Keep a programming journal

Keep a programming journal(gist.github.com)

171 points by feyyaz 13 years ago | 101 comments

babarock 13 years ago |

As long as we're on this subject, I'd like to strongly encourage programmers to adopt a "pen-and-paper" approach to problem solving. Just like mentionned in the article, there are great benefits coming from actually writing down the problem.

For the past year or so, every time I worked on a non-trivial problem, I did it on a sheet of paper. It definitely took discipline at first but now I couldn't do it any other way.

My motivation for adopting this approach came from reading a blog post by Guido Van Rossum (http://neopythonic.blogspot.fr/2011/07/before-python.html).

  Then I went to university in Amsterdam to study mathematics and they had a computer that was free for students to use!

 (Not unlimited though. We were allowed to use something like one second of CPU time per day. :-)

"One second of CPU time per day" got me thinking. Sure there are benefits to having modernly cheap computers, but how did they do it before?

aero142 13 years ago | |

Speaking of pen and paper... When I was in college, Dijkstra had given a talk for the class a few years before his death, and my instructor passed out his notes. They were on a non-ruled piece of paper with perfectly drawn bullet points for each item. If he made a mistake, he would scratch the word out with a near perfect rectangle. The neatness and clarity was striking. I think it was the only handout in my entire time at the university that was hand written and photocopied instead of typed up on a computer... and it was from one of the most famous computer scientists.

donut 13 years ago | | |

Dijkstra's notes are available here:

http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/

They are hand written as you said.

_pius 13 years ago | |

Agreed. Also relevant to this topic is Rich Hickey's talk on "Hammock Driven Development": http://blip.tv/clojure/hammock-driven-development-4475586

kellishaver 13 years ago | |

After switching to a Model M keyboard a few years ago (one that I found in a shed covered in 10yrs of dirt and grease that still worked like new once it was cleaned up), I switched to writing conference call notes on a Mead notebook instead of typing them, because the keyboard was so loud.

After a few weeks of this, my handwriting got back to a decent quality and efficiency and now I find that I take notes on paper for all sorts of things. It's great for working through problems.

I tried a whiteboard for a while and it just didn't do it for me. I think there's something about the tactile experience of holding a notebook in my hand and scrawling on it with a pen; the movement, the sound, the texture of pen on paper, not to mention being able to keep and flip through previous work and go back and make notes in the margins that makes it far better than trying to work out problems on a computer or a whiteboard.

eckyptang 13 years ago | | |

+1 but I use a mechanical pencil as you can rub stuff out, it's immune to coffee spills and you can file your nails down on the knurling when you are thinking (Rotring 600 recommended).

I am sometimes ridiculed for such low technology though which I find rather strange. I think there are some serious cultural identity problems at the moment.

Terretta 13 years ago | | |

Beautiful articulation of what's wrong with the iPad.

RossM 13 years ago | |

I have a small (~A4) whiteboard for this reason. This method of writing pseudo-code to outline a solution is what caused me to learn Python as I found I was pretty much drafting Python code. I've found I produce much more efficient (and less buggy) solutions when I've stopped to think about them bit-by-bit.

notJim 13 years ago | |

> "One second of CPU time per day" got me thinking. Sure there are benefits to having modernly cheap computers, but how did they do it before?

By this argument, do you also pay your bills manually by check at the end of each month? And book all your air travel by calling a travel agent?

There's nothing wrong with trying these things to see what advantage they have, but advocating the old ways of doing things purely because they're old seems more like religion than science to me.

richardjordan 13 years ago | | |

I don't think you can extend his/her argument like that in a valid sense. I don't think he was advocating for a luddite position.

The appropriate question is whether or not the move to computers has improved things. Not every step forward technology-wise is an improvement. Some things need to be walked back.

For example, as a Physicist by training, most of the math I had to do was far more easily worked out by hand than fiddling around with a computer to do it.

When you're thinking through a problem pencil and paper are often a better medium than computers. Conversely where once I would have drafted letters and articles by hand, it's way faster nowadays to type into a word processor or tool like Evernote and keep coming back to improve something.

