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Handwriting vs. typing: is the pen still mightier than the keyboard?

theguardian.com

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Re: Handwriting vs. typing: is the pen still mightier than the keyboard?

#11

Post by ohquu »

Xcelerate wrote: post #4

I can't stand writing. It's slow and it's messy, and I can't read a lot of other people's handwriting. I write about 30 words per minute and I type 167 wpm. Perhaps there are some cognitive benefits but I'm willing to give them up in exchange for the ease of getting my thoughts down quickly. The only case that I still prefer handwriting is doing math. It's much easier for me to write out equations and "explore" thing…

What are you typing at 167 wpm? I played on typeracer.com and topped out around 130 wpm.

Re: Handwriting vs. typing: is the pen still mightier than the keyboard?

#12

Post by adwf »

I've got two points to consider with this:

1) On a proper keyboard, I'm faster typing than writing. But on a "soft" keyboard like a tablet/phone (which I'm more likely to have with me), I'm much slower. This is probably due to a combination of inherent response times in the screen, and some increased degree of lag between keystrokes to aid touch detection.

2) When writing, I can easily jot down things like rough graphs to accompany data. Or rough layouts of a webpage to accompany the copy. I can quickly circle a block of text and draw an arrow to another block with a note about why they are linked. Whilst typing is faster for block text, I have yet to find an app that can even come remotely close to the ease of pen and paper for these quick sketches.

EXTRA: Not to mention the ease with which you can pass a sheet of paper to a colleague for them to read, markup edits, etc...

EXTRA 2: Plus it all works during a power cut ;)

Re: Handwriting vs. typing: is the pen still mightier than the keyboard?

#13

Post by ssivark »

The most crucial distinction where paper wins is that writing is a "nonlinear" process whereas typing with the tools we have today is "linear". You could use something like a mindmapping tool, but you're again constrained to a fairly rigid format rather than giving you the ease of switching. Eg: you can write down a bunch of things and draw arrows between them. Or draw a graph/sketch. Or draw a link between the thing you had on the first line and something related that came up towards the end of the page, etc. To me, that means that thinking on paper is much more free than typing, and one has available a space of a larger dimensionality, to represent one's ideas.

However fast one can type, the rigidity of typing is the biggest obstacle, imho. I do not think speed of typing-vs-writing ought to be a significant factor; I can think while I write, but not while I type (but that may be because I've written a lot, over decades, as a student growing up in India -- and nowhere near as much typing).

I've tried typing(laptop, phone, tablet), writing on a convertible tablet (Lenovo X230T and Xournal/linux) and paper is still the most usable, by far. Once I have something worked out on paper, I transfer the notes to the computer for storage -- either typed-up using markdown/Pandoc (since I use a lot of LaTeX math) or handwritten. Of late, I also occasionally use Google Keep for jotting down small things.

Re: Handwriting vs. typing: is the pen still mightier than the keyboard?

#14

Post by Xcelerate »

ohquu wrote: post #11
Xcelerate wrote: post #4

I can't stand writing. It's slow and it's messy, and I can't read a lot of other people's handwriting. I write about 30 words per minute and I type 167 wpm. Perhaps there are some cognitive benefits but I'm willing to give them up in exchange for the ease of getting my thoughts down quickly. The only case that I still prefer handwriting is doing math. It's much easier for me to write out equations and "explore" thing…

What are you typing at 167 wpm? I played on typeracer.com and topped out around 130 wpm.

10fastfingers.com. I was pretty proud of that run because I was 4/120,000 (I normally average about 142 wpm though). I think my Typeracer record is like 150-155 wpm but I don't play that as often.

Re: Handwriting vs. typing: is the pen still mightier than the keyboard?

#15

Post by andreastt »

I'm constantly bewildered by this notion that writing by hand is slow and thus bad, and that typing is fast and consequently good.

In my daily routine work as a programmer I find most of my work consists of thinking rather than writing. Or to twist the words a little: I don't think my typing impairs my creative ability, because the hard part of my job is thinking out the right solution. If you can't hold that thought in your head without typing the solution into your program quick enough to run and test it, perhaps you're not seeing patterns clearly.

As I work I constantly scribble notes on paper as I find it helps me think. When debugging a concrete problem, I find myself jotting down elements of the stack trace on paper so I can more easily retrace my steps. Concurrently I write down interesting things I come across that needs checking which I can return to when I'm done with my current line of thought.

