Taking notes works far better on paper. Then scan the notes into the computer, and you get the best of both.
Paper is the real 'killer app'
281–290 of 346 posts
Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'
#282Earlier 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'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 mi…
This helped me, too, when I was suffering from insomnia. 700 to 1,000 words was the "sleep like a baby" target range for me. Also, the sooner I could bring myself to write about the really difficult topics, the better.
Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'
#283I use an erasable notebook [1] for my scribbling. I find it quite good for sketching a quick diagram /prototyping, short-term todos, mindmapping and brainstorming. I don't think it's good for long term journaling (a proper notebook would be better). Having an erasable pen solves my problem of making tons of stupid spelling mistakes, being guilty of wasting paper and losing them in a giant pile of worthless annotation…
How do you find the Whynote versus Wipebooks? Is there a reason you went for Whynote over the others? (I have a Wipebook - but sometimes I forget to erase it immediately, and it gets hard to erase if you leave it too long. Also, the pages aren't the most durable, especially to any liquid. The Whynote doesn't appear available in larger sizes though - e.g. A4, Letter).
Are there any other unexpected caveats there? Like, I don't know, do your fingers get dirty because of small particles of the ink that didn't stick, which add up over time (think whiteboard markers but on smaller scale)?
Because this really looks too good to be true, at least for me. Maybe I should order and see myself...
Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'
#284Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you heard of the Livescribe pens? They unfortunately use special paper, but digitize everything you write. https://www.livescribe.com/en-us/smartpen/ls3/
I tried one about ten years ago. It didn't work well for me. The legibility of my writing is really sensitive to the interaction between the paper and writing utensil I'm writing. I rarely pick the pen up off the paper -- instead I use the fact that certain pens can 'skate' across certain types of paper to write in a block print that is written kind of like cursive. It's completely legible to me, and mostly legible t…
Have you tried a Wacom tablet?
I think you can hold it and write even in the air.
I have bought 3 (upgraded to better models) in this past decade, couldn't be happier.
Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
> On the whole spectrum of quality of published (paper) books Well, not until someone proposes a 10-11" e-reader that doesn't cost half my salary. The biggest disappointment with my e-reader is that reading PDFs is awful on that ridiculous display. We might have nice, readable fonts and pictures, with zoom too, and instead...
>The biggest disappointment with my e-reader is that reading PDFs is awful on that ridiculous display. Ereaders suck for PDFs. To some extent, that's because the PDF format sucks. PDF forces a number of words per line, lines per page, etc. Essentially, PDFs force a certain page size on you. If you compare with physical books, that's not the case. When Stephen King writes a novel, it can be printed as a small paperbac…
>Essentially, PDFs force a certain page size on you. ...
Not necessarily. Sony's early readers had automatic reflowing of text if you chose a larger font size. It worked really well for fiction or any other type of text without pictures/diagrams.
For modern e-readers, converters like the free Calibre software (https://calibre-ebook.com), will allow resizing & reflow of text in PDFs to a size more usable for any device.
>Sony used to make 9" readers ...
There are refurbished Sony PRS-900 units available (e.g. eBay) for around $50 and, unlike most e-readers, they have user-replaceable batteries.
Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'
#286Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The biggest disappointment with my e-reader is that reading PDFs is awful on that ridiculous display. Ereaders suck for PDFs. To some extent, that's because the PDF format sucks. PDF forces a number of words per line, lines per page, etc. Essentially, PDFs force a certain page size on you. If you compare with physical books, that's not the case. When Stephen King writes a novel, it can be printed as a small paperbac…
> Essentially, PDFs force a certain page size on you. ... Not necessarily. Sony's early readers had automatic reflowing of text if you chose a larger font size. It worked really well for fiction or any other type of text without pictures/diagrams. For modern e-readers, converters like the free Calibre software ( https://calibre-ebook.com ), will allow resizing & reflow of text in PDFs to a size more usable for any de…
>Not necessarily. Sony's early readers had automatic reflowing of text if you chose a larger font size. It worked really well for fiction or any other type of text without pictures/diagrams.
My first ereader was Sony's PRS-350. It had automatic reflowing, but it did a poor job on many PDF's. It did not take care of line breaks - so if I increased the font size, each line was 1.5 lines long (i.e. the original PDF's line would be 1.5 lines on the ereader - it would still respect the line break).
I haven't tried the conversions in recent versions of Calibre. I did try it for PDFs over 5 years ago, and the results were less than satisfactory. I pretty much decided not to use small ereaders for PDFs.
Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'
#287The advantage of paper is that you can be more creative and use slow thinking[1]. Just take a look at Newton's[2] or DaVinci's[3] notebooks, how would they think so freely on a computer? Sure for a work task list, a computer is fine, but I find a computer too limiting on my creativity for myself. Added bonus: no ads, bugs, or distractions. People that create apps create them to make money, not because they make you m…
For me, the benefit comes from two limitations: - The slow and physical aspect allows you to think about and consider the idea, as you're writing it. - The negative reinforcement, for that slow consideration, caused by from the permanence of your mistakes or a tired hand. But, I don't think paper has to be involved. I see it as an indication of a lack of good stylus input in most devices. I now use a large iPad Pro,…
I, too, possess an iPad Pro with Apple Pencil, but I opted for the smaller 9.7" one. It was a mistake, the bigger one would have been better, but I love it anyway. for note-taking. It's a godsend to be able to shuffle text around, resize it, undo my errors etc. I wrote something on paper lately and automatically searched for the undo button when I made a mistake and was frustrated when I realized I have to use my eraser.
Anyway, which app are you using for your notes? I'm using OneNote ATM. I can't describe what's missing, I'm just not feeling 100% satisfied.
Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
If it isn't too personal, what's a typical entry in your morning journal? Does it vary or is there a pattern?
In case it helps, not OP but here is my daily journal template: https://pastebin.com/djyFiZkz This is not on paper but I do the same thing on paper when I'm away from the computer. On my computer a cron job just pops this into a Dropbox folder as YYYY-MM-DD.md and I edit it from there. There are some neat journaling cues available if you read e.g. "The New Diary" by Tristine Rainer. Like writing in the third person,…
That does help, thank you.
Your template is much more complex than I was thinking. I can see though if reflection is the goal, then a format that encourages that makes a great deal of sense.
Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'
#289Every now and then, it seems a thread of luddism creeps through the geek psyche - and here we see it again. For all the benefits being talked up by the authors and the posters here, a few things are being overlooked: * Paper isn't searchable. Say whatever you want about how it lets you clear your mind, but what use is all this information you're taking down if you can't easily locate it later? * Paper media doesn't h…
Thoughts are more than just letters and punctuations. I can't write down the majority of things in my head with just letters and punctuation.
Seems like language is getting in the way of writing down thoughts when you are relying on a screen and a qwerty keyboard as your only choice of input.
Re: Paper is the real 'killer app'
#290Paper 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…
>security it terrible (even with all the stamps and hand signatures)
Sure, if you're sending a letter. But as long as you maintain physical control over your paper it's far more secure than anything stored on a computer.
There's a reason Russia's FSB bought typewriters instead of a thought-to-be-secure computer system for the storage of its most sensitive secrets.