Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning

I was late to this game of "going backwards" to improve my memory and understanding of what I read and wrote. Being raised by two technologically forward engineers, we jumped on the palm-pilot/laptops/tablets/phones/e-readers bandwagon very early.

5 years ago I started turning back to calligraphy, fountain pens, and hand writing. I buy books and fill up my bookshelf. It wasn't just for the memory recall, it was the pleasantness of writing.

I can't begin to tell you just how wonderful it is to write with a nice fountain pen. This was the culmination of writing instruments prior to the bastardization caused by modern cheap pens/pencils. I heartily recommend folks pick up an affordable Parker pen or similar and try it. It's also a great stress reliever to just free form thoughts onto a page, and you'll remember what your wrote later in the day!

One other bonus, your handwriting improves. I had to fill out some government forms recently. The online forms were cutting off any addresses longer than 24 characters, so I filled it out by hand. Went into the offices to submit and after the clerk saw my papers they went, "oh my goodness, you have incredible handwriting!"

Besides the learning, recall, etc, there are so many side benefits. Read and write physically y'all!

> Anyone else remember less from reading an ebook compared to a physical one? [...] But in a physical book, I often remember that a phrase was at the top or middle or left side of a page, or that I was sitting in a particular chair when I read it.

This seems weird to me. Does your ebook reader not have a "page" concept? I read China Mieville's Kraken on a Rakuten Kobo about 6 months ago and I distinctly remember the layout of the page where the protagonist does something that shows the culmination of his personal growth throughout the novel, or the page where you find out who is burning the past and why. I also remember distinctly where I was sitting when I read both of those passages.

The biggest difference between the eBook and physical book experiences for me is the smell--I miss the smell of the binding glue when cracking open a new book, or the pleasantly-stale paper smell of an old library book. I'm not saying that the eBook and physical book experiences are equivalent at all. I'm just saying the specific examples you're pointing out seem odd to me.

I'm also highly skeptical of the observations that come from a mind perceiving itself; one of the most striking takeaways from all the neuroscience I've read in the past few decades is that a lot of previous philosophy and psychology theory on how the brain works based on self-perception is blatantly just wrong.

When I remember passages from books I definitely recall whether it was on the left or right leaf, top or bottom or center, and roughly how far through the book it was. If I read it on an e-reader I may have some recall of the vertical positioning but nothing else.

I can take a book from a shelf that I only read once years ago and find a specific passage in a minute or two using this approach. For an ebook I have to try to remember a phrase and search for it, which doesn't always work if I remember just the physicality and sense of it, but not the specific phrasing.

Very interesting!

Is there a particular Parker model you’d recommend?

I rarely end up reading what I write or take down in notes it’s mostly a form of recitation for me, what did I remember and how did I structure it in my brain -