Asklemmy

Because writing it helps me remember. I'm never going to look at those notes again, because I'll remember, because the act of writing helps me remember.

I did! And then didn't use them. I finally had some Internet via WiFi so I downloaded a notes app and actually used them!

Speak for yourself.

Pros of pen and paper: always in my pocket, very fast to open up and read and write notes. Never runs out of battery. Readable even in brightest sunlight.

Cons of phone: must remember to take it with you or search your apartment to find where you place it and hope you have remembered to charge it during past couple of days. Additionally you have to unlock it and flick through the menus to find the note app. Additionally additionally you have to remember to take a charger where ever you go.

I have a phone with a stylus built in and it's great- but sometimes I don't want to stare at a screen.

If I'm Journaling I stick with pen and paper because I dont want the distraction. There is also something nice about the feedback of ink on a page.

If the note is important I'll put a sticky note on my desk and copy it to obsidian or take a photo of it.

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.

I hand write to-do list because I can remember , my phone is a distraction machine.

As a uni student I do both. I generally type notes during lectures and live meetings, and handwrite notes for prerecorded videos and other general study.

I still handwrite because my exams are going to be handwritten and I don't want to lose my ability to handwrite fast lol.

You can also doodle/draw diagrams when you handwrite. It's harder to do that on a phone/computer.

I still use pen and paper because it just feels better than handwriting on a screen.

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

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.

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.

Nah, tablet and stylus

Since I got a Remarkable 2 tablet I don't write on paper anymore. It's still handwriting so it's kind of the best of both worlds.

Pen and paper don't need batteries. I'm pretty sure I can whip out my notepad faster than you can unlock your phone and open the notes widget.

One thing paper helps me with is free-form thought externalizing.

When you limit yourself to text, markdown, or sometimes even a digital pen/drawing app, I feel like it requires a bit of effort to use which allows ideas to slip from my mind.

With a pen/pencil and paper, I can write, draw, and connect about as fast as I can think. I can crumble the page and refine the idea over and over until something I like is there.

Yep.

Yes, when i need to concentrate

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.

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

Scratch notes all the time. I know I should keep longhand notes of my professional interactions, as they can be priceless legal records, but I've never been any good at 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.

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.

No. Handwriting is slow and makes my hand sore. Keyboards are way more comfortable.

yep, still doing it

I use sticky notes at home, and write by hand in an actual notebook when hashing things out. I also take notes in a text editor, though.

I’ll one up ya!

I am a pen and paper guy…for initial notes.

If I deem a certain note or set of notes is worth keeping long term, then I recreate them in Joplin. All about the extra work.

I love fountain pens so much and journaling with them. Extremely therapeutic.

Hell yeah i do, i’ve been keeping a notebook for scheduling and journaling for the last 5 years and it helps my thought process so much.

The biggest thing for me, i dont control the apps, so if an update breaks my apps, i’d be out of luck, but that cant happen with a notebook. My notes will always been as i wrote them.

I’ve even gone through writing with gel pens, to fountain pens, and now i just use pencils cause it’s just better over all.

I could get philosophical about it too. I remember what i write, my mind paces itself better as i commit to paper vs typing on a keyboard or screen. We have that primordial need to scribble on something, and i get to indulge it when i write:

• coffee
• milk
• rice (big bag)

Everyone should try it, with a simple caveat: keep it cheap. Write in cheap books with cheap pens and paper, then buy better as the cheap shit starts to fail on you. Some paper is really bad for ink, some are bad for pencil, somehow there’s some that worse for both. Some pencils have terrible erasers, but dont dwell on those choices.

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.

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.