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The importance of handwriting is now better understood

economist.com

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Re: The importance of handwriting is now better understood

#31

Post by burnished »

weeb wrote: post #18
hknmtt wrote: post #3

I have started to journal last month. I came to it through pens when I randomly decided to find a good pen when I got interested in it through some youtube videos(wow, YT actually working as intended, for once). To anyone interested, Pentel Energel 0.7mm is the best gel pen in the entire world, hands down. For oil-based ink, it would be Uniball Jetstream, i guess(i am gel guy). I always wanted to journal and thought…

Do you have any recommendations for getting over the friction of starting? Like, suggestions of what to write about if you're unsure what's worth putting to paper. I'm sure I'd have plenty to write once I got started, but an empty notebook is intimidating!

I like to date and place entries, good for todo lists, recipes, experiments, interviews or lectures (fun facts), any idea that makes you laugh for longer than a minute solid, etc. oh and doodles/sketches. Artistic talent not required for personal amusement

Re: The importance of handwriting is now better understood

#32

Post by jmkd »

If your handwriting looks good and gives satisfaction you will do it more. It truly helps embodying thoughts and ideas, and provides another significant layer (like flavour in a recipe) of learning and understanding.

I was fortunate to be taught Marion Richardson [0] style handwriting aged 8 or so, and decades years later my handwriting is still universally complimented. I hand write letters for pleasure and take notes by hand for more profound impact.

If you look after a young person or are willing to go relearn it yourself I highly recommend the discipline and style that Marion Richardson demands. While learning it at first it looks childish, but it provides a foundation that you will immediately adapt with your own flavour. It got dropped in UK schools in the 1980s for being too old fashioned, for which I read 'difficult'.

Sadly I cannot recommend any modern books or worksheets (through my own contemporary ignorance) but her original books from 1935 still stand up [1]

[0] https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/M/bo13...

[1] https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1326657/writing-and-writ...

Re: The importance of handwriting is now better understood

#33

Post by Decabytes »

I wrote about my techniques for learning in an blog post^1 and a big part of my technique is the hand written notes and the zettelkasten. I like handwritten notes for a few reasons. It allows me to practice my handwriting, specifically cursive. It allows me to take a break from looking at screens. It also helps me remember things by creating that mind body connection. But also, it’s so easy to type almost word for word what is being said if you are a fast typer, or copy and paste large chunks of text and media verbatim into digital software. Handwriting notes makes me more selective of the things I write, which makes me have to think more about what I’m writing. Finally not having access to my notes all the time on my phone, or laptop means I have to actually commit then to memory. I can’t use being able to quickly look up something I wrote down as a crutch for not memorizing something.

Note taking is a skill and practice makes perfect. That and SQ3R has helped me get so much better at taking better notes. Plus alls I need is a some grid paper and a pencil, though my analog system has gotten considerably more sophisticated over time

1. https://www.deusinmachina.net/p/the-most-effective-way-i-kno...

Re: The importance of handwriting is now better understood

#34

Post by goldcd »

lifthrasiir wrote: post #22
silcoon wrote: post #17

I've direct experience on the power of handwriting to memorise concepts. When at the UNI, I was studying CS (while working part-time) less than 10 ya, and classes where full of laptops. I was take notes during lectures using only pen and paper and similarly I was taking my notes about the main concepts from the courses books. Then I was re-writing them again in a more summarised way, and then underline this notes and…

I wonder if the key is not really handwriting but rather a deliberate summarization, because I always used a computer to do that. I did have a printout of my own summary, of course, so papers may have also helped as well. (I also tended to walk around and mumble a lot when I really need to tackle a hard problem in my head, but not when studying.)

I agree - although not sure it's just the summarization, more the translation between 'information schemas' exposes patterns. e.g. I might read a few pages of text and scribble out the key points onto a mind-map I go. Then looking at the shape of what's on the page, normalize it onto a ER diagram on a slide with an accompanying swim-lane diagram showing the process.

