This EWD is mind blowing in its beauty. It's 30 pages, but 30 pages that you won't regret reading.
I love computer science and teaching it is some of the most fun I've ever had. With a lot of practice, you can get across concepts such as computability and turing machines to the non-mathematically initiated within the duration of a party, and it's greatly satisfying. (yes I am a lot of fun to be around)
The rest of the EWD notes are highly recommended. (also it's weird to see an academic write in script). Side question: do any other HNers keep notes in written form? I still do it, using a fountain pen, and am often poked fun at by colleagues :(
Re: your side question, sure![0] I would love to use a fountain pen primarily but the nib that I want is out of my budget for now. I have a couple Muji fountain pens though which are great for the price, just far too thick for me to use regularly.
By now I probably have thousands of these scattered throughout books (I use them as bookmarks while taking notes) or in boxes. They're not particularly well sorted except for being vaguely chronological. I have a decent stash of notebooks as well but haven't used them since it was a requirement for school except for a single pocket notebook that gets filled roughly once a year.
I keep extensive paper notes, mostly in sequential "lab book" style, pages dated and numbered, with a different colour pen for each day of the week. I don't fuss too much over structure beyond that, and anything for wider distribution I write up on a computer.
I've seen people struggle with tablets and laptops for note taking, but I find they are some way off the free-flowing UX of pen and paper.
I use fountain pens and paper to take notes in meetings all the time. I am trying to do more "thinking on paper", and I wouldn't give up the fountain pen for anything.
I use OneNote with a stylus and tablet, both for notes for myself and collaboration. It's like a portable, persistent whiteboard.
I used to mostly take notes with pens on sticky notes, but after a particularly tricky production debugging session I managed to cover most of my cubicle with about 60 hastily scribbled yellow sticky notes. I then proceeded to go on a trip for a week without cleaning up.
After returning I had to dispel a rumor that I had finally "snapped".
I sometimes like to do early stage design documents with felt-tip pens or wax crayons, because it prevents you from writing fiddly details and encourages you to sketch broad structures.
I think this is more of a designer concept but you can apply it to engineering as well.
Comments
This EWD is mind blowing in its beauty. It's 30 pages, but 30 pages that you won't regret reading.
I love computer science and teaching it is some of the most fun I've ever had. With a lot of practice, you can get across concepts such as computability and turing machines to the non-mathematically initiated within the duration of a party, and it's greatly satisfying. (yes I am a lot of fun to be around)
The rest of the EWD notes are highly recommended. (also it's weird to see an academic write in script). Side question: do any other HNers keep notes in written form? I still do it, using a fountain pen, and am often poked fun at by colleagues :(
Re: your side question, sure![0] I would love to use a fountain pen primarily but the nib that I want is out of my budget for now. I have a couple Muji fountain pens though which are great for the price, just far too thick for me to use regularly.
[0]: http://academic.ianclarksmith.com/Coursera/DesignArtifacts/c... (Uniball .28 and mechanical pencil on blank 4x6 card)
By now I probably have thousands of these scattered throughout books (I use them as bookmarks while taking notes) or in boxes. They're not particularly well sorted except for being vaguely chronological. I have a decent stash of notebooks as well but haven't used them since it was a requirement for school except for a single pocket notebook that gets filled roughly once a year.
I keep extensive paper notes, mostly in sequential "lab book" style, pages dated and numbered, with a different colour pen for each day of the week. I don't fuss too much over structure beyond that, and anything for wider distribution I write up on a computer.
I've seen people struggle with tablets and laptops for note taking, but I find they are some way off the free-flowing UX of pen and paper.
I use fountain pens and paper to take notes in meetings all the time. I am trying to do more "thinking on paper", and I wouldn't give up the fountain pen for anything.
Keep at it!
I use OneNote with a stylus and tablet, both for notes for myself and collaboration. It's like a portable, persistent whiteboard.
I used to mostly take notes with pens on sticky notes, but after a particularly tricky production debugging session I managed to cover most of my cubicle with about 60 hastily scribbled yellow sticky notes. I then proceeded to go on a trip for a week without cleaning up.
After returning I had to dispel a rumor that I had finally "snapped".
I sometimes like to do early stage design documents with felt-tip pens or wax crayons, because it prevents you from writing fiddly details and encourages you to sketch broad structures.
I think this is more of a designer concept but you can apply it to engineering as well.