[bradknowles]

If you really want to understand it, I would encourage you to write down notes about it by hand.

For some reason I do not yet understand, the motion of physically putting pen(cil) to paper helps ingrain that information into your brain, in a way that typing it into a computer does not.

[knzhou]

Some people say writing is better because typing is "unnatural", but from an evolutionary standpoint both are extremely, equally unnatural activities. There's no reason moving a cylinder of graphite with one hand should be inherently better matched to the brain than moving squares of plastic with two.

My personal guess is that, with fast typing speeds, it's too easy to just copy things word for word. With writing, you have to at least rephrase it and reorganize it to fit the notes reasonably on the page, which forces some processing to occur. I take notes solely by typing, but I only have retention if I do it slowly and reflectively.

[avinium]

I have a pet theory that our brains are hard-wired to store information "better" if it bears some kind of personal/individual imprint.

In other words, we can "store" knowledge more efficiently when written in our own handwriting than when typed into a neutral/generic text editor.

[knzhou]

Hmm... then perhaps it's good that I'm extremely particular about how I type my LaTeX, down to microadjustments to the kerning to make it look nicer.

[sjy]

There is a difference: people have been using small handheld objects to create images on flat surfaces for tens of thousands of years. Moving squares of plastic to remotely and invisibly trigger a change in the patterns of light emitted by an electronic display is somewhat different. This could explain some of the studies that have found differences in retention of typed and handwritten notes, but there are many confounding factors.

[wongarsu]

While writing is ancient, in almost all cultures the ability to write hasn't been widespread until a few centuries ago. It just isn't that useful in agriculture when books cost a fortune, and historically almost everybody was a farmer. I doubt an ability possessed by a small portion of the population over a few thousand years had a large evolutionary impact.

[JohnBooty]

IMHO it's primarily because you have to process and comprehend the information in order to make a decision about what's important enough to jot down.

Although, anecdotally, I find that writing notes by hand is better for recall than typing.

I'm not sure if this is because writing activates different parts of the brain, or simply because writing is slower and forces me to therefore think harder and comprehend better because I need to be 2x as selective about what makes it into my notes.

My money's on the latter, but who knows?

[kortex]

I think this is likely it. In my opinion, it reminds me of autoencoders. Having to compress the information means understanding the content enough to discard unnecessary bits.

I can roughly keep up in real time with speaking on the keyboard. Even though speaking is a bit faster than my max rate around 90 wpm, by dropping filler words and gaps I can mostly avoid summarizing and quote verbatim. When transposing at full speed like that, I feel like a conduit at times, very little sticks deeply in memory.

Contrast with writing notes, where I'll only write down things I find particularly important. Most of the time I'm just trying to actively listen.

Purely anecdotally, I feel like when I am typing and summarizing to the same compression ratio as writing, my retention with typing is better, because I can do it without looking, it's faster, and I can tune back in to the speaker.

On the other other hand, with a laptop open, I'm much more likely to get distracted with emails/tasks.

Bottom line, I think we need to study more axes of this problem, if only because it gives neat insights into cognition.

[aepiepaey]

Here's a paper on the topic which presents some ideas: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09567976145245...

[cellular]

Also, I was amazed at how listening twice to a history lecture really helped my retention. I'd listen while walking to my next campus class.

[galangalalgol]

This varies by person. Not everyone learns by writing. Some only learn b hearing or seeing. Some can only learn by doing. Most of us are a mix. I learn just abou every way except for writing or typing. Online lectures i do best by playing at 1.2x at most and pausing regularly to let me think of implications and to crosslink to things i have already learned.

[galangalalgol]

This post was far more controversial than i thought it was. I keeps gettin voted up and down. Anyone explain why?