Each iteration of formatting hopefully progresses the display of the information towards its ideal. You know when it's worked (and when something isn't working out and you need to quit and try something else).

To me the benefit of writing is that it makes me deliberately make a decision as to what I transcribe and what I leave out. If I skim read I often find my mind has drifted and I need to turn back some pages. Also, writing takes effort. If you notice you keep writing the same word/phrase, you'll give it an acronym. If you find repetition of concept, maybe you'll just draw an arrow pointing back to the paragraph the concept first came up - and your longhand is starting to turn into the next iteration already.

Re: The importance of handwriting is now better understood

#36

Post by chromatin »

jmkd wrote: post #32

If your handwriting looks good and gives satisfaction you will do it more. It truly helps embodying thoughts and ideas, and provides another significant layer (like flavour in a recipe) of learning and understanding. I was fortunate to be taught Marion Richardson [0] style handwriting aged 8 or so, and decades years later my handwriting is still universally complimented. I hand write letters for pleasure and take not…

The link at the V&A museum shows excerpts from a few pages. This looks incredible. It seems unlikely, but perhaps someone somewhere has scanned in a copy of an instructional book.

Re: The importance of handwriting is now better understood

#37

Post by p44v9n »

weeb wrote: post #18
hknmtt wrote: post #3

I have started to journal last month. I came to it through pens when I randomly decided to find a good pen when I got interested in it through some youtube videos(wow, YT actually working as intended, for once). To anyone interested, Pentel Energel 0.7mm is the best gel pen in the entire world, hands down. For oil-based ink, it would be Uniball Jetstream, i guess(i am gel guy). I always wanted to journal and thought…

Do you have any recommendations for getting over the friction of starting? Like, suggestions of what to write about if you're unsure what's worth putting to paper. I'm sure I'd have plenty to write once I got started, but an empty notebook is intimidating!

I do stream of consciousness writing and aim to fill out a page of A4 — so just whatever comes to mind, usually starting with today is x date and I am sat in y place and so on...

Fully agree with the parent comment about it being like clearing out RAM!

Re: The importance of handwriting is now better understood

#38

Post by schwartzworld »

These kinds of reports have been coming out since computers were invented. There's no real evidence that writing by hand is better than typing, especially in people with bad handwriting. It's just bias coming from the last few generations that grew up without computers. "I learned cursive, therefore it must be good"

Re: The importance of handwriting is now better understood

#39

Post by TheBigSalad »

silcoon wrote: post #17

I've direct experience on the power of handwriting to memorise concepts. When at the UNI, I was studying CS (while working part-time) less than 10 ya, and classes where full of laptops. I was take notes during lectures using only pen and paper and similarly I was taking my notes about the main concepts from the courses books. Then I was re-writing them again in a more summarised way, and then underline this notes and…

I doubt moving your hands are the reason this worked for you.

Re: The importance of handwriting is now better understood

#40

Post by barrysteve »

silcoon wrote: post #17

I've direct experience on the power of handwriting to memorise concepts. When at the UNI, I was studying CS (while working part-time) less than 10 ya, and classes where full of laptops. I was take notes during lectures using only pen and paper and similarly I was taking my notes about the main concepts from the courses books. Then I was re-writing them again in a more summarised way, and then underline this notes and…

There was a book linked on HN a month ago about the Deisng of UI/UX experiences. One chapter mentions how cars are simple and easy to use despite being more complex than a phone numpad, because the linkages between the car controls and your mental mapping is one-to-one.

Having to endlessly recombine your mental mapping with a numpad or digital pad to generate letters/sentences is much worse for humans than driving, or pen and paper.

The mental mapping for pen and paper is also one-to-one, using behaviours to make specific known shapes is way more powerful than submitting to an arbitrary remapping device.

Electronics are really no good for first order knowledge generation and gathering. The metaphysics of reality hasn't been overcome by tech revolutions, unfortunately (or not).

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