The Value of Handwritten Engineering Notebooks for Software Development Productivity
By
evakhoury
If you only eat one bagel today, this is the bagel.
Summary
The article discusses the author's personal practice of using a handwritten physical engineering notebook as a core software engineering productivity tool. The author shares survey results showing that only 25% of their Mastodon followers use engineering notebooks, while 40% don't and 34% don't know what they are, indicating the practice is not widespread in programming communities. The content focuses on advocating for this analog practice in a digital-dominated field.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledOne of my core software engineering practices is writing, by hand, in a physical notebook
It's one of the most important things I do to remain productive and effective. Maybe the single most important.
When I polled my Mastodon followers, 25% of them said they use an engineering notebook, 40% said they don't, and 34% didn't know what one is!
This practice is really not very widespread, and since a lot of people aren't familiar with it
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