"How Writing a Book About Diaries Changed How I Wrote My Own Diary Entries"

From lithub.com

By Betsy Rubiner

Betsy Rubiner on What We Can Learn From Writing in Journals

For several years, while I was working on a book about the diary’s role in our lives and culture, I actively looked for “diary stories” and found them, which fuelled my hunch that the diary or journal (I use the terms interchangeably) is a cultural mainstay, in an under-the-radar way.

But months after calling off my search because my book was done,  I still see diaries, often in unlikely places.  Diary! Diary! my brain alerted me recently when I read a passing mention of the late tennis great Arthur Ashe’s diary in Billie Jean King’s autobiography. And when a journal-writing passion was briefly noted in recent newspaper stories about actor Noah Wyle (of The Pitt), rapper Danny Brown, and Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps. And when revelations from the journal of the late neurologist/author Oliver Sacks were used in a reappraisal of his work in a recent New Yorker.  And during a ballet performance, when a dancer plopped down on a stage for a few minutes to write in, yes, a diary, signalling her character’s distress after a breakup.

My all-consuming book project also changed how I read, especially other people’s diaries.  Instead of reading primarily for diarists’ accounts of their life and times, I’m looking for what, if anything, diarists wrote about their diary writing—why they invest time and energy to chronicle their experiences and thoughts, day by day. “I owe a good deal to this journal,” England’s Anne Lister wrote in 1821. “By unburdening my mind on paper I feel, as it were, in some degree to get rid of it.”

Beyond seeking a mental release, diarists write to preserve and retrieve memories.

Later dubbed the “first modern lesbian,” Lister became famous after the 1988 publication of her journal, which included details of her love affairs with women. The journal inspired the 2019 BBC drama Gentleman Jack, the nickname locals gave Lister for acting in what was deemed a manly way.

Beyond seeking a mental release, diarists write to preserve and retrieve memories. “The journal gives me back some of what I have lost,” American author Alice Walker explained in 2022.  Some diarists write to report, reveal, rebel, resist. Witness the pandemic journaling projects that started soon after the Covid-19 pandemic.  And Russian dissident Alexei Navalny’s diary entry from a remote penal colony where he was imprisoned in 2021: “If they do finally whack me, the book will be my memorial.” Part-memoir/part-diary, his book was published in 2024, months after Russian officials announced his death, during imprisonment.

Claude Fredericks, a classics professor, playwright and poet, considered his journal “a work of permanent importance.” Writing from age eight to shortly before his death at age 89 in 2013, he produced about 65,000 pages. He self-published a portion. A research institute later purchased the diary and other papers. Virginia Woolf wrote in 1919 that her diary writing “does not count as writing.” But writing for her “own eye only” was “good practice” that “loosens the ligaments.”

Reading my own diary, which I’ve written daily (almost) for more than fifty years, I tried to understand what I am doing and creating as a diarist. I started a diary and kept writing because I wanted to be a writer. Because I write on a diary’s blank page every night, I found that as a journalist, freelance writer and author I was not afraid (or was less afraid) of a blank computer screen. Because I can write anything I want in my diary, it offers a welcome break from my day job. It has served as a testing ground, for honing my craft, and a storage space, for squirreling away ideas for possible future use. (I didn’t expect that use to be a book about diaries.)

                                                                   Our Diaries, Ourselves by Betsy Rubiner is available via Beacon Press

Now that my book has helped me better understand why I keep a diary, I’m more self-conscious and intentional when I write my evening entry. Because I’m now more aware of the potential value of what I’m writing—both to me in-the-moment and to possible future readers—I am trying to write more about what matters, to be a more conscious curator of my on-the-day experiences and thoughts about myself and the world.

Has my project changed my professional writing? It’s too soon to say. I am slowly starting to contemplate a writing life (or life in general) after “the book.” Maybe I’ll dig deeper into my diary to see what more I can make from or with it, and maybe I’ll write in a more diaristic way. Or maybe I’ll plunge into a different topic and genre, away from “the diary,” away from my nonfiction book’s blend of reporting and reflecting. I’m tempted to let my diary rest in peace. Reading it can be emotionally exhausting.

