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Using an engineering notebook
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Re: Using an engineering notebook
#92I've done this continually—initially writing in spiral notebooks—since I started writing computer games 40 years ago.
When at Apple, where it is probably widely known that there is an internal bug-tracking system called "Radar", a co-worker called my notebook style "John-dar" since I kept copious one-line to-do lists of issues still to resolve, tasks to tackle, etc. When all the circles next to each entry were filled in we could send the code to QA for integration testing.
To this day I keep a Field Notes book in my (largish) wallet to take notes as I think of things on the go. (Long, boring drives seem to be the best times when these ideas come.) I am in the habit of scanning the Field Notes digitally as they fill up and are replaced. (I only lost one when I lost my whole wallet on a 7-day Katy Trail bike ride. Still stings—why no one contacted me about it since email and phone # were in the Field Notes book.)
Sometimes it is fun to pick through older ideas, see ideas that I actually tackled and completed, other ideas that I am reminded of that may someday see the light of day…
Re: Using an engineering notebook
#93I've done this continually—initially writing in spiral notebooks—since I started writing computer games 40 years ago. When at Apple, where it is probably widely known that there is an internal bug-tracking system called "Radar", a co-worker called my notebook style "John-dar" since I kept copious one-line to-do lists of issues still to resolve, tasks to tackle, etc. When all the circles next to each entry were filled…
Sounds like a great system! Would love to see photos if you have any!
Re: Using an engineering notebook
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm a scientist. In the science world, the traditional lab notebook contained a narrative of what you were doing. You're kind of thinking out loud into it. One measure of a good notebook is if it contains sufficient information that you don't have to repeat work only because you can't figure out what you did. There are other good reasons for repeating things of course. My spouse is a lab scientist, and I've seen her…
Anecdotally I've heard from my biochem circle of friends, that many institutions (at least in Germany) are still quite particular when it comes to lab notebooks. Especially ones that strongly monetize on patents, e.g. Frauenhofer. They usually also provide electronic lab notebooks which can either be used directly or into which you have to store copies of the original physical lab notebook. I suspect that this may be…
Or Germany is just very particular about rules.
Re: Using an engineering notebook
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anecdotally I've heard from my biochem circle of friends, that many institutions (at least in Germany) are still quite particular when it comes to lab notebooks. Especially ones that strongly monetize on patents, e.g. Frauenhofer. They usually also provide electronic lab notebooks which can either be used directly or into which you have to store copies of the original physical lab notebook. I suspect that this may be…
Or Germany is just very particular about rules.
As I understand it, Germany requires inventors to be paid royalties, so this may be a matter of ensuring that the actual inventors have been identified.
Re: Using an engineering notebook
#96I used to carry a physical notebook, but now I just Brain Dump to a (now giant and growing) Notepad++ Text file.
Especially powerful if that text file is a Markdown file. The sidebar TOC view then becomes a powerful navigation aid.
Re: Using an engineering notebook
#97I increasingly use the rubber-ducking I do with an llm as a sort of engineering notebook or complement to one - I wish they had better search features.
Re: Using an engineering notebook
#98Since when do even bloggers try to get Patreon subscribers?
Re: Using an engineering notebook
#99I was given this advice at university, but what I was always missing was what I was supposed to write down in them. The post here mentions hypotheses, but I don't do experiments for the most part. It mentions writing down in the notebook before writing code, but I can't test my notes, I can't really send my notes for code review. I guess you could use it for design, but you'd lose all the advantages of word processin…
I'm a software engineer, but I use it to write down hypotheses: the cause of a bug, how I'm guessing a system works, potential fixes for said bugs, what I think this piece of documentation means, etc
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Re: Using an engineering notebook
#100I was given this advice at university, but what I was always missing was what I was supposed to write down in them. The post here mentions hypotheses, but I don't do experiments for the most part. It mentions writing down in the notebook before writing code, but I can't test my notes, I can't really send my notes for code review. I guess you could use it for design, but you'd lose all the advantages of word processin…
What I write down is usually a quite literal dump of my brain. I have a problem, and rather than keeping it in my head, I write it down, and force myself to continue writing about the topic to force myself trying to find solutions, rather than be obsessed with the question. Example: "I need to solve problem A. Problem A can be formulated in this way. This way is similar to a project I did a few years ago, if I rememb…
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