Stats for nerds
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4mentions
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2018–2022years
75% recommend25% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I think everybody needs to practice Precis Writing by hand. In particular; students should be trained in this art. This will do more for knowledge retention and assimilation than any fancy technology (and i say this as a "techie").
All the greats wrote prodigiously. Its importance only sunk in for me when i read the Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci. Text, Symbols, Diagrams etc. are all brought together to express Thoughts and Ideas all of which can be revised and extended as needed. It is in the Refining/Clarifying/Modifying/Compressing process where "real learning" happens. You just need Pen/Pencil/Paper and a quiet place.
- Hello, my fellow Dijkstra Fan! I too started to push myself to use pen and paper before coding because i was inspired by his EWDs. Being one of the greatest proponents of Method/Discipline/Rigor in Thought i figured it would be wise of me to emulate the Master unquestioningly. And it worked!
I think a lot of people here are not getting the gist behind the use of pen and paper; so let me try to summarize it;
* They do not limit the concrete expression of any concept/thought that you might have. You can use text, symbols, invent new symbols, connect them in any fashion you choose etc. etc. They are free form and become an extension of your mind. See also the book; The Body Has a Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better.
* They force you to slow down your thoughts i.e. still your chaotic mind and help focus on the problem and its various aspects. This is invaluable in today's world filled with distractions. The books by Cal Newport are applicable here.
* If you choose to make your notes public, it adds another layer of discipline to really understand the subject matter since you have to anticipate possible objections and have the answers ready.
* Finally, they help clear your mind of the inessentials allowing you to ruminate and manipulate the essentials more effectively. Yet ancillary data is always available as needed.
If you look at History, all the greats wrote prodigiously. I firmly believe that it was one of the defining factors which directly led to their eminence. I was first inspired by the Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (get the 2-vol large prints by Dover) before i started noticing the pattern.
PS: I read somewhere that Dijkstra wrote one of the first Operating Systems; The "THE" Operating System by hand on paper!
- A most sacrilegious article by a clueless author :-) This silliness where people just parrot platitudes like "execution", "implementation" without really understanding what it means is the bane of all Creativity.
The mark of a Genius is an insatiable curiosity about a wide variety of subjects and the willingness to jump into every one of them without regard to other people's expectations. Da vinci was unparalleled in that respect. The breadth of his interests is what makes him so great. Execution is always limited by circumstances like political climate, patrons, resources etc. Given the uncertain times that Da vinci lived through, it is an absolute miracle that he was able to do as much as he did. To dismiss it all by using platitudes like "Real artists/engineers" ship" is the height of ignorance and hubris.
Further reading:
* The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, Vols I & II (Dover publications)
* Leonardo on the Human Body (Dover publications)
* Leonardo, The Complete Paintings and Drawings by Frank Zollner (Taschen Publications). This is a huge book but worth every penny. I believe it was later republished in multiple volumes due to its size.
- It occurs to me that I've never seen the complete notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci before now, but only individual sketches or pages. I would have thought that something like that should be easily found; after all, you can easily get the complete works of Shakespeare. I did a cursory check on Amazon where it seems that many of the books that claim to be notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci are not actually full reproductions of all his work, but selected pages plus lots of commentary. Perhaps there were difficulties in assembling a complete set (such as museums not displaying all pages or permitting photographs)?
