[nicbou]

I use paper. Digital notes are great if you need them to be available everywhere, or edit them time and time again, but paper is still significantly better for me.

I keep my recipes in Keep and on my personal website, because I often amend them. However I discovered that printed recipes are much more pleasant to use.

Likewise, I'd much rather have a dirty notebook to sketch and write on when I'm working in the garage, or anywhere that's not my desk

[ubermonkey]

For most things, paper works best for me for capture, and then the additional step of transcribing / summarizing into my corpus of org files gives me a chance to structure and review.

But I have a notebook and a (fountain!) pen on my desk all day long, right next to my keyboard and mouse.

[kemiller2002]

It's just my opinion, but nothing beats paper. I have tried keeping note files on my computer, and I've tried using tablets to jot things down (I have spent so much money trying to get this option to work). Paper just works better. I found that I like to scribble and underline, and draw. I'm just not an organized thinker. Forcing things to be in a list don't work for my thoughts and even drawing on an iPad etc. seems too constricting. The precision of paper just isn't there.

[DavideNL]

> I found that I like to scribble and underline, and draw

I use Goodnotes[1] on my iPad for my notes in which you can do all of that. Works great for me.

But i can understand that a digital solution is not always a better solution for every situation/lifestyle...

[1] https://www.goodnotes.com/

[laurex]

This seems to be supported by data https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/095679761452458...

I have been transitioning to Remarkable 2 to see if there's some benefit to uniting the concepts. So far, though, I seem to be taking fewer notes.

[nicbou]

I was close to pulling the trigger on one, since I also doodle a lot. Then I realised it would be yet another gadget that annoys me because it does annoying gadget things.

Paper doesn't require an account, or updates. It doesn't require repeating a task because it didn't get it. It doesn't have a community that tries to pick up where the manufacturer left off. It's also a hundredth of the price.

[coffeeling]

That effect is heavily driven by writing things down in your own words - writing by hand essentially forces you to do it, keyboard lets you get away with transcription, which doesn't help.

[olivertaylor]

Computers are for organizing; paper is for thinking.

[bayindirh]

Pen and paper is frowned upon by people but, they're indispensable for me too.

Allows you to concentrate better, the result is much more refined and as an added bonus, fountain pens are nice.

[aidos]

Sorry to be “that guy”, but I’ve switched to Remarkable recently and I love it. It’s for people like us who work best on paper.

[cjameskeller]

Just got mine a couple weeks back and it's great! The software could use some additional features, but thanks to the open platform, it is getting them from some dedicated users.

I've even seen a user run offline OCR on it, and we may soon be able to integrate with metadata to make those notes searchable. Credit to https://github.com/utopiah , post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RemarkableTablet/comments/jj5yt2/of...

[lukaszkups]

was about to say something similar, but using OneNote while working on Surface Book 2, taking handwritten notes with Surface Pen. Totally recommends it.

[ralphc]

I graduated college in 1984, so my note taking was entirely pen & paper. What's the norm in college nowadays? Is everyone banging away on laptops? That seems like it would be distracting to me. If it is laptops, what software do people use? Simple text editor, Word...?

[nicbou]

When I was in university a few years ago, laptops were very common, but most still used paper.

Yeah, it was distracting. I spent more time writing my own note-taking tool than I did listening in class. It went poorly.

[k_sze]

I can’t use pen and paper because I’m surrounded by nosy people who don’t know to respect my privacy. And if I put some kind of lock on a physical diary or something, they complain that I am hiding something.

[dredmorbius]

Privacy and integrity in your own thoughts and explorations is a valid concern and basic need. You have every right to say "this is mine and does not concern you".

Establish limits and set boundaries, if you have to. If that means a locked room, desk, trunk, or other means, then do that. Often the best way to establish boundaries is to assert them.

You situation sounds intrinsically toxic. I understand you're married with family --- if that's where the privacy issues are (rather than at work), you might want to consider family counseling. A lack of basic trust or respect is a bad sign.

Meantime, digital encrypted systems may be more appropriate, though personal notations and code can help with paper --- you're not the first person to have nosy neighbours.

[k_sze]

Why am I getting downvoted? Am I not raising a valid point about physical privacy? It’s not like I’m calling anybody here nosy.

[jraph]

Karl, could you avoid using a nickname on HN in an attempt to speak about us in bad ways behind our backs?

[k_sze]

Wait, what? You clearly don’t know me because my name is not Karl.

[jraph]

This is a joke, Robert. But now I know your name is not Karl!

[mrlala]

Kevin, I'm starting to get very confused by this thread.

[mssundaram]

HackerNews is weird :/

[amanaplanacanal]

Downvotes are pretty random sometimes.

[glenstein]

I'm sorry you are getting downvoted.

Reasonable or not, one difficulty I have with keeping any kind of journal is that I keep thinking of the fact that it may eventually be read and exposed to the cruelest, least charitable interpretation.

[mssundaram]

Well it won't solve for every case, but you could use the Hindu tantra - vasana daha tantra. You write down your worries, fears, anger - anything troubling you that you want to express - then you burn it.

[nottorp]

Nothing beats the flexibility of pen and paper for unstructured information.

Of course, for work we also use shared digital docs, but what goes in there has first been through my ugly scribbles on paper.

[stronglikedan]

> Nothing beats the flexibility of pen and paper for unstructured information.

How 'bout a pencil and paper?

[nottorp]

> How 'bout a pencil and paper?

I hereby salute your nitpicking :)

[dboreham]

Great until you lose the paper.

[inatreecrown2]

same for digital: great until you get hacked or loose your data some other funny-digital way ;-)

[dboreham]

Orders of magnitude less likely ime.

[npsimons]

git commit -am "Synchronizing." && git push

[chadlavi]

how do you find anything later? It's a simple capture method, but it doesn't work well for a use case like "oh I talked to that user one time, let me search for them in my notes"