How many references to yellow legal pads are there in books about creative work?

They are often cited as a key tool for creation, for writing.

For example, Jerry Seinfeld talks about it briefly in his book, Is This Anything?

The Legal pad is the unsung link in the creative act.

It is not fancy.

It is low technology. But it is still technology nonetheless.

Cheap and widely available.

How many truly successful creative people write/talk about finding the perfect notebook? Who actually says they cannot work without the right notebook or pen? Very few. All you need is a biro and a legal pad. Jerry Seinfeld even talked about running down biros til they are empty. This guy is worth hundreds of millions yet he doesn’t feel the need to adapt his creative process. It worked. It works and there is an extremely high chance that it will continue to work in the future.

In the UK we don’t use yellow legal pads. Ours are plain white. But that doesn’t matter. You can write on them just the same. Creativity is colour blind.