[HN Gopher] I use cheap notebooks
___________________________________________________________________
I use cheap notebooks
Author : HermanMartinus
Score : 210 points
Date : 2023-03-10 08:38 UTC (14 hours ago)
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| feu-cosmique wrote:
| I use a spiral ringed 3x5 mini notebook for most stuff. If it
| needs an entire notebook page I use my phone.
| shidoshi wrote:
| Muji notepads (if you're close to a Muji) have the distinction of
| being both reasonably priced and nice to look at IMHO. They also
| have a lovely selection of writing instruments of all types.
| taylorius wrote:
| I've suffered from exactly this. Bought an expensive notebook,
| imagining that it would cause me to "really do this new thing
| properly" or some such fool thinking. Opposite is true, every
| time. Making a purchase can be the opposite of putting in effort,
| rather than an assistive force if one is not careful.
| egormakarov wrote:
| Nicely summarized in this Poorly Drawn Lines episode
| https://poorlydrawnlines.com/comic/nice-notebook/
| vladsanchez wrote:
| LOL, I'm the bird! LOL
| StrangeATractor wrote:
| I love legal pads instead of bound notebooks because you can tear
| off and rearrange pages so they can be with other relevant notes,
| also the top spiral makes it easy to put in my backpack.
|
| Do yourself a favor though, and time stamp each page down to the
| minute when you start writing (eg: 20230310T1029).
|
| You can:
|
| - Link between notes. Also enables you to specify the previous or
| next page in your notes which is useful if they get shuffled.
|
| - Save a stack of relevant notes by making a list of their links
| on a separate page before filing the notes away chronologically
| -- you can link to the list itself if you want to link to the
| group of notes.
|
| - Have a TODO list for a certain date? Link to it from your
| calendar.
|
| - You can save time by writing only the significant digits (eg:
| if the note page you're writing on and the page you're linking to
| share the same year and month, only write the day and time in the
| link).
|
| - You can add line numbers or paragraph numbers if the situation
| demands it, and append, say, "LN23," or "P5" to the timestamp to
| get specific.
|
| It's a simple system but enables a lot of complex patterns in
| your note taking system.
| theideaofcoffee wrote:
| This is reminiscent of the zettelkasten system with the links
| between notes and topics, though ZK takes it a bit further and
| does away with the chronological sorting files by topic.
| Indexes have links to individual topics and topics can link
| among themselves. It tickles that part of my brain that is
| unsatisfied with top-down/chronological notebooks and the like
| and replaces it with www-like hyperlinks.
| StrangeATractor wrote:
| I have to confess I was partly inspired by ZK to start doing
| this, but by doing it for transitory notes and putting it
| into my day-to-day habits I feel like I've gained super
| powers. It's less effort to use a timestamp as a UUID for
| everything and I don't have to think about how to organize
| them until natural patterns emerge which I can sort by with
| lists, or refine into a more focused note. I can also
| remember roughly when I was thinking of something, even years
| later, and zero in on the note based off of that if I can't
| find it through links or lists.
|
| ZK, to me, requires a lot more focus and energy. It's not
| very well suited for, say, taking notes while you're on the
| phone or in teleconference. They aren't mutually exclusive,
| they just have different uses (I also have a ZK).
| theideaofcoffee wrote:
| Use and adapt tools to work best for you! I may have to
| experiment with this system a bit, sounds like it may fill
| in some gaps here and there.
| chiefalchemist wrote:
| For quick notes at my desk or around the house (i.e., TODOs), I
| use the backside of opened mail envelopes (i.e., mostly junk
| mail). They are the ultimate in not having to worry about wasting
| paper, etc.
|
| They are fold for pocket friendly, magnet to fridge, etc.
| Obviously not for long form (e.g., meetings' notes) but great for
| random thoughts, etc.
| dragontamer wrote:
| I have begun to use cheaper-and-cheaper notebooks. I started with
| Leuchtturm1917 notebooks, and... they're still great (I still buy
| on occasion as my "primary notebook").
|
| But for cost-efficiency, I have other notebooks. Just composition
| books and wire-bound college notebooks for $1 or $2 at grocery
| stores and/or pharmacies. Just whatever cheap 70-page crap is
| around.
|
| ------
|
| My cheap notebooks get one augmentation to make them comparable
| to the Leuchtturm1917: an automatic numbering machine
| (https://www.hittmarking.com/products/cosco-automatic-numberi...)
| to number the pages.
|
| Numbered pages are excellent: they allow you to write "Notes
| continued on page 45". And have page 46, 47, 48 on a different
| sub-subject as needed. I think of page-numbering as a "FAT32-like
| filesystem", with a linked-list connecting notes together. (Ex:
| when I'm done with a notebook, a single thought may go from page
| 4, 5, 10, 25, 30. I always work from the book beginning to end,
| but my natural life causes me to revisit ideas at different
| times, irregularly).
|
| ---------
|
| I suggest buying pre-numbered notebooks (like Leuchtturm1917) to
| "learn" how to use page numbers as a note system. Later, if you
| really like the methodology, buy an automatic numbering machine
| and just make the page numbers yourself.
|
| -------
|
| I'd say that maybe 50% of what I write, I revisit later. You want
| to get into a habit of writing everything that's useful (meaning
| you're writing down + saving many things that are non-useful).
| Later, you can make pages that summarize earlier thoughts (ex:
| page 50 may have a summary of pages 10, 15, 20, 21, 22, and 23,
| and guide you back to earlier notes).
|
| But this is only effective if the pages were numbered.
|
| When your "cheap notebook" fills up at 70-pages, you can rewrite
| the important information into the more permanent books, and
| throw away the cheap notebook. It will be 50% filled with useless
| crap anyway, so a revision pass is expected and necessary.
| "Writing to throw away" is a good habit IMO.
| jsz0 wrote:
| One of my greatest thrift store finds ever was banker boxes full
| of unused vintage (80s?) grid paper engineering/architectural
| design notebooks and sealed packages of sheet grid paper
| including legal paper sized sheets. At my current burn rate they
| should last me until retirement.
| runjake wrote:
| These days, I just carry around about a dozen index cards clipped
| together along with a cheapo Pilot G3 gel pen. On my desks (home
| and work) I have a legal pad that I just leave on the desk, but
| carry into meetings. Digital notes, and photos of index cards go
| into the Obsidian app.
|
| I absolutely destroy almost every notebook I've tried, including
| Moleskines and Field Notes.
|
| They last a few weeks, top, before the binding or something is
| worn to the point it's falling apart. I really liked the
| waterproof Field Notes for a while, they were durable but super
| finicky about pens, especially my chosen cheap pen: Pilot G3.
|
| For the Pilot G3 pens, I buy a bulk pack from Costco and don't
| worry too much about losing them. When my blister pack is running
| low, I buy another one from Costco. I think I've only bought 2
| packs total over 3-4 years. Somehow, I lose cheap pens much less
| than fancy pens.
|
| It's all super cheap and works well for me.
| fencepost wrote:
| The index cards + binder clip got popularized for a little
| while as the "hipster PDA" - one possibly useful improvement is
| to buy a cheap plastic pocket folder and cut it into index card
| sized pieces - then clip those on the outside of your cards to
| have them not get torn up in a pocket.
| runjake wrote:
| > The index cards + binder clip got popularized for a little
| while as the "hipster PDA"
|
| Yep, and that's exactly where I got the idea, except I only
| carry ~6 blank index cards. The cards are usually
| filed/scanned before they get too worn.
| Kon-Peki wrote:
| Lately I've been using Vela Sciences lab notebooks for my general
| software engineering usage.
|
| A few years ago I started an experiment to see if inexpensive
| fountain pens with refillable ink would be both cheaper and have
| less waste. I got a Pilot Metropolitan and a Lamy Safari for
| around $20 each. I also bought a Pentel mechanical pencil with a
| plastic barrel (but everything else metal) for around $15 from an
| art store.
|
| So far, the experiment has been very successful and I'm still on
| the original bottle of ink and container of pencil leads. But the
| downside with the pens is that I need at least a minimum paper
| quality for the pens (the pencil works with anything, of course)
| to avoid ink bleeding/blotting. I've tried a few Moleskin
| notebooks and while the paper is of sufficient quality I don't
| really like the way they feel when writing (personal preference).
| The good news is that I can get a pretty good sense just by
| feeling the paper in person, and the notebooks don't necessarily
| have to be super expensive. But they're never cheap.
| utopcell wrote:
| Expensive notebooks have the opposite effect on me. When I pick
| one up, I appreciate the effort that went into making it and the
| fact that it was designed counter to a bottom-barrel cheap
| philosophy. This puts me in a mindset to do higher quality work.
| Its cost never crosses my mind. Sure, moleskine-like notebooks
| are more expensive than run-of-the-mill Staples ones, but in
| absolute values, they don't really cost much.
| postalrat wrote:
| Would you also appreciate the effort that went into making nice
| linen or silk when using it to wipe yourself?
| utopcell wrote:
| No.
|
| Is wiping an intellectual activity for you ?
| paulryanrogers wrote:
| Not for me personally, though some folks have golden
| toilets
| postalrat wrote:
| It's a task that nobody wants to do poorly and appreciate
| tools to make it easier.
| gowld wrote:
| That's a problem though, because discouraging low-quality work
| means discouraging creativity. A notebook is not a publication
| medium.
| solarmist wrote:
| Possibly, maybe not, though.
|
| For me, this means slowing down my writing and trying to make
| it more legible, not editing what I put down. I still write
| in fragments, manage whitespace poorly, draw terrible
| diagrams, and repeat myself (sometimes on the same page).
|
| That said, I consciously recognized and appreciate the
| difference between brainstorming and editing. Sometimes I use
| my notebook for both, sometimes just for brainstorming, and
| I'll copy it to Notes or Pages for a sharable version.
| solarmist wrote:
| I do keep around post-it notes and a legal pad for truly
| insignificant things. Notes about appointments, bills,
| phone calls, etc that have zero long-term value.
| dirtyid wrote:
| One of the first things I do on a piece of new hardware is to
| scratch it somewhere less visible so I can use it knowing it's no
| longer pristine. Tools are tools.
| bmitc wrote:
| The best notebooks I have found that meet both constraints of
| being cheap but good quality so as to not become frustrating are
| Muji's notebooks. They have several options in size and also
| styles between blank, lined, and graph lined and looseleaf or
| notebooks. They even have these tiny passport sized notebooks
| that I am trying to get into the habit of keeping with me to
| write down whatever I need in the moment. The paper quality is
| actually excellent, and their pens are all I use now as well.
|
| https://www.muji.us/collections/notebook
| stefanu wrote:
| Can confirm, MUJI notebooks are of a decent quality and they
| can handle fountain pens as well.
|
| In addition to that, I gradually switched to their 0.38 pens of
| different colors. With fountain pen it was more stylish but
| impractical for multiple semantic(*) colours. With cheap,
| light, yet nice quality pens of different colours I can not
| only carry multiple ones, but have the same set at multiple
| places.
