just a neat little piece of history to share and something a little easier to

edit while I'm working on more involved video projects. And that is the original

IBM ThinkPad, technically speaking! I'm not trying to clickbait you, it really is

just an IBM pad that says "THINK" on it, hence it being colloquially known as the

"think pad." Yeah this is a real thing, long before IBM started selling

ThinkPad computers the company distributed these little note pads to its employees,

salesmen, and various associates. They referred to them as the "Pocket-sized

Think Jotter" and it measures three inches by four and a half inches, or about the

size of a billfold wallet. A nice compact little thing that's just the right size

for fitting into a shirt pocket. And being that this was distributed at IBM

you know there were plenty of dress shirts with pockets to fill! A convenient

spot to keep such a thing, so whenever you were struck with a brilliant idea

for a new kind of cash register mechanism or something, you could whip

out a pen and jot it down because you're someone that THINKS. And whenever you

used up the paper inside IBM would provide refills if you wrote to the

nearest IBM office. Or in the case of my particular pad the eastern regional

headquarters on Madison Avenue in New York City. Yeah I just like the design of

this a whole lot. Earlier ones I believe were actual leather with stitching and

everything, this one's not. But it still has a satisfying leatherette texture with

shiny gilded edges to the paper, each sheet of which is just thick enough not

to let most inks seep through. And then there's the embossed golden lettering on

the front that simultaneously screams "classy" and "serious business" like only an

IBM product could. And I'm not sure how old this particular Think Jotter is but

the place I bought it from said it's from the mid-1950s and yeah, it sure

smells like it. *SNIFF!* Ah, it has that unmistakable aroma of a mid-20th century

book, with the breaking down of various components in the paper and the decades

old mustiness mixing together to provide that oddly intoxicating nose feel.

Sometimes I just like going to antique stores and libraries to smell this and

yeah here we go: you got that aroma in the palm of your

hand and it's awesome. While I don't know how old this one in particular is, what I

know for sure is that IBM distributed these Think jotters throughout most of

the 20th century. And the whole concept was not only to provide somewhere for

their IBMers to jot down any spur-of-the-moment ideas, but also to

encourage them to THINK. Just, THINK for a second before doing anything rash and

non-IBM-like. "Think" was more than just a slogan, it was a corporate culture and a

philosophy for doing business for them. And it was first used by Thomas John

Watson senior in 1911, back before he was at IBM and even before IBM was IBM. They

were still known as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording company, or CTR.

Apparently during a particularly lackluster sales meeting with National

Cash Register, Watson spoke up, saying: "The trouble with everyone of us is that we

don't think enough. Knowledge is the result of thought, and thought is the

keynote of success in this business or any business. We don't get paid for working

with our feet -- we get paid for working with our heads. So basically it was a

more businesslike way of saying: *Biff Tannen:* "Hey! Think, McFly, Think!"

Then when Mr. Watson arrived at CTR a few

years later he brought his THINK philosophy with him. And it also made for

quite the striking and iconic trademark and ended up being used on tons of IBM

signs, marketing, exhibits, merchandise and all sorts of stuff throughout the years.

And of course there were the THINK notepads which came in various shades of

orange and brown originally, and then black like the one I have. And featured

slightly different lettering over the decades in terms of size and such.

Sometimes it had an IBM logo on the back, sometimes not, but that overall aesthetic

of "THINK" stayed pretty much the same. And then that brings us to the ThinkPad

computer series, which in particular was quite directly influenced by the THINK

notepad. The story goes that when what would become the ThinkPad was in

development, IBM employee Denny Wainwright had a Think notepad in his

pocket. And inspired by that pad he thought "Think Pad" made sense for a

computer. Especially in this case seeing as the product they were naming was not

a laptop, but a tablet with a stylus pen, what would become known as the ThinkPad 700T.

This is really kind of a digital successor to the original THINK notepad

anyway, so it made sense. However, IBM's corporate naming committee

didn't like it. Initially there was an issue with the computer being known

simply by a name and not a number, how un-IBM was that!

Most every computer was known by a three or four digit number.

They also sold so many products overseas that there was a concern that

"ThinkPad" wouldn't translate super easily into different languages. However, the name

made it into the press while the device was still in development and they

friggin loved it, so it just kind of stuck. They went with

the name and the ThinkPad line became one of the most famous portable computer

series. That's a story for another day but anyway yeah, the THINK notepad, man.

There's just something supremely satisfying about these things while also

being a little bit off-putting if I'm honest. It almost comes across as

speaking down to you, reprimanding you for not doing something so simple as

putting two thoughts together. But being vaguely condescending or not, at the same

time I just like notepads and having one from old-school IBM is kind of neat as

someone who enjoys their retro PCs. And if you want to enjoy one yourself it

turns out finding originals secondhand, even new-old-stock ones, is not too

difficult either, with a nice one ranging anywhere from 10 to 20 bucks online

currently. And they remain popular enough that IBM actually still sells new

versions of them, complete with refill packs, as well as a crapload of other

"Think" merchandise that I had no idea about until I was starting to make this

video. And now I kind of want some of it but then again I don't corporate culture

kind of weirds me out, but anyway yeah. That's about it for this video! It's just

a little piece of tech history that I find fascinating and felt like sharing,

and I hope that you enjoyed taking a look as well!

And if you did enjoy this then cool. It's a little simpler and shorter than I

normally do but hopefully you enjoyed enough to maybe want to see some more.

And there are new videos coming out every Monday and Friday here on LGR.

And as always thank you very much for watching!