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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

#221

Post by atrettel »

exe34 wrote: post #209
atrettel wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used printer paper myself in different jobs in science. I personally don't like it but I have done it when it was the only paper available. Budgets in scientific organizations are often very tight, so often nothing else is provided, and many times you do not have the direct authority to order anything yourself. My point is that I'd view this behavior more as a consequence of the circumstances many scientists fin…

What kind of paper do you prefer?

I don't have an exact preference on the kind and weight of the paper, but I do prefer notebooks with firmly bound and numbered pages like old-school laboratory notebooks [1]. My problem is that I often do long derivations or work that can span dozens of pages with diagrams, etc. If I use loose leaf paper like printer paper, I often lose track of pages or their order. I tend to label my pages extensively when I have to use printer paper. I also use binder clips instead of paper clips since they are much more secure. That system works for me but other people might not like it.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38772707

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

#222

Post by thewebguyd »

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.

A bit extreme on my end, but I've got the spare hardware for it - when I get into a rut I change operating systems, so I'm bouncing back and forth between macOS and Windows or Linux.

I'm adept at using both but the change adds just enough friction and visual differences to spark creativity, or a little productivity boost.

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

#223

Post by tmaly »

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 use to just lose my notes. But I have been using tech to transcribe them and put the text into my Obsidian vault.

I am thinking about trying to do something with this like scanning for connections between notes or adding some tags to make ideas easier to find.

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

#224

Post by FigurativeVoid »

abletonlive wrote: post #191
FigurativeVoid wrote: post #124

One of the few things that I miss about working in an office is a large whiteboard and standing in front of it with a colleague. Working on an architecture with a peer and marker really led to some elegant class designs.

I use excalidraw for this and think it’s better than whiteboard because 1) it’s prettier and less messy 2) the digital markers are never dry 3) it encourages more edits and changes I basically start all my technical designs in excalidraw now

Digital whiteboarding tools are close, but I think they miss some of the magic of working in a shared space with an analog too.

I can make more complex drawings in excalidraw than I could on a really drawing surface. I suspect that leads to simpler drawings and thus simpler designs.

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

#226

Post by reaperducer »

sixtyj wrote: post #70
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'm sure it's very personal :) Because everyone has their own reality, workflow and reading a piece either resonates or dissonates with you (personally). I personally find paper&pen both comforting and unsettling at the same time. Soothing because writing really helps sort out thoughts etc. Mindflow is different from flow "on the computer/phone/tablet". On the other hand, it's distracting because without an index sys…

On the other hand, it's distracting because without an index system (I start each notebook with two blank pages trying to index the contents; every other page has a number) it's easy to get lost.

I use a smart pen that writes in a notebook, but also stores everything I write in memory. Every month or so I export the content of the pen to my computer via Bluetooth as OCRed PDFs. This is because my boss often asks me to account for time I spend doing different things, and I can quickly search the PDFs.

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

#227

Post by reaperducer »

brettgriffin wrote: post #218
tomjakubowski wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> significantly slower without an IDE, compiler or debugger … In fact, I don't think you would be a professional programmer if you didn't have them. This is a strange take. Programmers were around before any of those tools were. And today, even many professional programmers do their work without using any of them: they use text editors, they write interpreted languages, and they use printf()-debugging or other techni…

They are examples, the exactness is not what is important here. Choosing something that is not connected to electricity, an OS, or the internet to be a software developer's _most important_ tool is, in fact, the strange position here.

Choosing something that is not connected to electricity, an OS, or the internet to be a software developer's _most important_ tool is, in fact, the strange position here.

Like a human brain? I'd say that is the programmer's most important tool, and it is not connected to electricity, an OS, or the internet.

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

#228

Post by XorNot »

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'…

Reminds me of the sheer optimism which taking a picture of a whiteboard represents...I have not once, ever, needed or wanted to look back at one.

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

#229

Post by reaperducer »

coldblues wrote: post #55
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…

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?

Plenty of the research is online for you to answer your own question.

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

#230

Post by reaperducer »

Apocryphon wrote: post #114
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.

And yet, you’ll be hard-pressed to be given access to those during computer science exams, unlike a pen and notebook. (Maybe it’s different in modern college classes now but wasn’t for decades.)

And yet, you’ll be hard-pressed to be given access to those during computer science exams, unlike a pen and notebook.

(Maybe it’s different in modern college classes now but wasn’t for decades.)

/Old enough to have heard, "OK, now put away your slide rules…"

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