During a conversation regarding DRM and e-books (stemming from the recent release of the Nook client for Android phones which allows sharing your purchased ebooks with others), I was explaining my distaste for any lock-in technology and my desire for a utopian free-information model which motivates sincere effort rather than the product. Rather than paying for the final result of the effort, instead we focus on rewarding the effort itself. A marketplace which measures following, appreciation, and admiration for a thought or piece of prose. Call it dreaming, hopeful, or unrealistic but think of the number of Likes or Retweets you might generate in a typical day. We are already sharing our efforts and thoughts finding value and insight in small, consumable pieces. We pay for this information not with coins but with our attention and devotion; a currency which, as yet, isn’t very liquid or easily monetized at all.
Archive for the 'Methods and Systems' Category
Not sure how many of you are aware of this phenomenon called Stack Overflow. A question-and-answer site built around programming has been hugely successful in building a strong community. It was so successful that the group behind Stack Overflow, has spawned two more sites based on the model. And wouldn’t you know that each have corresponding meta sites which discuss the details of their counterpart’s operation. (Confused? It gets better!)
Since their launch, each have grown and matured and have a found a very important itch to scratch. No, it wasn’t creating a programming helpdesk. They’ve found a model which can be repeated across an infinite number of topics. So they’ve automated the the core processes into a scaffold and built a self-organizing, self-spawning community called Area51.
As a growing developer and a man of systems and mental hacks, I am constantly hitting roadblocks when settling on developer note-taking policy. I recently stumbled across this great collection of systems from other devs on StackOverflow. If you’re like me, you might take some time to grok this out.
From the hardcore, yet incredibly streamlined:
I use Emacs Org-Mode along with Remember Mode to keep track of everything. TODOs, appointments, notes, etc. With Org mode and Remember mode integration, plus a shortcut key defined in my window manager, I can hit a shortcut key from anywhere (Win + R in my case) and pop up a new Emacs window, select which type of item I’m saving (TODO, appointment, note, etc) and then quickly type what I want and then hit C-c C-c. The note is filed away to a default location for me to organize later if I so choose. This is so simple and convenient that I don’t have to interrupt my flow of thinking if I suddenly think of something I need to do or take some notes on a given task. “Just what are the steps again for setting up a remote git repo? Okay, I do this and this and this. I had better write this down before I forget.”
To the obvious and simple:
One notebook per project, typically, unless they’re really small projects, in which case I reach for a partially used notebook and add to it.
I find it very helpful to grab a notebook off my shelf and re-read my maunderings from when I was thinking my way through something. Scribbling on paper lets me record partial thoughts instead of doing a ‘finished’ write-up. This lets me revisit my thought process in addition to the solutions I found — and that tends to be more enlightening than merely recording a solution.
Enjoy! What do you use to keep notes as a developer? (Stack Overflow)