I still pay some bills by check as it fits the specific case better. But some online bill payment, or travel booking is better done online, as you correctly suggest.

...that being said, I wish I could call a travel agent and get it all booked nowadays, but they've been put out of business by book-it-yourself websites. Before these sites you may have been calling a travel agent but they were using a computer too so it's not so much the move to computation that's changed this last 10-20 years but disintermediation of the middle man. However those middle-men actually provided value that I'm only realizing now I'm older and would rather pay a little premium for the convenience of not wading through a gazillion different sites to get the right bookings and prices for a complex itinerary.

New way is always the best way seems more like religion than science to me.

stephengillie 13 years ago | |

I strongly encourage the "write it down" method of problem solving, aka the Feynman Algorithm. Making a text record is often a good idea, for remembering information as well as solving problems.

I disagree with using paper and a pen. Why spend time drawing these letters out when we can just type them? Is it just a strategy to force yourself to slow down and think about what you're writing? There's nothing magical about manually drawing letters.

FuzzyDunlop 13 years ago | | |

I can write things down and circle important bits as I go, or branch off particular points with other ideas; I can doodle little diagrams and annotate them; I can write annotated pseudo-code and little theories and ideas, and refer back to them on different pages, and so on...

If I type, all I can do with minimal effort is type. If I want to draw diagrams, or annotations, or brainstorm, I have to change to a different application, and use separate tools for each task, or otherwise spend more time formatting my document than getting my thoughts written down.

If I write, then I need nothing more than a pen and some paper and I can do anything, and I can do it fast without having to find the correct type of document to create, or the right place to save it.

Most importantly, I don't need a computer to do it, and it gets me away from my screen. And even if I never refer to the notes again, the satisfaction of doing it at all is invaluable.

billswift 13 years ago | | |

I have fine motor control issues; I can write just about as fast as I can type. Using a lot of symbols, for example when writing math, I can write much faster than I can type.

And I get an automatic, permanent record that I can review anywhere or when without having to print it out.

asynchronous13 13 years ago |

My background is in Electrical Engineering, and we were always taught to keep a work journal with specific features so it would be a legal document. I just figured they were trying to sell us the more expensive notebooks. That is, until some colleagues were called to court to testify in a patent challenge about the contents of their journals (regarding work from 10 years prior). I take my journal a lot more seriously now.

If the notebook is bound (can't add or remove pages), with pre-numbered pages (proves no pages added or removed), and entries are dated, it's pretty much automatically admissible in court. Loose or missing pages, hand written page numbers, missing dates -- won't necessarily make it inadmissible, but it leaves room for the work to be challenged by the opposing team.

gmrple 13 years ago | |

They taught me to have it signed, by myself and someone else every day.

autotravis 13 years ago | |

"If the notebook is bound (can't add or remove pages), with pre-numbered pages (proves no pages added or removed)..."

Does anyone know of a good place to get an inexpensive (and leatherless) one of these? I would say any notebook would work, but I haven't ran on to many with numbered pages.

getriver 13 years ago | | |

Sadly I've never run into a notebook with pre-numbered pages. I did buy the Think/Create/Record for less than 4 bucks. Numbering them isn't as time consuming as you'd think them to be. Someone mentioned composition books, they're leatherless and inexpensive.

brainid 13 years ago | | |

The National Brand Computation Notebook is popular. $12 from Amazon.

I have used them for years.

edu 13 years ago | | |

I got one of those from a friend doing research at University , her department always has a good stock of them.

getriver 13 years ago |

OP here. This is a pleasant surprise, I woke up this morning and saw the title and for a split second thought someone wrote the exact same post as me!

Reading the comments on here and reddit, it seems to me there are two different motivations: getting thoughts on paper vs. having a trail for future reference. Pen and paper is great for the former, which is my primary motivation.

I highly recommend you try the paper approach at least for a week to see if it helps you. Its is a hassle switching gears from keyboard to pencil, but it helps a lot. I did try various programs, but it never felt personal enough for me. Maybe its just me.

agentultra 13 years ago |

Do this for every hobby you have as well, whether carpentry, learning Mandarin, or reading.

