and you shouldn’t think that the past me and the present me are the same. Even if it’s annoying, if you make a habit of writing a memorandum every day, it will be a great book that will save you nicely at the moment you can fall into stupidity.