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For research work I prefer LiquidText on a 12.9” iPad with an Apple pencil. It’s critical for me to make notes and annotations. It’s crazy how far pen computin

For research work I prefer LiquidText on a 12.9” iPad with an Apple pencil. It’s critical for me to make notes and annotations. It’s crazy how far pen computing has come. I was an early adopter of this as a college student back in the 2000’s. I had a Toshiba laptop which had a screen that would rotate around and fold on itself to become a tablet. It had a pen for writing and ran a special version of Windows designed for tablets. (https://the-gadgeteer.com/2006/04/27/toshiba_portege_m200/ https://the-gadgeteer.com/2006/04/27/toshiba_portege_m200/) There weren’t many good sources of PDFs so I made my own. I would take my textbooks to Kinkos where they had an industrial paper cutter that was able to slice off the binding, leaving me with a bunch of loose pages. I would use a double sided auto-feed scanner to scan all the pages into searchable PDFs. Sadly the technology wasn’t ready for prime time. The software wasn’t good enough, drawing was limited and not many apps took advantage of the pen. The hardware was heavy, bulky, and I always had to be around an outlet because the battery life was abysmal. An iPad + pencil is a truly remarkable experience compared to that previous setup.

dantondwa 5y ago
The only thing missing is full-fledged Zotero, or something as good!
BossingAround 5y ago
> It’s critical for me to make notes and annotations. What notes and annotations do you usually make? I can understand notes when you're at a lecture discussing a paper, but my experience is that the lecture rarely pertains to one specific paper. I don't really take a lot of notes, so I wonder if I'm doing something wrong.
- jackling 5y ago
  I don't take notes, but use a pen and paper as a scratch pad. If the paper has some math, I can sketch it out and try to break it down, allowing me to understand it better. Or if there's a weird concept, I can draw it out and visualize the issue. It's also useful when the information is really dense and there are certain things I need to go back and recall but don't want to search my short term memory for.
- wirthjason 5y ago
  It depends what you are reading and why. Check out “How to Read A Book” by Mortimer Adler. The book is quite old but still extremely relevant. (He’s one of the best philosophers/thinkers I’ve ever read BTW. I suggest “How To Think About The Great Ideas”, but that’s for another topic.) On the subject of note taking a professor once told me “don’t take notes, make notes”. Note taking is basically writing down what the author (lecturer) says. In college so many people would just blindly copy what the professor wrote on the board. That is note “taking”. Note “making” is adding you’re thoughts: what is the author saying (in my words) and do I agree with the ideas? What would other authors think, are there counter points, supporting examples, etc. Is this point elaborated elsewhere in the book? What terms, words, or concepts need more explanation? I found this blog (https://fs.blog/how-to-read-a-book/ https://fs.blog/how-to-read-a-book/) it has a good summary of Adler’s ideas. For example, on using the margins in a book: When you buy a book, you establish a property right in it, just as you do in clothes or furniture when you buy and pay for them. But the act of purchase is actually only the prelude to possession in the case of a book. Full ownership of a book only comes when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it— which comes to the same thing— is by writing in it. Why is marking a book indispensable to reading it? First, it keeps you awake— not merely conscious, but wide awake. Second, reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks. Third, writing your reactions down helps you to remember the thoughts of the author. Reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author. Presumably, he knows more about the subject than you do; if not, you probably should not be bothering with his book. But understanding is a two-way operation; the learner has to question himself and question the teacher. He even has to be willing to argue with the teacher, once he understands what the teacher is saying. Marking a book is literally an expression of your differences or your agreements with the author. It is the highest respect you can pay him.
  - throwaquestion5 5y ago
    Thanks for the thoughtful reply. That blog is indeed have good inspectional notes about Adler's book :-)
- rg111 5y ago
  I just write my opinions on the margin, or general thoughts, especially something new that can stem from there? I mostly write connections that I make while reading a paper.
dr_kiszonka 5y ago
Could you please tell me what generation is your 12.9” iPad? I am thinking about getting an older model for annotating papers, taking notes, and to use as a whiteboard during Zoom calls. I am trying to figure out what is the oldest model that would be appropriate for these tasks. Would the first gen be performant enough?
- wirthjason 5y ago
  I have a 2nd generation, which has the home button. (I got my wife the 1st generation when it was first introduced and it’s still functioning. The battery doesn’t charge well but it’s still good for surfing the web and playing games.) Apple changed the pencil. I wouldn’t get any iPad that wouldn’t support the new pencil, which I think is from the 3rd generation when the removed the home button and introduced rounded corners. The old pencil has a lightning connector and plugs into the iPad to charge. The new pencil magnetically attaches to the iPad and charges. Apple should release the next generation soon. (Maybe in a couple weeks.) Hopefully you can get a used one at a good rate when that happens.

