Paper is the real 'killer app' • Hacker News Board

Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'

#91

Post by corobo » Mon, Jan 23, 2017, 2:24 PM UTC

weavie wrote: post #52

pumblechook wrote: post #35

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..

It may not work for all of course but my insomnia (undiagnosed, so whatever the sleeplessness actually was if not insomnia) has almost completely gone after I started meditating.

Now I don't mean sitting cross legged while chanting "ahhhh" or anything like that, just give your brain an hour or so daily to start but you can probably drop to less after a while (I do it every 2-3 days now).

My best guess it's like freeing up some CPU time for garbage collection. With having podcasts, videos, films, computering, etc going almost every waking hour the brain never really gets a chance to filter through all of this stuff so attempts to do so the only quiet moment it gets - right when you're trying to fall asleep.

YMMV, Works For Me(tm), etc. Good luck!

Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'

#92

Post by eddd » Mon, Jan 23, 2017, 2:24 PM UTC

foldr wrote: post #56

eddd wrote: 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…

>due to the replication problem and accessibility the information on it is not durable (at least not as durable as s3) Paper records can last for hundreds of years without the support of any expensive infrastructure. I wouldn't bet on things that are stored on s3 being available hundreds of years from now.

I think it is called a positive selection bias.

Some of paper lasted for hundreds of years. How much of information didn't survive during that time period?

Information on s3 might not last for hundreds of years, but AFAIK the Voyager satellite didn't ship the information about our specie on paper.

Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'

#93

Post by falcolas » Mon, Jan 23, 2017, 2:24 PM UTC

tambourine_man wrote: post #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 hier…

Adding an index takes care of the searching problem. Just a bit of extra effort that the computer normally takes care of for you.

Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'

#94

Post by eddd » Mon, Jan 23, 2017, 2:28 PM UTC

drdaeman wrote: post #64

eddd wrote: 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…

Actually, due to pseudo-immutability, scribblings on the dead trees have better durability properties than many digital things. A durable storage may be less prone to use data due to say, a fire or a flood, but it's way easier to lose data if it's just overwritten. Overwrite a file in-place and it's pretty much gone (good thing most editors don't, but create a temporary file then rename it, so old data still can be s…

Designing data storage for countries is not easy, but it is easier to store a Peta Byte of data digitally than on paper.

Nice documentary about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdZxI3nFVJs

Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'

#95

Post by closed » Mon, Jan 23, 2017, 2:28 PM UTC

I've been setting aside an hour in the mornings for studying math, and using a paper notebook has been plain delightful. I just leave my computer somewhere, and scribble down problems on scrap paper. Once I've worked them out a bit, I put them in the notebook. There's no search/edit, but it's quick and lets me glance at what I've done over the previous month easily.

Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'

#96

Post by falcolas » Mon, Jan 23, 2017, 2:28 PM UTC

criddell wrote: post #39

So, what's your favorite notebook and pen combination? I ordered a bunch of pens from Jet Pens a year ago and my favorite also ended up being one of the cheapest - the Pilot Hi-Tec-C. My favorite notebook used to be an engineering notebook. It had a grid on one side of the page and college-ruled lines on the other and had a spiral bound spine. Not sure if I have a favorite any more. I do use a lot of index cards.

Pens: Pilot Varsity fountain pens, or a good gel pen. Basically, something that creates good, solid lines without requiring a lot of force, but still provides feedback.

Paper: Still working this out - finding a good diary-style notebook that fountain pens don't bleed through is a real challenge. I've had good luck with a Daler Rowney sketchbook, but I find that I'm missing the lines.

Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'

#97

Post by reubenswartz » Mon, Jan 23, 2017, 2:38 PM UTC

I've tried various approaches and realized that I'm trying to solve different problems in different situations.

For example, in some meetings, everyone types at a keyboard, but in others, only paper note taking is socially acceptable. In these cases, capture happens on paper, but I need to transcribe to an electronic format if I want to use these notes later. (I take a lot of notes if I want to remember anything these days, and I tag them for easy lookup.)

In some discussions, sharing a whiteboard or even a notebook is the best way to hash out ideas. (I'll just snap a picture with my phone if there's something I want to keep.)

I've tried to get away from paper entirely, but the above scenarios make it hard. Plus, there is something nice about writing on paper.

In a recent meeting, a prospect was talking about how he switched from paper to iPad Pro + Apple Pencil, and he loved it. (He also has much better hand writing than me.) Anyone else tried this?

Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'

#98

Post by mattferderer » Mon, Jan 23, 2017, 2:39 PM UTC

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Does anyone have a workflow for using paper to take notes & then transferring them to an online notebook (OneNote, Evernote, etc)?

My current process is read a chapter, then take hand written notes trying to recall what I just read. A day or more later I revisit material by putting notes into a OneNote or Evernote. I've been weighing pros & cons of this vs doing freehand using something like a Windows Surface & OneNote.

Hand written notes, revisiting & recalling information is strongly recommended by Professor Barbara Oakley who's a rather popular teacher of learning and memory topics.

Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'

#99

Post by zimpenfish » Mon, Jan 23, 2017, 2:41 PM UTC

criddell wrote: post #39

So, what's your favorite notebook and pen combination? I ordered a bunch of pens from Jet Pens a year ago and my favorite also ended up being one of the cheapest - the Pilot Hi-Tec-C. My favorite notebook used to be an engineering notebook. It had a grid on one side of the page and college-ruled lines on the other and had a spiral bound spine. Not sure if I have a favorite any more. I do use a lot of index cards.

Pilot Hi-Tec C, Ohto Horizon, and Pilot Capless combined with either Field Notes or Ogami Repap notebooks.

Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'

#100

Post by urs2102 » Mon, Jan 23, 2017, 2:41 PM UTC

FreezerburnV wrote: post #25

skrebbel wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I warmly recommend a mechanical pencil with a relatively soft lead and a little eraser on the back. If you write softly with soft lead, erasing is very little effort.

The Frixion line of pens is also useful for this. They might be somewhat limited as to what you can get outside of Japan, but a site like Jet Pens should be able to fix any deficiencies. (Eg: didn't know that they made highlighters with Frixion ink until a recent trip to Japan, where they have these pens literally everywhere)

These are the only pens I've bought through high school and university. It strikes the perfect balance between easy erasability and visible ink (luckily going to school in the northeast, I never had the overheating in the car issue).