I get that it's not for everyone and hence the note that I wasn't speaking directly about 3speed.

I can also see two reasons that someone might not find value in recording stuff. One good, one not so good.

If someone actually shares the majority of their adventures with others whom they value then there is really no need to copy what has already been shared. I think of our fellow member Doug who tours with his wife and daughters. In my case no one else wants to do what I do, at the moment, so if I ever want them to understand what I feel is valuable then I need to record it in some way for them. I could depend on just verbally retelling it but through life experience I am too aware of my mortality to leave it to fate. Both my parents died by the time I was in my mid 30's, I engage in several potentially risky activities and I work with a population struck down by diseases like Parkinsons and Alzheimer's. It's akin to people who think having a will makes sense but don't have one themselves because there is always time for that down the road. After telling so many residents they should record their life experience I decided I should do the same myself.

The second reason is that people don't think their lives are something worth writing about. I myself have fallen prey to that thinking and put off doing so until I had "achieved" something noteworthy but then had an epiphany when I realized it was not the one great thing I might do but the arc of my collective experience that was important... to someone maybe. In some ways it's kind of sad to put off or think we have nothing worth relating. I do believe we create our own realities and if we think our lives are nothing notable - then they are.

Yet literature is full of ordinary people recording ordinary lives that add to the collective whole of life. I mentioned Walden earlier, but also was influenced by Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire and William Beebe's journals as a zoologist. Dick Proenneke did nothing more than record his day to day life by film in Alone in the Wilderness. What was On the Road by Jack Kerouac but a rambling disjointed road journal. More to the topic is a great story about early bicycle touring called The Lost Cyclist which relies on the journal writings of Frank Lenz and a secondary figure in the story William Sachtleben, who no one remembers as the first person to circumnavigate the world by bicycle but is key n this stry as the guy who sets off in search of Lenz. If not for Sachtleben's daily reports no one would remember Lenz who lies in an unmarked grave somewhere in Turkey.

It is also a natural part of development and the aging process noted by many psychologists like Erikson as a period of reflection and culmination of life accomplishment. That can either be done by some notable feat or legacy or by mentorship through the recounting of lessons learned. This usually happens at the end of life but can be accelerated if one has a terminal disease (for example) or exposure to death - which I think is the motivation in my case. I see journal writing as a mental savings account for retirement in that way. Unfortunately, if one puts off recording life events until their 70-90's they may be hampered by neurological deficits by then.