Ask: Do you still find any benefits in using handwriting? Pros: Some say that because we write slower than we type, it allows for deeper thinking as opposed to faster thinking, which could be beneficial. Also, because it's harder to edit one is more careful while writing (deep thinking again). Privacy can be an advantage as well, one can keep handwritten notes private in a physical way. We all know the pros of typing, easy editing/copying/email and overall functionality. Discuss |
> Some say that because we write slower than we type, it allows for deeper thinking as opposed to faster thinking, which could be beneficial. Since writing takes longer, I tend to mull over what I'm trying to communicate and condense it. This is likely why I remember it better. However ....
> because it's harder to edit one is more careful while writing Absolutely not! Given a half pages written text I would likely have no less than a dozen clear markups where I revised or edited a thought.
I certainly don't want to write everything, or produce professional quality hand-written text, but I find benefit in actually writing things down
Also, for communicating I find writing/drawing (whiteboard) a very handy tool (in the toolshed). There is the potential problem of bad handwriting, but I fix that by forcing myself to not being hasty.
Finally, there is the aspect of authenticity; that seems to be important: Many cafés and shops arguably use it to appear more humane.
The carefulness aspect I don't see myself. I can think while typing, whereas while writing my attention seems to be caught more by the task at hand.
I tend to program in a 'distraction-free mode', where my IDE covers the whole screen. I still need a place to take notes, to hold my to-do list, and to make simple diagrams of dependencies.
With physical book I write in the margin, for more explanation, clarification, or errata that I believe the book may have.
Writing things by hand is just generally more pleasant too. There's no pain involved with writing, while I've never found a setup for typing on a computer that doesn't cause some level of wrist or shoulder pain.
For projects, future ideas, thoughts of things I might do some day, I use a notebook and designate a few pages per item. I also click in pages, printouts, etc for that idea to remind me of things.
http://imgur.com/vmoQhYG,6RKCKV7,EqJgFLr,6fJgCn3#1
I can't think of a faster way of combining drawings and thoughts than paper and pencil.
Now I just need to teach myself shorthand to minimize the speed difference between typing and handwriting.
https://hbr.org/2015/07/what-you-miss-when-you-take-notes-on...
The days of long-form writing are definitely over, but I think noting things down will remain a constant for many years to come.
For me, I find it helps me think more abstractly and plan my thoughts better, because it's just more fluid to scribble ideas down.
Tho the quality of the thinking when hand-writing and when typing is different. For that, currently, it is irreplaceable.
also, i feel like whenever i write something, it's easier to remember.
Maybe it's just me, but if I'm trying to explain an idea to someone and they're busy tapping away at their keyboard it really bugs me. Are they making notes on what I'm saying? Or are they checking in on HN? Ditto for the rare occasion when I'm in a dull meeting with a laptop - it's really difficult for me not to browse my inbox should a message show up, and then I think about a reply, and then I'm lost...
I find physical handwritten notes in a meeting is less distracting for both the speaker and the listener.
But really, I agree that handwritten notes can be less distracting. Interestingly, typing notes on a touch-screen tablet can be less distracting, and the single-app limitation helps avoid external distractions as well.
I've noticed that people often get caught up editing and formatting while typing (especially when the screen is shared), whereas with notes, people don't worry so much about that, so it's easier to stay focused.
I guess that paid off in the long run. No many people really give much importance to handwriting, more so these days but I feel nice writing and still try to write as much as I can (always have few notebooks with me at all times + a bunch of pens and pencils). Besides the appreciations I usually get, I like the fact that people admire that I dedicate to writing too besides my involvement with technology and that I stayed in touch with the art of writing.
I'm trying to inculcate a similar habit with my kid - write beautiful, and master the intricacies of handwriting - it is lovely, sweet, sophisticated, classical and clean.
:-)
I find typing better for prose and prefer to program in a text editor.
I've had this discussion several times with the people running my children's schools (grade levels between 6 and 12). They have always been big on pushing technology in the schools and moving away from simple pen/pencil and paper.
My kids grew up with computers, iPads, and cell phones and so did virtually every other kid in these upper end schools. They didn't need to be pushed to use keyboards and didn't need instruction in typing, my daughter has typed faster than I can for years. But the schools, and many parents, were obsessed with the idea of being modern. I tried to explain that low resolution touch screens were inappropriate for taking math notes past simple fractions, but of course, I couldn't change their minds.
I felt the use of technology in the schools often hindered instruction and learning. Naturally, there is a place for it and I was happy that my senior was required to prepare her math projects using Sagemath and LaTeX.
