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Ask HN: Has your handwriting suffered from years on the keyboard?

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Re: Ask HN: Has your handwriting suffered from years on the keyboard?

#41

Post by ArcticCelt »

crux wrote: post #11

My handwriting was always pretty bad and erratic; no doubt because I spent most of my time at a keyboard. But a couple years ago I decided to basically engineer myself a style of handwriting, first designing an alphabet, then training myself to use it (and only it). That project has grown to something of a full-fledged writing system. I would recommend to any geeks that they take a couple weeks to work out something…

Did you found any place where they have nice models of letters to get some inspiration and pick the ones I like? I just did a quick search but did not found any satisfying results yet.

Re: Ask HN: Has your handwriting suffered from years on the keyboard?

#43

Post by SingAlong »

Zev wrote: post #37

I personally think my handwriting sucks. But lots of other people tell me that it's actually pretty good. I think thats just because I tend to write big whenever possible - it's impossible to read my handwriting when i write small.

Same with me. One line of mine would take up space in which others would write 2 lines. I even have a lecturer who identifies me by my big letters.

When I write patiently and big, it looks neat. And when I write small, it looks Times New Roman font gone wrong. :D

Once when delivering a letter to a person, I handed it over to his assistant and he said "you've got really good letters". And everytime I want to write neatly I think of that incident. Coz he's the only in my entire life who said my handwriting is good. :)

Re: Ask HN: Has your handwriting suffered from years on the keyboard?

#44

Post by tdavis »

My handwriting is nearly illegible, even to me. I think the main problem is that I try to make writing as efficient and fast as typing which results in blobs that don't necessarily look like words. I still prototype stuff on paper, but if I haven't looked at a diagram in a while I sometimes have to guess as to what I wrote.

That being said, I have the ability to provide very nice handwriting, but it requires an obscene amount of time and it hurts my hand after a while.

Re: Ask HN: Has your handwriting suffered from years on the keyboard?

#46

Post by Tangurena »

I found that the thing that affected my handwriting the worst was when I was studying Japanese. Now my handwriting is close to illegible in both Roman and Japanese scripts.

Writing with a ballpoint, my handwriting gets worse. I've found that I need to use a fountain pen to keep it legible (as long as it stays dry) because those pens require more attention to angle/pressure/etc in order to write. The pen I use is a Namiki retractible, which entertains some folks.

Re: Ask HN: Has your handwriting suffered from years on the keyboard?

#47

Post by eru »

crux wrote: post #11

My handwriting was always pretty bad and erratic; no doubt because I spent most of my time at a keyboard. But a couple years ago I decided to basically engineer myself a style of handwriting, first designing an alphabet, then training myself to use it (and only it). That project has grown to something of a full-fledged writing system. I would recommend to any geeks that they take a couple weeks to work out something…

Incidentally I did something like this back in school to improve my handwriting. At first I stopped connecting letters, but reintroduced some connections later.

Re: Ask HN: Has your handwriting suffered from years on the keyboard?

#48

Post by SapphireSun »

Dilpil wrote: post #26

Taking higher level math classes is a good way to force yourself to maintain good handwriting. You quickly learn that if you want to have any chance of finishing a question, your going to have to write your solution neatly and in easily readable steps.

In high school, I was doing poorly in my freshman math classes partly because I had terrible handwriting and my '6' looked like a 'b'. Try keeping track of your work when you're using the quadratic formula :P

A friendly biology teacher recognized my plight and helped me retrain my handwriting into something legible. It still isn't great, but at least I don't make that mistake anymore.

Re: Ask HN: Has your handwriting suffered from years on the keyboard?

#49

Post by rms »

SapphireSun wrote: post #48
Dilpil wrote: post #26

Taking higher level math classes is a good way to force yourself to maintain good handwriting. You quickly learn that if you want to have any chance of finishing a question, your going to have to write your solution neatly and in easily readable steps.

In high school, I was doing poorly in my freshman math classes partly because I had terrible handwriting and my '6' looked like a 'b'. Try keeping track of your work when you're using the quadratic formula :P A friendly biology teacher recognized my plight and helped me retrain my handwriting into something legible. It still isn't great, but at least I don't make that mistake anymore.

I had to do the same thing in college with t's and +'s, I resisted curling my t's in physics and math class for a while until it was explained to me that everyone did it.

Re: Ask HN: Has your handwriting suffered from years on the keyboard?

#50

Post by mikeyur »

alex_c wrote: post #9

Not really, I've always had terrible handwriting. Never had the patience to do all the silly writing exercises back in grade 1 :p On the other hand, I do all my brainstorming and to-do lists on paper (and occasionally whiteboard), so I don't think I'll ever be completely out of practice.

I'm in the same boat. I remember doing handwriting practice in grade 2 or 3, writing the alphabet out in books. Each letter had to be done 6 times and they all had to look the same. I never bothered with it. I can read handwriting fairly well, but I just can't write. I can force myself to, but it's just an unreadable mess.

My signature is even pretty bad. My name is quite long so I tend to just initial everything - otherwise I feel like a dbag standing there trying to sign something for like 20 seconds.

And in school, all my in-class essays/assignments were printed, any other homework I would just type up.

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