As for still seeing diaries, I knew, and feared, that more diary stories would surface after my manuscript deadline. Who knew I’d be able to keep a running list?  For years now, friends and family have kindly emailed or texted me diary-in-the-news items and shared their personal diary stories, which enriched my book. Some keep sharing stories. Google and Facebook algorithms still occasionally feed my diary fixation, sending more content. At first, I found this creepy (Stop reading my mind Google!) until  I realized the content often proved valuable.

Among the many diary mentions I’ve spotted, of late, some have bolstered what I learned during my diary research. A January trend story reported a surge of journal-and-pen shoppers at Chicago stationary stores and noted an abundance of online videos about the “lost art” of  journaling, heralding a possible return to analog. Another newspaper story featured a man who wrote a marriage proposal to his girlfriend in the journal they share. (They married.)

German composers Robert and Clara Schumann started a joint “marriage diary” back in 1840. Appreciations of actress Diane Keaton after her death last year mentioned her journal and her beloved mother’s journal, both used for Keaton’s 2011 memoir.  Writers who’ve used their own diary and/or mom’s diary include English novelist Will Self, whose 2024 novel Elaine is based on the diary of his late mother. A photograph of a teenager’s troubling journal entry accompanied a recent magazine article about his parents filing a wrongful death lawsuit against an artificial intelligence company, after the teen’s suicide. His journal suggested he was enthralled by an AI chatbot. Other diary entries have helped prompt legal action.

I expect, and welcome, more diary stories soon, this time from my book’s readers. Already, new diary-spotters who’ve heard about my book’s impending publication have stepped up. I’ve learned about a man who stole his wife’s diary; and about brother and sister diarists who made a pact that the diary of whoever dies first will be left for the surviving sibling to preserve, for family history and possible publication.

One friend thinks her travel photos may be a travel journal and reported reading the final diary entries of her sister, who recently died. “Whoa!” she texted me. These shared stories, combined with my book project-induced habit of seeing diaries where others may not notice them and my fascination with diarists’ motivations, continue to feed my diary fixation and drive my new diary-writing approach. If, or how, my lingering diary-on-the-brain affects what I write, beyond my diary, remains to be seen.

https://lithub.com/how-writing-a-book-about-diaries-changed-how-i-wrote-my-own-diary-entries/

"Why I’m growing my journal ecosystem – and why you should too"

From theboar.org

By Daria Chiuian 

I'm sure by now social media has made the rounds on the concept of a ‘journal ecosystem’, but for those unfamiliar, it is essentially a collection of notebooks – each with different purposes – that come together to form a routine (or even a loose pattern). Some are extensive, with upwards of 10 notebooks, and some are very efficiently and cleanly separated, giving each notebook a clear role. Journaling is always recommended for organisation, or for a healthy mind and soul. In reality, it can help all these things and more, as long as you make it work for you. This is why I am invested in the idea of a journal ecosystem; you can create a rotation of journals with different purposes that fit your life and needs. So, without further ado, here’s my journal ecosystem. 

First is my day-a-page diary, which I re-purchase every year – this year in a deep red with gold-gilded edges. In this, I religiously plan every minute of my day (perhaps to an unhealthy degree), as well as including deadlines, events, and anything with a date attached to it. These sorts of diaries usually also have some pages for notes at the back – I include a reading log in here, but this could also be a great place for monthly summaries, finance trackers, or birthdays (because I know those are hard to remember). This one goes with me almost everywhere and is probably the one I rely on most – and recommend most. Without it, I would be lost. 

It’s easy to try and quickly give up on daily writing, but stick with it, even when you feel you are writing the same things every day – you will often find some unique thoughts come up and onto the page

Paired with this is another day-a-page notebook, used in this case for daily journaling (think along the lines of ‘Dear Diary…’). Sometimes this comes with journaling prompts found online, but generally, I like to recap every day. This way, the days don’t go by quite so quickly. As this is the most classic style of ‘journaling’, it’s likely the one that everyone has tried. It’s easy to try and quickly give up on daily writing, but stick with it, even when you feel you are writing the same things every day – you will often find some unique thoughts come up and onto the page. 

