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I’ve lost more good ideas than I can count.
Not because they were bad ideas.
Because I trusted my memory.
I’d leave a conversation knowing something important had surfaced. A clearer way to name the real issue, a sharper distinction, a sentence that actually captured what was happening beneath the surface.
It felt obvious. Settled. Safe to hold in my head.
And then I’d sit down later, ready to use it, and it would be gone.
Not dramatically. Quietly.
What lingered wasn’t the idea itself. It was the confidence that I’d had one.
That familiar feeling of I figured something out—without being able to explain what it was anymore.
If you’ve ever walked away from a meeting thinking I’ve got this…
and then struggled to reconstruct what this actually was,
you know the moment I’m talking about.
Trust a short pen over a long memory
Here’s my take:
The problem isn’t forgetting. The problem is trusting a long memory when a short pen would have done the job better.
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Memory keeps the confidence and discards the structure.
You remember that something clicked, but not why.
You remember that you were sure, but not what you were sure of.
That’s how people walk into meetings convinced they’ve already thought something through and then stall the moment they’re asked to explain it.
Not because they lack insight.
Because the insight never left their head.
So…
The PEN Framework
When an idea feels important, I don’t just trust my memory. I use PEN.
Gif by Channel7AU on Giphy
Let’s get it…
P — Put the Claim on Paper
Write one sentence.
Not a paragraph. Not notes. A claim.
Ask yourself:
What do I actually believe is true here?
This is harder than it sounds.
Most ideas feel complete until you try to state them plainly.
That’s when you realize they’re still fragments—circling, qualifying, not yet landed.
Example:
Before: “There’s something off with how this team is approaching the problem.”
After: “The team isn’t aligned on what success actually means.”
If you can’t state it cleanly, you don’t have a position yet. You have a hunch.
Then, only after the sentence is written, draw the idea.
Not to replace the claim, but to test it.
Sketch what the sentence implies:
what connects
what depends on what
what changes if the claim is true
If you can draw relationships but can’t state the claim, you’re not done yet.
The pen forces a decision your memory happily postpones
E — Examine the Sentence
Read it back slowly, as if someone else wrote it.
Does it actually say what you think it says?
Or does it rely on context only you have?
Now look for the weakest word.
The soft ones.
The comfortable ones.
The words that let you avoid precision.
Circle it. Replace it. Make the sentence specific enough that it could be wrong.
Example:
Weak: “This usually creates confusion.”
Stronger: “This creates confusion when decisions require cross-team ownership.”
If it can’t be challenged, it isn’t finished.
N — Name the Resistance
Ask one final question:
If someone smart disagreed with this, where would they push first?
Not a strawman. A thoughtful skeptic.
What assumption would they question?
What exception would they point to?
Example:
“They’d say we already discussed this last quarter and nothing changed.”
If your sentence collapses here, that’s not failure.
That’s information.
You’ve learned the idea isn’t ready yet, which is far better than discovering that in front of people who matter.
Decide:
Does this idea hold?
Or does it need more time?
Either answer is useful.
Your Influence Depends on It
When your thinking stays in your head, others hear confidence but can’t see the path behind it. They sense conviction, but they can’t trace the reasoning.
That’s where hesitation shows up. Not because the idea is weak, but because it’s invisible.
The people who consistently shape decisions aren’t always the fastest thinkers in the room. They’re the ones whose thinking already exists outside their heads.
They aren’t searching for words in the moment.
They aren’t rebuilding arguments under pressure.
They’ve already done the work of deciding what they believe.
That’s what the pen actually gives you.
Not memory.
Judgment you can stand on.
And when your judgment is visible, influence follows.
Why the Medium Matters
One more thing worth naming. There’s a whole neuroscience behind writing.
Typing is fast. Easy to abandon. Easy to promise yourself you’ll revisit.
Handwriting introduces friction, and that friction is the point.
A pen slows you just enough to force choice. Paper gives the thought a place to exist without distractions or the illusion of cleanup later.
Once the idea is physical, it stops flattering you.
It either works or it doesn’t. And that honesty is what makes it usable.
The ideas you're most certain you'll remember are usually the ones you lose
LEVEL UP
AI Prompt: Capture & Clarify Your Thinking
Copy, paste, and use this in your favorite LLM:
I have an idea that feels important but I'm not sure it's fully formed. Help me sharpen it.
Here's the idea as I understand it right now: [Describe it in whatever form you have]
Help me:
1. State it in one sentence—what do I actually believe is true here?
2. Read it back as a stranger—where is it unclear or dependent on context only I have?
3. Attack the weakest word—where am I hedging or being vague?
4. Resist from the other side—where would a smart skeptic push back? What's the strongest objection?
5. Tell me honestly: Does this idea hold after scrutiny, or does it need more time to develop?
Be direct. I'd rather know now than discover it later in front of people who matter.
POLL
What Happens to Your Best Ideas?
CURATED ROUNDUP
What to Review This Week
Read: How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking by Sönke Ahrens
Watch: How to Use Writing to Improve Your Thinking by Tim Ferriss
In Case You Missed It!
The Bottom Line
If your thinking lives only in your head, it can’t influence anything.
Memory preserves confidence, not clarity.
A pen forces you to decide what you actually believe—and to make that belief visible.
That’s why a short pen beats a long memory.
Not because it records ideas, but because it turns impressions into judgments you can stand on.
Thanks for reading. Be easy!
Girvin
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