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by nine_k 1192 days ago
> Keyboards are a great example. We should just write as people have done for thousands of years

Nope, nope, nope. Keyboards are a great thing that save a lot of effort and muscle strain. I did my fair share of handwriting, and I experienced the strain and tiredness firsthand (ha). This is to say nothing of the speed.

Ergonomic keyboards make things even easier.

So no, we don't always want faster horses, and the heritage of thousands of years often happens to be a yoke.

1 comments

I don’t know, I’m pretty dubious that the problems of the future are grossly aided by faster input. I feel like I think better when I write than when I type, I find that really hard to ignore.
I think and write much better on a modern computer than when writing by hand. And much better than I would on a typewriter.

Don't underestimate the ability to revise multiple times.

At the same time, I design better with a pencil than with Sketchup or LucidCharts or something, for similar "draft then modify" reasons. But that pencil could be "real" on a paper or it could be on a tablet.

Writing by hand is just slower, so it gives more time to think.

Jotting and doodling, on the other hand, is important to improve thinking, from my experience. It's just mostly not about text.