Next, an unassuming black notebook, thickened by almost five years of use. Although it has had many different purposes in the past, for now, one of the roles of this all-encompassing journal is a scrapbook, or a collection of receipts and other scraps of paper I collate throughout day-to-day life. More than anything, this is a fun way for me to reflect on events with low-stakes and a great-looking result. This is such an easy way to be creative, as all you need are the scraps, colour, and your thoughts. I especially like to do this after a holiday and pick a theme for the spread. Another role that this black notebook has picked up this year is a habit tracker: a simple table, with 30/31 days down the side, and the habits I want to keep up with along the top. Again, this is a low-stakes way of keeping grounded in life (and the set-up at the beginning of each month is also fun if you like a ruler and pen). This black notebook is also a catch-all for thoughts and feelings that are a bit too waffly for the daily journal. Look on your shelf: almost certainly, there is a discarded, mostly empty notebook lying there. Pick it up, find the first empty page, and let loose. 

I’d like to give a special mention to the humble sketchbook – perhaps this is not a journal, but a flick through it gives me snapshots of myself making those pages, which I think counts for something. This is a sign to embrace your creativity (everyone has creativity), pick up a pencil, and scribble until it looks like you (metaphorically, of course). 

If you can take that first step, and then repeat it the next day, and then the next, then journaling can become a habit

Finally, this one may be controversial, but I feel the need to include it because it is a staple: my ‘GCal’ (Google Calendar, for those unacquainted). Controversial because it’s not on paper, and I really laud the importance of pen to paper. However, I make an exception in this case, because my GCal houses all my events, timetables, deadlines, and tasks. I mean, it does a lot. Could I survive without it? Quite possibly, considering I also have paper versions of all of the above. Regardless, seeing my day laid out in digital format makes it seem just that extra bit more professional. Plus, customising the colours every month is fun, if you know how to have a good time. 

And of course, I am always looking for more. At the moment, I am considering a little A6 notebook to start a commonplace journal. This is essentially another miscellaneous notebook, but more pointed towards learning and inspiration. For example, learning a new word and writing down its definition, or finding a quote in a book and wanting to remember it in the future. Whilst I do have some worries that this may be relegated to the same fate as the black journal, I think I would be willing to give this a go. 

While this collection can seem pretty full on for someone who has never journaled before, or even really written things down very much, it’s important to stress that you do not have to create an ecosystem. Continuing the metaphor, this will grow organically as you find more things in your life that you want to record, organise, or reflect upon. The best starting point is to buy a notebook, crack it open at the end of the day, and write. It doesn’t have to be poetic or even complete sentences. If you can take that first step, and then repeat it the next day, and then the next, then journaling can become a habit. It can grow into something even bigger, helping you to grow with it. 

https://theboar.org/2026/03/why-im-growing-my-journal-ecosystem-and-why-you-should-too/

How Londoners used data to survive the Great Plague

From bbc.co.uk/news

When plague swept through London in 1665, killing tens of thousands, people did not simply pray or flee. They checked the numbers.

New research by Karen McBride, external, an accounting professor at the University of Portsmouth, argues that the weekly Bills of Mortality acted as an early public health information system, shaping how some Londoners navigated life, work and survival during the Great Plague.

Drawing on the diary of Samuel Pepys, the study suggests the published death figures were used as "quite practical decision guiding accounts or data of what was going on".

The Bills were issued weekly, listing deaths by parish across the capital. They were posted publicly and sold on street corners, allowing readers to compare week-on-week rises and falls.

"They recorded the summaries of death by parish within London. So people could see where figures were rising if they compared week on week, they could see where figures were rising, where figures were falling, what was happening," McBride said.

                                                        The Bills of Mortality were weekly death figures published by London parishes

Pepys, a naval administrator and writer living within the city walls, bought the Bills and frequently copied the totals directly into his diary.

"What was interesting to me was the fact that Samuel Pepys kept a very extensive diary. And that very extensive diary noted how he was using this data to go about his daily life at this time," McBride said.

As the numbers rose, he changed his behaviour. He planned routes through the city to avoid heavily affected parishes, reconsidered visiting friends, and relocated his wife out of London. When the totals peaked, he wrote his will.

"They enabled Londoners to use the increases and decreases to judge personal risk, where to travel, when to travel, when to leave the city, and to assess when it will be safe for them to return as well," McBride said.

                                                           Samuel Pepys altered his own family's behaviour based on local death figures

The figures were discussed in coffee houses and compared socially.

The Bills, McBride argues, "almost supported that idea of self-surveillance and self-governance aligning individual behaviour with the broader public health objectives without actually telling people what to do necessarily".

