I love note taking on paper; the problem is finding my notes later.
Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
91–100 of 152 posts
Re: Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Though I think it's an even more general mechanism of association . And places might also be easy to remember because they also contain many elements we can associate. You can call it the connectedness of a memory. You can also try to repeatedly explain to others something you want to remember or whatever.
Could be, but to me it seems our brains are optimized a lot for operating in the spatio(temporal) world, and so spatial connections in particular seem to fit the wiring of our brains particularly well.
IIRC research in mice has even found grid neurons that are specifically firing for spatial locations, beyond just mere association.
Re: Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
#93One aspect the article doesn't mention is spatiality, and how that aids memorizing. As you might know one very common technique used by memorizing masters is to place things you want to remember in some imagined 3D world. This effect is also something I've experienced strongly myself when listening to audiobooks while running. I figured I can actually remember the exact place along my running route in a nearby forest…
I read the game of thrones novels ages ago in pulp paperback and tried to read the fifth one as an ebook and I simply could not keep track of the various character story lines, names, etc. that I had no problem with while reading the physical books.
I'm very sure that just remembering how much of the book was in my left hand and how much in the right was extremely valuable in helping me remember - basically having an additional dimension recorded in my memory made it much easier.
Re: Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
#94This is one of the reasons I've started to use the reMarkable tablet for taking notes. Sometimes I don't even look at them again, it's just a more efficient way to get the info into my head. I wrote more about my current workflow/stack here if anyone is interested (w/ some reMarkable hacks): https://briandoll.medium.com/personal-setup-for-getting-shit...
I take notes in a $.79 spiral paper notebook. When it fills up, I just scan it and get another one.
What about organizing different topics? I like the remarkable because it's like an infinite subject notebook. E.g. I can take notes in a separate notebook for each book I read and can easily refer back to old notes on other books.
Re: Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
#95One aspect the article doesn't mention is spatiality, and how that aids memorizing. As you might know one very common technique used by memorizing masters is to place things you want to remember in some imagined 3D world. This effect is also something I've experienced strongly myself when listening to audiobooks while running. I figured I can actually remember the exact place along my running route in a nearby forest…
This is the reason why it drives me nuts when Apple Book randomly chooses to shift the content of the pages of the eBook. Content that was on odd page number starts appearing on even page number. This is also the reason why I never change the font size.
(Please let me know if there is a way to disable this.)
Re: Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
I carry both a reMarkable and a Rocketbook with me -- the e-ink tablet makes taking notes super easy, but, the rocketbook is great for sketching and coming up with arch drawings and the like. I can quickly turn the RocketBook sketches into pdfs and send them to the reMarkable for further processing...but, I love the flexibility between the two, and honestly, the reMarkable fits in the pocket off my RocketBook...so it…
Did a search for Rocketbook and found this. Just wanted to plug it in here, not paid or anything. I'm taking a college cryptography class, and I started by maintaining notes with LaTeX in Markdown. It didn't help much. The moment I started using a Rocketbook was when I would get things. I've reused my book about 5 times now in conjunction with work and other classes. I'm on my sixth cycle and love it!
I'm confused about rocketbook, why would you want to reuse notebooks? Paper notebooks are cheap enough to be disposable
Re: Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
#97The sound of writing with a wood-cased pencil is very soothing. Currently I'm using a MITSU-BISHI 9800 with my absolute favorite being the CARAN D'ACHE Swiss Wood red tip.
Re: Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
#98Something I've learned is that if you're a disorganized person, you're going to have a disorganized computer, and disorganized notes. But with physical notes, I can put them in a physical pile, and they'll pretty much stay there until I need them, sometimes for years.
Once in a while I can go through them and throw away the ones that I really don't care about, and I can transfer really vital stuff to the computer. Scanning is easy. My cell phone is a good enough scanner.
Where paper shines is equations and drawings. I'm building an elaborate electronic circuit as a hobby project right now. The ease of drawing the schematics by hand outpaces any drawing program, and it's effortless to carry paper into my workshop. Of all places, Target sells a lovely quad ruled notebook where one side of each sheet is 4 grids per inch, and the other side 5.
Now I've read a lot of comments and articles about pens. Uggh. Pens are just not my friend. I've struck a blow for freedom and bought pencils. There, I said it. Lots of them. I know all the cool kids write with pens, but my handwriting is so horrible, I usually have to erase my worst scribbles and start over quite frequently.
Re: Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
#99This is one of the reasons I've started to use the reMarkable tablet for taking notes. Sometimes I don't even look at them again, it's just a more efficient way to get the info into my head. I wrote more about my current workflow/stack here if anyone is interested (w/ some reMarkable hacks): https://briandoll.medium.com/personal-setup-for-getting-shit...
I've been using a Boox and pretty happy with it.
The only thing that bothers me is the time it takes to flip between pages and find something you know you wrote somewhere but forgot exactly where you wrote it. Somehow manual searching is still faster with real paper.
Re: Why I’m a sucker for pen and paper
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did a search for Rocketbook and found this. Just wanted to plug it in here, not paid or anything. I'm taking a college cryptography class, and I started by maintaining notes with LaTeX in Markdown. It didn't help much. The moment I started using a Rocketbook was when I would get things. I've reused my book about 5 times now in conjunction with work and other classes. I'm on my sixth cycle and love it!
I'm confused about rocketbook, why would you want to reuse notebooks? Paper notebooks are cheap enough to be disposable
I prefer to minimize the waste I generate with my daily activities. A reusable notebook sounds ideal for me. I don't use paper for this very reason.