My grandfather is a retired electrical engineer who used to plan out and record progression on all his projects. He has boxes filled with his old notebooks. Is this just an old school take on project management and source control? Or do people find benefit in actual note taking during their projects? I've worked with dozens of programmers through out the years and I don't think I've ever seen someone approach it this way. I (briefly) attended one of the top IT schools, and outside of scratching pseudo code down on a napkin I don't recall it being practiced there either.
Ask HN: How many programmers out there keep a paper notebook for their projects?
1–10 of 34 posts
Re: Ask HN: How many programmers out there keep a paper notebook for their projects?
#2Re: Ask HN: How many programmers out there keep a paper notebook for their projects?
#3I couldn't imagine life without it.
Re: Ask HN: How many programmers out there keep a paper notebook for their projects?
#4I do translate my notes as I work through the problems and put them in a tool like OneNote or Evernote etc. But I always start off with sketches and notes in a notebook. My bet is if you looked at the pattern of those who use notebooks vs those who don't, you'd find those of us using notebooks still skew to an older average age. 40ish+ likely.
Personally, I also jot down pseudo code on paper to get my thoughts right before starting to code the problem. This lets me get my thoughts straight before coding it and I find I make fewer mistakes, plus I am faster when I do this. It is also one of the reasons I dislike coding interviews where someone wants you to just start writing code in the IDE. I don't do that well, because to me the process is, understand the problem, design the solution, engineer the solution, then start coding.
Re: Ask HN: How many programmers out there keep a paper notebook for their projects?
#5Re: Ask HN: How many programmers out there keep a paper notebook for their projects?
#6Re: Ask HN: How many programmers out there keep a paper notebook for their projects?
#7I'm doing a PhD in computer science and use a notebook religiously. I couldn't imagine life without it.
Do you start off with a todo list for you projects? Or do you use something like trello for that?
For me, most of my projects aren't large projects. They're lots of little ones. Bug fixes, feature add-ons, website extensions... those kind of things. I can be juggling 20-30 "projects" through-out the year and only need 1-4 pages for each one. Whenever I tried to keep a notebook I quickly get un-organized and lose energy for keeping it up.
I'm starting to think a 3 ring binder might fit my needs better. Do you ever use one of those?
Re: Ask HN: How many programmers out there keep a paper notebook for their projects?
#8At home, I've always used large, letter-sized books of drawing paper. I have about 10 of these filled with diagrams and notes, mostly for 3D engines and games I've worked on in the last 15 years.
Re: Ask HN: How many programmers out there keep a paper notebook for their projects?
#9I keep notebooks still for most things. I use them to jot down ideas, sketch out designs and just generally write down my thoughts so I don't forget them, I usually have one to many per company and one per project. I also use them to take notes in meetings versus trying to take notes on my computer in real time. Personally, I find it pretty rude to be typing away on a computer while people are presenting or we are di…
Re: Ask HN: How many programmers out there keep a paper notebook for their projects?
#10My job is half hardware/firmware so I put a lot of meeting notes, specs, and calculations in it.