|
| (Dark blue is body text/drawing, light blue is
| comment/secondary annotation, orange is action/process/message
| passing, green is data/metadata flow, ...)
| snicker7 wrote:
| There are several Muji stores in my city. I get high quality
| stationary on the cheap.
| crispinb wrote:
| I'd like a stock of cheap notebooks, but at least in my country
| it's not always easy to find them with plain paper. Lined paper
| is only useful for children learning to write from my pov. Online
| catalogues here don't always even specify the paper type -
| childrens' paper is just assumed.
| hooverd wrote:
| I use those yellow legal pads. The majority of what I write is
| just getting my thoughts in order- I don't revisit much of it.
| sumtechguy wrote:
| That is what I mostly use. That and post it notes. The notes
| are nice for 'im done with it toss it'. The pads for making
| lists of items. I used to have hundreds of old notebooks full
| of stuff. After one move I went thru them and realized none of
| it really mattered. Nice paper, _very_ expensive pens
| /mechanical pencils. I just chucked it all. El cheapo notebook
| and pens. Switched exclusively to a 'todo' style system for
| paper. I found all of that info I was writing down, was fairly
| useless and out of context meaningless. Unless I meticulously
| went back and cataloged it. Even then it was not really worth
| it. If I come across an old legal pad with stuff I flip thru it
| quick and decide 'do I need to keep it'. Usually not and I
| garbage it.
| taneq wrote:
| I work in some fairly hostile environments and I was hoping this
| would be a discussion of "I use commodity laptops instead of
| Panasonic Toughbooks." :P
| mrbooth wrote:
| And then there is this. $32+ tax $8 + shipping $12 = $52 for us
| in US. Thanks, I'll stick to my Cambridge 9x7 spirals. They last
| me years. No damage yet, except when I spilled a full cup of
| coffee on one. Cured me of using erasable ink pens.
|
| https://cottonbureau.com/p/XT9MRF/journal/sidekick-notepad#/...
| kragen wrote:
| i prefer the moleskines because they don't get ripped or bent
| when i slip them in and out of my pocket, the ribbon lets me open
| them to where i'm writing, and they don't fall apart when i get
| rained on
|
| by the same token, water-soluble fountain pen ink is not an
| option for me; the best option i've found is 0.3mm mechanical
| pencils with 2h lead (though i can only find hb these days) but
| cheap ballpoints are also an acceptable option
|
| i go through about a notebook a year. here's a scan of a couple
| pages from my notebook last year, which was a hannemuhle because
| moleskines had become unobtainium here in argentina; there's an
| english translation below the spanish scan
|
| http://canonical.org/~kragen/fragmentos
|
| i made the mistake of buying brugge once, never again
| s5300 wrote:
| I went thru something similar in my MechE bachelors...
|
| Around my sophomore year I finally found green engineering pads.
| I believe they were TOPS brand. At $4-$5 a piece, they were
| definitely much more than my k-12 $0.10 on-sale spiral notebooks
| & stolen printer paper. I filled up dozens of them & love them to
| this day.
|
| I also bought high(ish) quality laminated folders & further
| reinforced them with Gorilla tape. This also came after using
| fairly janky ones most of my life, & not being able to find
| anything that satisfied me once I went for something new. I still
| use many I made in 2017.
|
| https://imgur.com/a/e08rdBQ
|
| Got a fair amount of questions about them throughout school.
|
| The Pentel Graphgear 1000's are an amazing writing tool, as are
| their Hi-Polymer block erasers. I've found nothing able to come
| close to the Pentel block erasers, and I'm surprised that
| Staedtler's have not been completely laughed off the market by
| this point.
| klodolph wrote:
| I found that if I get the nice wirebound A5 notebooks, I actually
| use them consistently. The cheap ones annoy me, and I don't use
| them, and they end up collecting dust in the closet (along with
| all the others).
|
| Figure out what habits actually work for you.
| __rito__ wrote:
| Agree with almost all of it as a heavy user of notebooks.
|
| > _" you'd be surprised how many cheap notebooks have decent
| paper"_
|
| Absolutely. I have come across many cheap notebooks that handle F
| or EF nib fountain pens gracefully.
|
| I also liked writing in expensive notebooks. But it didn't feel
| like a sustainable habit for the price points.
|
| What I did instead was buying (very) expensive refillable leather
| notebooks of standard sizes: A4, A5, A6.
|
| And I fill them up with cheap yet very nice refills available
| locally or in Amazon.
|
| I have freed myself from the dread of writing perfect things and
| I write in style.
|
| I have done this for many years now.
|
| I am a person who likes the comfort that comes with using things
| for many years.
| j7ake wrote:
| I use printer paper and a folder. I number pages to help order
| things.
| willjp wrote:
| Relatable, years after a career change I'm still hoarding nice
| sketchpads and watercolour paper because anything you do with
| them has to live up to the material.
| egypturnash wrote:
| no it doesn't
|
| fill them up with shitty studies and sketches
|
| you'll never be able to do work that will "live up to the
| material" if you don't ever use it
|
| it's just raw materials, leaving them sitting in a closet is a
| worse insult to them than using them for a shitty sketch, at
| least from the shitty sketch there's _something_ on it and you
| learnt a little something from the process of doing it
|
| amateur artists often have this problem, pro artists do not
| fucking care, we will use that expensive paper to take notes on
| a phone call if that's what's handy, it does admittedly help if
| you know damn well that the $100 block of ultra-swank
| watercolor paper is going to end up being used to make multiple
| pieces that go for 10x the cost of that, but you can't get
| there without burning a ton of materials
|
| take out every pad and just draw some kind of scribble on every
| page, now it's ruined, now start filling up those pages with
| drawings instead of having a stash in the closet that you never
| touch because it's Too Good
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| A tip not just for notebooks but for anything (e.g. electrical
| appliances) if you're buying them for the first time: Buy them
| cheap. If you use them until they're used up (in the case of
| notebooks) or broken (in the case of electrical tools), buy a
| more expensive / higher quality one. If not, you didn't waste too
| much money on it.
| cjohnson318 wrote:
| I think you can buy cheap and get by if quality is not a goal.
| I buy expensive art materials because I have used cheap
| materials and I can really, really tell a difference in the
| quality. I buy mid-grade Ryobi instead of Dewalt tools because
| I'm not great at carpentry and the extra value of Dewalt tools
| is never going to show up in my work in that area.
| rcarr wrote:
| Counterpoint: Buy cheap, buy twice. Personally, I think it's
| better to buy the name brand that you can then sell on for a
| reasonable price if it's not to your liking rather than buying
| the knockoff, not getting a proper experience to tell if you
| actually like the thing or not and then not being able to
| resell it afterwards. Obviously this is all dependent on your
| finances. Cheap is better than nothing if you want to try
| something out and you can't afford the name brand, and it's
| always better to start with smaller goals and work your way up
| to bigger ones e.g if you want to make a film, its better to
| make a low quality film on an iPhone than to wait around for
| years and do nothing because you're saving up for a cinema
| camera and lenses or whatever.
| rpickering wrote:
| I've suffered from this dilemma. I've kept an A5 (large?)
| softcover Moleskine as my main notebook for several years, but I
| always had this subtle fear about 'committing' something to a
| perfect-bound notebook, because I knew I wouldn't want to start
| ripping pages out. On the other hand, a cheap glue-bound or even
| spiral-bound notepad felt almost TOO disposable - I like to keep
| archives of notes and sketches in some sort of chronological
| order.
|
| Recently I found my holy grail which is Muji's system of ring-
| bound, refillable notebooks and paper refills -
| https://www.muji.eu/uk/product/cover-for-loose-leaf-paper-a5...
|
| They feel disposable enough (partly the fact they are refillable
| makes me feel I'm not thinning down the notebook when I rip
| several pages out at once) but the way you can open the rings and
| transfer pages means that it's a great system for keeping notes
| together several years down the line - or even in a more
| permanent-feeling ring-bound binder. It's an absolute revelation
| for someone who has obsessed about notebooks!
| gertrunde wrote:
| I tend to favour A5 spiral bound Pukka Pads.
|
| Fairly firmly at the cheap & functional end of the scale, and the
| right size to stuff in bags etc.
|
| (Link: https://pukkastationery.com/pukka-pads-a5-metallic-jotta-
| not... )
| TheLoafOfBread wrote:
| I am not making my notes in coherent and chronological order so
| my notebook would be random stuff of what I was working that day
| on followed by more random stuff from other days.
|
| I am using cheap notebooks so I can rip pages from them and then
| throw them away (if I was just thinking on a paper), digitize
| them or put them into a folder with pages from same project and
| digitize them when project is closed.
| Aromasin wrote:
| I recently switched from using physical notebooks to entirely
| digital. I can't see myself ever going back.
|
| I'm lefty, so my hand cramps when I write. I now get to type all
| day with my lovely Moonlander ZSA keyboard.
|
| I'm forever flipping back and forth pages to try and find notes.
| Now I search by tags and links, using Obsidian. Every journal
| entry has a list of links to my notes I made that day, so I know
| when I wrote everything.
|
| I can put pictures in my notes! I could do that before, but I'd
| have an awkward bit of paper stuffed in there, and by notebook
| completion it'd be stuffed with loose paper.
|
| I would always carry a pocket notepad with me. It'd be in bits by
| the end of the month. Now, I can carry every note I've ever taken
| on the phone in my pocket.
|
| I always felt a little guilty about all the paper. I'm minimalist
| by nature. Now, it's all stored on a NAS and Cloud storage. I
| brought all my stored notes to a place for scanning, then
| proceeded to dump them. It was so liberating.
|
| I had 2 boxes that I carried from place to place with all my
| notes. Now they can fit on a thumb drive. I could fit almost
| everything I own in the back of my Peugeot 207.
|
| Don't get me wrong, I know it's not as effective for
| memorization, but the benefits have so far vastly outweighed the
| cons.
| aynyc wrote:
| Just wondering, do people write on both sides of the paper? I
| don't, not because I don't want to, but because of ink bleeds (I
| know, I should get better pen and paper).
|
| I personally use a stack of printer paper, then punch 3 holes and
| put them in binders. That way, I can save the ones I want,
| recycle stuff that I don't want.
| allenu wrote:
| I write on both sides. I used to not for fear of ink bleed, or
| seeing the other side. Ink doesn't really bleed through and
| what I can see on the other side is faint, so it doesn't bother
| me as much as I thought it would.
|
| I use Leuchtturm notebooks and I really like how the paper
| feels under a fountain pen (nothing fancy, just a Lamy Safari).
| I don't think I can use cheap notebooks now since I can tell
| right away that the paper doesn't feel as good when I write.
| klodolph wrote:
| I write on both sides, but I buy notebooks with better paper.
| mdlman wrote:
| It might not be worth it to you, but you might try a slightly
| better quality printer paper. I'm using a generic store brand
| premium laser/inkjet paper (24 lb/90 gsm), and I'm not getting
| any bleed through or feathering. It costs more than normal
| printer paper, but handles ink well and goes on sale often.