I think it depends on how well a person is able to translate intelligence into writing. Taking myself as an example: I am extremely bad at the written form - my intelligence significantly drops as soon as pen touches paper. However, I don't suffer this penalty with typing. It might have something to do with this:
> Some say that because we write slower than we type, it allows for deeper thinking as opposed to faster thinking
I would say that I'm a subconscious thinker, I draw conclusions and don't always know why. I would rather rephrase that to:
> Some say that because we write slower than we type, it allows for deeper thinking as opposed to fluid thinking
Handwriting is better for deep thinkers, typing is better for fluid thinkers. To each his own. Maybe where you are going with this is that people aren't handwriting when they should be: I could really agree with that.
Actually, that's not entirely correct: I remember more of the tohughts I had when writing something down. Which might actually be more important. (Except when those thoughts are "this is boring, please kill me")
On a related note, BIC is actually doing PSA style radio ads and has a campaign website to "save handwriting": http://bicfightforyourwrite.com/
I have an even better setup - nobody can read my handwriting, including me. So it's literally Write Only Memory. Not sure what the applications for this are though...
I have no idea if this is by nature of the medium, or because I grew up in the 70's and 80's without consistent computer access until I was in my early teens. I also lived in a tent for a year, and wrote in a journal every night; I think that has influenced my writing mindset significantly.
So, if I'm very clear about what I want to write, I can use a keyboard. But if I'm still sorting through some ideas I'll grab a pen and paper. I even draft important emails with a pen and paper. Usually drafting a quick sketch or outline is enough, and I do the wordsmithing at the keyboard. Whenever I'm at a loss for words, though, I push the computer aside and sit quietly with a pen and paper for a little bit.
Pros of handwriting/pen+paper:
- Extremely high "resolution" (can fit a lot of information in a small space)
- Flexibility
- Direct input: tools rarely "get in the way"
- Editing is cumbersome
- Storage/retrieval is annoying (no search!)
- Sharing/collaboration is not as good as digital
Write my diary by hand. Makes it pretty much unhackable and it's a good way to start the day. Habit I guess.
My understanding is that studies showing this apply primarily to note taking, like in a class. When people take notes by typing they tend to copy what is said verbatim, whereas writing notes forces people to summarize and therefore internalize more of the information.
As for me, my handwriting is atrocious, I use it so rarely, and it's so much slower than typing for me that I get frustrated whenever I write things.
> because it's harder to edit one is more careful while writing...
Typing allows for easier editing and refinement, so I think it wins out overall :)
I think the benefits depend on what you are trying to achieve. I do some amateur poetry in two languages - English and Hindi+Urdu. In both cases, I have found that I lose my chain of thought if I am typing on computers (tried ipad, iphone also) than writing on a paper. The stream of thought is just much more fluid and connections are easier to capture while writing on paper. It could be that I wrote more as a child/teen than typed. There is something about mistakes on paper, you crossing them out by running a line through them. You do not lose what you wrote, but you know thats not what you wanted. So, it affirms where you want to go as well as what you do not want to write. I think the ability to edit and remove what was previously written makes me lose the chain of thoughts in this case and I have to start afresh.
I have also seen that when I write letters to people in the family and friends, I am generally more content in what I have written, even if something is scribbled or there are mistakes in it. Of course, that is personal and thus the value for me and the people who I send them to (well, I can hope).
Lastly, I write all my task list (esp. the big ones). I do not type them, not on my phone, not on my computer. A quick shopping list is a different thing but the goal-list is something on a paper for me or it never feels concrete.
Also, writing notes on post-it notes or on a whiteboard are basically what makes completing any project that takes longer than a day possible for me.
I also journal, but the benefit of handwriting there is the opposite of what you've described -- I think harder when typing because I exercise the ability to edit, which is counterproductive to my goals when journaling. I journal to gain an understanding of what's happening in my head, not to produce a work of lasting value, so just writing down what comes to mind instead of spending a bunch of effort trying to perfect my thoughts does a better job of capturing this.
Finally, I also use a notepad when trying to think through a particularly sticky problem. The free form nature is liberating and being able to be physically separated from a computer is useful in cases where I badly want to dive right into implementing the solution but need some space to make sure I fully understand the problem first.
Therefore I am working on an app for note taking:
A bit like if google docs had a baby with OneNote
- vector graphics/drawings created by freehand / writing http://write-live.com/d/dba21681-8d3f-4fbe-8b4b-e5c1983df934
http://write-live.com/d/8f9b7846-a7b9-4e5c-b704-dad9aa87d14e
- unlimited* levels of zoom http://docs.write-live.com/WriteliveServer/webview.html?d=34...
