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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

#601

Post by pims »

qiller wrote: post #213
pyrophane wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've thought about how hard it must be to be a lefty fountain pen user. What is one to do? Learn to write without resting your hand on the page?

Actually, paper orientation was a big help too. Used to tilt the sheet so you write almost bottom-to-top, that way you at least don't smuge the writing right away, and hopefully the ink dries quick enough for the next line

I'm left-handed and always tilt paper at least 45° clockwise, effectively writing from below. Never had any smudging issues, even with fountain pens, as my hand simply never goes over any ink. Left-handed people who write from above by bending their wrist have always confused me, as it's both less comfortable and does not completely avoid smudges.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#604

Post by jagadaga »

Another article from that substack.com - this website has terrible UI, please stop using it. And I noticed that usually if an author uses substack - the article quality is bad.

Regarding the topic - "more brain activity/connectivity" does not automatically prove better long-term intelligence or brain health.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#606

Post by Diogenesian »

jibal wrote: post #547
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…

No one is forcing you to buy books that have been scribbled in. If someone buys a book then they own it and can do what they want with it, without concern that maybe some day they will sell it and some narcissistic rando will resent them for what they have done with their own property.

"narcissistic rando" half of these replies are making personal attacks. Knock it off.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#607

Post by Diogenesian »

jibal wrote: post #552
Diogenesian wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

Learn what words mean. That comment is not remotely condescending, and scribbling in one's own book (with no indication here that the owner intends to sell it) is not vandalism. Oh, I recognize your name ... wrong about so many things. From another one of your comments here: > No, my argument is that it's totally obnoxious to lend or resell a book that you've written in But the person who advocated for writing in one…

Responding to you again to tell you to stop making personal attacks. I flagged your other comment. Stuff like this is why people leave HN.

It seems like me insisting that LLMs are stochastic parrots [presumably that's what you're mad about] is beginning to draw personal attacks on totally unrelated threads. Happens a lot. I used to have an account here with my name on it. HN is simply not a safe place to disagree with prevailing tech ideology.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#608

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

pims wrote: post #601
qiller wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, paper orientation was a big help too. Used to tilt the sheet so you write almost bottom-to-top, that way you at least don't smuge the writing right away, and hopefully the ink dries quick enough for the next line

I'm left-handed and always tilt paper at least 45° clockwise, effectively writing from below. Never had any smudging issues, even with fountain pens, as my hand simply never goes over any ink. Left-handed people who write from above by bending their wrist have always confused me, as it's both less comfortable and does not completely avoid smudges.

You meant counterclockwise, I guess? Because clockwise would mean to write from above, not below?

Interested because my son is learning to write and is the only leftie in the family, so I struggle to help him.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#609

Post by iammjm »

amai wrote: post #589

But how do you convert your handwritten notes into Markdown blog posts or LaTeX or Typst? Can multimodal LLMs do that?

Claude is great at that. I have a custom /skill in obsidian which OCRs and then reads and corrects the output. It gets like 95%+ of my notes right, and my handwriting is rather abhorrent

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#610

Post by iammjm »

mindfulbun wrote: post #337

I love handwriting. I do daily logs of my workday. I just write what’s happening, what I’m doing during the day, what tasks are coming in, and so on. Surprisingly, it works well for a person with ADHD. It’s a method to ground myself and avoid slipping into ADHD hyperfocus. The only problem I have is doing it comfortably. My desk is cluttered with a keyboard, laptop, and monitor. There’s barely any room to write with…

You need more desk space, you need mega desk: https://youtu.be/nwoIJxDRu8M?is=P5Z1Zi4qas1Wi2BM
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