Accuracy was sometimes questioned. Parish officers were responsible for collecting and compiling the data, and as deaths surged, recording capacity was stretched and figures went underreported.

But doubt did not mean rejection, McBride said.

"They were nonetheless trusted enough for them to use them to guide their behaviour."

Even when people suspected understatement, rising totals heightened fear and caution. Falling numbers encouraged the reopening of shops and the resumption of social life.

                                                 Mass graves were used as deaths surged and burial capacity was overwhelmed

The study challenges the idea that 17th Century society was simply helpless in the face of disease.

"I think they had an understanding or what they thought was an understanding of what was going on. That was wrong, but they thought they had an understanding," McBride said.

Although many believed plague was caused by "miasma" or bad air, practical measures such as isolation and distancing were adopted.

"Although the ideas behind why they did these things might have been very different to what the reality was, actually it was quite helpful."

The research also highlights stark inequality. While the Bills were publicly available, literacy was limited and the ability to act on the information was "highly unequal", McBride said.

Pepys, as an upwardly mobile and wealthy Londoner, could interpret the trends, reduce contact and move his household. Poorer residents, including servants and casual labourers, often had no such flexibility.

McBride found that "for them, continued exposure was unavoidable".

There was inequality within the data itself.

"Plague deaths amongst the poor were much more likely to be misclassified, underreported, or even concealed," McBride said, whether because of parish capacity, misdiagnosis or attempts to avoid the economic consequences of shutting up a house.

Although the study does not centre on modern pandemics, McBride delved into the issue as the UK was going through its own pandemic response.

"We were all looking at numbers every day. The television was on, the numbers were there, he had numbers, he was acting on those numbers, we had numbers, we were acting on those numbers," she said.

The academic stresses that the research does not claim direct equivalence with modern outbreaks, but points to structural parallels in how societies respond to published statistics.

"Whilst people truly believe that they're giving information and they're letting people know the situation and they're informing people and they're enabling people to act, that doesn't always get received equally," she said.

If information is issued without the means to respond, she suggested, it can deepen inequality rather than reduce risk.

"Whilst I completely agree with providing information, we just need to think a little bit about how that information is received."

The Great Plague of London killed an estimated 100,000 in 18 months - about a fifth of the capital's population at the time.

Between 1665 and 1666, as plague deaths climbed in the capital, some sections of society were not simply passive victims, McBride's study found.

They were reading, interpreting and reacting to the data available to them, using weekly death figures to navigate one of the deadliest years in the city's history.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3v7551q55eo

Dear diary, hello again! ‘Journaling’ is back, and with a liberating twist for digitally overwhelmed souls

From financialexpress.com

By Sreya Deb

From teens to professionals, journalling is making a comeback as a mindful offline habit. The growing “journal ecosystem” blends creativity, mental wellness and a booming guided-journal stationery market.

Manya Jindal, 26, started ‘journaling’ when she was a teenager, at a time when the activity was still called ‘writing a diary’. “For me, it was a medium to vent out my feelings and frustrations. Over time, journaling became less about fixing something and more about understanding myself better,” says the resident of Delhi.

Despite not being regular with her diary entries as a child, she says that the instinct to document feelings has always existed inside of her. “I think many of us journalled intuitively as children before life became busier,” she says, explaining that people are largely drawn to journalling because “it helps them slow down in the fast-paced world, and also to savour the moment and feel grounded”.

Today, Jindal is a creative journaling facilitator and founder of The Irenic Store, through which she conducts immersive workshops for journaling, and makes, customizes and sells journal accessories and stickers as well.

A journalling workshop conducted by The Irenic Store (right). An art inspired journal offered by online stationery shop Living Waters (left)

Jindal’s take on the workshop

After attending her workshops, Jindal says attendees often report feeling relaxed and unwound. “The response has been really great; attendees feel at peace after finishing a journal spread,” she adds.

A new hobby has entered the mainstream, and mercifully, this one involves minimal brain rot, little online engagement and zero artificial intelligence. Journalling has made its way back into the collective consciousness of teenagers, young adults and adults alike, who no longer subscribe to, or have drifted away from their ‘Dear Diary’ days.

A major perk with journalling is that it is not an expensive hobby. “You just need a paper and a pen to build this habit,” says Jindal. While a range of accessories like stickers, charms, notebooks, markers, and washi tape is available, it is up to the individual to use them if they want to visually enhance their journal and spend money on it. “Basically, there are no real rules to journalling,” adds Jindal. 