- draw on a tablet, view on tablet / web http://write-live.com/d/538254c5-7d31-41f2-83bb-bcd0a7cee7ab
Pulling out a laptop is too slow, cumbersome, and not practical in all situations. My notebooks are slim and discreet.
My notebooks do not need to be recharged.
My notebooks are designed to hold ink and can last for hundreds of years in the right conditions. Physics won't change much in that time. Computers and file formats will.
My notebooks can be easily recycled when I do not wish to keep them anymore. My laptop is expensive to recycle and there is a non-trivial amount of materials within it that are not recoverable and must simply be stored somewhere...
A pen and paper is the most intuitive interface we have for recording thought. It's entirely free-form and adapts to how I wish to use it without any programming or maintaining complicated digital formats. It exists as a single artifact.
I won't be interrupted mid-stream by a hardware failure, power-outage and I won't lose my work to corruption.
My notebook doesn't phone home to the NSA (yet) or the cloud.
With a good method of organization I can find my notes without much difficulty. Sure I can tag, search, and sort through the streams of bytes I write out on a disk but I rarely find use for such functionality. I'm sure I can keep a database of my books if this becomes an issue.
My thoughts exist in a physical artifact. This gives me a sense of permanence and will certainly leave evidence of my passing when I'm gone. Someone will have to pick up that stack of books and do something with it. Digital files can simply be deleted. Time-stamps and some bytes in an archive don't seem to have the same effect.
On my own personal projects, I get very limited time. For these, I go straight to the keyboard and put in as many characters as I can.
However, every now and then I come across something beyond simple. Going in without a well designed plan ends up costing me time. Here, I take out my notebook and start sketching diagrams. I've tried this with various digital alternatives, but analog still works best for me.
Also, despite ~20 years of typing practice, for coding and other reasons, my handwriting is still an order of magnitude faster than my typing (I can see how people who only print would have slower handwriting, though, certainly). I don't use shorthand or anything, just if I want to get my thoughts down fast and accompany them with a sketch and/or reference them later, they must be handwritten.
I'd never code on paper, however; that's a terrifying thought. I definitely take notes and whatnot if needed on paper or on a whiteboard while coding in a text editor, though.
I have noticed that when I am discussing a project or issue with someone and I take notes about what they are saying, they feel notably more confident and happy with me, going so far as to report to my superiors how they appreciate that I'm doing it.
While I may or may not ever refer back to the notes I take, it clearly imbues the benefit of making the other party feel important. That's very useful to me.
We only get push-back on having laptops up during meetings; there seems to be a perception that it is distracting to the meeting. However, there are times when taking typed notes is superior to hand-writing (and vice-versa), researchers suspect. [0]
[0] http://www.fastcompany.com/3044907/work-smart/how-typing-is-...
However, I find retrieval and sketching, not to speak of mathematical formulas and diagramming, much easier from a physical notebook.
I've not yet found a digital medium superior to that of a physical notebook for doing 'notebooklike' things.
I also use it for a daily log of my tasks and what I need to accomplish. Used to use a notebook for both these things, but I find it easier/faster to jump into onenote and back into what i am working on then
My take on this is that I can definitely type faster than I can write, so anytime I'm just trying to transcribe words then I want to be on a computer. But, I have never found any setup on the computer that lets me draw pictures as easily and well as I can draw with pencil and paper. Maybe now that touchscreens are so ubiquitous that would be different, especially using a stylus or something. But there's still the issue of having to stop and fire up a separate program or something, and possibly dealing with having to do extra work to merge your written docs and your diagrams into one document.
* I tried to explain that low resolution touch screens were inappropriate for taking math notes past simple fractions, but of course, I couldn't change their minds.*
Yeah, math is another interesting area. I've tried taking notes in math classes using OpenOffice Math in the past, but I never got to a point where it felt natural. Mostly I still prefer pencil/paper for taking math notes, or doing "scratch work".
I mean, the main point of digitized writing is not that it's easier and faster - sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't - but that in general you would need the end result to be in a proper, neat format that is useful for distribution, searching, analysis and automatical conversion for various needs; handwriting or pictures of handwriting can be useful for that only if/when it helps you to get to the final formatted non-handwriting end result faster than a keyboard and a mouse does.
I had a manager always checking his emails when we we're in a meeting. It makes the meeting more painful for everyone involved, as the person you're talking too is focusing on something else.
Doodling or scribbling does not bother me, as if someone is doodling, either they don't need to be listening, or it helps them process the info.
As for someone typing the minutes of a meeting, you can easily tell if they are doing their job, or checking in on HN, so that doesn't bother me at all either.