If you want to take notes like Sam Altman, these are the 2 pens the OpenAI chief swears by
Mike Coppola vua Getty Images
- Sam Altman says he likes to take notes using pen and paper.
- Altman says he prefers to use a spiral notebook because he can rip its pages out when needed.
- The OpenAI chief said he uses pens from Uni-Ball and Muji to jot things down.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman likes to take notes the old-fashioned way — using pen and paper.
Altman was speaking to writer David Perell on the latter's podcast, "How I Write," when he talked about his note-taking preferences.
Perell posted a short clip from their September 5 conversation to X on Monday. During the exchange, Altman called himself a "huge note taker" and said he gets through one notebook every two to three weeks.
"There's all these like fancy notebooks in the world. You don't want those. You definitely want a spiral notebook because one thing that's important is you can rip pages out frequently, and you also want it to lie, like, flat and open on the table," Altman told Perell.
Altman added that he likes notebooks with hard front and back covers that fit in his pocket.
The OpenAI chief also talked about the two favorite pens he liked to use to take notes.
Ok people, it happened… the interview goes live in a few weeks pic.twitter.com/pUDzU5gTRh
— David Perell (@david_perell) September 6, 2024
"I think the Uni-Ball Micro 0.5 pen is the best pen overall. But the Muji 0.36 or 0.37 in dark blue ink is a very nice pen for other reasons. So those are the two I would use," Altman said.
"I think this kind of notebook and one of those two pens is the right answer," Altman added.
Representatives for Altman at OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.
Sam Altman's spent years refining his note-taking process. Here's exactly what he does. pic.twitter.com/vpIWkK7WYG
— David Perell (@david_perell) September 24, 2024
Altman has long talked about the benefits of putting down one's thoughts on paper.
In April 2018, Altman said in a blog post that he liked making his to-do lists with pen and paper.
"I prefer lists written down on paper. It's easy to add and remove tasks. I can access them during meetings without feeling rude. I re-transcribe lists frequently, which forces me to think about everything on the list and gives me an opportunity to add and remove items," Altman wrote.
To be sure, Altman isn't the only business executive who prefers to jot things down by hand.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Virgin founder Richard Branson, and former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg are known to carry notebooks around with them as well.
"Regardless of where I am or what I'm doing — perhaps with the exception of kitesurfing or swimming — I always have a notebook on hand. My secret 'life hack' has also been to write it down!" Branson wrote in a blog post published in April 2017.
"I can't tell you where I'd be if I hadn't had a pen on hand to write down my ideas as soon as they came to me."