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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

#351

Post by sodapopcan »

Diogenesian wrote: post #90
pryelluw wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your argument is that in order for you to have a better experience the previous owner should not “ruin” the book for you. I’ve read better arguments on bathroom stalls.

No, my argument is that it's totally obnoxious to lend or resell a book that you've written in, and it's a shallow way of taking notes to begin with. It is precisely what Socrates warned us about.

GP makes no mention of re-selling. They explicitly talk about revisiting. Your comment would have done better as a standalone as opposed to a response to them.

And not that it matters, but "cross out" doesn't imply "destroy beyond recognition." A simple strike-through is sufficient to keep the text legible (so you remember what it is you disagree with).

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#353

Post by dcchambers »

Diogenesian wrote: post #74
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 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…

It's 100% okay for people to write in their own books, and it's okay for them to donate or sell them after the fact as long as they don't hide the fact they are written in.

No one is forcing you to buy used books with writing in them.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#354

Post by sodapopcan »

HumblyTossed wrote: post #79
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…

No. Carry a notebook. Long after you’ve given the book away, you’ll always have your notes.

Who said anything about throwing the book away?

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#355

Post by chris_money202 »

My thoughts on this is there is a deliberate act going on that is doing more for retention than just the simple act of using a (fountain) pen.

If I am in a lecture and I am writing down everything I hear as fast as possible in one ear, on paper, out the other style I don't think writing is any different than typing the same way.

If I am in lecture and I am trying to stay deliberately between the lines of paper, then I have to take the info in, process it in a way where I analyze and summarize it, and then put it on paper neatly. I have to do that for brevity and to keep up with the lecture. Its not the act of just writing, its the analyzation that occurs before the words hit the paper. This can be achieved with typing as well if you deliberately style your notes.

I think sometimes we correlate this in too simple of terms to use pen = better, the pen forces the deliberate action of analysis easier than typing does.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#356

Post by WalterBright »

madcaptenor wrote: post #126
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 need to remember that this is okay. I didn't do it because of concerns about resale value... but recently I sold books for the first time in a while and got so little money that I realize this is not worth worrying about.

I also gave up reselling books I'm done with. I donate them to the little free libraries, friends of the library, thrift shops, and even give them to used bookstores.

There used to be bins where you could toss them all in, but those have disappeared.

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#357

Post by The_Blade »

The_Blade wrote: post #70
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…

Marginalia is the best! I have a handwritten note about Ayn Rand in my 27 year old copy of Enchridion, a great reminder that she is like chicken pox, better catch her as early as possible. And several books such as I Claudius held together with duct tape. And soy sauce stains in Gargantua and Pantagruel from the place my grad school gf worked. Those count. A bit of irony, going through old stuff I found a copy of Nea…

it is fun to get a reminder not regretting being obsessed with Ayn at 18 alongside my duct-taped copy of Foucault's Pendulum (note: the actual pendulum is at Musée des Arts et Métiers which was by far my favorite such place after a couple multiday trips to Paris). i still feel The Fountainhead is pretty far from Atlas Shrugged

Since this morning I happened to grab Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia by DeLeuze & Guattari and inside (17 years ago, with a Pilot v5) i wrote:

"I have a feeling this needs to be revisited after another 30 years of production, process and consumption"

well, that time is now and AI is the body without organs du jour

(i am a weirdo really enjoying this thread of conversation right now)

Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain

#358

Post by dzonga »

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…

for situations like this - I feel like e-readers are beneficial - the one's with a pen.

since u can always create copies of documents. u can make it up as many times as u want.

or the old school way - using a photocopy for the pages u want to markup / print 2-4 pages in a sheet of what you want to read. & throw away.

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