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

hamatti.org

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

#181

Post by magistr4te »

thecrumb wrote: post #178

After scribbling down notes in paper notebooks for years I finally decided I didn't want to kill any more trees to take notes I seldom referenced. Now I have a digital tablet (Supernote) on which I scribble down all the meaningless stuff throughout the day. Then I review that and anything useful or important goes into Obsidian where I can tag/search it later.

I've never done the math on this, but my immediate thought on that reasoning was always that you'd have to burn through a LOT of paper to actually have such an electronic product be more environmentally friendly. Does anyone have concrete data on this?

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

#182

Post by MSFT_Edging »

sky2224 wrote: post #25

Some of the most intelligent people I've ever met in math, physics, and computer science don't even use a notebook. They use printer paper and pen. When they're done, they throw the paper away. I have seldom found personal notes from far in the past to be useful. If there's something worth noting down, then it goes into documentation, so others can stumble upon whatever quirk I've come across in the future. If there'…

Most of the contents of my notebook are never looked at again, just lists of thoughts, order of events, etc.

Occasionally i'll write something down that I know I'll forget for later reference and put a small post-it sticking out for easy access.

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

#183

Post by ggdhdj »

I think my brain works the exact opposite of what he describes. I can only think about code, while I write it. Interpreted languages are a blessing for me. I was taught the approach described in the post in school (it's the Pascal way after all) and I never understood, how people can actually work like this. There really seem to be (at least) two types of programmer brains.

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

#184

Post by __natty__ »

magistr4te wrote: post #181
thecrumb wrote: post #178

After scribbling down notes in paper notebooks for years I finally decided I didn't want to kill any more trees to take notes I seldom referenced. Now I have a digital tablet (Supernote) on which I scribble down all the meaningless stuff throughout the day. Then I review that and anything useful or important goes into Obsidian where I can tag/search it later.

I've never done the math on this, but my immediate thought on that reasoning was always that you'd have to burn through a LOT of paper to actually have such an electronic product be more environmentally friendly. Does anyone have concrete data on this?

I found some data on slate - between 7000-14000 sheets to balance an iPad over 3 years of usage. [0]

[0] https://slate.com/technology/2011/09/paper-versus-the-ipad-i...

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

#185

Post by foobarian »

sky2224 wrote: post #25

Some of the most intelligent people I've ever met in math, physics, and computer science don't even use a notebook. They use printer paper and pen. When they're done, they throw the paper away. I have seldom found personal notes from far in the past to be useful. If there's something worth noting down, then it goes into documentation, so others can stumble upon whatever quirk I've come across in the future. If there'…

I used to use fancy watermarked paper just because it was fun, but then I got a job at a place with supply closets stocked with infinite printer paper, and, best of all - 11x17 printer paper! I got a 11x17 clipboard to go with it and been using that ever since.

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

#186

Post by roryirvine »

Hamatti wrote: post #104
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.

OP here. > It's slow to write Only to an extent. I write fast enough with pen and paper that my thinking is the bottleneck — which isn't really that fast. I don't need to write down everything I think so it also acts as a filter and processor of those thoughts. > insanely slow to search what you've written Compared to digital notes system, sure. But the way I use my notes, I don't usually need a full-text search to f…

Searching through a physical notebook does take a few moments, but the upside is all of that context you get to drink in during the search.

I typically get through a couple of B5 pages a day, so homing in on the thing I want to look at is a matter of opening the notebook to roughly the right fortnight and then flicking through up to a dozen pages in either direction. A tenth of a second per page is enough to scan for major events - what projects was I working on at the time? Were there any major interruptions to my flow, or changes in direction?

And then, once I've found the right day, seeing the detail of everything I was doing at the time triggers a flood of memories - I remember all of the conversations, decisions, problems, and ideas that were current at the time of the entry in question.

I've tried a number of digital notetaking systems, but none has been able to give me so much context so quickly as a paper notebook.

