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Thinking with pen and paper

ljvmiranda921.github.io

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Re: Thinking with pen and paper

#131

Post by wellthisisgreat »

Slow_Hand wrote: post #117
nordsieck wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would love to see a site where people posted stuff they have been doing for over a year and it still works for them. Here's the one thing that's stuck with me: I started carrying earplugs with me in 2002. I was forced into it by the Army, but I've kept it up all these years because of how great it is. They completely disappear into the pocket, and when you want them, you *really* want them. But they're great, eve…

Seconded. 8 years ago I had impressions made of my ears and invested in some custom-fit earplugs that evenly attenuate the entire frequency spectrum and don't roll off excessive high-end like foam plugs. They come in a tiny coin purse that fits anywhere and if I find myself in a public space where I'm at a risk of fatigue or hearing damage (concert, construction site, airplane, etc) I just pop them in. That said, I'm…

It’s interesting where did you get them? Have a link?

Re: Thinking with pen and paper

#132

Post by Tcepsa »

JonChesterfield wrote: post #110

I wrote code on paper occasionally. Anyone else? Don't see an existing comment about it. Notebook, multicoloured pen, usually C or lisp syntax. Tends to be thinking through data structures. Kills the temptation to check my work by running it which forces me to think harder about the intended execution. edit: used to use whiteboards for the same purpose but sadly don't have one at present

I still do. Generally data structures and flow more than actual code these days, but sometimes I'll also sketch out an API or something by hand. I find it tremendously helpful for cultivating understanding, designing systems, and solving problems!

Re: Thinking with pen and paper

#133

Post by ycombinete »

wrp wrote: post #118
Syzygies wrote: post #55

I can remember rolling my eyes at a writer using a mechanical typewriter decades after word processors had taken over. Did they thaw out of a glacier? At the same time I love physical media. As a math professor I defend a widespread preference for blackboards over soul-sucking whiteboards, imagining that musicians will still play grand pianos in a century, and they'll still snicker over Ryan Gosling playing a toy pia…

I've wondered why I hear so much about chalk but not about mechanical pencil leads. I'm so picky about mine that whenever I find some I really like, I lay up a hoard in case it gets discontinued.

Which ones do you like?

Re: Thinking with pen and paper

#134

Post by senegoid »

I feel people (myself included) are drawn to notetaking/PKM topics because there's a fear that others have unlocked a secret to learning the layperson hasn't yet discovered.

In my experience observing my peers, aside from intellectual horsepower, thinking about topics from first principles is the best way to learn. This has nothing to do with Logseq, Obsidian, Zettels, paper, workflows, Literature notes, or any other fad.

Don't understand something? Go back a step and understand that. Even better if you have to explain it to someone else. Then see how you structure it into a latticework of knowledge, as Charlie Munger would say.

Re: Thinking with pen and paper

#135

Post by brailsafe »

powersnail wrote: post #94
user00012-ab wrote: post #59

I would love to see a site where people posted stuff they have been doing for over a year and it still works for them. Seems like all these blog posts are, "I Started doing this yesterday, and I'm going to do it for the rest of my life... or tomorrow when I blog my next big thing I'm going to do forever." I'm more interested in stuff people have stuck with and actually works for them when the novelty of the medium we…

The tool doesn't matter. What works, is to actually do the stuff consistently. One of the most productive people I know, took her lecture notes in the comment panel of PowerPoint in college, simply because _it's there_ when she open a lecture note. UI wise, it's probably worse than any note taking system that has ever showed up on HN. Nevertheless, she was a straight A student juggling 2 majors, 1 minor, and a lot of…

I've thought about this quite a bit, and I think a lot of the luck that "hyper productive people" have in getting to a state of hyper productivity, is basically like you say, but finding that thing that works for them if there is one earlier than others.

Now at 30, I'm not that productive, but there are many things I have to deal with regularly that I just haven't found very productive ways of operating with.

Right now, fwiw, writing my day out on pen and paper before I open my computer has lent me slightly increased levels of focus, but I think that for marginally more successful people, some of these gains were realized early on and happened to work for them, or they didn't need them.

I do think this extends somewhat to more general life circumstances like stable family life and not being so susceptible to distractions.

I also think that for some people who have the intellectual capability, juggling 2 majors and 1 minor might be just what they need to deal with the former.

