[Hamatti]

OP here. Last time my blog caught attention in HN, I was told I'm "living in a fantasy" and this time it's "pure romanticism".

The tools you shared are of course important and I enjoy having them a lot. Wouldn't want to work as a developer without version control or debuggers, for sure. Those are tools that if I lost them, it surely would slow me down and be annoying.

I do truly consider notebook more important to me than those. Writing and running code is the tool to get things done but software development to me is more importantly building something valuable that solves problems or makes life easier. And to that, code is often somewhat trivial implementation detail — it's much more important to figure out what to build and how.

Some people are good at thinking when they are in a code editor or other digital tools. My brain goes into detail implementation mode and it's hard for me to see the big picture when I'm writing in code editor and building functionality.

For me, it's crucial part of my job to take my notebook and use it as a tool for thinking before (and during!) coding. While losing access to the other tools would definitely slow me down, not being able to think through writing with pen and paper would cripple my thinking, my problem solving ability, my creativity and thus cause me writing bad software.

[brettgriffin]

> Those are tools that if I lost them, it surely would slow me down and be annoying.

Yes, but the post above is pointing out that you would be significantly slower without an IDE, compiler or debugger than you would be without a pen/paper. In fact, I don't think you would be a professional programmer if you didn't have them.

Saying you like a notebook and pen while designing and writing software is very different than saying a notebook and pen are more important than an IDE, compiler, or debugger.

[tomjakubowski]

> significantly slower without an IDE, compiler or debugger … In fact, I don't think you would be a professional programmer if you didn't have them.

This is a strange take. Programmers were around before any of those tools were. And today, even many professional programmers do their work without using any of them: they use text editors, they write interpreted languages, and they use printf()-debugging or other techniques.

[DoingIsLearning]

> you would be significantly slower without an IDE, compiler or debugger than you would be without a pen/paper.

Slower at creating what? With just great tooling there is still a real risk of creating the wrong thing just very fast.

OP's point is that it is a thinking tool more so than a creating tool.

[testing22321]

> Last time my blog caught attention in HN, I was told I'm "living in a fantasy" and this time it's "pure romanticism".

When people criticize like that, you know you’re doing something right. “Only people doing less than you will criticize “

Keep it up!