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I use cheap notebooks

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Re: I use cheap notebooks

#181

Post by runjake »

These days, I just carry around about a dozen index cards clipped together along with a cheapo Pilot G3 gel pen. On my desks (home and work) I have a legal pad that I just leave on the desk, but carry into meetings. Digital notes, and photos of index cards go into the Obsidian app.

I absolutely destroy almost every notebook I've tried, including Moleskines and Field Notes.

They last a few weeks, top, before the binding or something is worn to the point it's falling apart. I really liked the waterproof Field Notes for a while, they were durable but super finicky about pens, especially my chosen cheap pen: Pilot G3.

For the Pilot G3 pens, I buy a bulk pack from Costco and don't worry too much about losing them. When my blister pack is running low, I buy another one from Costco. I think I've only bought 2 packs total over 3-4 years. Somehow, I lose cheap pens much less than fancy pens.

It's all super cheap and works well for me.

Re: I use cheap notebooks

#182

Post by JadeNB »

bityard wrote: post #139
jasonpeacock wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A similar approach I've heard (but never brave enough to do) is when you get a new car, intentionally scratch the paint yourself. Then you won't be as concerned about the inevitable dings and scratches it will accumulate.

I live in the rust belt, where cars only look new for the first 3 years or so. After that, they are 100% guaranteed to have chips in the paint from 18-wheelers throwing rocks, rust on the frame/fenders from the salt, and dings from other people parking 6 inches from your door. And if you own a prius in the midwest, it's not a matter of IF someone will key it in the parking lot of home depot, it's a matter of WHEN.

> And if you own a prius in the midwest, it's not a matter of IF someone will key it in the parking lot of home depot, it's a matter of WHEN.

I live in Texas, where I'd expect such behavior before I saw it in the midwest; parking lots are awash in Priuses, and no-one seems to bat an eye at it. Maybe it's that I live in a city. Where in the midwest would you expect this?

Re: I use cheap notebooks

#183

Post by Avshalom »

LaffertyDev wrote: post #78

It took me a while to get over the fear of destroying/using up nice things. Like enjoying a nice bottle of liquor, or using up a very nice notebook. Eventually I came across the idea that things are meant to be used, and now I'm much more relaxed about damaging/using up the things I own. I read once a stellar idea to help get over the fear of starting to draw in a notebook (or an art project, or a new software projec…

I really like buy myself flowers about this. They're nice, but inherently temporary, I can't save them for a special occasion.

Re: I use cheap notebooks

#184

Post by oblak »

milicat wrote: post #107
nicbou wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Not putting miles on your Ferrari is like not having sex with your girlfriend so she'll be more desirable to her next boyfriend." -Jim Glickenhaus

That quote is pretty messed up.

Indeed. Who lets their girlfriend have another boyfriend?

Re: I use cheap notebooks

#185

Post by Syonyk »

Dalewyn wrote: post #23
m0llusk wrote: post #15

I thought this would be about laptops. The laptops I use for work and personal stuff cost around $100 and are effectively disposable. They are not great for intense use, but the vast majority of tasks go just fine. And when developing any serious slowdown shows up right away so my work ends up being usable on low end hardware with janky connections. When one of these laptops got stolen recently I just got another one…

>And when developing any serious slowdown shows up right away so my work ends up being usable on low end hardware with janky connections. A lot of modern software problems stem from developers having a powerfully detached understanding of reality.

> A lot of modern software problems stem from developers having a powerfully detached understanding of reality.

The best thing we could do for the internet is have developers at Google, Meta, etc, use a Raspberry Pi 4 or similar "gutless wonder ARM box" for one day a week. So often, I run into things they've written that, for no coherent reason, just run horribly on low end hardware. It was obviously written and toyed with on a Xeon workstation with multiple large 4k monitors, and, who would possibly use less?

The Blogger rewrite rather irritates me, because it went from an old, usable, performant interface that ran totally fine on ancient netbooks to this weird, "mobile first" interface (for a blogging platform) that choked out even on high end hardware when you had a lot of photos in a post. Clearly, nobody who worked on it ever actually loaded it up, or used it on old hardware, and never actually talked to anyone who used it to blog, because it was filled with tons of "modern" UI crap that was objectively worse than the old interface for every conceivable task one might do when writing and editing blog posts.

Kicked me off Blogger and onto my personally hosted Jekyll stuff, though, so I guess working as intended.

Re: I use cheap notebooks

#186

Post by crispinb »

I'd like a stock of cheap notebooks, but at least in my country it's not always easy to find them with plain paper. Lined paper is only useful for children learning to write from my pov. Online catalogues here don't always even specify the paper type - childrens' paper is just assumed.

Re: I use cheap notebooks

#187

Post by topicseed »

LaffertyDev wrote: post #78

It took me a while to get over the fear of destroying/using up nice things. Like enjoying a nice bottle of liquor, or using up a very nice notebook. Eventually I came across the idea that things are meant to be used, and now I'm much more relaxed about damaging/using up the things I own. I read once a stellar idea to help get over the fear of starting to draw in a notebook (or an art project, or a new software projec…

I have to buy shitty notepads otherwise with the nice Dingbats ones, I cannot start writing naturally because I get paralysed. With a basic notepad, I just go with the flow and don't overthink.

Re: I use cheap notebooks

#188

Post by 12345hn6789 »

JadeNB wrote: post #182
bityard wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in the rust belt, where cars only look new for the first 3 years or so. After that, they are 100% guaranteed to have chips in the paint from 18-wheelers throwing rocks, rust on the frame/fenders from the salt, and dings from other people parking 6 inches from your door. And if you own a prius in the midwest, it's not a matter of IF someone will key it in the parking lot of home depot, it's a matter of WHEN.

> And if you own a prius in the midwest, it's not a matter of IF someone will key it in the parking lot of home depot, it's a matter of WHEN. I live in Texas, where I'd expect such behavior before I saw it in the midwest; parking lots are awash in Priuses, and no-one seems to bat an eye at it. Maybe it's that I live in a city. Where in the midwest would you expect this?

Anywhere >1 hour away from a city

Re: I use cheap notebooks

#190

Post by fencepost »

I liked this enough to save it almost 5 years ago when Merlin Mann said it on Back To Work #339 (~10 minutes from the end):

On the first page of every notebook, write "The first page is profound." Now you've started writing in it, it's no longer a new notebook, and you're past the "I don't want to start a notebook unless I'm writing something worthwhile" stage. All sorts of other quick reference things you could put on the first page depending on how you use notebooks, e.g. bullet journal rules if you use that.

Possibly also from the same show, things to write in the notebook for every day:

  * What am I thinking about? What's on my mind, one sentence
  * What am I worried about?
  * What one thing do I have to do today?
  * What one thing do I want to do today?
  * (bonus) What am I grateful for or 
    what nice thing can I do for someone today?
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