Wait, does that mean my old gym notebook with coffee rings and sweat smudges is actually a deep work of art? I love that idea from @rodriguez.mia about it being part of the story. My own stuff is basically held together by stubbornness and a little bit of glue. I tried to keep a perfect training log once and gave up after a week because it looked too clean and fake. The messy one feels way more real, like you said.

Ever wonder if places like botanical gardens or small theaters have similar deals? I got into a tiny jazz club once by helping stack chairs after the last set... they just gave me a drink ticket and let me stay.

What do you think makes those old vague notes stick with us so hard, more than the score? Like @kevinking said, they were useless for fixing things, but "too much pepper" or just "wet" becomes this puzzle you can't solve. I bet part of it is because we had less to go on back then, no YouTube deep dives, just you and a judge's two-word gut feeling defining your food for years.