| dchuk wrote:
| Every few months I switch from digital notetaking on an iPad, to
| using notebooks. I think it's rooted in some weird anxiety or
| something, and I resolve it by saying "fuck it, I'm switching
| everything".
|
| My current routine:
|
| I use Muse on iPad for thoughts I don't need to share anywhere or
| worry about searchability of. Project ideas, etc are what go in
| there.
|
| I use Nebo for handwritten notes because the OCR is better than
| anything else, and it can actually OCR notes in outline form (I
| don't know of any other apps that can do that reliably). I take
| my notes there, convert handwriting to text, then paste it into
| Notion in a semi-organized way.
|
| When collaborating with my colleagues, I use either Google Suite,
| or Miro.
|
| I'm sure in a few months I'll switch back to pen and paper, but
| it is quite nice to only haul around an iPad for a change.
| stcroixx wrote:
| My favorite are the reporter style notebooks - skinny and bound
| at the top. They're like barely a step up from post it's, but do
| the job for me.
| sshine wrote:
| I use stacks of A4 paper from the printer.
| valgor wrote:
| I took it a step further by starting on sheets of paper, second
| draft goes into a notebook, then the three draft gets typed on
| the computer. This really helped me not be afraid to write crap
| since I will toss the paper if it is bad. And the iterative draft
| process really forces me to pick out what ideas are best.
| rPlayer6554 wrote:
| I use the Traveler's company notebook. It's just a leather shell
| and it allows you to put inserts in. You can mix and match up to
| three or four different types of inserts. The fact I can always
| put in new inserts allowed me to feel more comfortable writing
| whatever in the notebook and not feel afraid of wasting it.
| rcarr wrote:
| Came here to say this. If you want a notebook, this is the way.
|
| For people doing long writing projects, either buy
| notebooks/inserts with tearaway pages or do as much of your
| writing as possible on a refill pad, then store and organise it
| using an expanding plastic filing box or similar. Even if you
| are a plotter rather than a pantser, it is highly unlikely you
| are going to write that entire novel from start to finish
| linerarly in one go - you are much more likely to write
| snippets out of order and then assemble it into a whole at a
| later date. This is far easier to do if your pages are not
| stuck in a book.
|
| For capturing ideas on the move, I normally use my phone but I
| always carry an index card holder and some index cards in case
| my phone dies. It's also handy in case you need to give
| somebody some information for whatever reason.
| colinflane wrote:
| A small 3-ring binder, plus packets of hole-punched graph paper.
| Extremely cheap. The beauty of the binder is that it allows for
| easily rearranging pages, something notebooks do not. Thanks to
| Lion Kimbro for this advice.
|
| https://users.speakeasy.net/~lion/nb/book.pdf
| asdff wrote:
| What sucks about these cheap 99 cent notebooks are the pages are
| so thin that they get all folded up and tattered easy, especially
| if they get tossed in a bag. I don't like how floppy they are if
| you don't have a table to write on either. stuff like mead
| cambridge line is a little more expensive, but the paper is a lot
| thicker per sheet which makes it stand up to abuse, and the
| cardboard back is substantial. They end up still looking pretty
| good when I would fill them out even carrying them in a backpack
| every day. There's probably other cheaper notebooks out there
| that also have these thicker, more durable sheets.
| taubek wrote:
| I just try to use the same format. So that I can store them in a
| nice way.
| thecrumb wrote:
| I used cheap notebooks for years but recently switched to an
| e-ink tablet (supernote) and love it and I feel better about
| saving a few trees.
| kldavis4 wrote:
| I've had a Supernote A5X for several months now and have really
| loved it. I have way too many half filled paper notebooks
| floating around the house. I also tend to do a lot of scratch
| notes for work as I think through a problem and I love being
| able to do that in a way that doesn't end up filling up a
| physical notebook with stuff I won't care about in a month.
| nicbou wrote:
| Same, but I went for an iPad because the software is
| outstanding.
| vineyardmike wrote:
| I came here to say this. I use the tablet for anything I think
| I'll only need for a short time, since I find search
| cumbersome.
|
| I'm skeptical it's "better" for the environment since
| electronics are a lot more intense to manufacture and a lot
| worse to recycle.
| LaffertyDev wrote:
| It took me a while to get over the fear of destroying/using up
| nice things. Like enjoying a nice bottle of liquor, or using up a
| very nice notebook. Eventually I came across the idea that things
| are meant to be used, and now I'm much more relaxed about
| damaging/using up the things I own.
|
| I read once a stellar idea to help get over the fear of starting
| to draw in a notebook (or an art project, or a new software
| project) is to just start scribbling and drawing. Intentionally
| starting with a mess makes it much easier to break the cycle of
| "This thing I'm doing isn't good enough yet for this".
|
| One notebook brand my wife found, that I love very much, is
| minimalism art. I like the small, softcovers. They aren't too
| soft, and hold their shape really well. The paper quality is
| high.
|
| I also just tried out the new "sidekick notepad" from Cortex.
| Very expensive (overpriced), but I was happy to support their
| work.
|
| https://www.minimalismart.com/cn-soft-cover
| dcchambers wrote:
| > use the good china every day
|
| is the best advice one can get in life.
| ghaff wrote:
| I admit I rarely use my fine china I inherited but that's
| because I actually prefer to use my stoneware day to day.
| jrumbut wrote:
| That page brings me back ten years and not in a good way, I can
| hardly read the text.
| LaffertyDev wrote:
| Yea, the site design isn't the best with the transparent-ish
| nav and low contrast. Certainly room for improvement there :)
| wombatpm wrote:
| I learned this lesson the hard way. I bought a new car after
| college graduation. Ordered it from the factory, got exactly
| what I wanted, picked it up with 5 miles on the odometer. I
| waged that car 4 times in three days.
|
| On the 4th day, my mother backed out of the garage and damaged
| three panels on the front and side of the car.
|
| After that I realized it was just a car.
| netsharc wrote:
| > I waged that car 4 times in three days.
|
| "waged"? Do you mean "waxed"?
| nicbou wrote:
| It's good to remember that a nice notebook costs less than a
| meal at the restaurant.
| 2b3a51 wrote:
| True. Also an A5 size artist's sketchbook - with hard covers,
| 120g/m^2 off white paper (will take any pen from Sharpie
| downwards as well as watercolours) and sewn bindings - can be
| bought almost anywhere in the UK and costs less than two
| coffees in a nice cafe (PS5).
|
| Just keep one with you.
|
| PS: I did think that the linked article was going to be about
| low specification laptops, and was preparing to extol the
| virtues of recycled Thinkpads.
| ticviking wrote:
| I mean cheap notebooks and a recycled thinkpad are
| basically the perfect portable tools for thinking.
| babypuncher wrote:
| I think some products are better designed to wear gracefully
| than others. The old iPods with the reflective back are a good
| example. Those things looked nice for about 5 minutes unless
| you immediately put them in a case.
|
| Conversely, newer Apple products seem to wear out very
| gracefully. A 4 or 5 year old iPhone may look used, but it
| doesn't look horrifyingly ugly unless the owner seriously
| abused it.
| ghaff wrote:
| Like a lot of people, I admittedly use a case but that's as
| much because I prefer the greater gripiness for one-handed
| use as much as for protection.
| neogodless wrote:
| Spent a lot of my childhood getting stickers from the book
| ordering program, putting the sheets of them in a box, and
| never doing anything with them again.
|
| Most of them were ruined during my adulthood when my basement
| flooded.
|
| Now when I get a sticker, I throw it on _something_ even if it
| 's not the _perfect_ destination for that sticker.
| criddell wrote:
| > I also just tried out the new "sidekick notepad" from Cortex.
| Very expensive (overpriced), but I was happy to support their
| work.
|
| The sidekick notepad is a pretty nice idea, but $32 + $12
| shipping is a lot for a 60 page pad.
|
| I've been using a Notsu dot-grid landscape notepad (great
| paper!) but it's 8.5" x 5.5". I just wish it was larger. The
| Sidekick looks like a pretty nice size...
|
| How hard is it to get custom pads made? I'm guessing non-
| standard dimensions are a bit of a blocker when you only want
| to order a dozen or two.
| ticviking wrote:
| I've had reasonable luck at local print shops. They can do
| custom sizes in a plastic spiral binding for a reasonable
| price. I haven't found someone who can do a sewn binding, but
| I wonder about asking a leatherworker in town if his machine
| could do 30 pages if I bought a few spare needles.
| criddell wrote:
| The Notsu pad that I like has the pages held in by some
| glue along the edge. I like it better than a spiral and I
| think I like it better than the tear-away style that the
| Sidekick is using. The glue seems relatively easy to do, so
| all I really need is somebody to print me 12" x 7" dot-grid
| pages.
| fencepost wrote:
| The minimalismart.com softcovers that GP linked to have a B5
| (10x7.6) size as well, including dot grid option.
| criddell wrote:
| True, but it isn't landscape and it doesn't look like the
| pages are designed to tear out cleanly and easily.
| fencepost wrote:
| If you haven't looked at them before, the Rhodia dotPad
| or Top Wirebound Notepad might be a fit for you and
| usable in either orientation. Rhodia's "pad" products
| seem to all have perforated pages (they tear nicely)
| where the "book" products are non-perforated.
|
| Edit: the wirebound has an A4 size page option, the
| dotPad has an A4 and a longer-than-A4 option. ~$10-16
| depending on color and where you order, Amazon is not the
| cheapest option out there.
| LaffertyDev wrote:
| Can confirm, they are not tear-friendly.
| topicseed wrote:
| I have to buy shitty notepads otherwise with the nice Dingbats
| ones, I cannot start writing naturally because I get paralysed.
| With a basic notepad, I just go with the flow and don't
| overthink.
| jasonpeacock wrote:
| A similar approach I've heard (but never brave enough to do) is
| when you get a new car, intentionally scratch the paint
| yourself.
|
| Then you won't be as concerned about the inevitable dings and
| scratches it will accumulate.
| bityard wrote:
| I live in the rust belt, where cars only look new for the
| first 3 years or so. After that, they are 100% guaranteed to
| have chips in the paint from 18-wheelers throwing rocks, rust
| on the frame/fenders from the salt, and dings from other
| people parking 6 inches from your door.
|
| And if you own a prius in the midwest, it's not a matter of
| IF someone will key it in the parking lot of home depot, it's
| a matter of WHEN.
| JadeNB wrote:
| > And if you own a prius in the midwest, it's not a matter
| of IF someone will key it in the parking lot of home depot,
| it's a matter of WHEN.
|
| I live in Texas, where I'd expect such behavior before I
| saw it in the midwest; parking lots are awash in Priuses,
| and no-one seems to bat an eye at it. Maybe it's that I
| live in a city. Where in the midwest would you expect this?
| 12345hn6789 wrote:
| Anywhere >1 hour away from a city
| miguelazo wrote:
| Damn, people need to get a life.
