a family scrapbook that lasts forever

What’s the best way to tell the difference between humans and AI? Hit the clear button, and AI can’t remember what happened 5 minutes ago, let alone 10 years ago.

AI doesn’t have memory - it has a context window, which, conveniently, can be wiped completely clean, anytime you want, Men In Black style.

i never thought i’d live to see the day that the memory eraser became real

Actual memories, though - and more precisely, sentimentality - are uniquely human.

As a kid, I remember flipping through the jagged pages of my mother’s scrapbook. The pages were rough, uneven and bumpy, filled with random tidbits from our childhoods - locks of hair, old photos, and more. On one page I would find an old tooth from when I was 3 years old, on the next page a lock of my hair from my first haircut, attached with a thin piece of scotch tape, next to some silly quote from when I was five:

“Greg, how do I get you to stop running around the house?!”

“Take out my batteries!”

The problem with the human brain is that it’s leaky. That’s why my mom (and, I suppose, a lot of people) keep scrapbooks. After enough time passes, our precious memories become foggy, or hidden away completely in a dark corner of our brain.

When my kids were young (well, younger than they are today), I would sometimes jot down cute things they said in Google Keep - little quotes I genuinely thought I would never forget, but I jotted them down anyway. Sometimes I would mark a milestone event on my calendar, like my son taking his first steps. But that was always a one time thing - I wasn’t scrolling back to 2023 in my calendar to look at old events, and those little notes would simply get lost in the shuffle of a messy stream of calendar and Google Keep consciousness.

My mother’s handwriting on those withered pages inspired me to create something similar. For those of us who want to keep the memories, but don’t have a handy arts and crafts store nearby, this is for you. Introducing: the beanies scrapbook!

soccer goals, fallen teeth, and personal record cubing scores - what more could you ask for?

A few weeks ago, my 5-year-old lost his first tooth. He proudly ran up to me from where he was eating his breakfast, nearly falling over. Out of breath and gasping for air, he yelled, “Daddy!!” He proudly displayed to me his fallen piece of ivory. I snapped a quick photo. I knew I had just captured my first “real-time” entry into my beanies scrapbook.

One memory looked a bit lonely, so I went back into my calendar to retroactively record some past memories, cute photos, and funny sayings, like when my youngest was teaching me how to play a game, and told me that if I made a wrong move, I would be lemon-inated.

is this what you look like when you’re lemon-inated?

I’m trying to dig further back into the fuzzy memories of my brain to fill out my scrapbook timeline, but it’s surprisingly difficult. Things that, at the time, I fully thought I would remember forever - tumble and fall out of my head.

So today, I’m starting the tradition with my family - capturing cute photos, milestones, little achievements, funny quotes, or anything else. beanies.family will store them, forever, in a beanpod file that you own, now and forever, no matter what. To start your own family scrapbook, just click on your pod and find “beanies scrapbook” - and start capturing memories to save forever.

Perhaps at some point, my own kids will look back at our family timeline and have a laugh about their cute sayings and mini-milestones. Going into my beanies scrapbook even today gives me the same feeling I used to get when I flipped through the pages of my own childhood book.

Maybe one day I’ll fish my mom’s old scrapbook out of our storage locker and dust it off. Until then, I’ll keep track of my family’s memories in a place that I know will be safe and secure for years to come.

As much as AI knows about the world, it will never know enough to be sentimental about a saying my child made when he was 3. Your memories are not a context window - they can never be wiped clean. I’m honored to help you keep them.

Here’s to my beans, and to all of our most precious moments.

greg

By the way, if you do start a scrapbook of your own, come share the memory (or tell me what to build next) on our lovely beanies.family discord.