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I've used paper notebooks in the past (also for thinking), but I struggled with finding my notes again. With a digital system (even just plaintext files), you c

I've used paper notebooks in the past (also for thinking), but I struggled with finding my notes again. With a digital system (even just plaintext files), you can use search or grep or something, and find all relevant notes that contain your query. I used a few paper notebooks to write down my thoughts during my Master's, and it was always difficult to find where I wrote about a particular experiment, paper, or anything that wasn't write-only. I would figure out when I wrote about that and go through the dates, but it's nowhere as convenient as grepping by an author name. This made me switch to digital notes (in Obsidian) for my current job. How do you deal with this? I'd love to get back to paper notes again.

CPLX 5y ago
There’s a different experience of writing longhand that yields to a certain kind of brainstorming that I like quite a bit. I ended up buying a Remarkable 2 which is an e-paper writing tablet. Sort of an expensive impulse purchase, bought off an Instagram ad of all things. I love it and carry it with me all the time. The software is fine, not great but it works. The writing experience is excellent though, it’s as close to the UX of actually writing in a notebook as I can imagine and I definitely am happy with the purchase.
- thamer 5y ago
  A few people have said they use a Remarkable 2 tablet in this thread. I had seen it mentioned multiple times on HN and ended up getting one a few weeks ago, and I absolutely love it. The writing experience is great, especially for technical sketches which is the main type of writing I do with it. I wish it did a bit more like automatically OCR documents with indexing, but what it ships with is already more than I expected. I'd definitely recommend it.
  - maleldil 5y ago
    It is possible to convert handwritten notes to text[1], but it requires a paid subscription to Connect. I imagine you already knew that, so perhaps you meant something else? While we're at it, what pen did you get? If you got the black one, how useful is the eraser? These comments about it piqued my interest. [1] https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002661437-Convert-handwritten-notes-into-text https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us/articles/36000266143...
    - thamer 4y ago
      Sorry I'm only seeing this question 4 days later, so I hope you'll eventually see this answer. I did get the black pen, but I don't actually use the eraser that's at the back. Just based on the time it takes to flip the pen, it's not really worth it. Instead, I often leave my non-dominant hand by the side bar where I can quickly tap on the back arrow to erase the last stroke(s), or switch to the lasso eraser with one tap. In that mode, you can draw a shape around the area that you want to remove, and you do this using the more precise pen tip, not the wide eraser at the back. There's a dotted line that appear as you draw this shape, so you can see it in real time instead of wondering where exactly the eraser is being applied. I can see it being useful in a few cases, but it's far from essential and I'd be just as satisfied without it. As for the OCR mode, it would be better if it was done by default and kept in the document's metadata as searchable text. Instead, the feature you linked to is for a way to OCR the page and send it by email. If you were writing to someone or sharing notes you might want to do that, but this is not quite the same as having the software be able to search through your notes.
chrisweekly 5y ago
I still use my bullet journal (moleskine paper + graphgear pencil), and also use Obsidian (switched from Roam abt a year ago), and have a reMarkable 2 eink tablet -- which I _might_ try using as a digital replacement for the bullet journal. I'm sometimes bothered by the inefficiency / partial redundancy in my system's current iteration... OTOH the resiliency is great. My flavor of bullet journal makes it reasonably easy to find stuff thanks to numbered pages, a structure that includes dedicated pages separate from daily notes, and a comprehensive index.
- throwanem 5y ago
  > a reMarkable 2 eink tablet -- which I _might_ try using as a digital replacement for the bullet journal Be aware that the software on those is so limited as to make indexing of any kind entirely impossible.
  - mbreese 5y ago
    My view is that less software is better, when it comes to note taking. My frustration with the RM2 is that I really don’t see much of a benefit to taking “digital notes”, aside from the fact that I can have multiple “notebooks” with me at all times. All of the electronic features (OCR, searching, indexing), aren’t helpful enough to make the switch. But I do like the RM2, so long as you aren’t looking for much software help. I’m personally still a bit on the fence for my RM2, but leaning that direction. Having multiple logical notebooks to keep meeting separate is pretty handy.
    - throwanem 5y ago
