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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

#641

Post by toxik »

lsaret1257 wrote: post #634

I have used fountain pens for the past 30 years. To me, writing with a good fountain, pen and quality paper feels like an air hockey puck floating on an air hockey table, smooth and effortless, and it allows me to get into the zone and think much better than I can by typing and to a lesser extent writing with other types of pens. Whenever I have something really important that requires deep thought I always use fount…

My big problem with the fountain pens is that the ink evaporates over a few weeks. Like bone dry, needs a refill.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#642

Post by toxik »

pyrophane wrote: post #128
qiller wrote: post #73

Always found that writing stuff down helps me to remember things better, whether studying something, prepping for an exam, or in general. Didn't even matter if I didn't look at those notes again, it just got "stored" better. Didn't know he is a lefty too! Fountain pens + lefty is a tough combo; we had to use fountain pens in the 1st grade and my wrist was always stained on the side. Agree with the rollerball angle, P…

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?

I think I would write mirrored. Especially in this day and age, there is no reason to write LTR over RTL by hand. You basically never have to write legibly for official reasons.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#643

Post by criddell »

tim-projects wrote: post #508
criddell wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Riding a bicycle is good for your body.

Writing by hand is good for your brain.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#644

Post by Hendrikto »

tharkun__ wrote: post #499
nofu7ur3 wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 browse…

> Hard agree on highlighting. I never understood it. […] It's just too much. Never worked for me. I only did it when I was forced to by teachers!

> There would've been essentially a post-it note on every single page. Or I'd highlight like half the page.

That just means you are not good at highlighting. Which is likely why your teachers wanted you to practice it.

If you highlight half the page, I totally understand why it never worked for you and you did not get it.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#645

Post by lsaret1257 »

toxik wrote: post #641
lsaret1257 wrote: post #634

I have used fountain pens for the past 30 years. To me, writing with a good fountain, pen and quality paper feels like an air hockey puck floating on an air hockey table, smooth and effortless, and it allows me to get into the zone and think much better than I can by typing and to a lesser extent writing with other types of pens. Whenever I have something really important that requires deep thought I always use fount…

My big problem with the fountain pens is that the ink evaporates over a few weeks. Like bone dry, needs a refill.

If you use cartridges, you might try buying a converter and using bottled ink. Takes about 10 seconds to fill and the flushing of the pen by filling makes it right smoother longer before having to flush out with water. I’ve only had that happen when I left a pen for several months and forgot about it. An incidental benefit, as there is an almost infinite variety of types and colors of inks. If you go to a site like jet pens, or Goulet pens, they have a whole range of inks you can choose from

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#646

Post by CodesInChaos »

nxc18 wrote: post #497
eviks wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Writing is a distraction from thinking.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#647

Post by 3abiton »

Retr0id wrote: post #639
haritha-j wrote: post #624

The core idea is really solid, but isnt half the article about finidng the right type of paper and taking care of fountain pens? I don't think my setup (free notebooks from events + ballpoint pens) will reduce yourt brain activity compared to a fancy fountain pen and fancy italian paper.

I can write code just fine on a random Dell membrane keyboard I got for free, but it's much more satisfying to use a mechanical keyboard. It seems like the same idea applied to hand writing, and I think you're more likely to do more of something if it's enjoyable.

I wonder to what extent these habits or quirks are self-learned or "self-imposed" (probably the wrong word). I guess, it gets us in the comfort zone to free up our brain energy to perform more important tasks.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#648

Post by CodesInChaos »

nextlevelwizard wrote: post #631
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…

Anecdotally from only place where I have experienced both. When playing TTRPGs like Dungeon & Dragons when people fill their character sheets by hand they tend to remember their abilities, features, and spells much better than people who use a fillable PDF and print it out. Even same person with fillable sheet will have to read through it constantly versus them writing it up by hand. Probably chunk of that is copying…

When designing a character on a computer, you play around with many options, until you settle on one of them. Since you did exactly the same thing for all those variants, it's difficult to remember which one you ultimately picked. Writing down the final result by hand helps distinguish it from the alternatives in your mind.

That's very different from academic lectures, where you are directly told the facts, and not a multitude of equally valid alternatives.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#649

Post by alexpotato »

Wacom tablets come with a stylus that simulates a pencil lead.

It actually wears down over time which may sound like a bug/trying to get you to buy more but I have to say that it really does feel like using a pen. There is just enough drag to give you the sense of moving without it feeling like drawing on glass (like an iPad).

A lot of people reading this may say "But I'm a SWE, not an artist. Why would I ever need this?" My response is that if you ever used a whiteboard and now you work remotely, you would be surprised how much faster meetings can go when you can quickly draw out a data flow. I'm a DevOps/SRE and I've also used it during outages to explain to management or other teams "ok, here is how it's supposed to work and here is what's broken"

If you get one, I highly recommend the Medium [0]. The Small is very portable but feels a bit cramped and the Large is too big for someone who isn't using it all the time. The Medium is just big enough to be comfortable but easy to put aside when you are using the keyboard.

0 - https://amzn.to/4bbT6lM

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#650

Post by wodenokoto »

Since this is more about tools than the purpose I’d like to add my favorites:

Pilot friction pens - the four color versions. I find multicolored notes great and they are erasable.

Muji spine notebooks - hit the perfect balance between cheap and nice to write on. For me, a moleskin becomes “too nice to waste on this meeting” - the spine version lays flat and it is easy to rip out a paper if someone needs a sheet or you are really unhappy to keep some scribbles around.

It scores bonus point for cardboard cover making it easy to write on the outside

Added bonus points for no spills, blobs or airplane worries.

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