PDA vs books

I’m seeing a lot of talk about retro Palm-style PDAs lately, but how about e-ink readers? Batteries that last a month, reading focused, fetch-and-keep approach to connectivity, readily available.

I remember reading through a couple of Gutenberg books on a PDA in the nineties, and how that sucked. The screen could fit like three sentences and it was slow going turning the page.

Not that I want to encourage people having a lot of extraneous gagdets, and, these e-ink readers are read-only for the most part, which can be another drawback with them. For distraction-free writing, an e-ink reader isn’t gonna cut it.

Ultimately, as far as I understand it, the primary purposes of using a PDA instead of modern stuff is:

nostalgia (or the “nostalgia for what you missed”, which I totally get)

hipster/​weirdo cred (having a “unique thing”, like “cyberdecks” a few months ago)

a psychological hack to find inner peace

The first two are legit things to want, and so is the third thing… to the extent that it actually works.

I’m personally way more chilled out with a book than fiddling with an electronic organizer.

Follow-up

People writing in with other things to do with a PDA but those are all things where I love a paper planner (“Bullet” or not). I switched to digital since I started working from home and don’t need to bring my system with me anymore, but I really love office supplies! Pens, paper... For timekeeping I love my (non-smart) wristwatch.

I write shorthand (Melin system) so I love getting to use that skill, too. If it’s easy to make a PDA, it’s even easier to make a paper planner or schedule.

Bullet journal

Introducing the Hipster PDA

Second Followup

I’ve switched to paper since the past six months. Using a Honbonichi Weeks planner. I’m not quite up to speed to where I was a with digital but I’m enjoying it. For actual writing I’ve come to peace with that for me personally I’m way more productive with Emacs with all bells and whistles than with some minimalist typewriter.