Punch Cards

He insisted on using punch cards, even when everybody had computer screens. He gave two reasons for this: when you sit in front of a screen your ability to think clearly declines because you're distracted by irrelevancies, and when you store your data on magnetic media you can't be sure they're there permanently, you actually don't know where they are at all.
Simen Gaure, describing the work habits of mathematician Nils Barricelli

QOTD