She complained that she had nothing to do. He glanced around at the squalor of their living conditions and she glared back at him. 'Oh god' he thought 'all the 'yes, sir' seems to have left Carter and I'm in big trouble'.
She said that she had nothing to read; if only there was some paper at least she could write down her thoughts because god knows he didn't want to listen to her. He started to answer her back but shut his mouth. She was right he didn't want to listen to all her theories again and again. It would serve no purpose. He didn't understand the complicated theoretical physics the first time. And what could he do beside make useless comments that would make her realize how far out of her league he was.
No, he had a better idea; he went out and found her a young girl's diary that had been discarded on the rubbish heap. Pages had been ripped out, others with words savagely crossed out. But there were plenty of blank pages. Sam was happier. Jack may have had no patience to listen to her theories but the paper embraced them. It's not that he didn't want to listen to her. He needed to do something, anything to get them home, or keep them feed until he could. He needed something to occupy his hands and his mind so he didn't feel like such a failure.