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Writing by hand is good for your brain

nealstephenson.substack.com

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Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#491

Post by why-el »

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…

For sure. The literal first two pages of any book, essentially the back of the cover and the title page, always host a huge list of pages plus summary of something interesting i saw in the book. For instance, it will say something like:

* p85, interesting semaphore usage

or some such. This also condenses the books to important things so I can do a speed read to recall the most important parts.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#492

Post by eggsandbeer »

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…

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Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#493

Post by eggsandbeer »

john_strinlai wrote: post #326
marssaxman wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how are you supposed to know the book has been scribbled on if you buy it online, as you must do for the great majority of used books you might want to acquire?

read the description of the ad when buying. if it doesn't clarify in the description, ask or don't buy.

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Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#494

Post by pclowes »

This is something you don’t need to argue about. You don’t need a cite studies.

The studies are not geared for a sample size of one there is only one you.

Just… Try it.

You can just do things. They don’t have to be rational, the best things rarely are.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#496

Post by Diogenesian »

chupchap wrote: post #477
Diogenesian wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I buy used books: it sucks to see someone else's notes scribbled all over the page. It's like a really annoying guy whispering at you with vapid explanations while you're trying to pay attention to a lecture. "Cross out stuff you disagree with" actually makes me sick. It also seems useless for understanding and retention, since highlighting is almost always misleading and margin notes are almost always empty. If you…

Why do you buy used books? You sound like the person who would prefer new books.

I answered this several times in the thread: almost every book is out of print, including some of my favorites. I would be much more stupid and boring if I only read new books. And of course indicates why scribbling in a book is so terrible: if it's Tolkein or Susan Rice or Chem 101 7th edition then sure, whatever. But a lot of the worst scribbling comes from graduate students who don't value the text they're bloodlessly working through.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#497

Post by nxc18 »

eviks wrote: post #439
nxc18 wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I take notes when typing, I can transcribe the content word-for-word without knowing what I am hearing and without thinking about it. When I hand write, I am generally forced to either slow down and repeat what I am listening/watching (if an option), or actually think about what is being said, and choose the important parts to write down, or rephrase it in a more efficient-to-write way. I am taking a course righ…

If you don't read notes, why waste time making them instead of slowing down even more and spending that extra time/effort on active listening/thinking?

Writing is thinking.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#498

Post by [deleted] »

ekelsen wrote: post #474
Diogenesian wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read two books recently that are out of print. One of them (Georges Rey's Contemporary Philosophy of Mind ) is $150 on Amazon, and out of stock. The other ( Philosophical Grounds of Rationality: Intentions, Categories, and Ends ) isn't on Amazon at all. Used bookstores are the only viable option. Books are treasures. The second book is an enormously valuable source of wisdom. I am glad nobody vandalized that wisdom…

You do realize that in the 1500/1600s when books were incredibly rare and valuable it was extremely common to write in the margins and that such writing is now usually treasured? Also it seems like you can buy the George Rey one for $54 new here https://www.wiley.com/en-us/shop/general-philosophy/contempo... unless you also don't believe in paperbacks. And the other is on amazon _new_ here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/…

[deleted]

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#499

Post by tharkun__ »

nofu7ur3 wrote: post #419
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 abhor highlighting, underlining or writing in books by some previous "reader" as well as by myself. Why? It adds emphasis or de-emphasis which impedes and usually eliminates the process of rediscovery and potentially seeing something in a different light. I prefer my reading to be dynamic and unbiased by other people as well as by myself, whether that's from a few minutes ago or a few years in the past. Commentary,…

Hard agree on highlighting. I never understood it. Well highlighting and also the post-it notes marking of pages. It's just too much. Never worked for me. I only did it when I was forced to by teachers!

But not for the reasons you're stating. It was just more like "unreadable". There would've been essentially a post-it note on every single page. Or I'd highlight like half the page.

It's a bit like bookmarks in browser for me. I started out trying it. Neatly categorizing things in a hierarchy. It just doesn't scale. And I see people like your parent, with elaborate systems of bookmarks and they navigate the hierarchy, failing to find what they need, often giving up on it in the moment, saying they'll "find it later". Dude, guess what we're in a call together right now discussing a topic, either you find it now or never!

On the other hand, I don't bookmark anything at all any longer. But I'd die if I lost my history ;)

As in, I somehow remember the terms to write to find what I need and the browser finds it in the location bar history (made up of actual browser history and bookmarks if I had any of course) but it also applies recency/number of times I used it (I never bothered to look at which of these they actually apply). But I just know all I need to type is `n` and hit enter and based on how often I come here, that's gonna get me to hackernews!

Similarly at work, I remember phrases, parts of ticket summaries or even just the current epic everyone's talking about and I type in the number/summary parts and find what I need.

I could probably spend hours "organizing my bookmarks" (i.e. post-it notes and annotations) but I don't. Never needed it, never made sense, never worked. But it does need to be digital. I'd die if I had to be a 50 years ago librarian!

---

On the actual article though: writing by hand definitely is awesome in general. Learning other languages in school we had to learn the vocabulary by writing translations of terms into books. Often I could tell you that "this is the third word on the second page" but not the actual translation :)

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#500

Post by gtg239a »

mapkkk wrote: post #428
stiglitz wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ll never forget seeing a girl in a cafe highlight, line by line, nearly an entire page of a textbook. Watching the page curl from the wetness, almost as if writhing in pain.

I'll (lightheartedly) come to their defense to say that this is how I and a lot of my peers made it through med school. The wetness of the page indeed unlocked some supressed memories. I think it's a combination of a ritual and some sort of somewhat-more-elevated engagement (or wishing thereof) with the material. Somewhere between meditative ritual and attention aid. I doubt it helped much, if at all - except for Sta…

I remember as an undergrad watching some philosophy majors do this with their reading and their explanation was that it helps them track reading progress. And to your point, that tactile act probably helps a lot with engagement!

The unfortunate part is that you can't then unhighlight a passage.

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