Ask HN: Do you use dedicated paper notebooks? For what purpose?

I can barely work and write code without a pen & notebook. It's like a natural extension of a thought process: I draw quick diagrams and take notes to see how ideas are connected, and only then I can start implementing these ideas in code.

I tried taking similar notes in a text file/org-mode, but it didn't work for me because it's not free-flowing and not expressive enough. Probably, an iPad or a tablet with a stylus pen would work just as well, but paper is still easier and cheaper. :)

My utility gained from note taking skyrocketed once I stopped buying fancy notebooks and obsess over pens and penmanship. Instead, scrawling almost illegible doodles on a cheap scratch pad seemed to help me retain information almost to the point of not needing the notes.

I use a paper notebook for rough notes. My use is for recording exploratory thinking while solving (coding) problems and early thoughts of tasks to do that I might refine and document in a digital tool such as Notion etc.

I could just as easily use a markdown file or similar for it, but I find writing quick and fairly effortless and I really enjoy using a nice combination of fountain pen and quality pad. It can also be nice to have something I can look at from time to time that isn't emitting light and causing eye strain.

I carry a small 'rite in the rain' notepad and a collapsable (Lamy Pico) pen in my back pocket at all times. The paper can get wet without problem which makes it durable enough to carry everywhere without worrying about the conditions when I need to add a thought. It is my most reliable thought storage mechanism.

It's taken me years to settle on this system as an optimal ADHD memory prosthetic.

The immediacy of putting pencil to graph paper is unparalleled. I simply lack the desk space currently ;)

I get inspired by Pac-Man designer Toru Iwatani's early sketches for the game. Every pixel block, every animation frame, was pre-visualized on paper before being input into the machine in 6502 Assembly Code!

Yes, I have a couple of notebooks. One for doodles and the other for journaling (the kind of stuff which oughtn't go on my blog).

But I have to say, I've received the new ReMarkable2 [1] about a week ago, and it's awesome and might replace my doodling notebook - I mostly draw with just black ink anyway. I made this quirky Xmas "card" [2] with it.

(It won't replace the paper journal for writing, though.)

1. https://remarkable.com/

2. https://juanuys.com/assets/posts/2020-12-19-twenty-twenty/Xm...

Yep. I use a dedicated paper notebook for journaling. Once or twice a month I spend like 30 minutes or an hour writing down what’s been going on, what’s on my mind, what I’m working towards. Usually I do this while watching some low effort tv show.

I use compositions books. They are mostly used for strengthening my short term memory. At work I take a lot of electrical readings. Some of my coworkers are able to rattle off a bunch of readings right after taking them but I prefer to write it down as well as system state. Has saved a lot of time for everyone in y department when trouble shooting extends over a few days. For coding, sometimes I have an idea in the middle of something else do a few lines of pseudo code or sketches to help remember the idea fully later. And in my workshop take down measurements and do calculations. If I measure the width of a board and then try to figure out the half way point, I can refer back right away. Also has saved some times on gifts when I’ve made one and then my wife wants another for someone else as a gift. The other notebooks I like are the Dot journal ones, help keep everything lined up but closer to blank paper. I try to go cheap though because otherwise I stress if I’m putting the right thing in the notebook and wasting space etc.

Nope.

My notepad environment is chaotic and temporary. Some notebooks from workplaces, some I've picked up at department stores. Some full, some empty. None ever get refered back to, I have neither the time nor inclination. If an idea doesn't bare fruit quickly, its next step in becoming a bigger thing, then it deserves to die.

I grew up in the 90's so my brain only learns things if I write them down on paper for some period of time. I'm still glad I failed "cursive" writing in elementary school - talk about a skill I have never and will never use.

Since others are talking about what notebooks they use I will too. I second the observation that caring too much about a special kind of notebook or how you use it is a waste of time. I just use blank printer paper and a felt tip architectural pen - I scan notes that I think are relevant and organize them in with a tool I wrote. (parents were architects so I'm forever addicted to this kind of pen - fuck ballpoint anything other than Pilot G2's).

I prefer bond papers because i get forced to get rid of them by summarizing all of those notes ive written instead of leaving them in a notebook like my browser bookmarks that we all know we do not check

I take minutes of every meeting I attend, including one-on-ones with my supervisor and phone calls with external collaborators. It helps me concentrate during the meeting (using a laptop would be counterproductive for that) and gives me a record that is more trustworthy than my brain.

Aside from that, I always have a scratch pad and plenty of post-it notes lying at hand. The former for any quick-and-dirty doodling, the latter for my to-dos.

Always a Moleskine in my bag, carries my to-do list, but mainly to note down ideas and the-strange-things-people-say-in-the-pub. Each lasts 4-5 years.

I use graphing paper in a plastic folder that accepts 3-hole paper. I use index cards as notes for experimental recipes, processes, etc. I can store those in the pockets of the folder. Then information or recipes that I find useful, I will transcribe into the notebook. I have divider tabs in the notebook to separate my hobbies (wine making, canning, mushroom culturing, etc).