      > My view is that less software is better, when it comes to note taking. Perhaps, but there is an inflection point. Without any support for indexing, the device is less functional for me than a paper notebook, despite the admittedly excellent writing experience it provides - not as good as paper, but I think as close as e-ink and a stylus can come. Are there searching and indexing features on the device? When I tried it out a few months ago, there were not, but perhaps I missed a firmware update.
hzhou321 5y ago
Only use one notebook at a time. Always write down a date first, on every page if your notes spans to another page. Write down your notes sequentially. Had a diagram in the middle of the page? Continue notes at next page unless you are annotating the diagram. It's much easier to find things when there is a single media in linear form. Having mixed notes is fine. Having a linear order is more important. I would write down my shopping list if I am think of that in the middle of figuring out an algorithm, draw a box around my shopping list, and continue with my algorithm notes.
- throwanem 5y ago
  Also, number all the pages except the last two, which don't need numbers because they're where you will keep an index by topic. Even across multiple volumes, that index will serve the same purpose for your notes as it does for a database, this after all being whence RDBMS designers borrowed the term: an index allows you to perform lookups in sublinear time.
  - maleldil 5y ago
    By indices, do you mean reverse indices like at the end of textbooks?
    - throwanem 5y ago
      My notebook indexes map from a topic to the numbers of pages with relevant content, in the conventional fashion. I don't know what a reverse index is in the sense you mean here, but I would like to find out. Would you mind giving a brief description? I tried some searches, but found no useful result.
      - maleldil 5y ago
        I think this might be a second language thing. My understanding of index would be the one you have at the beginning of the book, with the chapters and their page numbers. The reverse index appears at the end of the book and lists topics and the pages where they appear. For example, in the index you'd have chapters: 3. Data structures 25 [...] 7. Graphs 154 And in the reverse index: trees: 25, 154 But maybe those are just the table of contents and index?
lancesells 5y ago
I make an index of my notes at the back of the notebook but then do it again digitally. That way I have digital search for physical items. If my notes were purely text I could probably scan but I prefer navigating a physical book than a PDF or folder of files.
FastMonkey 5y ago
I've gone back and forth a bit between electronic and paper notes. For me, electronic just can't beat the physical location of paper. I know where in space a particular note is so it's easier for me to hone in on it. I sketch and do a lot of math and there's just no friction less way to do that in an app. I think I tend to remember concepts graphically too, so searching with text doesn't feel as natural. Of all the note taking apps I've used though, obsidian is easily the best. The graph they have for connecting notes together is just great. And, I like that their storage system is just plain text files, so long after obsidian is gone, I'll still be able to look at them if I need to.
Macha 5y ago
Personally I'm dyspraxic. This makes the actual physical act of writing more difficult than for most, especially if the content needs to be legible when I no longer remember it. And if I am taking care to write legibly, they're too slow for whatever I'm taking notes on. This means for me, physical notes are not the solution they clearly are for many others. I've made peace with that, though for many years my "folder of markdown" did leave me with a feeling of not doing it right when so many people raved about how physical notes improved their experience. I always found the practical difficulties outweighed the benefit of the forced mode switch for me. I guess my point is to not stress about it - while paper notes are the right tool for many people, the right tool for you might be digital notes. (I've also settled on obsidian these days, and the growth of obsidian and notion is also kind of vindicating for my folder of markdown approach when others were using Evernote/onenote)
VMtest 5y ago
So I have a habit of noting down HN links, in digital form of course, here are some you might find interesting 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30395238 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30395238 | My Notebook System (ratfactor.com) 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30344237 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30344237 | Notes apps are where ideas go to die, and that’s good (reproof.app) - https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/ https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30345959 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30345959 | the process of physically writing the notes, internalizing the information, and building new connections in your head is quite important 3. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30303211 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30303211 | Analog: A simple productivity system (ugmonk.com) - https://ugmonk.com/blogs/journal/analog-the-simplest-productivity-system https://ugmonk.com/blogs/journal/analog-the-simplest-product...

