Comment by cogman10

Comment by cogman10 3 days ago

8 replies

> Do you just write in block capitals?

Block capitals? no. It's print. With upper and lowercase letters.

I rarely handwrite now. The last time I really did was in college.

> But....It still is? Without using some kind of machine of course.

But of course this is HN where most people are technical. We all have some sort of machine at our disposal otherwise we'd not be writing back and forth to one another.

gambiting 3 days ago

>>It's print. With upper and lowercase letters.

So like.......not linking the letters together then? Doesn't that just actually take more effort than just writing cursive? And is slower?

>>But of course this is HN where most people are technical.

For sure, and as a professional programmer I keep a notebook with hand written notes - the fact that I have a keyboard and multiple monitors in front of me doesn't change the fact that hand writing is still the best(for me) way to save and recall information.

  • cogman10 3 days ago

    > not linking the letters together then?

    Correct.

    > Doesn't that just actually take more effort than just writing cursive? And is slower?

    Probably yes to both counts.

    However, when I'm handwriting I'm generally not in a position where speed or effort is the most important thing. To me, it's not much more effort to print and I get the added bonus of legibility. When I write cursive, it can be hard for me to understand what I wrote when I come back to it. I'm just a little too sloppy. It would take effort for me to get to the point where my cursive is neat and I frankly just don't handwrite enough to warrant that effort.

    Consider this, do you use shorthand? I'd assume not. But why not? It's the fastest way to write anything. Cursive, by comparison, is both a lot of effort to write, is slower, and it wastes space.

    I'd say for (some of) the same reasons you likely don't write shorthand, I don't write in cursive.

    • 1718627440 a day ago

      I don't get your point of not writing cursive. It is literally the same as what you are already doing, but just stopping raising the hand between letters. It is also not like you have that specific cursive, and then it is unreadable. It is a continuous tradeoff of faster vs. readable, so you can just slow down for some letters and not for others.

      The thing that needs effort is learning to write, why did you waste time on learning to not connect your letters?

    • gambiting 2 days ago

      >>Consider this, do you use shorthand?

      I have no idea how to write shorthand. I assume you know how to write cursive, so no I don't think the reasons are the same.

      • cogman10 2 days ago

        You could learn it. It would take some effort but it's not insurmountable and it's inarguably superior to cursive in terms of effort to write.

        I can't write legible cursive. To do that would take time, effort, and practice. Much like it'd take that to learn shorthand.

        That's my point. You and I write the way we do because writing in other ways would take more effort than we want to spend.

  • BeFlatXIII 2 days ago

    Speed and effort arguments are negated for southpaws.