Posted by dwwoelfel 13 hours ago
There's also the pens that use cameras and special papers like livescribe (I think?) but I didn't love those either.
The best suggestion, thank you
It seemed preposterous to put notes in something I can't back up or "CTRL+F" search, but I've found that yes, sometimes I spend two minutes looking for a note, but when I do I generally never have to look up that information again... as opposed to things I'd search Obsidian for constantly that seemed to never get stored in my brain.
Then I got a series of Palm Pilot devices and left the paper behind. It worked pretty well for me and the grafitti handwriting system was ingenious. Aside from my contact list being duplicated a few times a year, I didn't really have any negative experiences.
Then smart phones hit and even though they can do everything any electronic organizer ever did for me, I've never been as happy with them.
I'm seriously considering buying a paper planner again. Shared calendars is the only thing blocking me.
I love Obsidian too, but for me it's just a place where I park notes for future reference. I don't actively use it.
(/s if not obvious!)
Neal, if you're reading this, will you ever visit Germany on a book signing tour?
Sorry, but no. I trust that "the Old Way is just Better in an invisible, unproven way" about as much as I trust any other "appeal to tradition".
I like Neal Stephenson's writing, but I wouldn't take this advice seriously.
If I am in a lecture and I am writing down everything I hear as fast as possible in one ear, on paper, out the other style I don't think writing is any different than typing the same way.
If I am in lecture and I am trying to stay deliberately between the lines of paper, then I have to take the info in, process it in a way where I analyze and summarize it, and then put it on paper neatly. I have to do that for brevity and to keep up with the lecture. Its not the act of just writing, its the analyzation that occurs before the words hit the paper. This can be achieved with typing as well if you deliberately style your notes.
I think sometimes we correlate this in too simple of terms to use pen = better, the pen forces the deliberate action of analysis easier than typing does.