Yet I'm fully aware I'm moving against the tide. I occasionally write longer pieces by hand several times a week, such as theories and findings. This helps me internalise patterns, solutions, and conclusions to interesting problems. Occasionally there are patterns and I can correlate good solutions to a problem to one I've solved in the past. But foremost it helps me _think_ better about the types of problems I'm trying to solve.

Programming is a creative discipline and not always about reapplying the same old patterns others have used before you. It's about craftsmanship and about learning the trade; about recognising those patterns and seeing new opportunity.

More to the point, my limitation isn't the speed at which I type things into my computer. The limitation is my brain not thinking fast enough.

Re: Handwriting vs. typing: is the pen still mightier than the keyboard?

#16

Post by japhyr »

I definitely think more freely with pen and paper than when I'm sitting at a keyboard. I have no idea if this is innate, or because I grew up in the 70's and 80's and learned to write by hand. I do feel fortunate to have learned to write by hand at an early age, but also to feel totally at home in front of a keyboard.

I'm just about to finish writing my first book, and it's been really interesting to see which mode I use the most. I'd love to be able to write my initial draft at the keyboard, because it would make my work a lot easier. But often times I need to put my computer aside, take a stack of blank paper, and write out my initial draft by hand. I kept a journal for many years, including the year I spent living on a bicycle. I slept in a tent every night, and wrote in a journal by headlamp or candlelight every night for a year. I don't know if that's what cemented my dependence on writing by hand to express my thoughts clearly, or if it's human nature to think more clearly when writing by hand.

The same holds true for revising and editing. I do my best revision work by printing out a copy of what I'm working on, and marking it up with a pen and then entering those revisions. I can't edit well working on a screen.

This article was really interesting to me because I have a son who'll be four soon. I'd been assuming that I need to write by hand because that's how I learned to put my thoughts into writing. This article makes me want to teach him handwriting so he'll be able to choose between the two modes as well.

Re: Handwriting vs. typing: is the pen still mightier than the keyboard?

#17

Post by dnquark »

Phasing out cursive in favor of typing reflects an unfortunate reality in which the ability to bang out TPS reports is more important than writing a nice card to Grandma. But while I spend most waking hours at the keyboard, any creative process that involves translating thoughts into symbols is unsatisfying to me if keyboard is my _only_ input device.

I am excited about the shift to mobile computing partly because it forces us to come up with input paradigms that are more appropriate to the digital medium. My pipe dream is for inking on phones and tables to become ubiquitous. Between Samsung and Microsoft hardware, we are slowly inching in that direction. Now if I could only get off my ass and port Xournal to Android (I find myself living in a bizarro world where I fire up Linux mostly to take handwritten notes.)

Re: Handwriting vs. typing: is the pen still mightier than the keyboard?

#18

Post by Xcelerate »

andreastt wrote: post #15

I'm constantly bewildered by this notion that writing by hand is slow and thus bad, and that typing is fast and consequently good. In my daily routine work as a programmer I find most of my work consists of thinking rather than writing. Or to twist the words a little: I don't think my typing impairs my creative ability, because the hard part of my job is thinking out the right solution. If you can't hold that thought…

For me, it's not that handwriting is a bottleneck in getting my work done; it's that it's psychologically annoying.

For instance, I also get severely annoyed sitting at red lights or driving behind someone going 10 mph under the speed limit (I joke with people that the only thing that ever makes me angry is having a green light turn red right before I get to it). Is it really going to make that much of a difference in getting where I'm going? No, maybe 1-2 minutes top. But the mental anguish it causes is quite bothersome to me, and it's the same way with writing by hand.

Re: Handwriting vs. typing: is the pen still mightier than the keyboard?

#19

Post by CamperBob2 »

MichaelCrawford wrote: post #2

I think it is. Scientists all carry around laboratory notebooks that they write in by hand. While I can type faster than I can write, if I observe something that I want to record for later consideration, it's a lot quicker for me to whip out my notebook and a pen, than to whip out my computer, log in, launch a text editor then save my document.

Scientists all carry around laboratory notebooks that they write in by hand.

Sure, but certainly not in cursive.

Re: Handwriting vs. typing: is the pen still mightier than the keyboard?

#20

Post by myg204 »

Haven't heard anyone mention taking notes on a voice recorder. I have never done it, but wonder if this is efficient or not.

As for pen vs keyboard, I'm definitely for the pen, specially when thinking. On a small page, I can start with words, switch to a diagram, putting few arrows here and there linking parts , put a formula easily, it's basically too hard to do that much on a computer (as quickly).

Although, after scribbling things, I usually put a clean version on file somewhere.

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