CPLX 5y ago

There’s a different experience of writing longhand that yields to a certain kind of brainstorming that I like quite a bit. I ended up buying a Remarkable 2 which is an e-paper writing tablet. Sort of an expensive impulse purchase, bought off an Instagram ad of all things. I love it and carry it with me all the time. The software is fine, not great but it works. The writing experience is excellent though, it’s as close to the UX of actually writing in a notebook as I can imagine and I definitely am happy with the purchase.

thamer 5y ago
A few people have said they use a Remarkable 2 tablet in this thread. I had seen it mentioned multiple times on HN and ended up getting one a few weeks ago, and I absolutely love it. The writing experience is great, especially for technical sketches which is the main type of writing I do with it. I wish it did a bit more like automatically OCR documents with indexing, but what it ships with is already more than I expected. I'd definitely recommend it.
- maleldil 5y ago
  It is possible to convert handwritten notes to text[1], but it requires a paid subscription to Connect. I imagine you already knew that, so perhaps you meant something else? While we're at it, what pen did you get? If you got the black one, how useful is the eraser? These comments about it piqued my interest. [1] https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002661437-Convert-handwritten-notes-into-text https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us/articles/36000266143...
  - thamer 4y ago
    Sorry I'm only seeing this question 4 days later, so I hope you'll eventually see this answer. I did get the black pen, but I don't actually use the eraser that's at the back. Just based on the time it takes to flip the pen, it's not really worth it. Instead, I often leave my non-dominant hand by the side bar where I can quickly tap on the back arrow to erase the last stroke(s), or switch to the lasso eraser with one tap. In that mode, you can draw a shape around the area that you want to remove, and you do this using the more precise pen tip, not the wide eraser at the back. There's a dotted line that appear as you draw this shape, so you can see it in real time instead of wondering where exactly the eraser is being applied. I can see it being useful in a few cases, but it's far from essential and I'd be just as satisfied without it. As for the OCR mode, it would be better if it was done by default and kept in the document's metadata as searchable text. Instead, the feature you linked to is for a way to OCR the page and send it by email. If you were writing to someone or sharing notes you might want to do that, but this is not quite the same as having the software be able to search through your notes.

chrisweekly 5y ago

I still use my bullet journal (moleskine paper + graphgear pencil), and also use Obsidian (switched from Roam abt a year ago), and have a reMarkable 2 eink tablet -- which I _might_ try using as a digital replacement for the bullet journal. I'm sometimes bothered by the inefficiency / partial redundancy in my system's current iteration... OTOH the resiliency is great. My flavor of bullet journal makes it reasonably easy to find stuff thanks to numbered pages, a structure that includes dedicated pages separate from daily notes, and a comprehensive index.

throwanem 5y ago
> a reMarkable 2 eink tablet -- which I _might_ try using as a digital replacement for the bullet journal Be aware that the software on those is so limited as to make indexing of any kind entirely impossible.
- mbreese 5y ago
  My view is that less software is better, when it comes to note taking. My frustration with the RM2 is that I really don’t see much of a benefit to taking “digital notes”, aside from the fact that I can have multiple “notebooks” with me at all times. All of the electronic features (OCR, searching, indexing), aren’t helpful enough to make the switch. But I do like the RM2, so long as you aren’t looking for much software help. I’m personally still a bit on the fence for my RM2, but leaning that direction. Having multiple logical notebooks to keep meeting separate is pretty handy.
  - throwanem 5y ago
    > My view is that less software is better, when it comes to note taking. Perhaps, but there is an inflection point. Without any support for indexing, the device is less functional for me than a paper notebook, despite the admittedly excellent writing experience it provides - not as good as paper, but I think as close as e-ink and a stylus can come. Are there searching and indexing features on the device? When I tried it out a few months ago, there were not, but perhaps I missed a firmware update.

