As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
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Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#2I don't understand the pen/physical notebook thing. It's slow to write, insanely slow to search what you've written, almost impossible to copy or share.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#3I don't understand the pen/physical notebook thing. It's slow to write, insanely slow to search what you've written, almost impossible to copy or share.
In comparison it’s much faster to draw, infinitely more portable and much less distracting. I use pen and paper for self notes that are throwaway in nature or exploring ideas. For artefacts that are meant to be shared with others I use a computer
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#4I don't understand the pen/physical notebook thing. It's slow to write, insanely slow to search what you've written, almost impossible to copy or share.
I believe that is the beauty. It makes you be intentional, your mind slows down at a pace that does a double write to your brain (helping you remember better). If remembering with your brain is the RAM, then writing it down is the ROM.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#5Calling a notebook the “most important tool” for a dev is pure romanticism. Useful for some, sure, but let's not pretend it outweighs a debugger, version control, or CI. This isn't craftsmanship cosplay, it's software engineering.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#6I don't understand the pen/physical notebook thing. It's slow to write, insanely slow to search what you've written, almost impossible to copy or share.
In the context of this post it's not about preserving or sharing the thoughts. Writing, in this case, is a "thinking tool". Forcing yourself to materialise the thoughts as actual, written, text helps form clear ideas.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#7Calling a notebook the “most important tool” for a dev is pure romanticism. Useful for some, sure, but let's not pretend it outweighs a debugger, version control, or CI. This isn't craftsmanship cosplay, it's software engineering.
In a few years of my career now I never had to use a debugger or CI. Console debugging is good enough usually. On version control I agree.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#8I don't understand the pen/physical notebook thing. It's slow to write, insanely slow to search what you've written, almost impossible to copy or share.
It's a road bump that forces you to slow down. Which is sometimes a good thing, like taking a shower or walk.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#9I don't understand the pen/physical notebook thing. It's slow to write, insanely slow to search what you've written, almost impossible to copy or share.
people's brains all work differently and for some of them manually writing help them think better, and apparently your are not in this case. I don't think there is much else to understand.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#10I don't understand the pen/physical notebook thing. It's slow to write, insanely slow to search what you've written, almost impossible to copy or share.
Each to their own.
I wholeheartedly agree with the author. I find it really hard to think deeply at a computer. Too many distractions.
The speed of writing and search isn't a problem for me. With the writing, I wish I could write faster, but deep thinking isn't fast anyway.
Search, well, 99% of what I write is never looked at again. It's all a process of working things out, committing stuff to memory.
Whenever I'm stuck, stepping away from the computer is usually the best way forward.