Bullshit. After trying all kinds of "digital alternatives" for note-taking, I went back to pen-and-paper. As a tool, it's more flexible, balanced, and easy-to-use than alternatives. Plus, hand-creating a physical artifact allows one to utilize natural memory for manipulating physical objects (e.g. remembering the information I need is "on the bottom-half of a page roughly in X location, next to a diagram of Y").
Digital technologies are unbalanced tools optimized to favor a particular use case (e.g. fast entry of only text, bulk reproduction, fast transmission, etc.) at the expense of others (e.g. tool-weight, complexity, overstrict schemas, difficulty composing different types of things).
Sure. How does what YOU did invalidate a general observation, and even more so, make it "bullshit"?
The observation about what "the bulk of us" do might be factually correct or not (I'm pretty use it is).
But it's in no way invalidated just because you do something else...
Only absolute statements are invalidated by a single counter-example (or a handful of them).
There is no denying the flexibility of using a pen-and-paper and the cognitive benefits that comes along with it. However the convenience of using a keyboard on mobile and desktop for daily activities is still significant.
I personally feel using a digital tool like Workflowy, Obsidian.md, or Roam Research brings more creativity to my thinking.
Appreciate your thoughts.
On the other hands, I write many important notes, business ideas, drawings, or sketches in my paper notebook. I always remember which notebook I put the note about a thing.
Also, the paper notebook is great. No need batteries, no hang/lag, and no need internet.
I used to write a lot on paper but the convenience of using a digital tool makes sense to my workflow, personally and professionally.
When I write on paper, it is usually a huge brain dump. And it tends to get messy. However, I learned to be more organized when I used a tool like Notion. I know in which workspace I'm keeping my thoughts and in which workspace I do work. If ever I need to link a certain thought together, I can simply connect the docs using the linking feature.
It's difficult to do so on pen and paper. And I agree, paper notebook is great :)
Procreate is designed for illustrations and image editing — it's not optimized for note taking so I understand the frustration.
We're the same. I'm using paper less over time, too. And I intend to stay that way.
Appreciate your thoughts!
