Asklemmy

yep, still doing it

Here’s the biggest reason: we are evolved from savannah primates for whom the ability to make eye contact and hold it was a signal of “you can trust me, I’m not about to bite you.” Paper and pen don’t signal “I have decided to break this evolutionary/social contract” in the same way a phone or open laptop does.

I help mentor a lot of young people in early career and their generation with a phone is an excuse for an x-er/boomer interviewer to punt them waiting to happen. It’s career and comp limiting, right or no.

Also if one finds a taken note is missing something, contact the original party. A conversation that begins with: “you got me thinking about this more deeply and I think I may have missed something…” is the key to mentorship, advocacy, and growth.

In short from a transcoding of bits perspective, other media may be better. But for those they acknowledge human constraint and opportunity a nice notebook and (a cheap shill from me) a Lamy Safari medium nib fountain pen will do you quite well.

Typing is better than writing in a solid 75% of cases in my opinion. I agree that you tend to remember things that you physically wrote down better than things you type, but that can be mitigated against if you're in a situation where you need to remember things with strategies like spaced repetition.

In a lecture setting I would prefer to physically write things down, but you also have to be careful with this and only try and summarize because many people have the wrong strategy and try and transcribe slideshows or the lecturer's words verbatim, get halfway through a sentence, the lecturer moves on to the next page, you then have to try and remember the rest, probably get bits wrong, and by the time you've finished that then they're on to the next page and you're just not having a great time. If you get good at typing then you can keep up much better but that's still not the right thing to do in the lecture hall, unless your lecturer doesn't give out the notes or slideshows afterwards or record the lectures. then you're just kinda shit outta luck.

In just everyday settings, like writing a shopping list, keeping reminders? probably on my phone or laptop.

I don’t think I have touched a pen for much other than signing my name since Covid hit

95% digital. Work journal is in Tiddlywiki and that's basically it. Todo lists I do tend to do with pen & paper.

I like pen and paper but searching is always such a fucking hassle and my hand writing is garbo. If I know I don't need to actually find anything later then it's great (doodling and thinking about something). I guess I could do pen and paper and layer save into digital but meh.

I did take all my notes for university on pen and paper because I don't have a laptop with a touchscreen and pen. But I was never quite happy, since I would lose some notes or not find something specific that I knew I wrote down somewhere. This semester I tried using Obsidian and I and it has been great so far. I am now able to search my notes by text and I can back them up somewhere safe. When I'm not on my laptop I take quick notes on my phone but the important ones will then later be transferred to Obsidian.

I kinda meet in the middle and just digitally scan my handwritten notes. It makes for easier backups and still have all the benefits of writing paper notes

If you have to write equations and drawings, pen and paper is still better for me. I'll scan it to onenote afterwards.

generally no, but sometimes yes - mostly jotting down phone numbers, or if one of my many different passwords change until I can memorize it, (ie: at work), etc

other than that, the only time pen touches paper is when I write a check.

I do that for work, for instance when evaluating students and sharing my desktop, it is just more convenient and private to do it on a paper. Maybe also nostalgia plays a factor here, since even in uni not that long ago, I still used notebook and pen.

Most of my writing is in pen and paper, I eat through a 200 page composition book about every year. I also do writing on shared drives, like Google docs mostly, and I have grapheme notepad installed on ever electronic device that I own, and I use it fairly often. Something about handwriting makes it easier to get started, maybe its my art/drawing background. I also write in cursive, and people seem to think my handwriting is nice. Admittedly I have practiced letters since grade school, which is kind of unusual I think. Maybe not, I just don't have as many type/font/lettering conversations as I might like

When I need to learn something and think it over I use pen and paper. If it’s noting stuff down to read later or record somewhere, then it’s digital.

Yes

Writing on paper helps me to make sense of the chaos in my head.
I have a big notebook in which I write out a first draft of new projects in as neat a handwriting as I can manage. It takes time, but it helps me to order my thoughts into something more coherent. And while writing, my subconscious usually comes up with other points that I might have missed earlier.
I enjoy making my notebook look as nice as possible, using a ruler for lines and tables, adding little illustrations in the margins when idling, etc. I want it to be something I’ll keep after it’s full, because it’ll represent a big chunk of memories from my professional life.

Depends on the situation, but yes, I still keep notes with a mechanical pencil and an A5 spiral graphing paper notebook. I do use an electronic notebook (Joplin) for some things, especially if what I am working on will end up in a document or if I need to include screenshots, links, or other embedded items, but for general notes, paper. And, there are places I go that do not allow technology, so having the smaller notepad has come in very handy.

Important notes yes. I have like a billion notes on my computer. I don't want to grep that.

Haha no. I make all my notes in markdown, or if I have to write something Math fast like in university lectures, with xournal++.

If it has to be a proper document: LaTeX or real fancy Markdown.

I only sometimes do kanji writing practice (I'm learning japanese), and for that, I'm using paper. Xournal++ would work just as well through.

Hi Steve! How are you doing?... Good!...No last night was great! , yes I'm in the office...I need to pick up the stuff for the birthday party? Ok no problem, can you send me the address? ...oh you driving, okay let me write it down... Hold on, I will put you on the loudspeaker so I can open my notes application... please don't say anything embarrassing, I have like 10 co workers around me... Uh-um...

what do you mean "still"?

i never did. i have an ugly hand writing and writing a lot, hurts my fingers. not sure why - i guess i have weird hands.

i also suck at going back at looking at the notes - so i write stuff down, in obsidian. i can add photos, drawing, sketches, links, audio bites, videos etc.

Writing with a notepad is better for those who need to be freeform, want the ease of opening it up, and/or have privacy concerns (a phone of any security can be hacked, but a notepad can’t if you write in a code only you can understand, which can’t be done on a phone without an unlimited resource of special characters). As for reachability, it’s what you make of it.

No, but I'm using the reMarkable 2 instead as a designated digital notepad, so you would probably argue I still have to carry stuff around.

As to why - I can write fast than I type (in meetings etc.) without losing focus.

most of my notes i take digitally, but if i'm working on something i'll use pen and paper so i don't risk damaging my phone.

Depends. Usually I avoid relying too hard on my handwriting since it sucks ass, but sometimes I need to annotate schematics for 30 year old computers

I write with pen and paper because its faster for me and it's much more tactile.

Rarely. I usually have a laptop handy and I can type a lot faster than I can write. Even on my phone, I can swipe nearly as fast as a I can hand write. I occasionally hand write short notes, but mostly I use a pen to fill out receipts. And I love pens. :-)

Yeah, but it's more like when I just don't have my phone or I'm at my desk and have a pen and paper more handily available than digging it out of my pocket. Most of the time, I use the phone. Especially since I can have my note app remind me about the notes.