Indeed. You can have one journal, or you can have six, or even ten—there are no rules, and absolutely customisable to your comfort or needs, as you’re fashioning it with your own hands. 

The modern journal is no longer just a secret keeper of your school-time crush and bad grades or the umpteen adolescent conflicts with parents. It serves as more than just a confidante and therapy tool. Today’s journal wears many hats— used for planning, vision boarding, storing junk memorabilia, night-time self-reflection, exclusive to-do lists, travel and more.

Those who journal as a habit have largely shared that journalling adds a level of compartmentalisation and calm to their lives, amidst the chaos of everyday life. They describe it as a grounding and highly satisfactory experience that holds compounding value.

No wonder, users, particularly Gen Z, are calling it the ‘journal ecosystem’. Although a personally built habit, it has picked up to such an extent that it has given rise to a market for notebooks, stickers, decorative tape, accessories and other stationary as well. Now, people would rather say, “I have a journal ecosystem”, rather than, “I keep a diary”.

Need a break?

Rhea Chatterjee, 29, turns to journaling for a welcome break from her job as a writer. “I used to write a diary when I was younger, I was a child with a lot of angst. One day, my parents found the diary and ended up reading the content. After that I never ran the risk again,” she reminisces. 

Until recently, though. “My journalling habit as an adult now allows me to write without a deadline, a deliverable, an outline, and even sometimes without a purpose,” she says.

“For me, it is the equivalent of stretching out my limbs after a workout, or breathing out a sigh after a work day. I’ve grown to recognise this as an almost essential exercise for my mental health and writing skills,” she adds.

Similarly, Janhabi Mukherjee, 30, another journalling and vision boarding enthusiast, journals to give her brain a break from her gruelling corporate job that keeps her chained to her computer for a minimum of 12-14 hours a day, if not more.

“I don’t journal as a daily habit, but I do take it seriously,” she says, sharing that she throws herself into decorating her journal pages whenever she gets the chance. 

Mukherjee carefully curates a theme for each page, selects artwork, quotes, stickers and images that speak to her. “I park myself in the corner of my bed and dedicate all my attention to beautifying that piece of paper, in a way that would speak to me even if I flipped it open years later,” she says.

Apart from thoroughly enjoying this arts and crafts exercise as an adult, “Journalling lets me make use of my creative juices, which I am not able to do in my job,” she says. “Best of all, there is no expectation for it to look presentable or impressive, so long as it is beautiful and meaningful to me,” adds Mukherjee. 

With the growing popularity of the journal ecosystem, brands have picked up on this trend and capitalised on it. When buying a journal, customers are not just looking for a simple notebook any longer, journals also come with printed prompts, affirmations, and dedicated sections to be regularly filled by the user.

These are called ‘guided journals’, and provide the user with more of a structure, if the blank page of a notebook is not encouraging enough—guided journals for sleep and mental health tracking, daily to-do lists, daily goals, self-care and mental health journals, one-minute entry journals, and more. 

Some that have caught eyeballs include the Papier Sleep Journal, the Clever Fox Self Care Journal, the Glimmers Positive Reflection Journal, Rewire your Brain Journal and a Doodle Journal, among many others. These journals are printed much like workbooks, with the name of the designer printed on the front cover as well.

https://www.financialexpress.com/life/lifestyle-dear-diary-hello-again-journaling-is-back-and-with-a-liberating-twist-for-digitally-overwhelmed-souls-4150611/

Dame Vera Lynn’s wartime archive preserved by Imperial War Museum

From museumsandheritage.com

Imperial War Museums acquires ‘Forces’ Sweetheart’ collection including over 600 fan letters, 1944 India tour diary and tropical uniform 

Imperial War Museums has acquired the complete Second World War archive of Dame Vera Lynn, including over 600 fan letters, correspondence with her husband Harry Lewis, a diary from her 1944 tour of India, and shorts and trousers from her tropical uniform.

A small selection of objects from the collection will go on display at IWM London this spring. The remainder will undergo the museum’s accessioning, documentation and conservation processes.