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

#187

Post by brettgriffin »

Hamatti wrote: post #103
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.

OP here. Last time my blog caught attention in HN, I was told I'm "living in a fantasy" and this time it's "pure romanticism". The tools you shared are of course important and I enjoy having them a lot. Wouldn't want to work as a developer without version control or debuggers, for sure. Those are tools that if I lost them, it surely would slow me down and be annoying. I do truly consider notebook more important to me…

> Those are tools that if I lost them, it surely would slow me down and be annoying.

Yes, but the post above is pointing out that you would be significantly slower without an IDE, compiler or debugger than you would be without a pen/paper. In fact, I don't think you would be a professional programmer if you didn't have them.

Saying you like a notebook and pen while designing and writing software is very different than saying a notebook and pen are more important than an IDE, compiler, or debugger.

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

#188

Post by ednite »

agarren wrote: post #176
ednite wrote: post #118

Great discussion. In my opinion, the real takeaway isn’t about notebooks vs. digital tools, it’s about what shifts your mental gears. Every time we switch modes, it forces our brain to pay attention differently. That fresh context can boost focus, creativity, even recall. For example, I recently stopped coding all the time and picked up a new hobby at night, writing. That simple change gave my brain a reset and actua…

Out of curiosity, what kind of writing? Journaling and getting your thoughts out, or fiction, something else?

Honestly, I’m kind of all over the place with my writing right now, but I can’t stop. It’s one of the reasons I finally joined HN. I’ve been a long-time reader here but recently decided to start sharing my 2-cents here and there.

I started a blog to get my thoughts out and explore whatever sparked my curiosity. It’s been a creative blast, and I’m still figuring it out as I go.

I do journal, though it’s more of a quick log, tracking time and daily developments. My deeper writing is more immersed. Lately, I’ve been spending a few hours most nights working on a self-improvement book, which I’ve been enjoying writing.

One unexpected benefit I can’t emphasize enough is how much writing has helped me stay sharp and more focused in my day job. It’s like a reset button for the brain. If you’re feeling stuck or low on motivation, I really recommend trying something completely different in your routine, especially something outside your comfort zone, like switching from digital to analog. Thanks for asking!

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

#189

Post by [deleted] »

brettgriffin wrote: post #187
Hamatti wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP here. Last time my blog caught attention in HN, I was told I'm "living in a fantasy" and this time it's "pure romanticism". The tools you shared are of course important and I enjoy having them a lot. Wouldn't want to work as a developer without version control or debuggers, for sure. Those are tools that if I lost them, it surely would slow me down and be annoying. I do truly consider notebook more important to me…

> Those are tools that if I lost them, it surely would slow me down and be annoying. Yes, but the post above is pointing out that you would be significantly slower without an IDE, compiler or debugger than you would be without a pen/paper. In fact, I don't think you would be a professional programmer if you didn't have them. Saying you like a notebook and pen while designing and writing software is very different tha…

[deleted]

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

#190

Post by diggan »

gjadi wrote: post #171
cleak wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The book Smarter Faster Better introduced me to the concept of disfluency - the idea that extra friction such as awkward fonts, new environments, different tools, etc will pull you out of autopilot mode and force you to think in new ways. I haven’t seen references to it elsewhere, but it’s changed how I approach problems and learning the last 9 years. Switching to a notebook is one great way I use to trigger this as…

Interesting. I noticed the same and sometimes I change my emacs theme just to get a fresh perspective. Sometimes I also disable syntax highlighting when typing so I won't get distracted.

> Sometimes I also disable syntax highlighting when typing

Was waiting for someone to comment this. It's a somewhat known strategy if you have to read through a bunch of boring code you don't want to work with, and find hard to focus with, to turn off the syntax highlight and somehow the brain stops glossing over/skimming the code and starts to pay more attention.

I found it led to marginal difference at best, as with most strategies. It does work well initially though, as I guess the brain stops being able to use colors it's used to for grouping stuff together and similar.

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