Keeping a record of your thoughts is so useful in establishing how you arrived at your current opinions. It helps you to make the mirror on yourself much clearer. I find it immensely useful to look at how I've approached problems and discover new insights from the patterns I can glean in my journals.

Plus it leaves behind a record of yourself in meat-space. Depending on the nature of the up-coming apocalypse this might come in handy.

tylerneylon 13 years ago |

Paper and pen(cil) notes are the ultimate in low-overhead for a temporary close-to-mind data store.

I would disagree about the author's advice to use page numbers and table of contents, though; these add overhead, and for me the main advantage is ease-of-use, including close to zero extra work when writing something down. (Dates are useful, I admit.)

I keep a paper coding notebook of anything I might possibly refer back to ever -- things like basic how-to's on using new technologies, or diagrams of how I'm structuring my code.

I also use a simple open source work journal (nicknamed wj) that helps me make sure I'm on track in the scope of days and weeks. My plan is to end up with one or two sheets of paper that summarize what I did throughout a year - this is a great personal motivator to make sure I'm doing work that a future-me will be happy with. http://tylerneylon.com/a/wj/

billswift 13 years ago | |

Page numbers and table of contents are very important for finding the info again. Also, they don't have to, and shouldn't, interfere with note-making. I number the pages before I start using a new notebook, and add things to the ToC at the end of the day when I do a quick review, when I also make out tomorrow's to-do list.

tylerneylon 13 years ago | | |

Numbering pages ahead of time sounds like a good way to avoid time-of-writing overhead.

I write down a LOT of my thoughts as I work - most of it I never refer back to again after that day. I like to use book darts (maybe two or three per notebook) to mark things I do refer back to more often. http://www.bookdarts.com/

pingswept 13 years ago |

I've been keeping a project journal in a series of notebooks for a few years. As I've filled more and more notebooks, I miss the searchability of computerized journals. For a while, kept a text file open all the time and tried using it as a journal, but that's lousy for any kind of sketching.

My most recent attempt has been a pile of Markdown files in a Github repository. I edit them directly in Github's editor and they are automatically rendered by Github, so I get nice syntax highlighting and working links. It has the added advantage that I can send people links to whatever I'm struggling with, like "Here's the error message I'm getting: <link>."

Here's my log: https://github.com/pingswept/dev-log (Obviously, this only works because most of what I do these days is open source, but it could work just as well on an intranet.)

I've been creating a new file for each day's log, but I think that might not be quite the right approach. It makes searching a little more difficult (though still much easier than notebooks), but makes editing easier because I don't have to scroll to the bottom of a huge file to start typing.

If anyone has suggestions of better ways to do this, I'm definitely interested.

(Hmmm. Maybe there's a keyboard shortcut for skip-to-bottom-of-file in the Github editor. Edit: hey, there is! Command-down-arrow.)

roedog 13 years ago |

I've kept an engineering notebook for years. It was something I was told to do in college. It seem that the act of writing down the problem slows me down enough to focus my thoughts more on the task.

I've tried keeping notes on the computer and they are useful. But, I've never gotten the same level of focus from writing in an online journal. I wonder if the focus comes with practice. I type much faster than I write longhand, so perhaps I lose the trigger of slowing myself down.

follower 13 years ago |

If you're interested in a digital approach to this, take a look at Labradoc (http://www.labradoc.com/) a site I created to make it easier to keep project logs.

I primarily created it for myself (http://www.labradoc.com/i/follower) because getting into the habit of creating project logs had a huge positive impact for me.

Here's an example of a small project I worked on earlier this year: http://www.labradoc.com/i/follower/p/project-sms-text-scroll...

I consider it a form of a "commit log for your day"...

imperialWicket 13 years ago |

This is spot on.

I love the soft-leather grid notebooks from miquelrius (no affiliation whatsoever, but I always get comments about them): http://www.shopmiquelrius.com/servlet/the-553/Flexible-Noteb...

