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.
Many studies showing it aids recall more effectively than typing or event writing on a tablet.
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
#92[flagged]
> Great blogpost to advertise yourself to potential employers that youre completely useless Is it really that difficult to imagine that what does not work for you might work for someone else?
Empathy is in short supply these days but especially on HN. Very strange to watch adult humans fail at basic theory of mind tests such as understanding that other people can have their own preferences
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#93Calling 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.
Over generations, we'll get to where the software tools are relatively more important, but as of right now, it is almost a certainty that the quality of the software you write benefits from writing less code and relatively more of it with a paper draft that is based on carefully reading sources and documentation, and not from any other kind of tools investment.
The new stuff is often fast and many jobs need it by way of keeping up with the standard practices and creating a hiring filter, but it's a supplement, not a foundational tool for thought. It can't be all that important because it's constantly shifting.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
The conclusion I draw from this is that some debuggers are so bad it's not delivering value over "print debugging". But perhaps it's a lack of knowing what a debugger can deliver. A debugger gives you the ability to immediately dive in and instantly inspect the complete stack trace, all the values on the stack, all the values of local variables, etc. Without restarting the program or calling out specifically what you…
A debugger will also allow you to step through library and framework code where you can't usually go and place print statements.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do not know what you work on, but debugging is indispensable for certain workloads. Print debugging doesn’t come close to setting up a breakpoint and inspecting every single variable in the stack with a good interface. You don’t even have to select what to print and where, anything can be printed anywhere in two clicks. A UI like the debuggers in Jetbrains IDEs provides smart rendering for all types so that for exa…
I dont know, sounds more like a design issue to me, if your app requires this amount of information to get debugged properly.
Really? Just try debugging a Dijkstra like algorithm and then talk about design issues.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#96Calling 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…
> Finally someone had the guts to say it.
? It's the (mostly anonymous) internet and not linkedin. People call these things out all the time?
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
First there's a work notebook and a personal one. both are semi structured, but work one has more structure. first page is always for index, split vertically and you get roughly 80 entries with about 3-4 words each. one for each page that i number as i go writing through the book. index usually has just pointers to days when i get interesting ideas. each right page is for 1 week that i label up top. a small margin is…
What do you do when you make a mistake? Do you use an eraser instead of backspace? That is my major problem with notebooks. I type much faster on a keyboard, I can read it even a month from now while I can't do that with my own handwriting, and when I make a mistake, I can quickly and easily correct it.
> What do you do when you make a mistake? Do you use an eraser instead of backspace?
I my books, I use Tipp-Ex for that. I usually write with a ballpoint pen.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
The conclusion I draw from this is that some debuggers are so bad it's not delivering value over "print debugging". But perhaps it's a lack of knowing what a debugger can deliver. A debugger gives you the ability to immediately dive in and instantly inspect the complete stack trace, all the values on the stack, all the values of local variables, etc. Without restarting the program or calling out specifically what you…
A debugger doesn't show you the evolution of your program over time. A few well placed prints give you that. I use my debugger often, but sometimes you need to track the value of something over time (say, over 1000 iterations) and a debugger can't show you that. So prints are still relevant. Debugger are more for "needle-in-haystack" stuff I think. A debugger that could record the execution over time (and query that…
> I know there are some
Do you mind providing examples? I’m not sure what I would search to find that and I’m interested in the idea.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#99Calling 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.
> “craftsmanship cosplay”
Nice slap down.
Aaaa. I’d like to see stats over the comments—if management role, job history, age, income, education—and I’d expect opinions would be revealed as archetypical. In other words, it says more about the speaker than it says about successful software development.
Clearly the OP is talking about what works for them mentally—focus, creativity.
It’s a mistake for anyone to read a post like this and think of it (and the criticism) as prescriptive. Emulating any of the patterns would have the same result of cargo cult behavior.
Re: As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook
#100I have tried both. Going fully digital and fully notebook oriented. The best I have come up with is to have long term notes in a note app but your on going current thought process in a book. Like what you are currently doing or it's process. This helps with the search and copy issue of going physical. But writing things for your ongoing process / tasks makes you remember things so much better. Sometimes, all I have t…
Sorry, that's not allowed.
You must choose one side or the other, and fully commit to it (like everyone else in this comment section). But it's too late now, since you've already tried both sides (fully digital and fully notebook) with an open mind, that means your opinion is automatically invalid and wrong.
Them's the rules.