A lesson in the lost technology of shorthand (2014)
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A lesson in the lost technology of shorthand (2014)
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Re: A lesson in the lost technology of shorthand (2014)
#2Should include 2014 in the title.
Re: A lesson in the lost technology of shorthand (2014)
#3Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7961385
Top comment starts "While Gregg shorthand is great for English, its not much use for anything technical", which was a timely intervention to stop me running off and implementing a drop-in replacement for the Android keyboard!
Re: A lesson in the lost technology of shorthand (2014)
#4Just a side point from the last line of this article: shorthand (and "cursive") is specifically adapted to the fountain pen: the strokes are continuous and drawn (i.e. you never push the pen, only pull it). Even with a pencil or ball point/byro if you pull rather than push you end up with a much more readable handwriting.
And a 10% improvement is YUGE when you have to write everything by hand and there are no copiers!
Re: A lesson in the lost technology of shorthand (2014)
#5Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7961385 Top comment starts "While Gregg shorthand is great for English, its not much use for anything technical", which was a timely intervention to stop me running off and implementing a drop-in replacement for the Android keyboard!
This might interest you instead: http://www.alysion.org/handy/handywrite.htm
Relies entirely on phonetic representations, so it can represent just about anything.
Re: A lesson in the lost technology of shorthand (2014)
#6Shorthand is a fantastic skill to learn, and I really need to learn it.
People get annoyed when you are taking notes on a laptop in meetings. It's just a human psychology thing. You seem otherwise engaged. Even if you're fully engaged in the conversation. There's just some hardwired human aversion to believing you're paying attention when you're pecking away.
So being able to attend meetings the old fashioned way, with a pen and paper, is a really good tactic. Bonus: it actually stands out now, and in a good way. You come across as more serious and diligent for whatever reason.
Re: A lesson in the lost technology of shorthand (2014)
#7You could 'roll your own' with Dutton Speedwords and some selfchosen vocabulary, it also works with plain alphanumeric keyboard entry. If you realy want to enter text query Plover stenotype on youtube or our fav search engine
Re: A lesson in the lost technology of shorthand (2014)
#8One of the main reasons I write in Gregg is that I can take critical notes during meetings that I'd rather nobody else be able to read.
Re: A lesson in the lost technology of shorthand (2014)
#9A couple years ago, I learned to read/write Quikscript, which was indirectly inspired by shorthand systems (George Bernard Shaw knew phoneticist Henry Sweet and Pitman shorthand, and endowed an effort at script reform in his will). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quikscript
It's harder than you might think to read English in a different script; we have learned through great effort how to read and write the conventional orthography. Writing—and especially deciphering the writing—is laborious and slow without a lot, a lot, of practice. Plus, writing phonemically made my spelling worse ;)
Re: A lesson in the lost technology of shorthand (2014)
#10Just a side point from the last line of this article: shorthand (and "cursive") is specifically adapted to the fountain pen: the strokes are continuous and drawn (i.e. you never push the pen, only pull it). Even with a pencil or ball point/byro if you pull rather than push you end up with a much more readable handwriting. And a 10% improvement is YUGE when you have to write everything by hand and there are no copiers…
Plus, you can even learn to spell huge with an h ...