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

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#181

Post by emptybits » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:32 PM UTC

Diogenesian wrote: post #90

pryelluw wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your argument is that in order for you to have a better experience the previous owner should not “ruin” the book for you. I’ve read better arguments on bathroom stalls.

No, my argument is that it's totally obnoxious to lend or resell a book that you've written in, and it's a shallow way of taking notes to begin with. It is precisely what Socrates warned us about.

Aside from shallow, uncritical notes, consider that annotating in a margin is evidence that a reader is actively engaging with a text.

Very often when I write in margins it's to question or argue against what's written (e.g. "really? what about ...", or "no, contradicts ...") which, to me, seems in line with the dialectic process Socrates promoted. Multiple sides, truth-seeking.

Sure, having a spacious notebook on the side is even better. But it's the same goal, isn't it? Engage more deeply with a text and encourage questioning as you read it, while it's still fresh.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#182

Post by ReDress » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:32 PM UTC

More like old habits go hard - heh

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#183

Post by nighteous » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:32 PM UTC

coffeeaddict1 wrote: post #119

> It might then seem reasonable to think that writing with a stylus on an iPad or similar would be best, since no force is needed and friction is minimized. I don’t think this is true. A small amount of friction is actually desirable. I find digital handwriting quite pleasant and almost better than writing on paper. Friction is indeed an issue, but you can just buy a dedicated screen protector to address this problem…

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Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#184

Post by foobarian » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:32 PM UTC

losvedir wrote: post #11

Wow, I can't believe Neal Stephenson of all people writes exclusively by hand. His books are tomes . I totally buy that this is the case for him. I wonder how much is just what he's used to vs what's actually better. I feel like I write so slow compared to how fast I type that I struggle to put the words together on the paper. I can spurt out something with a keyboard 10x as fast, and then re-review and re-organize a…

I wonder if Brandon Sanderson writes by hand :-D

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#185

Post by jambalaya8 » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:35 PM UTC

The_Blade wrote: post #70

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…

Marginalia is the best! I have a handwritten note about Ayn Rand in my 27 year old copy of Enchridion, a great reminder that she is like chicken pox, better catch her as early as possible. And several books such as I Claudius held together with duct tape. And soy sauce stains in Gargantua and Pantagruel from the place my grad school gf worked. Those count. A bit of irony, going through old stuff I found a copy of Nea…

Geez, if she is like chicken pox, what do we get that is like shingles later? :/

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#186

Post by hungryhobbit » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:35 PM UTC

citizenpaul wrote: post #108

mbreese wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Knowing that makes a lot of sense. Sometimes his prose can read like a sentence that was started but he’s too much effort in to give up on. It probably helps his writing to do it by hand - you can’t edit quickly on the fly with paper (unless you’re cutting stuff out). I could see this as being part of his process - just write and let the editing happen later. Whatever the process it is, long as his books may be, it w…

This actually explains why I've never been able to get into his writing despite rave reviews and countless recommendations by people I know. Something about his writing always just felt tedious to me. Im an avid reader btw.

His earlier stuff was much better. If you tried Snow Crash or Diamond Age and didn't like them, he's not the author for you, but if you tried his more recent crap like Anathem I would strongly advise you not to judge him based on it.

Give his earlier works a try and you may find he used to be able to write well (ie. he used to actually edit his work), before he stopped caring and just wrote 1000 pages of unfiltered garbage.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#187

Post by achrono » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:37 PM UTC

Well, sorry but look at the methodology on this. The study the post leans on did not study learning. 36 adults went around copying familiar words, and their "typing" is key presses using one index finger (!).

I'm afraid this one's close to going down the replication crisis whirlpool. According to Sol:

"Direct replications found no reliable learning advantage, while a 2024 meta-analysis found only a *small* handwriting benefit but a far larger typing advantage in information captured."

Typed Versus Handwritten Lecture Notes and College Student Achievement: A Meta-Analysis” by Abraham E. Flanigan and colleagues, published in Educational Psychology Review on July 12, 2024

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#188

Post by andruby » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:37 PM UTC

hungryhobbit wrote: post #169

I incredibly well written, and I'd strongly recommend them. But Cryptonomicon started to go in the wrong direction (though it was still good), and after that he completely lost me by writing 1000 page books that require you to learn half of an entirely new language he made up! His success seems to have made him completely lose the magic (of writing well ) that he once had. As such, I'd take any advice he gives with a…

Me too. I love Snow Crash and re-read it recently. I started Cryptonomicon, but didn't even get 1/4th before giving up.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#189

Post by chermi » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:38 PM UTC

I am really trying to get everything digital. But I much prefer writing by hand, especially when doing math. I got Samsung s10+ and have 2 problems: the pen is too damn small and my handwriting sucks for recognition so it's mostly PDFs for now instead of fully digitized. Anyone have similar problems with solution?

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#190

Post by tdesilva » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 5:39 PM UTC

coffeeaddict1 wrote: post #119

> It might then seem reasonable to think that writing with a stylus on an iPad or similar would be best, since no force is needed and friction is minimized. I don’t think this is true. A small amount of friction is actually desirable. I find digital handwriting quite pleasant and almost better than writing on paper. Friction is indeed an issue, but you can just buy a dedicated screen protector to address this problem…

Yeah especially for doing math, I've found it's really helpful that I can just select some equations I wrote and shift them down (or insert more space). It helps with adding derivations or additional notes after the fact.

However I'm considering moving back to handwritten notebooks for some things, purely due to the simplicity (no worry about battery life, technical issues, or the difficulty in switching back and forth between my book reader and my notes app).