Dame Vera was the star of the BBC radio show Sincerely Yours, which connected troops abroad with their loved ones during the Second World War. Her tour of India from March to June 1944, where she entertained Empire and Commonwealth troops including the Fourteenth Army, established her reputation as The Forces’ Sweetheart.

                                                                                                    Alistair Hardaker Image: © IWM

The collection includes lists of names and addresses Dame Vera compiled whilst visiting hospitals in India, which she used to write to servicemen’s families informing them their loved one was well. IWM has acquired examples of these lists and letters thanking her for writing.

Dame Vera’s BBC contract for Sincerely Yours, which started in November 1941, is included in the collection. The show invited listeners to send song requests and messages for loved ones serving in the Armed Forces. She could receive up to 2,000 letters per week.

The 600 letters in the collection include correspondence from Mrs Rosamund Lindsey, who enclosed a letter from her brother-in-law Corporal David ‘Ted’ Lindsey describing Dame Vera’s appearance at an Entertainments National Service Association show in India. Dame Vera sent two signed photographs to lift his spirits. After the Lindseys were displaced by bombing, Ted later wrote directly to thank her.

                                        The Vera Lynn Collection © IWM

The khaki shorts included in the acquisition were worn by Dame Vera during the tour, designed for the same challenging conditions faced by troops.

Simon Offord, Curator at Imperial War Museums said: “Dame Vera’s presence during national Second World War commemorations for decades to come means her name is forever connected to the conflict’s memory, and we are honoured to hold these objects, which tell the story of her remarkable legacy.

Dame Vera’s daughter, Virginia Lewis-Jones, said: “These items have been kept by my parents since the beginning of my Mother’s career, and when she passed on, I took over the reins of her Archive. I am very happy to know that these particular items will be kept for posterity in IWM’s Collection, and that a selection of them will go on display for everyone to enjoy and learn about her life.”

Other objects in the collection include 160 wartime contracts for over 200 engagements, receipts from The Decca Gramophone Co Ltd for records she sent to servicemen and prisoners of war, a fan club address book compiled by her mother Mrs Annie Welch, and account books showing earnings and expenditures from April 1941 to February 1947.

https://museumsandheritage.com/advisor/posts/dame-vera-lynns-wartime-archive-preserved-by-iwm/

AI Educator: Why I Tell Students To Keep A Frustration Diary

From forbes.com

By Dan Fitzpatrick

There is a line from Mustafa Suleyman’s book, The Coming Wave, that I keep returning to. Suleyman, the co-founder of Google DeepMind, writes about children who grew up travelling by horse and cart in the late 19th century, but spent their final days flying on airplanes, living in houses heated by the splitting of the atom. All in one lifetime, from horse and cart to nuclear energy.

I mentioned this last week during a talk I gave for the UAE Girls in AI programme, founded by Abeda Natha, director of digital learning at GEMS Wellington International School. The students who joined me are going to live through something even more dramatic. The real question, I feel, is whether our education systems can get them ready for it or not.

A survey commissioned by Kingston University, which polled more than 2000 business leaders, found that 74 percent of those business leaders do not believe current graduates are prepared to succeed in a world of artificial intelligence. That is not a fringe concern; that is a near consensus.

What Has Changed?

To help the students make sense of this during my talk, I decided to walk them through some economics 101. That is, how the four factors of production have shifted across economic ages. Looking at the work of 18th century economist Adam Smith and then Alfred Marshall, we explored the classic framework of the four factors of production: land, capital, labour and entrepreneurship.

Going back to the feudal age, land was king. If you owned the land, you had the power. Then industry came along, the Industrial Revolution, and capital surged. You needed factories, machines, serious investment. At this time, labour became enormously more valuable than it ever had been because someone had to run those machines. Then the information age flipped it again. Suddenly you needed knowledge. Skilled, educated workers became the dominant factor.

Here is the thing. I think we are now entering the intelligence age. The economics are shifting again, quite radically. Capital requirements are collapsing. A laptop, a Wi Fi connection and a subscription to a powerful AI. That is your start-up kit.

Land barely registers for huge swathes of knowledge work. In the talk, I showed the students an image of a young woman sitting in a Starbucks with a laptop and asked them to look. All four factors of production were right there. The table was her land, her laptop was her capital, she was the labour, and the idea in her head was entrepreneurship. The barriers to build something have never been lower.

