I wish people wouldn't indulge in these luddite fantasies of some ancient caste of ninja programmers. It's blatantly wrong to the point where I'm not sure if the above is not meant as a joke.
It's also insincere: do you regularly write out code with pen & paper? No, of course not. Nobody does. Just like nobody reads all the fine print, checks the emergency exits every time they enter a building, has an emergency drinking water reservoir, or a go-bag for volcano emergencies: these are teenage fantasies of what grown-up life should be like. Believing and propagating these ideas only sets you and your listeners up for failure.
I spend a lot of time thinking through problems with pen and paper, and also highlighter and printer, and whiteboard. I've found this class of tools often lets me focus on a problem with less distraction.
It's not always the right tool, and of course the code must be typed up sooner or later.
I often work in environments where the development cycle time is terribly slow for one reason or another, which puts a premium on thinking through things ahead of time.
It's also insincere: do you regularly write out code with pen & paper? No, of course not. Nobody does. Just like nobody reads all the fine print, checks the emergency exits every time they enter a building, has an emergency drinking water reservoir, or a go-bag for volcano emergencies: these are teenage fantasies of what grown-up life should be like. Believing and propagating these ideas only sets you and your listeners up for failure.