💡
34
c/core-memory-talk•henryp40henryp40•1mo ago

Debate: handwriting notes vs typing everything now

Back in 2012 I wrote everything by hand in spiral notebooks. Remembered stuff without trying. Now I type everything on my phone or laptop. Can't recall a thing without scrolling back through files. What changed for you? Did switching to digital actually make you smarter or just faster at forgetting?
3 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In
3 Comments
avery_jackson
Wait did your brain just turn into a filing cabinet too? My buddy Mark was a total notebook guy all through college. He'd write every lecture out by hand in those five subject ones with the dividers. Then he got a tablet and stylus for grad school and started typing everything. He told me he couldn't remember a single formula from his thermodynamics class without opening up his notes app and searching for it. The other day he found one of his old spiral notebooks in a box and started reading it and he said it was like remembering the whole class again. It wasn't just the notes, it was the feel of the paper and the way his hand hurt from writing so much.
10
jamie940
jamie9401mo ago
@vera_robinson36 my brain files stuff in those messy desk drawers where you find old candy wrappers.
10
vera_robinson36
His hand hurting from writing was part of how his brain stored it, @avery_jackson. Studies on memory show the physical act of handwriting actually encodes things deeper than typing does.
3