Comment by vanderZwan | Hacker News Reader

Comment by vanderZwan | Hacker News Reader

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> I am sure the last time I wrote I did it as a novelty. I did it because I was penning down something that held a certain value to me or maybe I just thought that actually writing it down will make me feel more connected to it. Even as I type down the word “writing” the first thought that comes to my mind is actually typing on a keyboard. Whenever I have to write something down I use a KEYBOARD.

This honestly sounds like a humblebrag to me.

Typing on a keyboard is not a drop-in replacement for the act of writing by hand. It has very different effects on the brain and how it engages with what is being written.

If I'm working out difficult problems, in the early stages I much prefer a combination of doodling and handwriting over typing stuff on the computer. It actively engages the mind in a way the keyboard does not. Typing really only works best when the problem solution is already present semi-finished thoughts in my head and just needs to be fixated in external symbols, with a little bit of restructuring along the way.

Basically: I prefer handwriting for thinking, and typing for transcription.

I'm not sure why it sounds like a humblebrag to you. I believe many people, especially those of us on our computers all day, go days at a time without writing with a pen once, except maybe to scrawl their names on receipts.

I used to keep a pad next to my desk to work out difficult programming concepts. I probably used it once a month at most.

I write more now because I try to keep handwritten notes of to-dos, but even then I had to force myself to use a pen, and not one of the million digital note-taking apps.

It's not a question of whether one is better than the other, it's just that keyboards and phones are under the fingers of a large segment of the population for the majority of the day, so people don't even think to use pens.

> go days at a time without writing with a pen once, except maybe to scrawl their names on receipts.

Sure, but would you call that "doing it as a novelty"? (in bolded italicised text no less- I find that kind of writing style horribly annoying too; as if the author trying to "idiot proof" their writing and/or distract you from other, weaker parts of it, by SHOUTING the bits they want you to focus on)

Thanks. The author here. It was not intended as a humblebrag like you said. I had just noticed that the only things I ever wrote where things that meant something special or something I really wanted to actuallise.

You are one step ahead of me that you are trying to write using a pen.

Agreed that it isn't a humblebrag. The humblebrag, to me, was that the person's handwriting wasn't that bad. :)

Haha you are kind. I assure it looks much more prettier enlarged on a screen.

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