"That’s why Doug tied that brick to a pencil — to prove a point. Of all the tools we’ve created to augment our intelligence, writing may be the most important. But when he “de-augmented” the pencil, by tying a brick to it, it became much, much harder to even write a single word. And when you make it hard to do the low-level parts of writing, it becomes near impossible to do the higher-level parts of writing: organizing your thoughts, exploring new ideas and expressions, cutting it all down to what’s essential. That was Doug’s message: a tool doesn’t “just” make something easier — it allows for new, previously-impossible ways of thinking, of living, of being."

Hah. I injured my hand a couple of years ago, and had to type with one hand for a couple of months. I could code review, I could participate in meetings, I could identify the source of a bug. But I could not write any but the simplest code. I was mystified. I could write emails and to some extent documents (typing of course slowed down a lot). But I became basically incapable of writing code. Using too much brain power on the physical act makes you have less left over for the CONTENT. Cool to see that this problem was understood much earlier.