If capital costs have cratered and land is becoming irrelevant for digital work, what is left? I think it is entrepreneurship. By entrepreneurship, I do not mean in the sense of the Silicon Valley pitch deck, seed round culture. I mean entrepreneurial thinking, the ability to spot a problem, the creativity to imagine a fix, and the nerve to try building it.

In the session with the students, I gave them a simple exercise. Finish this sentence: “Someone really should make it easier to…” Then write down the first thing that pops into your head. Do not overthink it. Notice the friction in your daily life. This is where it starts.

I encouraged them to keep what I call a frustration diary. Every time you think this is annoying or why is there not a better way to do this, write it down. Then pick one a week and ask three questions. Who else has this problem? Would someone pay to fix it? Could I build a first version of this solution within a week?

That last question would have been laughable five years ago. In fact, it would have been laughable 12 months ago. Not anymore. A teenager with an idea and access to a powerful AI agent can prototype faster today than a funded start-up could manage even five years ago.

Humans Of The Gap

There is a concept I keep coming back to in my work, something I call the humans of the gap. As AI fills more of the capability space, writing code, generating content, crunching data and more, there is a temptation to place ourselves in the gaps, to get skilled in what AI cannot yet do. I get this question from parents almost weekly. What should my child be learning?

It is rooted in a flawed idea that we can thrive in the gaps where AI cannot perform yet. I think this is futile. The capability of AI will continue to increase and squeeze us out of those gaps. Instead, our human abilities become more valuable. Our judgement, our empathy, our ability to earn trust.

When talking with the students, I introduced them to an idea I have worked on with other groups: “the AI entourage”. I asked them to imagine that money was not an issue. Who would be in their entourage? What skills would their team have? The thing is, money is increasingly not the constraint. Any professional with AI “know-how” can work alongside a team of agents.

Think of it as an amplification layer. One person directing an AI entourage can handle work that used to require an entire department. The human directs. The AI executes. We outsource the doing, not the thinking.

This is a critical message for schools. In too many cases, we are still training students to be the doers, to store all knowledge, to follow instructions, and to produce standardised outputs. In the intelligence age, the doing is increasingly automated, and the value lies in directing, deciding, and imagining. It requires a fundamentally different educational model from what many are used to.

A young woman wearing headphones is focused on her laptop in a busy cafe, sipping coffee while immersed in work during a sunny afternoon in the city.      getty

The Liminal Space

I then moved on to something that matters just as much as the skills conversation. The awareness that we are in a liminal space right now. We are somewhere between the old world, where a degree automatically led to a career, where knowledge was the currency, where institutions could afford to move slowly, and a new world that has not quite taken shape yet.

In that in-between zone, it can feel disorienting, anxious, and uncertain. There is also something else in that overlap space. A chance to create the future. Not just react to it, but create it. For young people feeling overwhelmed by change, that is a powerful reframe. We can be agents in what comes next.

Finally, I shared the Japanese concept of Ikigai, a framework for finding your reason for being at the intersection of what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. In this intelligence age, I would argue ikigai matters more than ever. When barriers to building are low, and AI handles much of the doing, the question that matters most is not what job should I get. It is what problem do I care about enough to solve? That is a question no AI can answer for you.

What does this mean for schools?

Every idea I shared with the UAE Girls in AI, from the economic shift to the frustration diary to the AI entourage, challenges how many schools currently operate. We are still preparing students for the information age. In some cases, we are still preparing them for the industrial age. Asking them to memorise, follow instructions, produce standardised outputs.

The intelligence age demands something different. Entrepreneurial instincts, creative problem solving, comfort with ambiguity and the ability to work with AI as a genuine partner. If graduates are falling short, then adding a coding module or hosting an AI awareness day will not be enough. The response needs to be structural and cultural. We need to rethink what we assess, how we teach and what we are actually preparing young people for.

Are we playing a finite game, optimising for exam results and university placements? Or are we playing an infinite game, building humans who can thrive at 25, 35, 45 and beyond?

William Gibson once wrote that the future is already here. It is just not evenly distributed. Some young people are already using AI, building things, thinking like entrepreneurial founders. Others are hearing these ideas for the first time. Some have yet to hear them at all. The distribution of the future depends in large part on the educators who choose to shape access to it.

The stakes have never been higher.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danfitzpatrick/2026/02/14/why-i-tell-students-to-keep-a-frustration-diary/