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Paper is the real 'killer app'

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Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'

#72
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I wonder how useful journaling would be to help combat insomnia. I will give it a go next time I am lying in bed at 2am with my head buzzing..

I use sleep cycle as an alarm clock. A few years of sleep data says that (for me) going to bed after working late leads to bad sleep, and going to bed after reading leads to better sleep. Based on this single data point, perhaps try picking up a book when you call it a night?

Nothing beats curling up in a warm (well, now that it's winter in the Northern hemisphere anyway) bed with a book when you're calling it a day. It's relaxing. This habit also helps you actually get around to reading for leisure.

Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'

#73

I've found journaling on paper to be one of the best morning rituals for calming anxiety. It really is amazing how just writing a few sentences creates a sense of awareness of what's going on in your head. I also tried bullet journaling as my 'system', but quickly abandoned it. It is great if you're not a compulsive to-do list maker, but if you follow a GTD-like system where you frequently capture, it becomes onerous…

If it isn't too personal, what's a typical entry in your morning journal? Does it vary or is there a pattern?

Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'

#74
post #37

I never liked all the multitude of list making apps - Evernote, Todoist, Omnifocus, etc. I prefer org-mode[1] on emacs. It's simple, flexible, distraction free and for some reason reminds me of writing on paper. You get the simplicity, while also making it as powerful as you want. 1- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJTwQvgfgMM

I like Evernote as a place to store my notebook pages that I want to search for. It's easy to take a picture with my phone and upload it as a PDF to Evernote which does a shockingly good job of finding text in the images and indexing them. I also get some metadata related to the time, date, and place where I generated the PDF. It's nice having important parts of my notebook available at all times.

I'm also surprised the article didn't mention mind mapping. Does nobody do that anymore?

Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this whole "go digital to save the trees" thing is utter bullshit, for the following reason: - the digital revolution made people actually use more paper - you get a shit ton of paper from a single tree; how much resources do you need to use to manufacture a computer, and keep it running? - paper is recyclable - as long as you keep recycling paper, it actually makes sense to plant trees and then cut it down -…

I remember a HP salesman telling me filing cabinet sales went through the roof as laser printers became more popular, he said the paperless office was as likely as the paperless toilet. However I think that has turned around in recent years, worldwide paper production volumes are decreasing.

The paperless toilet is the norm in some places, you know.

Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'

#77
I hate paper. No searching and highly losable. I'm also way faster on a keyboard than with a pen/pencil.

In fact, I had to fax a hand written letter (yeah, don't ask) the other day and realized I'm now almost illiterate with this thing. I could draw very well as a kid, but my handwriting was always pitiful. But after years of neglect, the thing was illegible. I pity the poor person that would have to decifer the hieroglyphs.

In sum, good riddance paper.

Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'

#78
post #52

I've found journaling on paper to be one of the best morning rituals for calming anxiety. It really is amazing how just writing a few sentences creates a sense of awareness of what's going on in your head. I also tried bullet journaling as my 'system', but quickly abandoned it. It is great if you're not a compulsive to-do list maker, but if you follow a GTD-like system where you frequently capture, it becomes onerous…

Interesting. I wonder how useful journaling would be to help combat insomnia. I will give it a go next time I am lying in bed at 2am with my head buzzing..

I've been successfully using journaling to fight insomnia for a few months now. What I do is try to simply capture every thought that comes into my head as fast as I can write.

At first, my hand can barely keep up with the torrent of thoughts being produced by my mind, but after maybe 5-10 min it slows right down. At some point I feel like I'm actually waiting for thoughts to come up so I can write.

Eventually, my mind goes quiet. It's much easier to fall asleep then.

Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'

#79
post #53

Paper is not only bad for but also harmful. You actually have to cut a tree to make a notepad. I hope in 100 years people will look at the "paper age" as we do see the era when people carving information in stones. Why paper is worse: * you cannot easily edit/alter information that has been already created * it is hard to replicate and distribute * version control is non existent (except book keeping) * due to the re…

I made my work desk all digital over two years ago. If there is one thing I've learned about paper vs digital, is that nothing can beat the UX of paper at flexibility. Only once you have an idea what you want to represent, and how you want to represent it, do software tools that rigidly enforce that systematization of your written data become helpful instead of hindrances. I have dozens of different pieces of softwar…

Have you tried OneNote?

Maybe have a Microsoft surface or another tablet with a stylus for when you want to "have that paper feel"

This is why I'm hoping for a surface phone this MWC. Then I could use Full OneNote, outlook, excel etc instead of the current cut down apps.

Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'

#80
post #41

This is ridiculous. Are people this short-sighted? I keep hearing about people going back to paper agenda or simple text files for todos. I would understand if they said they couldn't find a better solution, but many of them claim that this is an improvement over any digital solution. Again, nobody seems to be tackling this. Not even YC mentions this problem.

I don't think there's anything to tackle really. I've been keeping notes in plain text files[1] for the last 15 years. It's a really good system and doesn't require 8 million in funding to make a startup around it. All you have to do is open notepad and get going. [1]: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/plain-text-and-google-keep-is...

Text files take up almost no resources, are quick to work with in every way, have superb portability, are automatically date/time stamped and can be siphoned into a database any time you want get crazier with organizing or tracking them.

Paper is its own unique experience that is neat and stuff, but photos or scans of paper are ultimately kind of wasteful from a data perspective, as well as difficult to OCR-- and the way I see it, if you're not saving your stuff in data form at all, is whatever you're writing really a good use of your time?

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