| kayodelycaon wrote:
| Probably some rural areas. There was one sparsely
| populated area in Northern Wisconsin I was told avoid
| ordering food at non-chain restaurants. They would
| happily try to kill you or make you sick if you had a
| food allergy.
|
| Having grown up in Wisconsin, I absolutely believed that.
| I went to high school with people like that. And they got
| it from their parents.
|
| My dad heckled me for getting a Prius and buying Apple
| products.
|
| It makes me really sad because they aren't representative
| of the majority of rural people I know.
| yamtaddle wrote:
| Some guitar players do this. Scratch a new guitar so they can
| get over feeling like they need to treat it with great care.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| Best thing that happened for my wife and my marriage was the
| flooring people doing a shitty job before we moved into my
| house. She shrugs off every scuff I put in the floor with
| "it's crappy anyways"
| Swizec wrote:
| Reminds me of an old freestyle motorcycling video I saw.
|
| This guy had a new dirt bike and said _"Yeah you're always a
| little hesitant with a shiny new bike, afraid you'll scratch
| it up. That's dangerous when doing these big tricks so I like
| to throw the bike and scratch it up intentionally to get over
| that fear. Then the tricks go flying"_
|
| So he throws the bike and breaks the clutch lever. But they
| were in the sand dunes in the middle of nowhere to shoot this
| stunting video and the ride back to civilization wouldn't
| come until evening. He did not get to ride that day.
| Aaronstotle wrote:
| I got a new car last August, noticed like two months in that
| someone lightly scratched/bumped the rear left bumper. Oddly
| enough it's almost a good thing because now I'm not as scared
| anymore
| rpmisms wrote:
| I intend to resell my car, so not going to do that, but I
| like the idea. Very stoic-adjaecent
| capableweb wrote:
| You're lucky you don't live in a larger city. It's
| impossible to keep it 100% scratch/dent free unless you
| 100% of the time park in your own garage. Even if you park
| your car in underground, private for-profit garages, it'll
| eventually end up with a scratch/dent somewhere, somehow.
| dehrmann wrote:
| This is why I buy used guitars.
| rr808 wrote:
| I could never ever be able to own a new car, I always buy 5+
| years for this reason.
| galangalalgol wrote:
| I'm really bad at spotting decent used cars. It has always
| bitten me. I overpay once for a new car and then drive it
| into the ground. Never had a new car last me less than 10yrs.
| yurishimo wrote:
| It's all about the brand and previous owners. Personally, I
| only buy used from Honda and Toyota. They have a reputation
| to uphold for reliability. Buy a carfax. $20 well spent to
| know the history of ownership. It's not foolproof, but
| generally good enough. Check with your friend group and
| extended relationships to see if they are selling cars. If
| they know you, even through a friend, hopefully they have
| enough shame to not try and screw you on a lemon.
| michaelvmata wrote:
| This reminds me of getting new sneakers as a kid and trying to
| keep it clean, only to have a friend deliberately step on it.
| Was it annoying? Sure. But I gotta admit -- I didn't have to
| worry about keeping them pristine afterwards.
| jschveibinz wrote:
| I use this brand as well. I really like the paper. And I'll
| throw in an endorsement for the Pilot G2 pen, too. I like the
| 0.7 the best.
| LaffertyDev wrote:
| For me personally, I like having the caps on pens. Clicky
| ones tend to stay clicked and dry out the point. I really
| like the 0.38 uni-ball signo dx :)
|
| I never thought I was the type of person to have strong
| feelings on a pen... then I decided to see what I was missing
| out on and there's just so much out there!
| Avshalom wrote:
| I really like buy myself flowers about this. They're nice, but
| inherently temporary, I can't save them for a special occasion.
| smiley1437 wrote:
| Nothing quite as sad as perfect, mint-condition camera lenses
| that never left the box to take any pictures.
|
| "A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are
| built for."
| vel0city wrote:
| > Eventually I came across the idea that things are meant to be
| used, and now I'm much more relaxed about damaging/using up the
| things I own.
|
| Its like the people with cabinets full of fine china that
| nobody eats off of for 50 years. My mother was one of those
| people. Growing up we had a large cabinet of fine place sets
| that we were always "saving" for some other time. I finally
| convinced her to start using it one holiday season, and we were
| actually using and enjoying it for the last few years of her
| life.
|
| I'm strongly in the camp that there's no point in having nice
| things if you never actually use those things.
| nicbou wrote:
| "Not putting miles on your Ferrari is like not having sex
| with your girlfriend so she'll be more desirable to her next
| boyfriend." -Jim Glickenhaus
| dTal wrote:
| The flaw in this delightful analogy is that boyfriends
| don't typically sell their girlfriends to each other.
| vestrigi wrote:
| And that women don't get "used up" because they have sex!
| Truly delightfully disgusting, that analogy. You'd
| probably need to own a Ferrari to come up with such
| nonsense.
| milicat wrote:
| That quote is pretty messed up.
| oblak wrote:
| Indeed. Who lets their girlfriend have another boyfriend?
| kragen wrote:
| she's my girlfriend, not my property, she can do what she
| wants
|
| i'm not in a position to 'let her' or not 'let her'
|
| also they've been together longer than we have
| dehrmann wrote:
| Where the fine china situation gets awkward is when parents
| want to give it to their kids, but it means absolutely
| nothing to the kids because they never used it.
| ghaff wrote:
| I took my parents' wedding china and I can probably count
| the times I've used it on a couple of hands. Though there's
| more of it than my own stoneware so when I do have a big
| crowd over, it's been handy a couple of times.
| Symbiote wrote:
| When helping clear out a deceased relation's house, we found
| pretty much every piece of cut glass (wine glasses, whisky
| glasses, decanters, bowls etc) was chipped. That was a good
| sign that it had all been used and enjoyed.
| alexpotato wrote:
| I was watching a video on how to split logs using high quality
| steel wedges and a point they made really struck me:
|
| "Most people think the high quality wedges should be made out
| of hard, durable steel. That's actually the opposite of what
| you want. Hard steel wedges 'throw' chips when hit by a hammer.
|
| You want soft steel that deforms since that's safer. If you are
| wondering 'But doesn't that mean the wedge wears down over
| time?', yes it does. That's fine b/c wedges are considered
| consumables."
|
| The idea of an item being high quality AND consumable for
| safety/design reasons gave me a new appreciation for things
| like high quality pencils, paper etc:
|
| yes they are high quality and get used up but that's the point
| dhagz wrote:
| > I read once a stellar idea to help get over the fear of
| starting to draw in a notebook (or an art project, or a new
| software project) is to just start scribbling and drawing.
| Intentionally starting with a mess makes it much easier to
| break the cycle of "This thing I'm doing isn't good enough yet
| for this".
|
| Along these lines, something I have shamelessly stolen from
| Merlin Mann is to write "The first page is profound" on the
| first page of every notebook I get.
| whalesalad wrote:
| Really glad to hear I am not the only person with this
| trait/disorder lol.
| cjsawyer wrote:
| I've recently gotten over this sentiment with my electronics.
| When I was a kid, each device was an irreplaceable gift from a
| parent or represented the investment of a long time saving. So
| each device was treated with the absolute care. As a result I
| spent a lot of time babying hardware. Now I'm a few generations
| of hardware into being an adult and am retiring perfect
| condition objects that are just too slow. For what? I've come
| to the conclusion that I'm allowed to use devices exactly how I
| feel like it. They exist as tools for me to use! Looking back
| at my chunky MacBook cover in college is funny, now. What's the
| point of a fancy surface finish on the hardware if you never
| get to see it?
| fencepost wrote:
| I changed to this with electronics when I decided that the
| midrange and below was more than enough for anything I'm
| doing and that every movable device should be treated as if
| it could be dropped on a tile floor or grow legs and walk
| away at any time.
|
| Automated backups, cloud storage and services, encrypted
| local storage, remote wipe if feasible, devices that are
| midrange but still getting security and feature updates. Not
| quite seamless to move to a new device, but it's not that
| hard either.
| LaffertyDev wrote:
| Exactly the same here! My MBP in college had a safety case
| and everything... and in hindsight its awful and bulky and
| hides the fancy finish.
|
| One important thing to remember, at least for me, is I just
| had significantly less disposable income back then. Replacing
| the MBP would have been financially impossible for me, so I
| took more care of it. I'm in a much more privileged place
| now... so replacing something like this would only be a
| significant inconvenience.
| asdff wrote:
| Honestly those cases would not have helped your mac any. It
| has a substantial amount of shock protection already from
| the case, if you open it up you can see how the corners
| especially have plenty of room to deform before hitting
| something important, and if you are smacking that computer
| hard enough to deform the corners the thin plastic case
| might as well be a piece of paper. Maybe they help prevent
| scratches which could hurt resale value potentially.
| ghaff wrote:
| It's not necessarily unreasonable to take some additional
| steps to protect your essential tools that would be very
| financially inconvenient to replace. What's "reasonable" of
| course depends on the details. But that doesn't necessarily
| mean suffering along with inferior products (computers,
| cameras) because you're afraid they'll get stolen or
| damaged (which insurance can mittigate against to some
| degree).
| asdff wrote:
| My 2012 macbook pro looks like its been throw out of a moving
| vehicle at this point. Dinged corners, scratched up bottoms
| and missing screws and feet. Thats why they make them out of
| a metal unibody chassis after all, to keep up with being
| dropped all the time and scratched up.
| vuln wrote:
| Doesn't stop the battery from expanding and ruining the
| keyboard, trackpad, bottom and top case.
|
| RIP 2015 MBP - you still had a few years left in ya.
| alanfranz wrote:
| Didn't you get the battery replaced under Apple program
| some years ago, I think it was 2019? I got a brand new
| battery for free.
| vuln wrote:
| They replaced it with another defective battery that only
| lasted ~28 cycles before it expanded. Apple refuses to do
| anything about it.
|
| Edit: Screenshot I submitted to Apple.
|
| https://ibb.co/jwRN1MH
| deepspace wrote:
| I had the exact same experience, and ended up replacing
| the battery myself. Not a difficult job, but extremely
| tedious.
| vuln wrote:
| I would replace the battery if that was the only part
| affected. Unfortunately when it expanded just like the
| last time it bends the top case and keyboard, the metal
| around the trackpad and the bottom case. I can't just
| replace the battery and leave everything else bent, the
| laptop won't sit level, the screen will not close
| completely. It's really not a cheap or easy task. Not to
| mention the risk involved in removing a battery that is
| expanded and could rupture.
| davchana wrote:
| I have two boxes full of random notebooks I got as gifts at
| various times. Most of them are pretty, strong, nice. Like
| collectables.
|
| My goto notebooks are walmart brand, anything with hard back,
| under $4, size A5 or similar, lined pages.
|
| Whenever my book is full, I tear & scan pages as 300dpi color
| pdfs.
| tshaddox wrote:
| I don't have any concept of the quality of paper, binding, etc.,
| but I have always been baffled at the slightly more expensive
| notebooks (like Moleskins) with extremely stiff binding. Those
| things are difficult to even leaf through to read, let alone to
| actually write. I really don't get it. An extremely basic spiral
| bound notebook is vastly more usable. Some more expensive ones do
| have a very thin spin that can "fold" so that the notebook can
| lie open relatively flat (I don't know the terminology for any of
| this stuff), and those are okay too.
