[bipson]

I can totally relate to the premise of the blog post. Thinking (for most people) benefits from some sort of free form scribbling and drawing to make sense of it, and realize what you're missing. At least for me it makes a huge difference.

I remember reading a tip more than a decade ago from a senior developer, that you should always have pen and paper next to your keyboard, to take notes, visualize problems, keep notes of where you are. Most of the thinking happens there.

When I'm working on bigger things alone, it helps me keep track or the bigger picture, how to keep separation of concern und understand where my abstractions started leaking.

Moving that pen and paper to digital unfortunately was never low-barrier for me. I thought about acquiring a reMarkable for that purpose, but it isn't perfect either.

I used excalidraw in the past, but it also does not integrate too well with my environment.

Now, with everyone being remote I would really love to have something that not only replaces my own scribbling and conceptualizing, but also serves as "whiteboard" for collaboration. I clearly clearly miss the whiteboard when discussing abstract things/ideas/problems with peers.

The app mentioned in the post seems a little abandoned unfortunately. Does someone out there use something similar?

[ChrisMarshallNY]

I’ve used OmniGraffle for years on Mac. Notes Plus is good on an iPad.

Recently, Apple has made playgrounds more useful on iPads, so I can now save something that I’m working on, and play with it on the road.

My default issue tracking system is a sticky note pad on the desk. I write a brief description of the problem/feature, and stick it on the desk, to the left of the keyboard. When I am working on it, I move it above the keyboard. When I fix/implement it, I move it to the right. When I’m done testing, it goes in the trash. I use code and checkin comments for posterity. I’ll also use GitHub Issues. They allow me to enter bug reports from my phone or pad, and associate checkins with issues.

[jackstraw14]

I've just started using a legal pad and erasable pen (frixion pens are amazing) to help get my life processes better organized, and it's a great place to start and figure out what you want from these kinds of tools. For me this was better than trying the tools to see what works, I even tried Excalidraw but it's still in that category of "go back and learn how to use if I have time".

I'm still heavily leaning on the legal pad, but I've got a project in Claude to streamline this whole thing over time. It's recommended Microsoft OneNote which I completely wrote off because it seems like there must be a price for such a robust tool being free, but it is really amazing these days. Seems very smooth for mixing digital media with handwritten notes and diagrams, I'm really impressed with it. It's probably going to be where I move to from my legal pad system, since it's so similar but offers features that will help organize the notes and make them searchable, etc.

I always look at the new tools and services for these kind of things when they pop up so please share other personal systems as well!

(I'm still not sure what the price is for OneNote, but if anyone knows and it's bad, please say something)

[snozolli]

frixion pens are amazing

Be careful what you do with your notes, if you care about longevity. Leave a notebook in the sun and you may find it blank. Throwing it in the freezer may bring back some text, but it will bring back stuff you erased, too.

It doesn't matter for throwaway stuff, but I've lost notes on older projects due to this.

[sinfulprogeny]

I have an ipad pro from 2015, an apple pencil 1, and a screen protector that gives it a bit more friction. It's pretty good for the most part, but since it's my only apple product, it doesn't integrate well with anything else I use. OneNote seems to work on multiple platforms but I never got into it. I mostly use goodnotes, and they seem to have released apps for web and non-apple stuff (finally). When I used it the most, the only export I had was as PDFs to Dropbox, which was fine enough but removed any possibility of editing outside of the ipad.

[psd1]

OneNote is great when you use Windows in 2010.