I always keep one of those handy, as well as a whiteboard. Together they serve as my rubber duck and todo list; no matter what apps, services, etc. I've tried, I always come back to pen/paper and marker/whiteboard - it just works.

JoeAltmaier 13 years ago |

A customer demanded I keep notebooks, dated an initialed on each page; I've never stopped. They wanted it because they are a patent mill (they have hundreds, file dozens annually). I do it because I can review what's done, whats left; keep todo lists up to date easily; keep lists on the right page, scribble notes on the left; find out when something started, when it finished.

Hard to draw diagrams in most todo-list apps; where do you jot phone #s, debugging constants, interview notes?

wonderzombie 13 years ago |

So does anybody have tips about how to take good/useful notes? I feel like my stuff, while organized by topic, ends up being disorganized and quite ad-hoc. I feel like I'm missing out on something since I don't have any real system or technique beyond "write down stuff like you're explaining it to your future self" or some such. Maybe it's enough just to be writing all that down.

officemonkey 13 years ago | |

Some people take notes to they better remember something. (I did that a lot in college. I would take notes to help me remember what I just heard.) For that kind of stuff, you just want to dump the data on paper.

There's other stuff that you'll write down because you're going to want to refer to it later. (For example, contact information, websites urls, things to put on a to-do list.) I came up with a simple set of margin icons ("@" for contact info, "w" for a www url, a checkbox for a to-do item, the date for an item for your calendar.

If you put them in the margin, then you can cross them off when you put them in your contact list, your calendar, or your to-do list.

You can extend this further with other margin icons. For instance, you can write "M" in the margin to identify meeting notes. or "Q" for a particularly good quote.

The key to note taking is to figure out how you would need the information later and improve the way you capture to support the way you consume.

getriver 13 years ago | |

Its a trial and error process. Write down as much you can without slowing down too much and then try to read back in couple weeks and see if it makes sense. The longer the gap in betweenm the better since your memory disintegrates and you're left with just the information on the paper.

wonderzombie 13 years ago | | |

Its a trial and error process.

I was afraid of that. :) But yes, I see your point. I suppose it's hard to do better than: think of what your future self would need to know, providing both context (to jog your memory when possible), rationale (because that is NOT always obvious), and technical detail (both because that stuff changes and because it's better not to re-derive your previous understanding from scratch whenever possible).

JamesLeonis 13 years ago |

I started doing this when my last job offered free spiral bound notebooks. For a couple of years I've kept an intermittent traditional journal, but I've found many were too cumbersome for my hands or my writing. The spiral bounds have the advantage of cleanly flattening out when open and going from one page to the next. The page size suited me for both long form writing as well as enough space to draw out visual diagrams. They also help when I start up the next day, as I know what I was thinking from the day before.

I kept written notebooks for several years now. These contain anything including scratch paper, programming logs, long form writing, and ideas. I use standard spiral bound notebooks that always go on sale this time of year for a buck. They are reasonably well made and stand up to the abuses that I throw at them. Right now I am carrying three of these with me along with my laptop. My current notebook has four website ideas, one story idea, one game idea, and nearly two dozen short essays.

At the top of the page, I generally give a title to what I'm doing. I have some common labels, like what the project is or the title of a short essay. Right now I don't have a way to organize it, so I'm usually flipping to find what I'm looking for. Sometimes I become distracted by reading about something else I wrote months before, and it would inspire a new essay or idea.

I'm currently trying out some ways to digitize my old journals so I can put my old notebooks in long term storage and not disturb them. If anybody has some suggestions, I'm open :)

lelandbatey 13 years ago |

I agree, though I would extend the call to more than just a programming journal.

All my life I've been told that keeping a journal would be a worthwhile and valuable experience. However, I could never stick with it for more than a few days or a week at max.

Cut to this summer, where I got my first "real" job, and made friends with a very cool guy[1]. At some point, he mentioned how he adapted the idea of journaling into his life. He had encountered the same issue I had, where he could never keep a journal for any amount of time. Instead, he bought a moleskine large notebook and began using it for notes of all kinds.

The genius is that while it is an organizational tool, it also acts as a "no-effort journal." He showed me all the things he had been working on and thinking about just by looking back at the previous pages of his notebook.

