True. Also an A5 size artist's sketchbook - with hard covers, 120g/m^2 off white paper (will take any pen from Sharpie downwards as well as watercolours) and sewn bindings - can be bought almost anywhere in the UK and costs less than two coffees in a nice cafe (£5).

Just keep one with you.

PS: I did think that the linked article was going to be about low specification laptops, and was preparing to extol the virtues of recycled Thinkpads.

I mean cheap notebooks and a recycled thinkpad are basically the perfect portable tools for thinking.