5 ms·
I like to have a calculator on my desk as a kind of ‘burst capacity’ for when I’m busy keeping an important mental process running. It’s like having a dedicated
by cal85 3y ago
I like to have a calculator on my desk as a kind of ‘burst capacity’ for when I’m busy keeping an important mental process running. It’s like having a dedicated chip (with its own private chunk of RAM) optimised for simple arithmetic operations, when such a need arises mid-flow, always available to use without pausing to reallocate any memory elsewhere when everything is running at capacity trying to make some complex decision. And by ‘memory’ here, I mean the combined scratchpad made up of my brain’s thought loop and the windows arranged on my desktop. If I’m at capacity, just changing the focus of windows on the desktop (eg. to bring up a software calculator overlay) can break my train of thought, meaning the spinning plates start to wobble and fall down, and then I have to start over on the wider task, all because I got stuck on something silly like 14*2.5. With a pocket calculator on my desk, I can safely turn my head to it for a moment, do the sum with almost zero effort, and turn back to the monitor, and the plates are all still spinning.
- afarviral 3y agoI can relate to this. I have totally lost track of what I was about to do during the process of opening an application countless times. I shudder to think of the many lost ideas and sparks of genius.
- Ilikeruby 3y ago[flagged]
- cal85 3y agoYou mean that green hairy stuff on the ground outside? Why would you touch it? Disgusting
- natpalmer1776 3y agoNo no no, the hairy stuff is moss. I think he's talking about the tiny green knives protruding from the ground that seem to be used as a deterrent for would-be burglars.
- RugnirViking 3y ago? this doesnt seem particularly unusual or high-effort. It's a colorful description anyone who programs for a living can relate to? He describes using a notepad and a calculator...
- bmitc 3y agoIf anything, isn't a notepad and dedicated calculator pretty grounded, and not unlike touching grass, as far as technology, learning, work, etc. goes?
- brudgers 3y agoHardware is a useful abstraction.
- sbuttgereit 3y agoI do the same. Metal context switches on getting the computer to a "calculation" state can be more mentally taxing for me than just picking up the calculator and hitting "on" and doing the calculation. Also, sometimes I'm working through information/process flows when I need to do my calculations and often times I'll be at the whiteboard instead of at the computer. A handheld calculator comes in handy then too. I'm usually just doing simple accounting calculations, so no need for any fancy calculator... I use a cheap (and excellent) Casio fx-300es. I have used large format accounting calculators, too; the big buttons on those can sometimes be nice because I can be fast in my typing. But sometimes I do things that are a bit more than just simple accounting so the fx-300es hits the sweet spot for me. I will use calculator apps (Qalculate! mostly) if I'm getting my source values from the computer screen. In that case it's easier to compare what I'm typing in the calculator app with the on-screen source at a glance... so that's one scenario where the balance shifts and favors the app.
- eternityforest 3y agoI wish I had a dedicated digital note taking device with a keyboard for that purpose!