Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Writing by hand is good for your brain

nealstephenson.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

501–510 of 708 posts

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#501

Post by mimo84 »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #481

Anecdotally I find I connect more with what I write by pen as well. Ultimately I want things to in text documents though (typst for me these days). If there was a non-slopware solution to ocr scanning to a typst doc, I would do it a lot more .

I have been using LLMs for this and they excel and understanding my very poor calligraphy. All I do I take photos of the pages I wrote by hand, and then ask the LLM to convert those notes to markdown and convert any diagrams that I might have to mermaidjs style, and worked wonders for me.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#502

Post by mimo84 »

I have been experimenting with more hand writing notes as well. What I have been finding is better retention and more focus on what is that I'm following, wether is a book or a meeting.

I recently also started to review flashcards by printing the cards due today and writing down the answer opposed to reviewing them on a screen, and I have noticed a much higher retention as I am not distracted by the mere presence of the device.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#503

Post by [deleted] »

somenameforme wrote: post #103
jMyles wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> bathroom stalls That's like, elite literary territory though. Let's stick to the discussion on books.

The first time I read "this sentence is false" it was scrawled in a bathroom stall in the philosophy department. Seemed appropriate. Left me wondering how many other people had also sat there pondering it for a few moments, certainly more than that had called that number for a good time.

[deleted]

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#504

Post by LAC-Tech »

mimo84 wrote: post #501
LAC-Tech wrote: post #481

Anecdotally I find I connect more with what I write by pen as well. Ultimately I want things to in text documents though (typst for me these days). If there was a non-slopware solution to ocr scanning to a typst doc, I would do it a lot more .

I have been using LLMs for this and they excel and understanding my very poor calligraphy. All I do I take photos of the pages I wrote by hand, and then ask the LLM to convert those notes to markdown and convert any diagrams that I might have to mermaidjs style, and worked wonders for me.

Hmmm - I guess all the "chatbot" web interfaces for LLMs have an option to upload images. And they're really good at this now you say? That's a really useful tip; thanks.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#505

Post by anon-3988 »

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 pretty easy to prove via experiment, no?

1. Pick any topic,

2. purely reading,

3. try to write about it

I find myself "thinking" I understood something a lot more than I want to admit.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#506

Post by 0xff2109 »

> I want to again live in a world where application developers use public, community driven standards to create interoperable applications with common data standards.

Has this ever been the case?

Also common data standards in a way restrict innovation when the standard body can't move fast enough.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#507

Post by ehnto »

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 hear you, some books are precious on a personal level but most books are made to be used, worn, enjoyed, thrown in backpacks etc.

I can understand the used book experience gets ruined a bit, but to be frank I didn't buy the book for someone else, and they made tens of thousands of copies. I'm going to dogear the pages, write notes where I want and generally utilize the book.

I feel the same about most things to be fair, I love seeing the wear marks and signs of life and use on items. Nothing lasts forever, and it's nice when you can see the stories told by an object by it's scars.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#508

Post by tim-projects »

criddell wrote: post #106
tim-projects wrote: post #101

I'd rather learn a language than write with a pen. In my life at least, writing with a pen is now depreceated. Maybe writing left handed would be worth it but I can't think of another good reason to bring it back.

Why would I ride my bicycle anywhere when I have a car?

Not sure the intent of the question. Is the pen the car or the bicycle?

To me bicycles are for health and for short distances. Cars are for heavy objects and long distances.

I used to ride bicycles to the train station, then get a train to another city and ride it on the other side. Which kind of alters that.

Essentially for me at least, bicycles and cars have entirely different uses.

A pen on the other hand, is just a worse version of a keyboard. Unless I'm signing a document. Though as the years pass, that is increasingly done digitally and often doesn't even involve hand movements that anywhere near resemble pen use.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#509

Post by annzabelle »

crazygringo wrote: post #476
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…

When I hand write taking notes, I am indeed forced to slow down, and it's maddening. I'm busy trying to figure out how to condense the ideas into something I can quickly write, and in the meantime the lecturer is continuing and I've missed something important they've just said. I genuinely do not understand how people find it helps them to handwrite notes in a lecture. If I type on my laptop, I can do that "mindlessl…

Writing notes by hand feels like it etches the concepts into my brain in a way that listening alone does not. Typing does not have the same feel.

I have never learned how to do something substantially difficult (math, foreign language, any science, or memorizing a substantial amount of content for a humanities course) without handwriting it. I remember in 8th grade latin, I copied down conjugation charts onto a chalkboard over and over until I had them memorized.

I cannot do university level mathematics without writing it down by hand.

My typing is much better than my penmanship, but it doesn't tend to make topics stick in my brain in the same way that handwriting them does.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#510

Post by QuercusMax »

Diogenesian wrote: post #414
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…

For myself, a significant difference is that writing a single word longhand "feels like" a single long unified action whereas typing a word "feels like" several short distinct actions. The motor-sensory action of writing matches that of speaking a bit more closely than typing, especially if you're a scribbler. OTOH I suspect typing is better cognitively for transcriptions, meeting minutes, etc., where deep understand…

As a pianist, typing a word kinda feels like playing a phrase on piano, which isn't that different from writing a word by hand. I suspect this is highly dependent on your experience.
Post reply on HN