Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

The napkin or envelope is still one of the best tools for the engineer or manager or fill-in-the-blank.

I have a(n old-fashioned) laptop computer, a smartphone, and a tablet – and I still write notes on a napkin. Yes, I am old, that is part of the explanation. Yet, there is something about the utility of a pen and a napkin.

When I worked full time as an engineer, I was credited with be quite good at back-of-the-envelope calculations. Now, as I spend much of my day in coffee shops (like this one), many of my calculations are on a napkin.

It is at this point in the blog post that I am supposed to summarize this with some brilliant quip. Well, here are a few attempts:

• napkin notes are temporary, so I don’t have to take them seriously
• napkin notes are ugly, but I don’t show them to anyone else so I don’t care
• napkin notes are unreadable by anyone else, that is okay as they are intended for me only
• napkin notes are approximations, so they don’t have to be correct
• napkin notes are quick, nothing else to add here

I guess the most important thing is that I like making notes on a napkin, so I do it. And finally, I find what may be a(n almost) brilliant quip:

A good tool is one that you use.