I almost always write by hand. I do this for my notes, diary, and personal thoughts. For school assignments, I always write the main ideas and plan on paper before I start typing. Writing by hand helps me think better. As the podcast mentions, the book is an “extension of the human mind.” My notebook is like a private, physical tool that extends my thinking. It is like the ancient clay tablets and early books that were a way to freeze thoughts that would otherwise change. When I write by hand, I am freezing my first thoughts onto the page.
Additionally, I also find writing by hand calming. It can bring me into a focused state. So, this task was not too difficult for me. This connects to the slow, physical process the hosts described: scribes creating books by hand before the printing press. When I make a mistake or want to change something, I just cross it out. Since I write with a pen, it’s not easy to erase. In this case, the choice of tool affects how I edit, much as medieval scribes sometimes made notes in the margins of manuscripts. My page becomes a record of my thinking process, not just a perfect final copy.
For me, the biggest difference between writing by hand and typing is how it affects my thinking. As Dr. Horst mentioned in one of the assignment comments, “thinking on paper has a special quality not captured by any other modality.” The podcast made a similar point when comparing books to computer “external hard drives.” Typing feels like quickly saving data to a hard drive, fast and efficient. But writing by hand feels more like the active, creative process of building a codex where I can flip back and see how ideas connect. While I prefer writing by hand because it feels more connected and creative, typing is better for editing and sharing. The podcast showed how the physical form of a technology changes how we use it, and for me, the physical act of handwriting changes and improves how I think.
