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Analog note-taking

As explained in The Creative Programmer

Analog note-taking is recording information by hand on physical media such as paper notebooks.

Analog note-taking records knowledge by hand on physical media. A notebook can become a small laboratory for ideas: flexible, visual, and ready for unexpected connections. section 2.3.1

Try a commonplace-book approach:

  • Collect quotes, ideas, observations, or fragments that seem worth revisiting. section 2.3.1
  • Add personal remarks after copying something; turning borrowed words into your own supports internalization. section 2.3.1
  • Reread old pages and connect them with drawings, arrows, colors, clippings, or other physical marks. section 2.3.1

A programmer’s commonplace book

After reading about a software idea, write the quotation on paper, explain it in your own words, and connect it to a sketch or a problem you are exploring. The result may look gloriously messy rather than perfectly organized. section 2.3.1

How The Creative Programmer covers it

How deep it goes
Explains collection, personal annotation, rereading, and visual manipulation, but does not prescribe a rigid organizational system.
Examples
Uses historical notebooks, commonplace books, software practitioners’ notebooks, quotations, drawings, clippings, and handwritten synthesis.
What you can do after
Practice/perform: Capture ideas by hand, add reflections, and revisit pages to generate connections and insights.
How it connects
Connects journaling, commonplace books, creativity, knowledge management, and digital wikis.
Cover of The Creative Programmer
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This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of The Creative Programmer. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.