hzhou321 5y ago

Only use one notebook at a time. Always write down a date first, on every page if your notes spans to another page. Write down your notes sequentially. Had a diagram in the middle of the page? Continue notes at next page unless you are annotating the diagram. It's much easier to find things when there is a single media in linear form. Having mixed notes is fine. Having a linear order is more important. I would write down my shopping list if I am think of that in the middle of figuring out an algorithm, draw a box around my shopping list, and continue with my algorithm notes.

throwanem 5y ago
Also, number all the pages except the last two, which don't need numbers because they're where you will keep an index by topic. Even across multiple volumes, that index will serve the same purpose for your notes as it does for a database, this after all being whence RDBMS designers borrowed the term: an index allows you to perform lookups in sublinear time.
- maleldil 5y ago
  By indices, do you mean reverse indices like at the end of textbooks?
  - throwanem 5y ago
    My notebook indexes map from a topic to the numbers of pages with relevant content, in the conventional fashion. I don't know what a reverse index is in the sense you mean here, but I would like to find out. Would you mind giving a brief description? I tried some searches, but found no useful result.
    - maleldil 5y ago
      I think this might be a second language thing. My understanding of index would be the one you have at the beginning of the book, with the chapters and their page numbers. The reverse index appears at the end of the book and lists topics and the pages where they appear. For example, in the index you'd have chapters: 3. Data structures 25 [...] 7. Graphs 154 And in the reverse index: trees: 25, 154 But maybe those are just the table of contents and index?

lancesells 5y ago

I make an index of my notes at the back of the notebook but then do it again digitally. That way I have digital search for physical items. If my notes were purely text I could probably scan but I prefer navigating a physical book than a PDF or folder of files.

FastMonkey 5y ago

I've gone back and forth a bit between electronic and paper notes. For me, electronic just can't beat the physical location of paper. I know where in space a particular note is so it's easier for me to hone in on it. I sketch and do a lot of math and there's just no friction less way to do that in an app. I think I tend to remember concepts graphically too, so searching with text doesn't feel as natural. Of all the note taking apps I've used though, obsidian is easily the best. The graph they have for connecting notes together is just great. And, I like that their storage system is just plain text files, so long after obsidian is gone, I'll still be able to look at them if I need to.

Macha 5y ago

Personally I'm dyspraxic. This makes the actual physical act of writing more difficult than for most, especially if the content needs to be legible when I no longer remember it. And if I am taking care to write legibly, they're too slow for whatever I'm taking notes on. This means for me, physical notes are not the solution they clearly are for many others. I've made peace with that, though for many years my "folder of markdown" did leave me with a feeling of not doing it right when so many people raved about how physical notes improved their experience. I always found the practical difficulties outweighed the benefit of the forced mode switch for me. I guess my point is to not stress about it - while paper notes are the right tool for many people, the right tool for you might be digital notes. (I've also settled on obsidian these days, and the growth of obsidian and notion is also kind of vindicating for my folder of markdown approach when others were using Evernote/onenote)

VMtest 5y ago

So I have a habit of noting down HN links, in digital form of course, here are some you might find interesting 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30395238 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30395238 | My Notebook System (ratfactor.com) 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30344237 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30344237 | Notes apps are where ideas go to die, and that’s good (reproof.app) - https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/ https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30345959 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30345959 | the process of physically writing the notes, internalizing the information, and building new connections in your head is quite important 3. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30303211 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30303211 | Analog: A simple productivity system (ugmonk.com) - https://ugmonk.com/blogs/journal/analog-the-simplest-productivity-system https://ugmonk.com/blogs/journal/analog-the-simplest-product...