With so much note taking apps nowadays, I can’t understand why does anyone still write notes with pen and paper. You need to bring the notepad, book or that paper to retrieve that information, and most of the time you don’t have it in hand. While my phone almost always reachable and you carry when you go out. For those still like to do handwriting, there’s many app does that and they can even convert it to text notes.
So, if you still write notes with pen and paper, why?
I can’t rely on a piece of electronics that might run out of battery, bug out, etc. Note taking on paper is much faster, you can draw anything with any sort of layout, it’s completely free form. Of course it depends on your needs. I know I sketch down a lot because of my line of work, that may not be the case for everyone.
You know that tablets exist?
It’s way easier to lose a piece of paper than a backed up searchable note. Not a problem if you’re super organized but I’m not.
But have you considered the true reliability of paper? Really, even a tablet is a computer that can run out of battery, bug out, etc.
Paper not only has that, but it is also an art form in itself! Writing on a tablet, which can zoom in and out is for me much more awkward compared to the set dimensions of paper and the size of a nib. It also is something that has no feel to it, it’s glass.
No scratch, no feedback and most importantly no feel. Have you ever held high quality pull and pulp paper? In Polish it’s called “Papier czeprany” and I have. It’s like nothing else. Standard copy paper be damned, that thing is a joy to hold, write on and read off of.
Also, paper is different if you have different light. It really makes all the difference for me, and I love sitting under a warm light from a lamp and either writing with a pen or typing it out on a typewriter. Having light blasted onto my face by a screen annoys and tires me out a lot of the time.
It’s not just the practicality that can win out, even though paper does also win for me on that front, it has a charm to it if approached in a way different than just absolute practicality.
Last time I upgraded my phone, I looked at getting a Samsung Note: I’ve wanted pen input on a phone for so long. Then I considered the extra weight and bulk, and the poor condition of the second hand one I was looking at, and decided I can just just use pen and paper.
I like to be able to scribble things on paper, though my handwriting is terrible. For anything to last long for me, I want it digital, but random thoughts, calculations and stuff, I like paper and pen.
Yeah, but it’s more like when I just don’t have my phone or I’m at my desk and have a pen and paper more handily available than digging it out of my pocket. Most of the time, I use the phone. Especially since I can have my note app remind me about the notes.
Writing with a notepad is better for those who need to be freeform, want the ease of opening it up, and/or have privacy concerns (a phone of any security can be hacked, but a notepad can’t if you write in a code only you can understand, which can’t be done on a phone without an unlimited resource of special characters). As for reachability, it’s what you make of it.
Here’s the biggest reason: we are evolved from savannah primates for whom the ability to make eye contact and hold it was a signal of “you can trust me, I’m not about to bite you.” Paper and pen don’t signal “I have decided to break this evolutionary/social contract” in the same way a phone or open laptop does.
I help mentor a lot of young people in early career and their generation with a phone is an excuse for an x-er/boomer interviewer to punt them waiting to happen. It’s career and comp limiting, right or no.
Also if one finds a taken note is missing something, contact the original party. A conversation that begins with: “you got me thinking about this more deeply and I think I may have missed something…” is the key to mentorship, advocacy, and growth.
In short from a transcoding of bits perspective, other media may be better. But for those they acknowledge human constraint and opportunity a nice notebook and (a cheap shill from me) a Lamy Safari medium nib fountain pen will do you quite well.
we are evolved from savannah primates for whom the ability to make eye contact and hold it was a signal of “you can trust me, I’m not about to bite you.”
Funny. Cats are the opposite. To them, unblinking eye contact says “I don’t trust you. I’m keeping my eye on you.” Hence the slow blink they’re famous for.
Paper and pen don’t signal “I have decided to break this evolutionary/social contract” in the same way a phone or open laptop does.
Why not? Either way, you’re breaking eye contact. When paper first became commonplace, people probably made the same argument, and there are photos of people on trains all looking at their newspapers and ignoring each other.
No.
Surprised no one here answered with just a “no”. I can’t remember the last time I even held a pen for signing something, even my last job contract and rental agreement etc were all digital.
AMA, all you pen and pencil people.
