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

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#261

Post by dSebastien » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 6:37 PM UTC

postalcoder wrote: post #48

dSebastien wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better yet, take actual notes abd give yourself space to think: https://www.dsebastien.net/2022-02-17-how-to-capture-book-no...

Eep, I guess it depends on what kind of learner you are. For me, the notes being in the book, and the book being somewhere on my shelf spatially encodes it into my mind. Offloading things into a centralized store according to a system not only causes me anxiety but it doesn’t have the same spatial kick.

I agree with the spatial memory and the many possible and valid ways to approach reading and learning. But it's much harder to recall, connect and leverage ideas that way

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#262

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 6:38 PM UTC

Diogenesian wrote: post #252

john_strinlai wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it was funny seeing this right below the comment saying " I _love_ buying a used book and finding a previous reader's notes in the margins. It's the greatest. ". different strokes. if you want to ensure you don't get sick from a line being crossed out, buy new.

This is so condescending. The reason I buy used is that the overwhelming majority of books are out of print and not available digitally. Which makes the vandalism especially egregious!

[deleted]

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#263

Post by dSebastien » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 6:38 PM UTC

coffeeindex wrote: post #134

bodge5000 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mean this with any disrespect, but people love to find ways to overcomplicate things that work perfectly well. And maybe for some reason that overcomplicated version works better, but for many it's at best a waste of time, at worst an active distraction from the thing your trying to do.

Agreed. The important thing is to find something that works perfectly for you. Oftentimes I think people find their own perfect system and conflate it with being the perfect system.

True :)

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#264

Post by ex-aws-dude » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 6:39 PM UTC

doug_durham wrote: post #174

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 so don't have time to revisit books that I've already read. I'd probably be embarrassed by my earlier naiveté.

Yeah I don’t understand highlighting/marking up books

Who actually has time to go back and look at that?

It’s like taking photos of fireworks

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#265

Post by burgreblast » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 6:40 PM UTC

rectang wrote: post #176

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…

"Write by hand and mark up your books" is excellent advice... that I no longer follow. Marking up books didn't come naturally to me, but I did it for a while. Paper books are just decaying bundles of plant fiber — and the ideas within them are likewise ephemeral. The illusion of permanence must be confronted and reckoned with. But for the last 15-20 years, I have been taking notes in text files that are saved to vers…

> Paper books are just decaying bundles of plant fiber

Enjoy notes the way you want!

But when I re-read a book I’ve previously annotated, I get a rush of the time and place it happened, 20 years later. It’s crazy.

We are tactile beings who exist and connect in 3D space and brains remember ideas in locations.

I love files. But I think strong entities are trying to rip control away, with stupid consequences like making .txt obsolete.

Books have a good chance outlast a)mediums and b)formats. They have a good track record. Check back in 5000 years.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#266

Post by philipallstar » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 6:40 PM UTC

I really like this talk[0] by Big Suze from Peep Show on how children learn better with physical writing than with typing.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V6nucKFK88

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#267

Post by gghackernewsgg » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 6:40 PM UTC

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #233

I've always been pretty skeptical of the data which says handwriting is better for learning than typing. Yes, handwriting causes more brain activity, but just because your brain is doing more does not mean it's doing the right thing! For example, if I asked you to code FizzBuzz while riding a unicycle, I'm pretty sure you would show more brain activity than if you were just sitting at a desk. This does not mean it's…

This is how it was explained to me by a tutor: handwriting is better for learning because it's slower. The need for brevity forces you to mentally engage the material in ways that are more conducive to understanding and recall.

If you can replicate that mental engagement while typing, you'd probably get similar results.

This makes a lot of sense to me in light of what we know about how learning happens. I have never seen any research on brain activity though, and my tutor didn't cite any.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#268

Post by crashbunny » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 6:42 PM UTC

I've always love stationery. Over the years I've looked up pen reviews and tried out many different types including fountain pens.

I watched a video recently from someone, from memory the creator behind the youtube channel vsauce. Very briefly, he lost some notes to water. His words, thoughts and ideas vanished. His solution was switching to pencil.

I found the interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfY2JACiDGU

I'm addicted to people talking about pens and pencils. Adam Savage also has done a few videos on his favourite mechanical pencil.

Apparently Stephenson loves fountain pens and reluctantly gel pens. In general, those are water based inks and will wash away with water. There are one or two fountain pen inks designed to be more permanent and won't wash away with water.

Just something to keep in mind if you're currently writing or want to start.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#269

Post by nbernard » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 6:42 PM UTC

edude03 wrote: post #214

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. > Not only does it make consumption a lot more engaging, it makes a revisit of that book extremely rewarding This is actually the biggest reason I own a Remarkable 2/Kindle Scribe, let's me "destroy" the book while also not having to worry about losing my notes.

> This is actually the biggest reason I own a Remarkable 2/Kindle Scribe, let's me "destroy" the book while also not having to worry about losing my notes.

Well... I'm mostly back to paper after losing most of the notes I had taken on my own Remarkable 2.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#270

Post by Barrin92 » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 6:42 PM UTC

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #253

Barrin92 wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>your brain is doing more does not mean it's doing the right thing! the thing it's doing when writing with your hand is fine motor control, one of the most important and distinguishing abilities that humans have. I tutor in a makerspace and one thing I've observed it's that it's now easier to teach old people how to solder than younger kids, and that in my experience has never been the case before. Due to growing up…

I agree that fine motor control is important, I just don't think forcing people (especially kids) to write by hand is necessarily the best way to do it. For example, if the kids went to your makerspace, they could learn fine motor control and probably enjoy themselves more. Forcing people to handwrite both makes writing more laborious and takes away from what is actually important in writing, which is forming your th…

>from what is actually important in writing, which is forming your thoughts

for one it's not clear to that this is what is actually important in writing or unrelated. That's just a bias in a culture that systematically neglects embodied practice.

In Japan there's an increasing phenomenon of Kanji-illiteracy among the young. Turns out there is a close connection between writing them out, the order of strokes and the physical activity and the memorizing of meaning of the Kanji, just passive observation or digital input can't replicate. There's a reason calligraphy is such an important tradition. There's an inherent connection from your hand, to your working memory to the processing of symbolic meaning.

This mirrors the discourse you see in math. "Rote memorization, writing equations, isn't important, you need to be able to think" turns out it really isn't and countries that teach traditionally excel at math. We live in an educational culture of thinking-pilled people who disregard the physical world and practice with abysmal results.