With his advice in mind, I have also started keeping a notebook just to write things down in. It's tremendously helpful for my own organization, and it gives me a clear view of all the things I've had on my mind.

In short, I recommend a notebook for everything in your life, not just programming (although a separate programming notebook may be worthwhile to you).

[1]http://adamryman.com

zrail 13 years ago |

I have a web app that I've been using for awhile for this kind of thing. Each note is a markdown document that's versioned in a database. I can create new notes via email (using the excellent Mailgun). There's also a pretty full-featured API which lets me do interesting things with notes.

My original goal for it was as a way to get ideas out of my head and onto "paper". It used to be that I would have an idea and then it would circle around my head for weeks while my subconscious tried to work out all the implications.

The thing I use almost every day, though, is the append API call, which just appends a timestamp and some arbitrary markdown to an existing note. I wrote a little script that appends to a particular note, and I run it automatically after consequential actions at work. I also use it to write journal entries about what I'm working on, both for work and side projects.

I've been meaning to get it fit for public consumption and set up somewhere but I haven't gotten around to it. If anyone wants to give it a test run, let me know. If there's a market I might just try to monitize it :)

follower 13 years ago | |

> My original goal for it was as a way to get ideas out of my head and onto "paper".

Yeah, I've found a project log as a good way to get an idea out of my head too--or out of the tabs in my browser :) until I'm ready to get back to it.

Sounds like your app has some similarities to my Labradoc site (http://labradoc.com/)--I haven't yet succeeded in being able to monitize it. :)

MojoJolo 13 years ago |

I also have a pen and notebook. I used it to write algorithms or some ERD that I'm currently doing. Nothing beats thinking with pen and paper.

sgt 13 years ago |

I do the same thing, but the extent of my "legend" is simply the following:

"->" (random points)

"o" (random points)

"[ ]" (thing I need to do)

"[/]" (thing I need to do, in progress)

"[?]" (I don't know what to do, might revisit)

"[-]" (Not going to do this one, maybe it became redundant)

This helps me a lot to line up my thoughts and know where I am. However, I really like the legend as described by OP, so I might change mine towards that approach.

kabdib 13 years ago |

I use various sizes of acid-free Strathmore Sketch books. Nice surface for drawing or sketching, and they're relatively cheap.

Different size notebooks for different size ideas. A friend of mine (who I stole this habit from) said he had a coffee-table-sized sketchbook at home that he'd never used, because he'd never had an idea that big. :-)

Johngibb 13 years ago |

I've been doing this as well. Does anyone have advice on pens?

This is what I'm currently using and I really like them: http://amzn.com/B0027AEKJ8 they come in a 4 pack of different thicknesses, and are only $12 at Staples. I'm sure there's better however!

arscan 13 years ago | |

I'm anxiously awaiting this pen to arrive:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/894128597/the-pen-projec...

Sure, its expensive for a pen. But I plan on carrying it around with me everywhere and I wanted a pen that I feel reflects my values and interests.

Glide 13 years ago | |

I got a fountain pen when I wanted to improve my own handwriting just to see what is so different about them. I bought a Lamy Al-Star pen, a converter, and a bottle of ink. I would never use an ordinary ballpoint pen if I can help it. Writing with a fountain pen seems so much easier than writing with other pens.

expralitemonk 13 years ago | | |

I have a Lamy Safari pen and love it. Light, durable, ink level indicator. My penmanship has improved quite a bit since using it.

Mystitat 13 years ago | |

Zebra Sarasa. $13.24 for a dozen. http://www.amazon.com/Zebra-Sarasa-Retractable-Rollerball-Bl...

sgt 13 years ago | | |

$13.24 for a pen. Seriously I want one, but I'd chain mine up to my desk, because people tend to grab any pen they see!

tjr 13 years ago | |

I have for several years used Papermate felt-tip pens, almost exclusively. I like the faux-fountain pen styling, and these pens require significantly less wrist pressure than ball-point pens I've used.

davidcuddeback 13 years ago | |

A lot of custom pens on Kickstarter use the Pilot Hi-Tec-C Gel cartridge. That pen seems to have a very loyal following. I've not tried it myself.

aheilbut 13 years ago | |

I really like the Pilot G-TEC-C4 - ultra fine (0.4mm) and don't smudge/bleed much

nlh 13 years ago |

So despite the great ideas and tales of pens & paper (and moleskin) here, I'd love to hear some thoughts on good digital solutions to the programming journal.

