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Comment by jl6 | Hacker News Reader

To all those who keep a long-term journal: what’s your end-game? Trash it? Publish it? Actively gift it to your family? Passively let the family read it if they find it? If it’s an electronic journal, what steps are you taking to ensure or prevent access after you’re gone?

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My journal is encrypted but I have boxes of old letters, photos of old girlfriends even, and I wonder what to do with it. Contemplating to scan all of it and then get rid of the paper version. Or maybe just put a label for the wife and kids on the boxes: „private, if I die please just get rid of it. Or look at it if you want.“ - I just realized I don’t care that much now and i certainly won’t care when I’m gone.

I keep my journal in a private git repository. I hope one day someone from my family will read it if I'm gone. Maybe I'll share it with someone I love if they ask. I had the fear that it could be leaked, but honestly I realized I didn't care that much if it gets public as no one will care except maybe the ones mentioned in it.

I find it therapeutic to write things down.

The access information is printed on a sheet of paper somewhere and I will probably just print the whole thing one day.

I have a massive collection of thoughts in old OneNote files and Google Keep.

I just write them down for myself. I should probably make them available to everyone somehow, I'm pretty sure many will find them interesting.

At least I do, rereading the really old stuff :D

I keep long journal, no end-game. I have mental clarity and I feel more confident when I write my thought down on paper, its a wonderful tool that works for me.

There is no end-game for me. I just do it because I enjoy it.

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