Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook

hamatti.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 302 posts

Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook

#51

Post by cheema33 »

adampwells wrote: post #48

I have been writing software for about 20 years (following on from OChem PhD and research for a few years). I am 'senior' and get paid plenty in Oz... I have aphantasia - I can't visualise/picture things in my mind, so I use pen and paper or whiteboards A LOT! I create various ERDs, mind maps, sequence diagrams etc. I use a ReMarkable which makes it a bit easier to move stuff around and makes it more effective. I get…

Most humans cannot visualize too many things in their minds at one time. I think the limit is low on average. We all therefore benefit from pen and paper. But I recognize that some more than others.

Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook

#52

Post by rsclarke »

MrGilbert wrote: post #38
gofreddygo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny. I was tolling the virtues of my spiral notebook which is always on my desk to a coworker, whom I was trying to get out of some trouble and i got... silence. That notebook is the difference between said coworker and I. She didn't get it. That notebook is the fastest most accessible tool to capture my thoughts. I can state concisely what was discussed in a team meeting last october before any notetaking tool boo…

I think an analog note taking device (woah!) requires more discipline than a digital one. In the digital world, you can always re-arrange your chaos at almost no cost, whereas you are screwed in the analog world. I'm curious: How do you organize your notes? If you mind to share.

The bullet journal method is a popular way.

Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook

#53

Post by MonkeyClub »

onion2k wrote: post #47
js4ever wrote: post #5

Calling 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.

The literal argument here is fine - using a notebook is antiquated and we have better tools. But the sentiment holds true. When you're building software designing good code is the most fundamentally important aspect of your job. All the tools you mention are things that enable you to delivery that code, but if the design of the code itself is wrong then they mean very little. The process of designing code feels like…

> using a notebook is antiquated and we have better tools

Although I would agree that we have more modern tools, I'm not sure they're better along every dimension: pen and paper is better for memory retention than typing. Also, while YMMV, oen and paper works wonders for brainstorming for me.

Though admittedly search is easier with digital tools.

Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook

#55

Post by coldblues »

js4ever wrote: post #5

Calling 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.

Finally someone had the guts to say it. I see the same arguments again and again that writing in a notebook makes you remember things better and think more thoroughly, but who exactly was tested here? Were people with an extensive and deeply personal Zettelkasten note taking system added as participants in the studies? What was their note taking process? Most people severely underutilize or even misuse their digital tools. Just take a look at people who use Notion ;)

I iterate faster, have more freedom and information is displayed and manipulated in a more ergonomic way to me on a computer, in such a way that it creates a symbiotic relationship. I severely doubt physical notetaking and brainstorming could ever compare

Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook

#56

Post by ho_schi »

I'm also into team note taking.

Work In Progress

Endless printer paper or doted A4 paper (I love it). It is is the planing area of my brain. Some specific notes are kept for long term and re-used, which is seldom - this can (should) moved into a moleskin. Probably I should use the moleskin more? I need a pen or pencil, on paper to plan.

Long Term Storage

I don't use it to think. Mostly digital, Markdown. Stored on my filesystem, Git or IMAP. Avoiding all weird and soon defunct commercial things.

Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook

#57

Post by guappa »

karn97 wrote: post #39
zwnow wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You seem to have worked on small simple projects thus far then.

Or on embedded systems

Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook

#58

Post by cladopa »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #2

I 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 use A4 sheets of paper, pens with different colours and fluorescent markers. Nothing beats that for me (and I have a iPad Pro with stylus) and I use emacs with org mode too.

I use an automatic scanner to store the important papers as documentation. Now you can even send those to gemini or google cloud to digitalise it for cheap.

At any given time I have four sheets of paper over my desk that I can see in parallel, but I could have 8 or 10 for complex problems with areas equivalent to engineering or architectural blueprints.

Having said that, I can draw and paint very well as I was interested since childhood and had formal training. Probably is not for everyone, but it is for me.

Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook

#59

Post by epolanski »

js4ever wrote: post #5

Calling 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.

I would say that planning, analyzing and tracking is by far the most important part of engineering process, software or not.

I'm personally not a fan of pen and paper, I find it to not scale, I often change devices or I'm on the move, so I rely mostly on note apps (mostly Notion).

Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook

#60

Post by avinassh »

I want to ask developers here who keep and maintain notebooks: How exactly do you take notes? What things do you write down? And how does it help you, or how has it made you a better developer?

OP's post also references a similar post [0], but I am curious to hear from the people here.

[0] - https://hamatti.org/posts/how-i-take-work-notes-as-a-develop...

Post reply on HN