I use and am totally in love with Day One (iOS & OSX) for my personal journal:

http://dayoneapp.com

It could very easily be adapted into a programming journal (it supports images w/ each entry & monospace fonts, which are both great). Unfortunately, they don't yet support multiple journals, so that's out as an option for me on the programming side.

Any thoughts / suggestions on good apps that will fit the bill? I know about Evernote but would love something a bit more "journal-specific" and perhaps better suited to this task...

gcr 13 years ago | |

Bend org-mode to your will!

http://orgmode.org/

I have a org-mode "capture" keybinding set up so I can just hit a key while programming and a small popup buffer asks me for some notes on what I'm thinking about. It can then add it to tomorrow's TODO list or perhaps a journal file/folder of my choosing.

Best part: because it works with Emacs, it doesn't break my flow. I can just capture thoughts while coding and immediately get straight back to coding.

mikle 13 years ago |

I think that dead paper is not the right medium for this. I love OneNote and how flexible it is. I can quickly open a note (faster then notepad on my machine) to jot down a todo or some snippet I need or I can open my project notebook and see all my "design meetings" (with myself) and it is searchable AND there is a way to encrypt sections. I've put my OneNote notebooks on dropbox and that's basically a perfect system for me.

The two things this is weak in are sharing and not having a leather bound tactile notebook and pen to play with which I must admit looks pretty cool.

kstenerud 13 years ago |

All my notes (of which there aren't many) are kept in text files in a well known directory, along with all my code. I can grep for things I've solved or thought about in the past and get the information instantly. And since it's electronic, I can back it up, copy it, and access it from anywhere.

The only times I've found myself needing paper is when dealing with graphics programming, in which case it's simply for figuring out the best way to tell the computer how to do something. Once it's in code, I don't need the paper anymore; I can just grep for it.

stcredzero 13 years ago |

At first, I thought that this was for developing productivity habits.

http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-se...

I used to like putting stickers on a calendar as a kid for this sort of thing, and I wanted to do that on the phone but found that most electronic calendars aren't so good for that. So I developed an app to let me do that. http://www.ooghamist.com/shinycal/

mmcnickle 13 years ago |

Yep, I have a bound notebook for each project I work on. It's great for seeing how and why you arrived at a certain point. A habit from keeping lab books at university.

I use a thin (0.5mm) mechanical pencil.

wzhack 13 years ago |

I actually use paper a lot. It is especially helpful when I am away from computer and I need to design a code flow, algorithm or just write down feature or todo list. Paper and pen rocks!

roqetman 13 years ago |

I've learned to keep a log of all the work I do (so I can search for information on request or if I want to recall something months or even years later), but I just use a specially formatted vim file (that has references to other scripts etc. if needed). More recently I've started a personal version of this to keep me on track with my own app projects. I love the look'n'feel of a physical journal, but it's just not practical in the long run for the work I do.

pnathan 13 years ago | |

I keep an org-mode file in emacs as a log of thoughts and actions. It's pretty useful, especially as as a retrospective.

aidenn0 13 years ago |

How does one develop the habit of keeping a journal? I've tried several times, but have never made it more than 3 weeks before I started to forget to do it.

getriver 13 years ago | |

* Write date in journal first thing in the morning when you wake up and keep the journal open next to you while working. This reduces the friction of starting.

* Look back at it at the end of the day and see what you've done that day. This is your reward for using it. Alternatively you could have your own reward.

* If you forget to do it today, restart tomorrow without any fuss. Don't worry too much about the lost day, like I used to.

