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Ask HN: How many programmers out there keep a paper notebook for their projects?

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Ask HN: How many programmers out there keep a paper notebook for their projects?

#1
What kind of notes do you take? Sketch out component views? Pseudo code?

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.

Re: Ask HN: How many programmers out there keep a paper notebook for their projects?

#2
I keep a notebook. I use it to take finer grain notes about tasks than can be expressed on a ticket. Also whenever I am going through an unfamiliar codebase I take hand written notes . I know there are a few iPad apps that are effectively an infinite whiteboard but I like to handwrite stuff.

Re: Ask HN: How many programmers out there keep a paper notebook for their projects?

#4
I 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 discussing ideas. It seems far less rude to jot down notes on paper and then come back to it an flush things out after the meeting.

I 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?

#7

I'm doing a PhD in computer science and use a notebook religiously. I couldn't imagine life without it.

How do you organize? Do you keep a notebook for each project? Do you use an index?

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?

#8
I have always used lined note pads at work, for meeting notes and task lists.

At 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?

#9

I 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…

Have you found any writing or organizational patterns to be useful? When you design a solution, does that look like a flow diagram? When you engineer a solution, do you jot down in natural language what you think you should do?
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