I like writing much better,[1] and after a fair share of Moleskin, Field Notes, and a long streak with Muji, I’m now blown away by Midori. I have already gotten a few, and I’m going to get a lot more. The tactile ‘scratch’ of the fountain pen on the Midori Paper is so soothing, it makes me feel like I’m a poet even when I’m writing down the most mundane idea that I just had. :-)
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
#12I 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.
From a quick search:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-writing-by-ha...
https://stackoverflow.blog/2022/11/23/why-writing-by-hand-is...
Writing by hand definitely is better for a squirrel brain like me. And searching is overrated, most note-taking is write-only and tends to accumulate without anyone ever reading it back. So optimize for memory retention so you can later form better mental associations with the material, rather than how searchable on a computer it is. Notes on a PC are inert, what you want is to integrate their contents into your brain so you can actually do something with it.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#13I like to have an Obsidian vault for every company I work for.
But when I really need to think I upgrade to pen and paper.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#14[flagged]
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#15I 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 also use a notebook and pen constantly as a software engineer - but never when I need any of the properties you just mentioned.
It is absolutely the wrong tool for any long-term information store. Ephemeral think-it-through process notes only. Obsidian for anything that should live longer than the current problem I’m trying to solve.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#16I 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.
So what? It’s not for any of those things. It’s part of the thinking process, same as having a walk and letting your mind wander or having a shower.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#17It actually works. Every time I get stuck, writing things down helps me slow down, think more clearly, and move forward more steadily. Pen and notebook really are an underrated but essential part of being a developer.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#18Calling 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.
CI is really nice with multiple platforms or multiple people. Solo projects for Linux, I never bother
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#19Calling 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.
I was the same until I started working on a Go server. It helps immensely when I want to know the value of objects say when a request is handled and how that flows.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#20I 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 a notebook. It forces me to slow down. I don´t like to cross/erase blocks of text so I actually think about what I'm about to write before writing it. It helps the same way rubber duck debugging does.
Also: I just like writing.