I think that at this point, the idea becomes just a gatekeeping.
I have been writing notes in notebooks by my hand for years. But gradually I switched to typing notes in a notepad or drawing with a stylus on a gadget - and I don't notice any real difference.
> I am left handed. … When I was a child, writing at length with pencil, the side of my hand sometimes became gray from graphite picked up as my hand rubbed across the page.
Writing with pencil is fine. I prefer it, and its variations in line weight can be quite attractive. Moreover, it can be done without pressing hard and causing cramps: either accept a lighter line weight or use darker graphite.
I agree with you about the gatekeeping. Handwriting is simple but the Internet has fetishized it. Just write a lot: in a notebook, on index cards, on scraps, wherever. And don't think twice about it: in my experience, most of the time what's written has little if any long-term importance and its greatest virtue is rather to trigger the aware mind to release the idea for the mind's more-mysterious parts to then process, combine, and assimilate effortlessly in the background.
> Writing by hand is not one motion but a sequence of thousands of tiny micro-movements coordinated with your eyes in real time, where each letter is a different shape that requires the brain to solve a slightly different spatial problem.
> Your fingers, wrist, vision, and the parts of your brain that track position in space are all working together to produce one letter, then the next, then the next.
Typing is super easy to edit. Writing by hand is hard to modify, it forces the brain to think about the entirety of what you want to write about and organize all the thoughts and sentences in your brain first. Think about writing code on a piece of paper vs typing.
If you are learning for sure. If you know what you are going to write, that's just typing.
I am will punch a baby squirrel if I ever have to hand-craft another login or contact form. I've done it with 20 different languages and frameworks. I am out.
If you need a good reliable recommendation for a fountain pen since this post spends more time on the why and not the what of fountain pens, the lamy safari will treat you well for a very long time.
While this is probably true for some/most people, the very thought of writing by hand makes me cringe. I've been typing (typewriter, computer, etc) since forever. I learned cursive but despised every moment. Once I got my hands on my first keyboard it was like a revelation. Funny how different people are, how each unique brain adapts and responds to different experiences.
"Don’t use a pencil (or a cheap ballpoint)"
I think that at this point, the idea becomes just a gatekeeping.
I have been writing notes in notebooks by my hand for years. But gradually I switched to typing notes in a notepad or drawing with a stylus on a gadget - and I don't notice any real difference.
This could explain his aversion to pencils:
> I am left handed. … When I was a child, writing at length with pencil, the side of my hand sometimes became gray from graphite picked up as my hand rubbed across the page.
Writing with pencil is fine. I prefer it, and its variations in line weight can be quite attractive. Moreover, it can be done without pressing hard and causing cramps: either accept a lighter line weight or use darker graphite.
I agree with you about the gatekeeping. Handwriting is simple but the Internet has fetishized it. Just write a lot: in a notebook, on index cards, on scraps, wherever. And don't think twice about it: in my experience, most of the time what's written has little if any long-term importance and its greatest virtue is rather to trigger the aware mind to release the idea for the mind's more-mysterious parts to then process, combine, and assimilate effortlessly in the background.
I don’t understand, where do you see gatekeeping? Are you saying that some people cannot learn to write by hand or something else?
If anyone has an opinion on the best way to do something, it is "gatekeeping" to some people.
> Writing by hand is not one motion but a sequence of thousands of tiny micro-movements coordinated with your eyes in real time, where each letter is a different shape that requires the brain to solve a slightly different spatial problem.
> Your fingers, wrist, vision, and the parts of your brain that track position in space are all working together to produce one letter, then the next, then the next.
Typing is super easy to edit. Writing by hand is hard to modify, it forces the brain to think about the entirety of what you want to write about and organize all the thoughts and sentences in your brain first. Think about writing code on a piece of paper vs typing.
If you are learning for sure. If you know what you are going to write, that's just typing.
I am will punch a baby squirrel if I ever have to hand-craft another login or contact form. I've done it with 20 different languages and frameworks. I am out.
If you need a good reliable recommendation for a fountain pen since this post spends more time on the why and not the what of fountain pens, the lamy safari will treat you well for a very long time.
Pilot Kakuno is ridiculously awesome for the price too.
While this is probably true for some/most people, the very thought of writing by hand makes me cringe. I've been typing (typewriter, computer, etc) since forever. I learned cursive but despised every moment. Once I got my hands on my first keyboard it was like a revelation. Funny how different people are, how each unique brain adapts and responds to different experiences.
Writing is a forcing function for thinking.