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Comment by ngrilly | Hacker News Reader

Anyone here did see an improvement in memory retrieval after switching from taking notes by typing on their computer to taking notes on something like Remarkable?

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Anecdata, but I've never been able to switch to using a computer for note taking because I just get no long-term memory retrieval. Typing notes seem to be like never having learnt the thing. The search doesn't help because I don't even recall what I do or don't have to search through. When I take physical notes, I don't seem to need to look at them again, because I will recall what was written well enough that their purpose isn't as an archive, its for helping me retain something in my actual brain.

Another anecdata point, I have ADHD. It affects memory in all sorts of known and measured ways. I generally find if I can get something into long-term memory then I'm set. Working memory is terrible. Physically writing while working serves as a crutch there too.

No, and frankly, the increased search and lookup time when my colleagues can simply string grep them on their computers is a a handicap.

That said, I have never been able to take notes on a keyboard. I also find that physical notebooks not only are in practice much easier to search, but I also have the impression that the fact all your note pages physically still exist (and not "disappear" after you change pages) helps recollection.

Wouldn't surprise me if linking the notes to a physical location aids memory.

That's the theory behind mind mapping.

As a side note, I feel mind mapping works differently on paper than with something like Xmind. Xmind is for organising and categorising thoughts by moving them around. Paper mind maps are for helping me remember the conversation when I wrote them; I can't seem to use software for that at all.

Me neither. Memory palaces also show that this effect can be emulated (not sure if that's the right word) in the mind. I wonder if there is a way for computers to encourage developing a 'mind map'

I think the kind of notes you can take with pen and paper beats what you can reasonably do with a keyboard. And I think some of the diagrams and annotated equations you can easily write on paper creates a much better learning experience.

But computer notes are much easier to search. So for things like meeting minutes, and daily todos etc, write it in a .txt file. But when following along a deep learning course, write the equations and diagrams on paper. Later you can write code examples in your personal cheat sheet for easy retrieval.

I thought devices like Remarkable were doing automatic OCR to enable search across notes?

Assuming search works, then I’d say a big advantage of pen and paper is being less constrained in the layout of your notes, and for example do diagrams. Big disadvantage is not being able to edit, for example restructure your notes by moving things around.

I use OneNote and do some scribbled handwriting and quite a lot of typing; mostly 'printed' in text from PDFs. I'm always amazed at how it can interpret my handwriting, a lot of people struggle with it (including me). It's not perfect, but it surprises me sometimes.

The ability to attach multimedia screenshots, videos, images, files, digital ink is what elevates OneNote to me beyond Joplin, DokuWiki, LogSeq, Obsidian (all tools I've tried and can see why they have such appeal) , and other markdown++ notetaking applications, at least for my own taste and usecases.

OneNote is not only a good notetaking capture tool, it's also a great clarifying tool for general reference/project support digital filing.

Whether the digital artifacts are text, handwritten doodles, embedded files like multimedia or WIP digital artifacts, screenshots of binary file hexdumps, the works can all be stored together with relevant context, all labelled and fitting into a 3-ring-binder skeuomorphism I'm used to from organizing projects back in school in the olden days.

Not the tool for everyone (especially those want to go fully Linux Desktop) but its very close to having something for everyone. Just gotta be able to do mobile and linux with local notebooks.

Funny - hadn't thought of it this way accidentally used the same approach for an actuarial task.

I was updating an insurance pricing application that had all sorts of formulas for capital requirements, profit load, minimum premium, etc. The formulas were often laid out in SQL but I ultimately wrote them step-by-step on paper to make sure I was truly following the logic (and order of ops). Worked well!

I'm not sure about memory, but I've found that thinking through problems is easier using a pen tablet. I use a Surface Pro X mostly, but sometimes my Samsung Fold phone if that's all I have with me. If I use paper, I lose the paper.

I used to take some notes on paper (if it needed math and diagrams, or for meetings that require eye contact), and some notes on a computer (programming or pure text). My iPad replaced the paper but not the computer.

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