Re: Thinking with pen and paper

#136

Post by deepGem »

powersnail wrote: post #94
user00012-ab wrote: post #59

I would love to see a site where people posted stuff they have been doing for over a year and it still works for them. Seems like all these blog posts are, "I Started doing this yesterday, and I'm going to do it for the rest of my life... or tomorrow when I blog my next big thing I'm going to do forever." I'm more interested in stuff people have stuck with and actually works for them when the novelty of the medium we…

The tool doesn't matter. What works, is to actually do the stuff consistently. One of the most productive people I know, took her lecture notes in the comment panel of PowerPoint in college, simply because _it's there_ when she open a lecture note. UI wise, it's probably worse than any note taking system that has ever showed up on HN. Nevertheless, she was a straight A student juggling 2 majors, 1 minor, and a lot of…

Wish more people understood this. We spend a lot of time changing tools and it's as bad or worse than context switching. Every tool has a learning curve and if you keep switching tools, you are always stuck in the initial part of the learning curve. I think this greatly hampers learning.

Hyper productive people who I have seen as well exhibit similar behavior. They just stick to tools that they are comfortable with and focus on the task at hand.

Also another anecdotal observation - some of the best chefs I have seen don't usually switch tools, be it knives or utensils. They mostly stick to the same tools for a very long time. So they invest in tools that can last and can be maintained. Not sure if the analogy holds true in other fields as well.

Pen and paper as a form of expressing streaming thoughts works for me as well. It also works because I write a lot slower than I can type. Ever since I have started writing pretty consistently over the last 4-5 months, the format of pen and paper doesn't really matter to me. I can write using any pen and any paper. I have found fountain pens to be particularly cumbersome to maintain and also my kids just take whatever pen is on my table and run off. As a result I just have a 100s pack of the same cheap pen. One went missing, pick up another one.

Re: Thinking with pen and paper

#137

Post by syntheweave »

powersnail wrote: post #94
user00012-ab wrote: post #59

I would love to see a site where people posted stuff they have been doing for over a year and it still works for them. Seems like all these blog posts are, "I Started doing this yesterday, and I'm going to do it for the rest of my life... or tomorrow when I blog my next big thing I'm going to do forever." I'm more interested in stuff people have stuck with and actually works for them when the novelty of the medium we…

The tool doesn't matter. What works, is to actually do the stuff consistently. One of the most productive people I know, took her lecture notes in the comment panel of PowerPoint in college, simply because _it's there_ when she open a lecture note. UI wise, it's probably worse than any note taking system that has ever showed up on HN. Nevertheless, she was a straight A student juggling 2 majors, 1 minor, and a lot of…

Just today my inner voice was refraining the saying(which I learned online, but appears to be of military origin) "fast is smooth, smooth is slow".

Many of my most productive workflows have come from finding smoothness. There's a lot of stop/start in digital: something commanding your attention that is not the task, that needs immediate resolution. Often the "proper" way of dealing with it means stopping again, and the "improper" way blows up down the road. Deal with that a few times and suddenly I find myself browsing Twitter, because I've reached a "good stopping place." When that happens, it doesn't matter that it was "fast". I did one part of the actual thing fast, and then I wasted the rest of the time.

Re: Thinking with pen and paper

#138

Post by euroderf »

ubermonkey wrote: post #22
egypturnash wrote: post #4

Is Zettelkasten the new Getting Things Done yet? I feel like I'm seeing essays about How I Zettel with the same frequency I used to see essays about How I GTD back when 43folders was pioneering the genre of "productivity influencer". (edit: amusingly enough, I find this near the end: "I also mentioned Zettelkasten many times in this post, but I don’t do that anymore–I just did a 1-month dry run and it felt tiring.")

Yeah, I think it is. I never went all in on GTD, but some principles stuck with me: key is having a trusted system where I can capture things that will then SHOW me those things when I need to see them. I used Omnifocus for a while, but eventually migrated to OrgMode as a better fit for my life (even though I'm not really an emacs person overall).

> a trusted system where I can capture things that will then SHOW me those things when I need to see them.

The related principle that sticks with me is, your mind is more for processing/doing things than for simply storing them.

Re: Thinking with pen and paper

#139

Post by euroderf »

YeBanKo wrote: post #124
drekipus wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Market forces. Grid is in less supply because it's not as demanded

It could be the opposite, it is not as demanded because it is not as available. If it were, I thunk people might have preferred it more often.

Some MBA middle manager decided a grid provides more value to buyers, ergo segment the market for el-cheapo notebooks by boosting the price ?
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