| hgsgm wrote:
| The story here is that what most people do by default is right,
| and people trying to be better are failing.
| Decabytes wrote:
| I go a different route with my Todo journal. I make my own paper
| out of recycled paper I get from junk mail. I cut them to my
| preferred size and then I do a quick binding with thread from a
| sewing kit. I then back it with a spine of duck tape (based off
| another hacker news post). I like making deeply personal objects
| and doing it this way makes me excited to use them.
|
| I've also recently started to make linoleum stamps to mark the
| cover of each notebook
|
| Here is the one I'm using now https://imgur.com/a/4axd3lC
|
| *EDIT*
|
| For those that are curious, I make paper similar to the process
| outlined here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xrWrKIVBgo
|
| For my materials it's pretty much what the video shows. I'd
| recommend starting slowly. Don't try to buy everything all at
| once. I built up what I had slowly and worked around what I
| didn't have. Thankfully a lot of these materials you already
| probably have around the house!
|
| 1. Mold and Deckle.
| https://www.amazon.com/s?k=mold+and+deckle&i=arts-crafts&cri...
|
| 2. A big sponge. I use the automotive ones
| https://www.amazon.com/Carrand-40102-Giant-x4-75-Sponge/dp/B...
|
| 3. A blender
|
| 4. A paper shredder
|
| 5. A plastic Tub
|
| 6. Wooden clothes pins https://www.amazon.com/Honey-Can-Do-
| DRY-01376-Clothespins-10...
|
| 7. Cheap yarn from my wife's kit to hang the drying paper
|
| 8. Some felt to couch (cooch) the paper onto
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YBNZ6WN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...
|
| For the stamps I use...
|
| 1. These Linoleum blocks
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07V5D4JSC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...
|
| 2. This Linoleum cutter
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0017D8W5E/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...
|
| 3. Some ink
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0017D92TO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...
|
| To squeeze out the water from the couched paper I used to use two
| pieces of wood I'd pinch with some https://www.amazon.com/IRWIN-
| QUICK-GRIP-1964758-One-Handed-C... (This is something I made for
| an unrelated pressed flower project)
|
| But now that I've gotten more experience I've moved on to an
| actual press
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KJZ7VFS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...
|
| The duck tape book binding came from this hacker news post
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32222201
| kristiandupont wrote:
| Very nice! How do you make paper?
| Decabytes wrote:
| I updated my post with more details!
| kldavis4 wrote:
| Have you written about your process for making these notebooks?
| The end product looks great and I'd love to know more about
| what's involved and how much effort is required.
| Decabytes wrote:
| Updated my post with more details. I can usually make around
| 15 pages a day with my current set up. That's all I really
| have space for. But since each page gets folded in the
| notebook that ends up being quite a few pages. If I start
| early it takes about 24 hours between making the paper with
| the mould and deckle, squeezing out the water, and hanging
| them to dry.
|
| The actually paper making process is pretty quick. I usually
| just put in some noise cancelling earbuds and just listen to
| some music while I work!
| jasoneckert wrote:
| I believe there is some level of generality here.
|
| For example, I would still relate entirely to this blog post if
| "notebook" was replaced with "laptop" throughout.
| jjice wrote:
| I'd love to get into using notebooks more, but I just don't think
| it's for me. I buy a stack of cheap legal pads (although I get A4
| sized) and a box of cheap Bic pens that I think I got about 10
| years ago. I tear pages off of the legal pad and staple or join
| them with a paper clip to keep them organized, but they end up
| being recycled when they're done. For long term stuff that I want
| to search, I `notes` directory with some text files and a `:date
| 2023-03-10` at the top has served me well.
|
| I still really love seeing what people do with their notebooks, I
| guess I'm just not one of those people though.
| yamtaddle wrote:
| I always think I want to use notebooks, but end up just using
| the Notes app on my iPhone because I have it with me nearly
| 100% of the time and it syncs to my laptop and tablet. Any
| effort at using notebooks falls apart the first time I don't
| have one with me--out, or just in another room of the house--
| and need to take a note.
|
| [EDIT] There's also the fact that, at this point, I write maybe
| a couple hundred words per year by hand, tops, not counting
| signing things, and am starting to get _really_ bad at writing
| by hand, after a decade-plus like that. Like 50% of all the
| writing a do in a given year these days is probably filling in
| forms for doctors or whatever, and I don 't do _that_ much of
| that, and it barely counts as writing, really (name, address,
| that stuff)
| corobo wrote:
| Have you tried not buying the cheap stuff? Maybe that's the
| issue.
|
| I switched to thicker paper and nicer pens and I write a lot
| more now. I find writing by hand gets information to bed in a
| lot better than typing it too.
|
| I don't even mean break the bank, I use Amazon Basics notebooks
| (until they shrinkflate the paper quality) and the pilot g-2 07
| pen. Nothing too fancy.
|
| Each to their own of course but if someone said they hated
| running because their running shoes were cheap and
| uncomfortable I imagine most people would come up with the same
| solution.
| carldaddy wrote:
| Not notebooks but my Dad never let us kids use his guitars
| because they were too nice. So we never learned guitar. I picked
| it up later in life and now leave them out for my kids to mess
| with. Sure, they'll be out of tune and the pick will go missing,
| but I feel it's more important that they get used as much as
| possible for everyone. No point in leaving stuff stored away.
| fencepost wrote:
| I liked this enough to save it almost 5 years ago when Merlin
| Mann said it on Back To Work #339 (~10 minutes from the end):
|
| On the first page of every notebook, write "The first page is
| profound." Now you've started writing in it, it's no longer a new
| notebook, and you're past the "I don't want to start a notebook
| unless I'm writing something worthwhile" stage. All sorts of
| other quick reference things you could put on the first page
| depending on how you use notebooks, e.g. bullet journal rules if
| you use that.
|
| Possibly also from the same show, things to write in the notebook
| for every day: * What am I thinking about? What's
| on my mind, one sentence * What am I worried about? *
| What one thing do I have to do today? * What one thing do I
| want to do today? * (bonus) What am I grateful for or
| what nice thing can I do for someone today?
| solarmist wrote:
| What got me to use nice notebooks with abandon was switching to
| fountain pens, which require thicker paper not to bleed, and I
| did that because I'm left-handed and was tired of all the
| problems that come with that.
|
| Some problems left-handers need to deal with: *
| smearing, * awkward hand positions to avoid smearing,
| * needing to press harder to get lines, * ripping paper
| because I'm pushing instead of pulling the pen to write, and
| * pens unscrewing themselves, leading to cracking and thread
| stripping
| voidhorse wrote:
| This is precisely why I recently settled on using midori md
| notebooks. They have nice size options, and they are a little bit
| of a step up from composition notebooks without being so fancy
| you're afraid to blemish them with ink.
| butz wrote:
| I miss netbooks. They were small, underpowered, and somehow
| really neat.
| nicbou wrote:
| I got a Macbook 12". That's pretty much a premium netbook, and
| it's fantastic.
|
| It's not a powerhouse, but it handles Docker, Sublime Text and
| Firefox together just fine. It's absurdly small and light, and
| perfect for cafe hopping on a bicycle.
| cjohnson318 wrote:
| I love notebooks until I have to find something in them.
| fattybob wrote:
| Fine choice in notebooks but why are you writing in bear??
| RadiozRadioz wrote:
| I think motivations for wanting to write in Bearblog are quite
| understandable for somebody in this community. Is there a
| particular reason why writing in Bearblog would be a surprising
| and/or bad thing that needs defending?
| fwlr wrote:
| I used to have a similar hangup, I liked getting expensive
| notebooks and very rarely used them because I was worried I was
| "wasting" the page by writing banal stuff on it. I ended up
| fixing it by complete accident. I ran across yet another nice
| notebook* and to save on shipping I bought three of them. Later
| on I happened to be in an office supplies shop with a friend and
| she saw some pens on the shelf that she remembered as being the
| best pens she'd ever used*. They didn't have single pens but the
| box of 12 wasn't that expensive so I thought sure, why not, and
| bought a box. When I got home my notebooks had been delivered. So
| I was standing there with a whole box of nice pens in one hand
| and a whole stack of nice notebooks in the other hand, both of
| which I had bought excess of on a whim, and something just
| clicked in my brain like "these aren't scarce resources, these
| are plentiful", and I've never had an issue since.
|
| I don't think it's a bad idea to buy cheap notebooks (or cheap
| pens), do what works for you. But if you want to use nice
| notebooks and find yourself struggling to do it, you could try
| buying a bunch to teach yourself they're not so precious and
| rare.
|
| *: The notebooks are Code and Quill, the pens are Uniball Vision
| Elite, I still use both to this day. I have a stack of 10
| finished notebooks and I've lost or given away God knows how many
| pens, but I've never run out of either.
| [deleted]
| iLoveOncall wrote:
| The scarce resource is the money you need to buy the nice ones,
| not the notebooks themselves.
|
| I don't think people are afraid of wasting good paper, they're
| afraid of wasting paper that they paid a lot for.
| qup wrote:
| I am one of the people who can't use nice notebooks (or nice
| lumber) and always saves the best for last.
|
| It has nothing to do with what I paid, everything to do with
| how I perceive the quality of the consumable material.
|
| I can, and do, use my best quality tools without any qualms.
| It's using up "precious" (quality) materials. (It's silly,
| does not serve me well, and I'm working on it)
| bayindirh wrote:
| This doesn't work like that in fountain pen users' universe.
| The good notebooks change the behavior of the pen and the ink
| a lot, and you want to write things you want to save on these
| notebooks.
|
| When written, and finished, a notebook written with your
| favorite inks and fountain pens become an art piece for
| yourself, and you want to write something you want to return
| to.
|
| If it was about money, I'd be using a nice rollerball with a
| nice refill and run of the mill or recycled paper. It's akin
| to liking vinyls, you want it for the experience, and spend
| time with it.
|
| I have the same experience with the author. I use my fancy
| notebooks for diaries and software projects (like lab
| notebooks). Daily notes go to cheap notebooks with decent
| papers, and written with the best behaving, easily
| replaceable inks with easily replaceable pens.
|
| When these notebooks end, they're scanned, converted to PDFs,
| and then shredded for recycling.
| egypturnash wrote:
| Maybe in your universe, not in mine. I use nice notebooks
| and nice fountain pens for the most banal shit. I can
| afford to go through a few $30 journals per year even if
| they're filled up with nothing but my daily to-do lists.
|
| Whatever works though.
| iLoveOncall wrote:
| My father actually collects fountain pen, he got published
| many times in fountain pen related magazines and he is no
| doubt in the top 100 collectors in the world, and top 1-5
| for specific brands.
|
| He never has expressed anything about the quality of paper.
