Do you read at or away from the computer?

5 pointsThoroughlyR2 comments

Before now, I've pretty much read my technical books in front of my computer so I could stop whenever I wanted to play with some cool new function or whatever. It's occurred to me that this could be terrible for my productivity and I'm going to start reading away from my laptop. Then, between reading and coding, I'll write down exactly what I want to accomplish and this will hopefully save a lot of time.

View on HN

This may be a bit off-topic.

I had to code a project in C once - nothing big, maybe 200-300 lines of actual C code. Instead of going straight to the computer, though, I sat down with a coffee for 2 hours and wrote the entire thing on paper.

Have you ever sat down at a computer and not known exactly where to start on a project? Usually this is because you've started too early. There's not enough content in your head to form a mental model of your problem.

Sitting away from the computer introduces a barrier and forces you to reconsider whether you have assimilated enough material before sitting down to program.

both.

I love display output that I can parse for what I need by key strokes though. But a handbook is handy when you got no power, you know the page, and your eyes are not f*.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com