[kellishaver]

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]

+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.

[kellishaver]

I usually end up writing with a pen because I find the greater level of contrast easier to read; I have pretty bad eyesight. Lately I've been using fine-point Sharpie pens and they're great for readability.

I do a lot of pencil drawings, though (http://orng.us/ob8yao) and I do find something magical about the feel of pencil on paper, and even the smell of the graphite. I can lose myself for hours. But if I'm writing, I like a darker line, which means softer lead, which means more smudging.... bleh.

[Mystitat]

I've found that fine-point sharpies bleed through every kind of paper. What kind of paper do you use?

[kellishaver]

Just a Mead 5-subject spiral notebook. It's not super thin paper, but it's not really heavy, either. I've never had an issue of bleed through, but I don't write on the back side of the page, either.

A Pigma Micron might work well for you: http://www.sakuraofamerica.com/Pen-Archival

[mcantor]

Sharpie makes a pen specifically for writing with now; grandparent post is probably not referring to the gray permanent marker you're envisioning.

[eckyptang]

Nice work on the big cats :)

[kellishaver]

Thank you :)

[Terretta]

Beautiful articulation of what's wrong with the iPad.

[mbreese]

I think you mean, what the iPad isn't good for... if you try to use it as a notebook, you'll fail. It just isn't very good for that type of application.

I know some people that like to type notes (laptop or tablet), but most people I'm around still take notes with a regular pen and paper.

Then again, I'm a scientist and we are trained from the beginning to keep a good lab notebook. If it isn't in the notebook, it didn't happen!

[meej]

Which iPad note-taking apps have you tried? There are definitely a lot of terrible ones out there.

Notability, however, is absolutely fantastic. I've been using it with a Cosmonaut stylus since late May and I haven't used a paper notebook since. Rather than failure, it's exceeded all my expectations.

The only missing feature is handwriting recognition, and well, I wouldn't have that with paper, either.

[mej10]

I take pictures of my notes and post them on Evernote. It has surprisingly good handwriting recognition.

[meej]

I did try uploading my exported notes to Evernote, but it's handwriting recognition doesn't work on PDFs. I suppose I could try screenshots, though.