| Actually, he takes his notes on whatever is available,
| which often means the back of an envelope lying around and
| otherwise printer paper. I have never seen him use a
| notebook actually, let alone an expensive one.
| fwlr wrote:
| Of course... but I consciously knew that fact - that nice
| notebooks are practically infinite and it's just the money to
| obtain them that's scarce - for many years while still having
| a hangup. Knowing that fact never helped me, it wasn't until
| circumstances conspired to prove it to my subconscious for
| the specific case of nice notebooks that I actually began to
| act like I believed it. Up until that point, writing in nice
| notebooks always required a conscious effort to overcome the
| subconscious fear that nice notebooks themselves were scarce.
|
| I think our brains just aren't very careful or rigorous about
| what they attach that "scarcity" label to, they will happily
| attach that label to the product itself instead of the money
| you paid for it. Consciously presenting our subconscious with
| disconfirming observations can be an effective tool to update
| our subconscious labeling.
| agrippanux wrote:
| I'm the opposite of the author, the nicer the notebook, the more
| likely I am to use it.
|
| Currently I'm using a Mnemosyne 105 and my primary writing
| instrument is a Rotring 600 (0.7mm).
|
| When this notebook is filled, I'll probably re-order several
| more.
| joejoesvk wrote:
| i hate the feel of cheap paper
| freilanzer wrote:
| Me too. Especially with fountain pens, the writing experience
| is horrible.
| sbaiddn wrote:
| Yuck.
|
| But the worse is how the pen/pencil writes on it. I easily lost
| half a grade letter on classes where the examiner provided
| cheap paper to hand in (my typically good handwriting collapses
| and I couldn't follow my own work)
| backtoyoujim wrote:
| I use a fair different number types of notebooks depending on the
| depending on.
|
| I have spiral top ones for notes of me
| thinking/remembering/wanting to reenforce for later type notepad
| with a constant pen that go lots of places with me. And graph
| paper-y notepads/notebooks to help me work on my penmanship and
| handwriting my thoughts. And rough papered oversized ones that I
| like to doodle on with sloppy pens.
|
| I think cheap ones can be great. But cheap doesn't need to be
| everything.
| themadturk wrote:
| I started Bullet Journaling a month or so ago...not that fancy
| arty kind, just the basic layouts. It's working really well for
| me, because it always feels better having my todos on paper, with
| occasional electronic reminders. For me, there's no friction
| between me and writing something down, and the BuJo techniques of
| page numbering, indexing, etc. work well. Also, my work life and
| home life are sharply divided, so having a paper notebook to
| carry between the two is handy.
|
| I just use a composition book and gel pens or Varsity Pilot
| disposable fountain pen. My only complaint is that the
| composition book is a little too big to fit comfortably in my
| work area along with my mouse and ergo keyboard.
| bluedino wrote:
| I've bought Moleskins and Field Notes, but for some reason, I
| have a hard time bringing myself to use them. Heck, even a
| 99-cent composition book from Staples needs a real purpose for me
| to actually write in one.
|
| Like the author, I prefer legal pads. Mostly for working on. And
| then, at work we have stacks and stacks of the notepads with a
| grid printed on them (and the company logo). I love those.
| pklausler wrote:
| I found "my" brand/style of notebooks a while ago -- Quo Vadis'
| Habana unlined blanks -- and bought a dozen each of two sizes
| because you never know whether they'll be available forever, and
| indeed they no longer are from the small online pen & ink company
| that I used to like. Beautiful smooth paper for writing on with a
| fountain pen!
|
| But I still keep cheap legal pads around for rough drawings, &c.
| devchix wrote:
| All those hours perusing for the perfect notebook on JetPens -
| it's stupid how much I covet writing instruments. I too use a lot
| of legal pads, no cover, always flushed with the writing surface,
| tear off for a new beginning. I always thought, cynically
| perhaps, that those awesome looking BuJos were made to be
| Instagramable and not for the use of the writer himself. I will
| add something in the same philosophical vein as "use cheap
| notebooks". I was once obsessed with getting the right "planning
| system" in place for my Get-Things-Done lists, one calendar, one
| brainstorming notebook, grooming and curation schedule, and the
| proper icons and markers. Once I accepted that there could be
| many places for my To-Do list, many places for my priorities-of-
| the-day, multiple lists in my life, it was easier to get things
| done. I don't live in one place: the office, the car, my home
| office, my phone, my workshop - it's fine to duplicate lists and
| items, the important thing is to have one in front of me when I'm
| executing on a project. Once I "allowed" myself to have an
| imperfect planning system, things can get done, instead of me
| going back for the 5th time tweak the meta-work planning.
| smm11 wrote:
| My to-do list is a sticky note stuck backwards to another one
| (double-thick), with tasks written carefully and crossed out upon
| completion. The trick, for me, is to have them all X'd out before
| the note and text disintegrates in my pocket.
|
| I sometimes carry-over tasks, but die a bit each time.
| twobitshifter wrote:
| I use an iPad mini with a paperlike screen protector. Tap on the
| screen with the pencil and you can start writing. Notes are
| taggable with a # and searchable.
| nicbou wrote:
| Same. It's great to have unlimited sheets and an undo button.
| They don't quite replicate the feeling of flipping through a
| notebook, but it's close enough.
|
| I love it to bits.
| stefanu wrote:
| Had similar struggles as well. Then after few experiments with
| plain paper (tried A4, B6, A5 - all landscape), I switched to
| Midori Paper Pad, carrying it in a leather pouch. Using A5 on the
| go and A4 on my desk. All in landscape orientation, like slides.
| My output is mostly diagrams/schemas and tables, very little
| prose.
|
| Advantages so far: high quality per that works with fountain pen.
| No fear of ruining whole notebook with an ugly note or a drawing.
| I can carry only sheets that are relevant to the problem I am
| solving right now. I can lay out the sheets in front of me to get
| a bigger picture. I can throw away the bad ones. It is easier to
| scan (using iPhone scan to PDF function).
|
| https://md.midori-japan.co.jp/en/products/mdpaper-pad/
| huge87 wrote:
| At work, I frequently receive a large amount of paper that I
| choose to reuse. I hole punch each sheet and place it onto a
| clipboard, creating a refillable legal pad. When I finish a stack
| of pages for the day, I archive them in a large three-hole
| binder. This approach enables me to concentrate on the content of
| my notes and writing, rather than spending time on making them
| visually appealing or neat.
| distortionfield wrote:
| A big +1 for legal pads. They lay flat, the margins are useful
| for notes after the fact, and you can find them in dot grid or
| lined with good quality paper for quite cheap. I absolutely
| understand the "I don't want to ruin it" anxiety the author
| speaks of but I've not yet had that problem with my notebooks.
| Instead, I have it with my laptops haha.
| m0llusk wrote:
| I thought this would be about laptops. The laptops I use for work
| and personal stuff cost around $100 and are effectively
| disposable. They are not great for intense use, but the vast
| majority of tasks go just fine. And when developing any serious
| slowdown shows up right away so my work ends up being usable on
| low end hardware with janky connections. When one of these
| laptops got stolen recently I just got another one, provisioned
| it using some scripts, restored my personal data, and that was
| that. Total loss was a little over a hundred dollars and a half
| day of work.
| a2800276 wrote:
| I came here expecting the same :) Though I prefer used
| Thinkpads. There's a plentiful supply of leased machines.
| Instead of disposable, they are excellent quality & nicely
| repairable and upgradeable in nearly all aspects. (Screen
| resolution compared to macs has been annoying me, ....) And I
| get to be smug about using the more sustainability focused
| option :)
| cyrialize wrote:
| My main laptop used to be a Thinkpad T530 from 2012 that I
| bought used off of eBay. I ran Linux.
|
| I never worried about it at all. There's holes in the keyboard
| and through the laptop to deal with liquid spills. The case was
| a nice hard plastic with enough flex to prevent breaking.
|
| Honestly, if I dropped it on the floor - I'd check the floor
| first for any damage.
|
| Taking it apart was straightforward, albeit a bit frustrating.
| I found the MBP mid-2012 unibodys much, much easier to take
| apart and clean.
|
| I recently decided to upgrade and bought a M1 MBP Pro off of a
| college kid wanting to get a gaming laptop. It's a huge upgrade
| and I actually find myself loving MacOS. Everything feels so
| nice and looks so nice.
|
| But now I am just terrified for this laptop. It has a hard
| case. I'm meticulous about a clean keyboard and screen
| (fingerprint magnet). I keep any and all liquids very, very far
| away. I never place it anywhere where there may be dust.
|
| I sometimes wonder if the stress is worth it. I'm tempted to
| buy myself an X220 or something else in the X series since the
| T530 was heavy to lug around.
| tiledjinn wrote:
| i've been using an x230 for _years_ for light work and side
| projects. you can mod an x220 keyboard in it if that's your
| thing. pretty sure it uses the same dock as the t530
|
| haven't really found a need or desire to upgrade beyond
| maxing the ram and shoving an ssd in it.
| gigaflop wrote:
| I have similar feelings whenever I get something that's
| 'nice, new, shiny'. I feel an urge to protect/preserve it as
| best as possible, and worry more than I should.
|
| One time, I bought a fancy wallet made of stainless steel
| (threads, woven into thin sheets, backed by plastic). For
| MONTHS, I was paranoid about leaving any scratches or
| blemishes on such a pristine, shiny thing.
|
| Years later, it's still my wallet, and has enough blemishes
| and scratches for me to not care as much. One new scratch or
| blemish would be unnoticeable among the others. It still
| holds itself together just fine, and it still has the
| 'slippery' in-pocket texture that I like.
|
| Point being, as long as you take decent care of Your
| Precious, it'll be fine with the exterior wear and tear.
|
| I've also got a $4k-ish ring made with white gold, and it
| came with a fucking mirror-like polish. Tiny scratches or
| dings were 'End of the world", until I was able to identify
| "inside" and "outside" orientation via a small blemish on one
| side.
| dctoedt wrote:
| > _One time, I bought a fancy wallet_
|
| I've been using the same briefcase for probably 30 years
| (bought to hold a laptop yet still fit under an airline
| seat). It's pretty beat up -- but for lawyers a beat-up
| briefcase is something of a status symbol, kind of like
| Willie Nelson's guitar "Trigger."
|
| https://guitar.com/features/interviews/story-of-willie-
| nelso...
| alexjplant wrote:
| I've had Thinkpads for the last 20 years of my life. I
| presently have an M1 Air for music production and a used T480
| - great combo. I've found the MacBook to be fairly durable in
| spite of all the horror stories that I've heard over the
| years about cracked screens and so forth, so my plan is to
| buy an M3 Pro when they come out and throw Asahi on my M1.
| Unfortunately new Thinkpads just aren't what they used to be
| given the compelling value prop of Apple silicon but I'll
| happily continue buying used ones for $150 a pop.
| sergiotapia wrote:
| I'm using an M2 macbook pro and our typescript project is slow
| to start, slow to restart after a code change. It routinely
| leaves orphaned node processes running at 100% CPU. I shudder
| to think what it would do to a $100 notebook. It would probably
| explode hahaha
|
| But for Elixir yes, I could definitely use a cheap laptop.