dantondwa 5y ago

The only thing missing is full-fledged Zotero, or something as good!

BossingAround 5y ago

> It’s critical for me to make notes and annotations. What notes and annotations do you usually make? I can understand notes when you're at a lecture discussing a paper, but my experience is that the lecture rarely pertains to one specific paper. I don't really take a lot of notes, so I wonder if I'm doing something wrong.

jackling 5y ago
I don't take notes, but use a pen and paper as a scratch pad. If the paper has some math, I can sketch it out and try to break it down, allowing me to understand it better. Or if there's a weird concept, I can draw it out and visualize the issue. It's also useful when the information is really dense and there are certain things I need to go back and recall but don't want to search my short term memory for.
wirthjason 5y ago
It depends what you are reading and why. Check out “How to Read A Book” by Mortimer Adler. The book is quite old but still extremely relevant. (He’s one of the best philosophers/thinkers I’ve ever read BTW. I suggest “How To Think About The Great Ideas”, but that’s for another topic.) On the subject of note taking a professor once told me “don’t take notes, make notes”. Note taking is basically writing down what the author (lecturer) says. In college so many people would just blindly copy what the professor wrote on the board. That is note “taking”. Note “making” is adding you’re thoughts: what is the author saying (in my words) and do I agree with the ideas? What would other authors think, are there counter points, supporting examples, etc. Is this point elaborated elsewhere in the book? What terms, words, or concepts need more explanation? I found this blog (https://fs.blog/how-to-read-a-book/ https://fs.blog/how-to-read-a-book/) it has a good summary of Adler’s ideas. For example, on using the margins in a book: When you buy a book, you establish a property right in it, just as you do in clothes or furniture when you buy and pay for them. But the act of purchase is actually only the prelude to possession in the case of a book. Full ownership of a book only comes when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it— which comes to the same thing— is by writing in it. Why is marking a book indispensable to reading it? First, it keeps you awake— not merely conscious, but wide awake. Second, reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks. Third, writing your reactions down helps you to remember the thoughts of the author. Reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author. Presumably, he knows more about the subject than you do; if not, you probably should not be bothering with his book. But understanding is a two-way operation; the learner has to question himself and question the teacher. He even has to be willing to argue with the teacher, once he understands what the teacher is saying. Marking a book is literally an expression of your differences or your agreements with the author. It is the highest respect you can pay him.
- throwaquestion5 5y ago
  Thanks for the thoughtful reply. That blog is indeed have good inspectional notes about Adler's book :-)
rg111 5y ago
I just write my opinions on the margin, or general thoughts, especially something new that can stem from there? I mostly write connections that I make while reading a paper.

dr_kiszonka 5y ago

Could you please tell me what generation is your 12.9” iPad? I am thinking about getting an older model for annotating papers, taking notes, and to use as a whiteboard during Zoom calls. I am trying to figure out what is the oldest model that would be appropriate for these tasks. Would the first gen be performant enough?

wirthjason 5y ago
I have a 2nd generation, which has the home button. (I got my wife the 1st generation when it was first introduced and it’s still functioning. The battery doesn’t charge well but it’s still good for surfing the web and playing games.) Apple changed the pencil. I wouldn’t get any iPad that wouldn’t support the new pencil, which I think is from the 3rd generation when the removed the home button and introduced rounded corners. The old pencil has a lightning connector and plugs into the iPad to charge. The new pencil magnetically attaches to the iPad and charges. Apple should release the next generation soon. (Maybe in a couple weeks.) Hopefully you can get a used one at a good rate when that happens.