Artgor 1 day ago

"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.

  • treetalker 1 day ago

    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.

  • dgellow 8 hours ago

    I don’t understand, where do you see gatekeeping? Are you saying that some people cannot learn to write by hand or something else?

    • kettlez 8 hours ago

      If anyone has an opinion on the best way to do something, it is "gatekeeping" to some people.

renegade-otter 7 hours ago

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.

insydian 7 hours ago

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.

  • nahikoa 7 hours ago

    Pilot Kakuno is ridiculously awesome for the price too.

geod_of_ix 7 hours ago

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.

thelastgallon 7 hours ago

Writing is a forcing function for thinking.