One of the few decisions I absolutely regret in my life was to throw away my old notebook that I used to keep notes in when I was learning programming in the 80's. I had pretty much the same kind of thinking as the author: the nostaliga was dragging me back, cluttering my mind, and I simply had to move on.

But, the thing is, those notes actually highlighted a part, or more aptly, an era of my existence that had no longer existed. I basically destroyed a part of me, similar to destroying photographs or any other memento that related to my "former self".

Not only are those kinds of mementos endearing, but they are anchoring in a sense too. They let you draw an unbroken line over all versions of yourself to get the whole picture. They also have the potential to trigger certain parts of your mind, motivate you in ways that you can't imagine.

So, the stuff the author had thrown away might be useless as a tool, but I think they would certainly be useful in an introspective archeological sense. I strongly urge anyone to consider that before performing a similar infocide.

I'd at least suggest archiving them in a hard to reach place, instead of completely destroying them because you might regret it later.