In the beginning I was pretty excited about it and it was real easy, but after couple months it got a little old. Eventually I got around to the point where if I don't write in the journal while working I feel uneasy.

mcantor 13 years ago | |

The only solution is to never give up! If you make it 3 weeks before forgetting, then when you realize 6 weeks later, start again until you forget. Repeat ad infinitum.

ENOTTY 13 years ago |

This is a great idea that I've been practicing with not as much discipline as I would like. I've been slowly converging on an optimal (for me) paper size. I use the Pilot G-2 pen which writes well and feels good but is still cheap.

But I haven't been able to find a paper that is thick enough to allow for double sided writing. The composition pads tend to have really thin sheets that the ink shows through. Does anybody have suggestions?

southphillyman 13 years ago |

What kind of developer doesn't keep notes? 1 half of 1 wall in my bedroom is WHITE BOARD. The first thing that I'm greeted with when I wake up in the morning are problem sets and notes on my bedroom white board! I have note books from 2004 full of notes and pseudo code. I have EverNote and I have Notepad++. Note taking and diagramming/planning is SO essential in my opinion.

Reltair 13 years ago |

Does anyone happen to know if there are any leather bound notebooks with pre-numbered blank pages?

Moleskine notebooks look promising, except they aren't really leather and don't have pre-numbered pages. I guess I can number the pages myself, but it would be nice to already have it done.

getriver 13 years ago | |

The only numbered notebooks I've seen are daily planners. Moleskines are leather, though not sure about the quality.

Edit: Saw these in comments: http://www.leuchtturm1917.com/de/content/startseite

Reltair 13 years ago | | |

Those fit with exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

expralitemonk 13 years ago |

To improve your handwriting legibility, write in italics. (Cursive seems to be write-only.)

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/09/04/opinion/20090...

expralitemonk 13 years ago |

I use Clairfontaine "Life Unplugged" notebooks for brainstorming, todo lists, and problem solving. Yeah, they have a hipster vibe, but the notebooks I buy at the office supply store fall apart after two weeks in my pocket. These last awhile.

lenkite 13 years ago |

I use Google tasks and an android app. There isn't currently a great desktop app for Google tasks and I don't like the gmail web interface for tasks so I am building one in C# using AppBars. I guess I publish to HN when done :p

samspot 13 years ago |

I think this is probably fantastic advice, but I can't seem to let go of the searchability of electronic notes. It is also nice that I mostly do not need to worry about things like losing the notebook or filing old ones.

Feoh 13 years ago |

I wish the article had a bit more meat to it. Not that this is a sin but he's just parroting things said in about 1000 other places by 1000 other people. Pen and paper good. Check. Daily journal. Check.

keithpeter 13 years ago | |

The OP is keeping a journal, so he has developed a real practice that works for him. I agree that a few sentences describing what he puts in there would have made this article stronger.

The second image of the journal page seems to show a list of possible approaches to a problem. The fourth image looks as if it has performance data and evaluation of a working system, so that is a couple of ideas. I think it is quite a brave thing to post the actual images. Perhaps fortunate the OP does not record team dynamics in his journal.

I work as a teacher, and I use a cheap page a day diary to record a few key points from each lesson. The 'readymade' aspect of the page a day diary seems to reduce the 'threshold' for making notes.

getriver 13 years ago | | |

It usually goes:

* Write a todo. Ex: Log errors from Fb. * Ask a question if I'm stuck. Ex: Will Log4R block the reactor? * Play with various approaches. Ex: Write in thread, plug into Goliath's logger. * Note any bugs. Ex: Logger blah blah * Rinse and repeat.

I know its a silly example, but you get the idea. Hope that helps.

ky3 13 years ago | |

I outlined the journal must-haves if you're conducting a programming experiment:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4448853

xbryanx 13 years ago |

I love the idea of keeping a programming notebook, but I'm still waiting for the searchable pen and paper notebook. Until then, I'll stick with Notational Velocity.

_pius 13 years ago | |

Here ya go: http://blog.evernote.com/2012/08/24/the-new-evernote-smart-n...

azat_co 13 years ago |

You should definitely re-read it and if you a mac user there is dayOne app.