| nickpeterson wrote:
| I've recently been trying a bit of an odd setup. I use an iPad
| on a stand with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and use blink
| shell to mosh to vultr openbsd hosts. It's kind of nice in the
| sense that you have an iPad for when you need really mainstream
| support for something, and I'm thinking about switching to one
| with 5G for mobile work. I like the focus of having a terminal
| style device for hobby stuff.
| Dalewyn wrote:
| >And when developing any serious slowdown shows up right away
| so my work ends up being usable on low end hardware with janky
| connections.
|
| A lot of modern software problems stem from developers having a
| powerfully detached understanding of reality.
| Syonyk wrote:
| > _A lot of modern software problems stem from developers
| having a powerfully detached understanding of reality._
|
| The best thing we could do for the internet is have
| developers at Google, Meta, etc, use a Raspberry Pi 4 or
| similar "gutless wonder ARM box" for one day a week. So
| often, I run into things they've written that, for no
| coherent reason, just run horribly on low end hardware. It
| was obviously written and toyed with on a Xeon workstation
| with multiple large 4k monitors, and, who would possibly use
| less?
|
| The Blogger rewrite rather irritates me, because it went from
| an old, usable, performant interface that ran totally fine on
| ancient netbooks to this weird, "mobile first" interface (for
| a _blogging_ platform) that choked out even on high end
| hardware when you had a lot of photos in a post. Clearly,
| nobody who worked on it ever actually loaded it up, or used
| it on old hardware, and never actually talked to anyone who
| used it to blog, because it was filled with tons of "modern"
| UI crap that was objectively worse than the old interface for
| every conceivable task one might do when writing and editing
| blog posts.
|
| Kicked me off Blogger and onto my personally hosted Jekyll
| stuff, though, so I guess working as intended.
| bayindirh wrote:
| This is why I like "resource constrained programming" and
| demoscene.
|
| If I can make this work (fast) on a Raspberry Pi 3 or on
| older hardware, will work nicely on production systems.
| lufte wrote:
| I like Drew's take on this
| https://drewdevault.com/2019/01/23/Why-I-use-old-hardware.ht...
| bluedino wrote:
| I like having a couple "junk" Thinkpads around, but I'm spoiled
| my "junk" Macbook's screen (older Retina model).
| AlfredBarnes wrote:
| What laptops are you using that are only $100?
| zxexz wrote:
| My mother often breaks computers, due to how and where she
| usually uses them (in the kitchen while cooking etc.)
|
| I bought her a t420, which cost less than $100. All I did was
| swap in an SSD. But here's the thing, I bought two t420s, and
| when one breaks I cannibalize the other for parts, or just
| swap the SSD into the old machine. I make sure to always have
| a spare machine, which is not hard because after you
| cannibalize one machine, and get a replacement, the parts on
| the cannibalized machine will often suffice for a while until
| you need to replace the same part again.
|
| For her use cases, and to be honest 90% of people's use
| cases, a t420 from 2011 has an excess of power. And the peace
| of mind knowing that spilling water on the keyboard will be a
| repair that takes 10 minutes (I could probably repair a t420
| blindfolded at this point) and effectively only cost you
| $10-$20, is wonderful. I've been able to walk her through
| repairs over the phone.
|
| I tend to use old various X220/X230 thinkpad as beaters. Used
| to be big on the X201, but somehow the X201 has been creeping
| up in price. Yeah, I use and like my big M1 MacBook for work.
| It's nice for what I do at my job. But in my personal life
| I'm 100% happy with Arch Linux and i3wm on a stack of
| thinkpads. Having swappable batteries might be my favorite
| part, other than how well Linux runs.
| 2b3a51 wrote:
| I've noticed a U shaped price curve for some kinds of
| recycled computer. Here in the UK, Thinkpad X220/230 are
| currently in the minimum. As you have noted _earlier_
| Thinkpads are beginning to climb I imagine as they get
| recycled and there are less around.
|
| (Way off topic for this thread so apologies)
| Dalewyn wrote:
| If I had to guess, various used laptops from a decade or so
| ago.
|
| For most practical applications, computing performance
| plateaued around 2011. Just look at how many people
| can't/won't use Windows 11 just because their ancient relic
| otherwise still works perfectly fine.
|
| And if you want a source, anecdata is I'm posting this from
| an i7 2700K (aka Sandy Bridge) machine.
| swilliamsio wrote:
| If you want a source, Steam Hardware Survey[0] somewhat
| agrees with what you're saying, especially when taking in
| to account that gamers would have better specs than
| average.
|
| [0] https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-
| Softw...
| AlfredBarnes wrote:
| Thanks, time to look into older machines.
| yourusername wrote:
| Look into business laptops by HP/Dell/Lenovo. You can
| still easily get parts for them
| (keyboards/batteries/chargers) they are well built, have
| easy to find driverpacks from the OEM and were more the
| most part lightly used and only retired because the lease
| is up or the latest version of windows doesn't officially
| support it. You can get very good condition 4th/5th gen
| intel core laptops for around $150.
| mdbauman wrote:
| Chromebooks that are a couple years old seem to run pretty
| cheap, especially refurbished. Installing Linux is simple
| enough, although some (all?) have non-standard key layouts
| which can require some additional setup to get working
| comfortably.
|
| I've had a few of these over the years that I take to coffee
| shops/bars to work. It's nice not to feel nervous about a
| $1000+ investment just because the server is coming around to
| refresh my water.
| numpad0 wrote:
| Why is it assumed that software developer can identify and
| solve problems only by artificially forced to experience it
| firsthand and be personally frustrated - why modern software
| stacks keep getting buried into layers of convenience wrappers
| and no one cares? What would be the steps to solve it?
|
| I don't think Moore's law is solely to the blame. Incentives
| are lacking, spoken languages and software development
| methodologies are still too primitive to describe and define
| temporal behaviors, and, I suspect there are also _dis_
| incentives to solve it - _slower_ software seems to be
| preferred for the mass, and so each times significant speedups
| are achieved, a correctional force could be emerging and
| applying over it.
| Nextgrid wrote:
| Same reason why I would never go for anything beyond the base
| model Macs. Losing/damaging the base model (~$1k) is something
| I can live with, less so to the fully-specced out $4k+ one. Not
| to mention that those aren't super reliable to begin with and
| given their anti-repair stance there is no cost-effective way
| to repair any eventual failures the way you can do on a PC.
| sixstringninja wrote:
| I used to like writing on compositional notebooks under a
| professional setting. Now as an avid fountain user, I don't mind
| paying a little extra $$ for better paper. Better paper won't
| snag the nib of a fountain pen and facilitates quicker drying of
| the ink
| ghshephard wrote:
| I start every day/week/quarter laying out what my
| objectives/goals are, both tactical and strategic in a notebook.
| I also have the full set of electronic assets (evernote,
| statushero/etc..) - but something about the physicality of a
| notebook and my trusty Pilot G2 07 just grounds my day. I usually
| go through 2-3 notebooks a year, and I've had five or six
| different brands until about 10 or so years ago I finally
| standardized on the Miquelrius A5 Wirebound, 6x8 Graph lined.
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009E6WIWY/
|
| Pricing is pretty variable (best deal I've ever done is $10.99) -
| it goes up to as much as $20 shipping in, so whenever I see a
| price lower than my lowest one, I just buy another 6. I think
| I've got about 24 of these stocked in my closet currently that
| should hopefully take me forward another 12 years.
|
| People go on about pens - and my gateway drug to good pens was
| the Pilot G2 07 - I spent _years_ and far too much money looking
| for the "Perfect" pen - until I realized that, ironically, my
| very first decent pen was my favorite and, wonder of wonders, is
| also one of the cheapest "good" pens out there. Essentially free.
| I marvel at how often in life you have to "pay for quality" - Not
| with the Pilot G2 07.
| GavinAnderegg wrote:
| I really love having a work journal, and have been keeping one
| since 2004. Currently my favourite notebook is the Baronfig
| Vanguard Softcover. I prefer the "Flagship" size, which is just a
| bit smaller than A5. It's $13 USD for a pack of 3. They're well
| made, have great paper, offer a dot-grid, and each journal last
| for about 5-6 weeks of writing.
|
| https://baronfig.com/products/shopvanguard?variant=206468150...
| ochoseis wrote:
| Get a leather composition book cover for the look/durability,
| then just use $1 composition books. I've had one like this for
| 10y and works great.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Leather-Journal-Composition-Notebooks...
| ubermonkey wrote:
| I use expensive notebooks because I use a fountain pen, and
| crappy notebooks won't take good ink well.
| fernandotakai wrote:
| i've tried a bunch of notebooks and they still don't take ink
| well -- which ones do you use?
| __rito__ wrote:
| There are many cheap notebooks in the market that handle
| fountain pens perfectly.
|
| You just have to experiment with some and once you find a
| lineup supported by a good company, you are set for life.
| Symbiote wrote:
| Writing with a fountain pen was expected of me from about age
| 8, although the enforcement decreased significantly from age 14
| or so.
|
| The notebooks / exercise books the school supplied could hardly
| be considered expensive, so you may just need to shop around.
| Or maybe downgrade to use cheap ink on a cheap notebook?
| mdlman wrote:
| I'm with you. Although I recently started writing a lot more
| than usual. I ended up buying a used wire binding machine. I've
| been making notebooks with nice printer paper and cardboard
| from cereal boxes recently. It's worked surprisingly well,
| although I may get a better source of cover cardboard soon. The
| nice part is that I can make notebooks of any size and any
| paper (like watercolor paper for sketchbooks) with lots of
| pages. Much simpler than sewing the binding.
| _HMCB_ wrote:
| My fave notebook (amazing quality paper) while not crossing over
| into expensive (for me): https://www.amazon.com/Maruman-
| Hardcover-Executive-Notebook-...
|
| Pair it with my fave pen: https://www.jetpens.com/Zebra-Sarasa-
| Clip-Gel-Pen-0.7-mm-Blu...
| folkrav wrote:
| Black n' red notebooks have been mine for a while now. Works
| just fine without bleeding through even with some thicker
| lines.
| DanielleMolloy wrote:
| Same problem here, also the A5 ones are actually quite heavy to
| carry around.
|
| I find the A6 Leuchtturm ones to be in most practical use right
| now, they fit into pants pockets (or for me, dress pockets) and
| they also come in bright yet simple colors which is somewhat
| inspiring for me. I need relatively long time to fill them so
| while the price is high they are not a big regular cost factor.
|
| I need something to scribble, macOS notes doesn't always do it in
| terms of putting thoughts somewhere and any electronic UI tends
| to be too distracting.
| leroy-is-here wrote:
| I used to get hung up over having specific journals for specific
| thoughts -- one for my projects, one for cool stories, one for
| whatever else. But eventually I consolidated. I stopped
| categorizing, I stopped judging, and I just started writing. I
| guess that's kind of the same blocker as the author, just a
| different spin.
