Writing by hand is good for your brain • Hacker News Board

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#151

Post by threetonesun » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:12 PM UTC

mbreese wrote: post #62

neovive wrote: post #59

I'm curious about everyone's opinion on writing "by hand" with a stylus on tablets like the Remarkable, Kindle Scribe, iPad+Pencil, etc. I like sketching and outlining with pencil and paper, but my handwritten notes are often illegible and disorganized. I know it's partly process and my poor penmanship, but digital surfaces compensate for this with built-in organization, searchability, and easier integration into pro…

My handwriting is roughly legible on paper (but getting worse). It is the same on an iPad+pencil with a Paperlike screen cover. It was impossible to read on my Remarkable 2 - the resolution just isn’t there for me. I think it’s important to have that friction between the stylus and the screen. And if you have that, I am pretty happy with notes on either my iPad or paper.

I found the Paperlike to be worse than the iPad screen alone, but I've been happy with the Astropad Rock Paper Pencil as it comes with a replacement tip for the Apple Pencil that has a metal tip and generates some noticeable friction.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#152

Post by brian-dewey » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:12 PM UTC

computerdork wrote: post #46

erickhill wrote: post #6

This is why I use a reMarkable tablet for my notes. I noticed a few years ago that when I wrote down my notes I actually remembered them more easily. Something about the hand/brain connection helped etch my thoughts more deeply. I still use Apple Notes, but more as a place to store copy/paste info I want to save or checklists. But for meeting or game design notes? Writing those down 100%.

How is the remarkable at converting handwritten notes into text? Especially so that you can search over it? Yeah, I used to handwrite my notes on paper back in the day, and still do for a couple of important topics, but switched over to putting things in Evernote several years ago. The reason is actually do need to do searches over them quite often, and it’s obviously very difficult to do with handwritten documents.

I don't know about reMarkable but LLMs are good at recognizing handwriting from photos. I wrote an iOS app to do this for my handwritten diaries, but it works for any handwritten paper: https://inksightful.app/

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#153

Post by thi2 » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:13 PM UTC

postalcoder wrote: post #20

A corollary to this is, when reading books, mark them up! Don’t be precious with them. Destroy the spine so it’s easier to read, fold pages, write the important stuff inside the front cover of the book. Cross out stuff you disagree with, draw a big circles around the stuff that resonates. Not only does it make consumption a lot more engaging, it makes a revisit of that book extremely rewarding. Don’t get caught up tr…

I started doing this in cookbooks, less of this, this needs longer time in the oven, etc.

The first time it felt like a crime.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#154

Post by ourmandave » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC

Decent article.

No notes.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#155

Post by brian-dewey » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC

As some have noted, if you like writing by hand for all of the benefits listed in this article but also want a digital copy for search, taking a photo and having an LLM read your handwriting works really well.

To streamline this process I wrote an iOS app that does exactly this. I used it to digitize my handwritten diaries, but it works for any handwritten paper.

https://inksightful.app/

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#156

Post by pjmorris » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:16 PM UTC

yulker wrote: post #142

HumblyTossed wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Carry a notebook. Long after you’ve given the book away, you’ll always have your notes.

why not both? mark up the book while you're reading, reflect in your notebook on what you read

Exactly. Personally, I gravitate toward book and topic-specific notes and highlights in the book itself and use the notebook for bigger-picture things for which book references play some role. I do a lot of highlighting in ebooks and lately I've started using LogSeq. I'll pull quotes from books into LogSeq and then tag them with whatever #bigger-picture topic I deem relevant, mimicking what I do on paper.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#157

Post by jambalaya8 » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:16 PM UTC

glaslong wrote: post #99

postalcoder wrote: post #20

A corollary to this is, when reading books, mark them up! Don’t be precious with them. Destroy the spine so it’s easier to read, fold pages, write the important stuff inside the front cover of the book. Cross out stuff you disagree with, draw a big circles around the stuff that resonates. Not only does it make consumption a lot more engaging, it makes a revisit of that book extremely rewarding. Don’t get caught up tr…

I _love_ buying a used book and finding a previous reader's notes in the margins. It's the greatest. A tiny glimpse into a stranger's thinking as they processed the same pages I just did. Thoughts they may never have shared anywhere else, that may not have made sense to anyone anywhere else. A secret code only for people who just read the last few pages. Shockingly intimate.

Nothing quite the same as making scientific conjectures in your marginalia or jotting down ideas in books and then having strangers find them and reinterpret them their own way.

These were fun to find in college bookstores every semester. Not a fan of "highlight it all" but the occasional enlightened soul with a scientific bent.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#158

Post by _alternator_ » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:17 PM UTC

otterpro wrote: post #49

> you’re going to get tired faster if your muscles have to exert more force I like to handwrite, but my right hand gets tired very fast, especially as I got older. I write almost a shorthand style, and it is hard to read, but I value speed of writing things down versus the neatness or readability afterward. The author recommends fountain pen or gel rollerball pen, which I have both tried. Does anyone have any other a…

Clench the other fist while writing. This loosens the writing hand. Something in the subconscious releases tension in the other hand. It's a trick I've used with reasonable success and it's immediately effective. It does require a bit of conscious effort, but overall it's a great hack.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#159

Post by grayrest » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:18 PM UTC

qiller wrote: post #73

Always found that writing stuff down helps me to remember things better, whether studying something, prepping for an exam, or in general. Didn't even matter if I didn't look at those notes again, it just got "stored" better. Didn't know he is a lefty too! Fountain pens + lefty is a tough combo; we had to use fountain pens in the 1st grade and my wrist was always stained on the side. Agree with the rollerball angle, P…

I noticed this as well and the question caused me to go pretty deep into writing in general.

Switched to a 36 key ergo split with a tweaked alpha-thumb layout (R is on my left thumb, Space is on the right, base layout is Hands Down Vibranium V). Started learning Pitman shorthand (again) then switched to Noory Simplex and stuck with it. Became fascinated with Zaner's Method of cursive where the writing is done entirely through arm movement and using the rhythm of the muscle movement instead of by conscious control over the pen position. At the moment I can write at about 100wpm on a keyboard, 70wpm in shorthand, and 26wpm longhand.

I believe that the improved ability to learn comes from the need to focus on a concept for longer while writing and not on the motion of the writing itself. My ability to retain is better in cursive than in shorthand and I don't notice a significant difference in retention between keyboard and shorthand.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#160

Post by Jtsummers » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:18 PM UTC

the_af wrote: post #149

postalcoder wrote: post #20

A corollary to this is, when reading books, mark them up! Don’t be precious with them. Destroy the spine so it’s easier to read, fold pages, write the important stuff inside the front cover of the book. Cross out stuff you disagree with, draw a big circles around the stuff that resonates. Not only does it make consumption a lot more engaging, it makes a revisit of that book extremely rewarding. Don’t get caught up tr…

> Cross out stuff you disagree with, draw a big circles around the stuff that resonates. I hate it when people do this. Please don't. If you must, do it sparingly and for the love of all that's good please do not cross out words or sentences. The only thing I can forgive is people who quote a particular paragraph they liked about the book in one of the first pages where there's enough blank space. It's a personal tou…

> But please, do not ruin the book for me by scribbling all over it.

How would someone writing in their copy of a book impact your ability to enjoy your own copy? Relax, it's their property and it's not criminal, so let them do what they want instead of trying to dictate rules.