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Using an engineering notebook

ntietz.com

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Re: Using an engineering notebook

#61

Post by jstanley »

circular_logic wrote: post #59
danpalmer wrote: post #13

I was given this advice at university, but what I was always missing was what I was supposed to write down in them. The post here mentions hypotheses, but I don't do experiments for the most part. It mentions writing down in the notebook before writing code, but I can't test my notes, I can't really send my notes for code review. I guess you could use it for design, but you'd lose all the advantages of word processin…

These are the things I add in when adding in a new usecase to a codename: - Expansion of the acceptance criteria into small steps. - Any clarifications to what we are making - Anything I don't understand yet so i can chase up someone about it later - As I read through the code I write up possible refactoring opertunties. (I find this a lot better than adding todos as you can skim though the list closer to the end and…

What does it mean to add a usecase to a codename? Is this something you do frequently? And is it something you imagine others also do?

Re: Using an engineering notebook

#62

Post by michaelanckaert »

foo42 wrote: post #48
farhanhubble wrote: post #11

I use Obsidian to record decisions, plan every day and take detailed notes. Very handy for recalling the nitty gritty for future reference be it performance reviews, writing blogs or updating my resume.

Same for me. I also make extensive use of adding links to anything relevant. Spent a bunch of time discussing something in a slack thread: link it. Read some documentation: link it. Had a chat with an llm in a chat window: link it. Writing notes about how a bunch of code works : link to the functions. For this last one I've registered a custom vim:// URL scheme on my system which lets me link to a symbol within a giv…

I generally try to avoid adding external links as I found that those resources tend to get lost very fast. Of course, this is not always feasible, but whenever I can try to copy over the contents into my notes.

Re: Using an engineering notebook

#63

Post by dn3500 »

analog31 wrote: post #18
danpalmer wrote: post #13

I was given this advice at university, but what I was always missing was what I was supposed to write down in them. The post here mentions hypotheses, but I don't do experiments for the most part. It mentions writing down in the notebook before writing code, but I can't test my notes, I can't really send my notes for code review. I guess you could use it for design, but you'd lose all the advantages of word processin…

I'm a scientist. In the science world, the traditional lab notebook contained a narrative of what you were doing. You're kind of thinking out loud into it. One measure of a good notebook is if it contains sufficient information that you don't have to repeat work only because you can't figure out what you did. There are other good reasons for repeating things of course. My spouse is a lab scientist, and I've seen her…

Engineering notebooks were required at my first job in the 1970s, for patent reasons. The notebook pages are numbered and it has a real sewn binding, making it harder to remove or insert a page without being noticed. We were required to date and sign each page and start a new page every day.

By the time I retired I think I was the only one at my company using one. I had to special order to get a proper one with the quad ruling, numbered pages, and sewn binding.

Re: Using an engineering notebook

#65

Post by 9NRtKyP4 »

I don’t use a notebook and have done fine over the years - for those of you that are reading this and getting anxious you’re not doing your job the “right way”. I don’t have a particularly prodigious memory.

I’ve sometimes thought there’s a value to forgetting. If it matters I’ll learn it through repetition, like compression almost. It always seemed like reconstructing things from first principles saves brain space and allows for generalisation and creativity.

Re: Using an engineering notebook

#67

Post by Pinus »

The problem I always run into when I try something like this, is that I mostly (there are exceptions) use paper as a data processing medium (as opposed to a data recording medium). Most of what I do on paper is messy, half-baked, wrong, turns out to be a false start, whatever. Once all that is fixed, what is left gets tidied up into some sort of digital form, usually program code. I don’t want all that mess in the capital-N Notebook, but it is hard to know when to switch from backs of envelopes to the Notebook.

I suppose there might be a value in stopping right before the tidying-up stage (or perhaps right after it) and summarise the steps that led up to it (including abandoned approaches, and why) into some sort of document but that, for me, would be a digital file somewhere, not paper.

Re: Using an engineering notebook

#68

Post by bodge5000 »

9NRtKyP4 wrote: post #65

I don’t use a notebook and have done fine over the years - for those of you that are reading this and getting anxious you’re not doing your job the “right way”. I don’t have a particularly prodigious memory. I’ve sometimes thought there’s a value to forgetting. If it matters I’ll learn it through repetition, like compression almost. It always seemed like reconstructing things from first principles saves brain space a…

Absolutely agree, I do use notebooks but like you say I dont think I need to at all, for some reason I just have some natural drive to write things down (plus I like notebooks). But I've often had experiences of reading through old notebooks and finding that the things I care about in there I instantly remembered without having to read the page, and the things I'd forgotten about I didn't care about anymore.

Re: Using an engineering notebook

#69

Post by hobofan »

analog31 wrote: post #18
danpalmer wrote: post #13

I was given this advice at university, but what I was always missing was what I was supposed to write down in them. The post here mentions hypotheses, but I don't do experiments for the most part. It mentions writing down in the notebook before writing code, but I can't test my notes, I can't really send my notes for code review. I guess you could use it for design, but you'd lose all the advantages of word processin…

I'm a scientist. In the science world, the traditional lab notebook contained a narrative of what you were doing. You're kind of thinking out loud into it. One measure of a good notebook is if it contains sufficient information that you don't have to repeat work only because you can't figure out what you did. There are other good reasons for repeating things of course. My spouse is a lab scientist, and I've seen her…

Anecdotally I've heard from my biochem circle of friends, that many institutions (at least in Germany) are still quite particular when it comes to lab notebooks. Especially ones that strongly monetize on patents, e.g. Frauenhofer. They usually also provide electronic lab notebooks which can either be used directly or into which you have to store copies of the original physical lab notebook.

I suspect that this may be due to different copyright mechanisms in different jurisdictions. e.g. in Germany employees have stronger protections that may allow them to still patent stuff developed in their free time, so companies might want to have a stronger papertrail to prove that outcomes tie back to something done during working hours.

Re: Using an engineering notebook

#70

Post by madduci »

Never used one in over 15 years. I write a short post it only if I don't finish a certain task between days and it is really complex or maybe as a to-do list before leaving for holidays.

But I never felt the urgency to start a proper notebook. All the important decisions are documented in form of git commits for code or decision records for systems

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