| kayodelycaon wrote:
| One of the reasons I got a reMarkable. Effectively infinite
| pages. Writing can be copied and pasted or moved around. And I
| don't have to worry if I'm wasting paper or ink.
|
| I don't think I've ever used the search feature.
| bmj wrote:
| I tend to use legal pads to write initial drafts. I carry a few
| A5 kraft notebooks in a Lochby Field Journal. Each notebook has a
| dedicated purpose, and carrying them in the Lochby means I don't
| destroy the notebooks while they are in my bag. I don't care much
| about the brand of notebook, since I write almost exclusively
| with pencils -- I'll grab whatever is available at the office
| supply store.
| TomMasz wrote:
| I use Mnemosyne notebooks (https://www.jetpens.com/Maruman-
| Mnemosyne-Notebooks/ct/765) from JetPens. The paper works great
| with any pen or pencil and the spiral binding allows them to lay
| flat.
| eternityforest wrote:
| I almost exclusively (On the rare occasion I use paper, mostly as
| a prop to look professional or not mess up a low tech ambiance,
| or some other specific use case) use an A5 6 ring binder.
|
| I especially like how you can print 2 pages on a US Letter, cut
| it in half, punch it(If you don't have a 6 hole punch, use an
| existing 6 hole sheet as a stencil and punch the marks), and it's
| close enough to A5 to work.
|
| It's great for working events to have all my setup info in a
| binder that isn't a 3 ring full size, which I find unpleasantly
| bulky,just a bit too big for backpacks, and way excessive for the
| small amounts of paper notes I usually use.
|
| I also like how they have A5 Ziploc sleeve things I can use for
| index cards and stuff.
|
| It's such a great format I almost wish I enjoyed handwriting
| enough to do bullet journaling for all my notes, but I prefer
| Google Keep for most things, extended notes get tiring trying to
| write something before I forget it, while being distracted by
| trying to be legible, it's almost like some kind of rhythm game
| multitasking challenge!
|
| I'd consider A6 instead but real A6 is hard to find, most of them
| are actually filofax personal in a weird aspect ratio I'm not
| sure I'd like.
| ryanjshaw wrote:
| Why not print on A4?
| bluGill wrote:
| In the US A4 is hard to find. Not impossible, but it is
| special order while letter is available anywhere. A4 and US
| letter are very close to the same size, if you don't have a
| ruler you can't tell by looking.
| Symbiote wrote:
| Do you not notice the ratio is off?
|
| I spot US letter-sized paper because it looks
| fatter/shorter than I'm used to.
|
| Possibly it's easier to spot this outside North America,
| since the 1:[?]2 ratio is so widespread.
| eternityforest wrote:
| The ratio is definitely off, but it's within 10% so it's
| just a minor annoyance, and there's not much of an
| alternative. Next time I buy paper I'll probably order
| real A4 but that might be in like, 10 years before I go
| through a ream.
| unwind wrote:
| I think your comment would be easier to understand if you
| stated your geographical location.
|
| In Europe, I would expect A6 paper to be decently easy to find
| (although I don't think I've ever bought any, so salt away if
| you feel like it). A few seconds on the local Amazon surfaced
| [1], which is 2,000 sheets for SEK 218 (EUR19 or US $20) which
| I would not call hard to find nor expensive ...
|
| Edit: forgot the link! :)
|
| [1]: https://www.amazon.se/Copier-
| Paper-2000BL-A6-vit/dp/B004G6Q3...
| eternityforest wrote:
| A6 paper is easy to find even here(I'm in the US), the
| problem is finding an true A6 binder for less than $30.
|
| Filofax personal and A5 are in the $10 to $15 range, which is
| about right for something that's only getting used a few
| times a month.
|
| Plus I like how A5 is big enough for RPG character sheets,
| scripts, and the like, so I can kind of standardize and use
| A5 for almost everything
| implements wrote:
| > I almost exclusively (On the rare occasion I use paper,
| mostly as a prop to look professional ...
|
| Yellow legal writing pads were good for that, back in the day.
| RandomWorker wrote:
| I like my Leuchtturms, and I've tried the Muji ones. Muji just
| has so few pages my Leuchtturms dotted medium size (A5) lasts me
| about 3-4 months (2.7~ pages a day) it's about 28CAD. Not bad
| burn rate when you consider even a Netflix subscription.
| Additionally, it's actually cost effective when you consider that
| most of my time is spent on thinking and writing down what I
| thought, therefore "splurging" a bit on myself makes me feel good
| which ultimately improves the ability to think.
|
| Pens I'm agnostic on brand (although I do like uni-ball). It has
| to just have enough quality not to leak all the time, and
| 0.7-0.75 seems to be the sweet spot in terms of comfort, speed
| and writing accuracy. I do have a bunch of Muji pens (5 different
| colours) in the .38 range, when I really need to insane
| diagramming and get the super accuracy. Speed is less of a
| concern then.
| teachrdan wrote:
| If you're already shopping at Muji, may I recommend their
| Passport memo book? It's the same size and dimensions as a
| passport (and by default comes in Japanese passport red), which
| makes it the perfect size for a (male) jean pocket. I always
| carry one and an astronaut pen.
|
| https://www.muji.us/products/passport-memo-9s62?variant=4001...
| egypturnash wrote:
| Whatever works I guess. I use nice notebooks with sparkly covers
| fashioned after lavish 18th-century bindings because I feel like
| a wizard when I write in them, and that's fun. I have a few nice
| fountain pens I use for this and most of what I write is the most
| banal shit imaginable, just to-do lists and whatnot with the
| occasional longer-form entry reflecting on my day, or a dream log
| or whatever.
|
| If you have a hoard of nice notebooks you'll never use then
| either get over this fear of having to use them for Serious
| Meaningful Things, or find a broke friend who does not have this
| fear and pass them on.
| unxdfa wrote:
| I use the cheap Muji ones and the Muji gel pens (which are
| refillable for under <PS1)
|
| https://www.muji.eu/product/recycling-paper-notebook-dark-gr...
|
| https://www.muji.eu/product/gel-ink-ballpoint-pen-0-7mm-1104...
|
| Get through a notepad once a month or so and a refill every 3
| months.
| roldie wrote:
| Love their pens so much! I always stock up when I'm in a city
| with a Muji store
| bolanyo wrote:
| The Muji ones cost considerably more than the cheapest similar
| notebooks from eg a supermarket.
| unxdfa wrote:
| Correct. But they are the minimum "fit for purpose" I have
| found i.e. don't disintegrate or soak up ink like the cheap
| supermarket ones.
| err4nt wrote:
| I suffer the same problem and recently I've found those cheap $3
| pocket-sized flip notebooks to be my solution, and so I have 1 in
| my office, 1 downstairs, 1 in the car and 1 in my coat pocket. I
| make sure to actually tear out old pages and throw them away so
| it's always fresh and nothing at all is permanent.
|
| Biggest and best life change I've made in a while! Get some cheap
| notebooks and throw the pages away as you use them.
| 4pkjai wrote:
| Yeah I do too, I didn't feel the need to blog about it though.
| tecleandor wrote:
| But you felt the need to post about not feeling the need to
| blog about it.
|
| Both things are OK, blogging and not blogging, specially if
| it's in your/their personal blog/site. Let people enjoy things
| (like cheap notebooks) :)
| snicker7 wrote:
| Why not? Not all blogs need to be like news letters. My blog
| mostly contains my daily caloric intake.
| ldoughty wrote:
| _shrug_ I have the same issue as the blog author faced... I
| appreciated their perspective on the issue.
|
| Of course, I did think the topic was going to be about laptops,
| but _shrug_ still was a nice read.
| maCDzP wrote:
| I used to suffer from this. Now I buy a box 500 holed A4 for my
| printer. I prefer the box.
| jurassic wrote:
| I've come to prefer cheap sketchbooks with the spiral binding
| across the top for my note-taking. Or sometimes a Rhodia
| wirebound notebook with dot grid paper if I'm feeling fancy.
| These are both similar to a legal pad as I can have it open and
| ready for notes at all times. Printed lines seem like unnecessary
| visual noise to me.
| rpastuszak wrote:
| I used to carry a pile of notebooks, but switched to Concepts +
| Paperwhite on my iPad and use it every day.
|
| I also created a blog with images made during boring middle
| management meetings which I keep on http://potato.horse
| vladsanchez wrote:
| I opted for a Staples ARC notebook [1] with 24lb paper. You'll
| also need an ARC system paper punch (sold separately).
|
| 1- https://www.staples.com/Staples-Arc-Customizable-Leather-
| Not...
| pluijzer wrote:
| I found my favorite combination of notebook and pen. I really
| like the paper of the Clairfontaine A5 notebooks. They are cheap
| and available everywhere here. They paper feel very smooth, not
| grainy but still give a good friction when writing. Speaking of
| friction, I love the erasable Frixion pens from pilot. I hardly
| ever use the eraser but I love the feeling of writing with it.
| The 'clicker' variant of the pen fits nicely in the spine of the
| notebook.
|
| I had one huge downside with this pen though, the ink disappears
| with heat. When I accidentally but my treasured dream journal on
| a hot radiator I lost over a year of dreams.
|
| Also I always loved writing on the right page (I am right handed)
| but dreaded having to write on the back of the page on the left,
| no idea how to hold my hand to make the spine not be in the way.
| Recently I just flip the notebook upside down so the page is
| always on the right.
| masukomi wrote:
| I'm almost the opposite. Cheap notebooks feel crappy. the covers
| feel crappy, the paper isn't smooth when you write on it. They
| actively make me want to NOT interact with them.
|
| For me, the Rhodia Webnotebook is a nice "not cheap" notebook
| with great paper. It handles my heavy flow pens, and pens and
| pencils both slide across it with a wonderful smooth feel.
| roldie wrote:
| Love my Rhodia dotGrid pads!
| tomjen3 wrote:
| This was a confusing headline. I was looking forward to seeing
| how he was using cheap computer netbooks.
| porlex wrote:
| I used to purchase notebooks for journaling but had a similar
| hangup to some other posts on this thread. I just though that it
| was a hard sell to continually have to shell out a bunch of cash
| for the sexy notebooks when all the materials for a passable
| alternative are essentially free if you can tap into the waste of
| a typical pre-pandemic office space with a comercial printer.
| (For a while there was a thing that would happen with the network
| printer where it would suddenly begin to print gibberish, usually
| only one or two lines per page, uncontrollably for reams and
| reams of paper. This was the source of my first roll your own
| notebook pages.)
|
| At some point I heard about the Midori system and then realized
| that if you had a reusable Traveler's notebook you could print
| the style of paper that you wanted to use, fold it, and have an
| A5 sized folio (?) insert that you could staple with a
| specialized stapler to make the paper inserts.
|
| This is what i have been doing for ~3 years now.
|
| https://papersizes.io/
|
| A5 Travelers Notebook: https://a.co/d/iy32n37
|
| https://print-graph-paper.com
|
| Swing-Arm Swivel Stapler: https://a.co/d/0afXOaW
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