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People who can't give up paper

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11–20 of 168 posts

Re: People who can't give up paper

#11
For me personally paper is indispensable as a design tool for sketching out complex systems. I "think" more clearly on paper than I do with any digital tool I've used.

In an aviation context I mostly use an iPad these days (learned to fly long before iPads were a thing) but I carry some backup paper charts. I've had chargers fail mid-trip and the electronic flight bag apps are real power hogs. And that's not to mention the ever-present threat of GPS failure, which is very real.

Re: People who can't give up paper

#13
post #6

I’m a developer and I still rely on paper to do some of my best work

Likewise. I've never found anything as effective as a pencil and paper as a scratchpad when thinking through problems. I also find a strange motivation day to day in checking items off a physical checklist/todo-list that I don't get from the digital equivalent. However, digital is indisputable king when it comes to sharing information.

Re: People who can't give up paper

#15
I did all of my note-taking on paper in school. I felt like I had to to keep up with complex visualizations and concepts. The habit has carried with me.

I still keep those notebooks for reflection on what I studied. They're very valuable to me, even though I get teased for it. To me, it is like looking at a photograph of your younger brain.

Re: People who can't give up paper

#16

When it comes to tabletop gaming, I strongly prefer handwritten force lists and character sheets. Printed is okay, so long as they can be marked and modified on the fly with a pencil. Requiring someone to fiddle with a poorly-designed app to record momentary bookkeeping is downright obnoxious and will not stand for it.

I’ve seen some people use dry erase for consumables.

I’ve also seen little magnets which would be cleaner.

Re: People who can't give up paper

#17
I've worked in tech as a software engineer developing web applications for 25 years and I'm one of these people.

For note taking, I prefer pen and paper. For diagramming and brainstorming, I prefer a physical whiteboard. For non-work related scheduling, I prefer marking things on the physical calendar hanging on my wall... or sometimes I'll reach for a post-it note.

For bills, I prefer that my company mail me a paper bill. Especially if accessing the e-bill requires me to have an account with a web app and enable MFA and change my password every 90 days and always have Okta give me problems when I want to check my bill and thus need to jump through these hoops those whopping 12 times per year that I need this information.

Maybe it's because I see how the sausage is made. Maybe it's because I use some sort of eletronic device all day for work. But the last thing I want to do when I need to jot something down quickly is reach for a phone or a laptop. Heck, most of the time I don't even remember (or care) where I left my phone.

Re: People who can't give up paper

#18
My poor handwriting is something I am disappointed in myself with. I knew how to write quite well, but that skill went to shreds in university when I tried to write too much, too fast. My hand started to repulse the pen. It is as if it always wants to let go of it and only with mental force can be made to hold on and scribble some ugly notes in protest. If I slow down I can write prettier, but I don't have patience to write slowly.

Re: People who can't give up paper

#19
> Paper, it seems, still rules the waves.

You'd be crazy to get rid of paper charts on a boat, for the same reason any hiker is instructed to carry a paper map, and the smart ones actually do it. Yeah, the primary system will be GPS, but that system requires a lot of things to be functioning which may not always be functioning. You need a backup, and paper is perfect for that.

Re: People who can't give up paper

#20
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are severely underestimating the complexity of preserving digital data for 200+ years. It’s not trivial, but a family could totally put a box of notebooks and loose papers in a box in a dry/somewhat safe location and pretty much guarantee they will still be usable/viewable in 200+ years without any electricity/file format/solar flare/emp/etc/etc issues to have to consider. I’m not disagreeing that it’s wo…

> I think you are severely underestimating the complexity of preserving digital data for 200+ years although I doubt my personal notes will be necessary in 200+ years

Big same. It might be a curiosity to my kids (or grandkids if I have those) but I doubt anyone beyond that will care
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