Digital Versus Analog, Which Suits You Best?

I have been running an experiment for the last couple months, using a self-hosted software named Silver Bullet. This is an excellent piece of open source software that was designed for creating a Personal Knowledge Management system.

I have been using it to capture my daily thoughts along with todos, draft posts, and collections of information I want to track. It has been a lot of fun using it. So much so, in fact, that the experiment is over and I have decided that this peice of software will be my digital home for the foreseeable future.

While I often feel the pull of “going analog”, every time I try, I quickly figure out what it is about analog journaling that keeps me coming back to the digital form. There is too much friction for me.

My history as a tech enthusiast and IT worker is a huge part of it. While I might not want to use my tech skills in a corporate setting anymore, I still enjoy technology. I have been working with technology for over 30 years now, since I got my first TRS-80 back in the 1990’s.

I have just become accustomed to working with tech more than analog. It’s much more natural for me to open a laptop and bang away on the keyboard, capturing whatever is in my head. It’s also faster, I can type much faster than I write.

My handwriting is horrific. I didn’t have good handwriting back in high school, and with spending so much more time working on computers, it hasn’t gotten any better. In fact, it’s probably worse.

My brain works much faster than I can get the words out and that makes it really hard to capture full thoughts accurately. I end up loosing bits and pieces along the way. The friction of analog writing gets in the way of the writing.

In the digital world, there is the real time spell checking that will even auto-correct words on the fly. I have even tried a couple rules based grammar checking plugins that will help fix up what I write in a jiffy. For speed and efficiency, you can’t beat digital.

I have not proved this scientifically, but my eyes have adjusted themselves to the digital usage. I have spent so much time on screens of every sort, that when I try to journal analog, I can’t get the journal it the right position for me to actually see clearly the text I am writing.

Some of this maybe due to age. At 52, I am now wearing trifocals for glasses. I cannot find the right distance to be able to accurately read and write at. When I have an analog journal or paper in front of me, unless I write extra large, everything I write is just a bit blurry.

There is also contrast. I have been using reverse contrast for as long as it has been available. White text on a dark background is just so much easier for me to read than black text on a light background. My eyes feel much less fatigued using light on dark instead of dark on light.

Friction and resistance play a huge part in the digital versus analog debate for me. Just last night, I tried to journal my last July entry in my wonderful yellow Bullet Journal and it was a struggle. It was not enjoyable.

The process was slow, I had trouble re-reading what I wrote, and I have many more mistakes that I can clearly see crossed out. When I re-read the entry this morning, I could barely make out some parts.

I have read Ryder Carroll’s The Bullet Journal Method twice now. I am drawn in by the idea of having a single place to capture all my thoughts, ideas, plans, notes, etc. I tried to do this with analog before, but it just feels like it’s missing something. I don’t feel connected to my words.

I have heard it said that writing by hand forces you to slow down. While this is true, if you cannot read what you write, I see no point. The frustration outweighs the benefits. There are legitimate ways to slow down in the digital world. Yet speed and efficiency are not necessarily bad things.

My first drafts are fast and furious. Get the thoughts out of the brain. Write the words as quickly as they come. First drafts capture the ideas, raw and uncensored. The real work is in the rereading, revising, and correcting. This is generally how most writers work anyway, regardless of the media they choose.

My journaling should reflect who I am. I think fast, sometimes in phrases and sometimes in whole paragraphs. The idea is to capture my life as it comes, so I have a record of my state of mind. With digital, I can write as fast or as slow as I want. It reflects me as a person.

As for my writing, it needs to be well thought out and organized. When I write something that I want to share, I need it to be worth reading. And while the stuff I churn out on the keyboard is generally good, I don’t want to be stuck at good.

I think the best way for me to get better is to follow the draft writing process more carefully. I can write my initial drafts as fast or slow as I am feeling. The real work comes in the re-read/re-write phase. By doing this, I am forced to think about what I wrote all over again.

I will see the spelling mistakes and the grammar issues that spelling/grammar tools miss. These tools don’t often fix wrong words or content issues anyway. The other benefit is that I get to read it as a consumer, not a creator, and I might find bits that need to be clarified, expanded on or changed.

So, after a really cool experiment with an awesome piece of open source tech, I am officially adopting Silver Bullet for journaling and writing. I am certain this is not for everyone, but if you’re looking for a cool digital PKM software, then I highly recommend it.

Next up in the digital vs. analog debate will be the Zettlekasten. That will be an interesting learning experience. Stay tuned!

—Daniel