Gould suffered from writer's block and hypergraphia; while to those around him he appeared to be taking constant notes—a notion he was happy to reinforce—he was, in fact, re-writing the same few chapters dealing with seemingly trivial events in his own early life. He had filled countless notebooks with edited versions of these events, evidently searching for meaning in the revisions.
Gould experienced writer's block and hypergraphia; despite appearing to be continuously jotting down notes, he was actually reworking the same chapters about mundane occurrences from his youth. He meticulously revised these chapters, filling numerous notebooks with edited versions of them, suggesting a search for meaning in the revisions.