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Writing by hand is good for your brain
361–370 of 708 posts
Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain
#362Earlier quoted context omitted.
The stroke size is highly customizable. What do you mean "the friction between the pen and stylus is bad"? As others have pointed out, you can get screen protectors and nibs for Apple pencils.
The problem is that the screen surface and the pen are fairly far apart, so the stroke appears "floating". This makes it harder to do fine drawing. Try to "dot i-s" in a long word and see for yourself. It's just awkward. So people compensate by using thicker strokes that hide that "floating" effect. I'm studying Chinese, and writing the characters is pretty much the only way to learn them. So far, the only device tha…
Agree that it would not be best for fine drawing (although the new Pros have the proximity feature that perhaps helps with this. And I agree that Chinese characters could present similar issues in terms of legibility, given how much precision is required.
But for writing in English and many other languages, it seems like this doesn't present a huge challenge. I am particularly interested in (but have not yet tried) the handwriting cleanup feature. This seems like a nice middle ground between full digitization and leaving chicken scratch as-is.
Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain
#363A 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…
"Write by hand and mark up your books" is excellent advice... that I no longer follow. Marking up books didn't come naturally to me, but I did it for a while. Paper books are just decaying bundles of plant fiber — and the ideas within them are likewise ephemeral. The illusion of permanence must be confronted and reckoned with. But for the last 15-20 years, I have been taking notes in text files that are saved to vers…
Imagine taking a pause from your book to type out notes and run git commit LMAO. But seriously though, studies have shown handwritten notes to be more effective/memorable than typed
Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain
#364All well and good for folks without hand issues.
Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain
#365- coding without an LLM is also good for your brain - whose gonna tell it to em? - dont worry, the long term studies are going to pick this up big time 5 years from now
I thought the purpose of coding was to produce software, but apparently every action I take should be evaluated on how well it achieves arbitrary brain calisthenics.
Yes the brain is known to be useful when writing software
Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain
#366In fact, there's no scientific consensus research-wise on whether writing things by hand actually helps in any way. Anecdotally, it never helped me to remember the stuff I was writing down.
Same.
While writting I think there's a very fine line that separates external storage from memorization. What I mean by this is that sometime we write ideas so we can avoid forgetting and be able to come back them (David Lynch), or as we write and develop a thought or subject, we are actually creating memories.
I think the point of writing stuff down is mainly organization, storage and exploration and not a memory exercise.
Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain
#367Always 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…
There's absolutely something to this. Writing something down on your phone or computer does not commit it to memory at all.
Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain
#368Earlier 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…
I disagree. I love buying used books and seeing what other people found interesting, whether it's by way of notes in the margins, highlights, etc. I also love it when people write their name in the front of the book and when they read it. I like the idea of a single copy of a book making its way among many people, all adding their own thoughts.
Same reason I miss those library cards found in the back of books. I enjoyed seeing the history a book had, how years could pass without anyone checking it out or seeing a flurry of checkouts.
Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain
#369I completely agree with this, but where do I start if I have terrible handwriting and never really learned cursive properly?
Re: Writing by hand is good for your brain
#370What if I told you writing in all caps is even better for your brain.
IT VVORKED FOR THE ROMANS I SVPPOSE.