[axblount]

It's hard for me to see the advantage of using one of these over pen and paper:

- distraction free (except doodling)

- lower power consumption

- expressive in a way that typing can never be

- tends to discourage editing as you write

edit: and less eye strain

[tlhunter]

Expression is a bit distracting though, especially if the ultimate goal is to publish text. Doodles and character size changes probably won't make it into a printed manuscript. I'd argue that's why tools like Microsoft Word are bad for writing; such software displays unimportant thing front and center like changing colors and fonts when ultimately we just want to customize the semantics of text like conveying a quote or code or basic emphasis.

[bluGill]

There are many stages: creative, editing, and publishing (the above can all be broken down even more, and this is often useful, but I had to stop someplace). Creative is the first state, just getting everything down. Editing is the details of making it correct (both fact checking and grammar). The publishing is making it all look nice. They are 3 separate steps that demand 3 different skill sets. You need to keep them separate.

Unfortunately the above is easially to say, but hard to force. If you are creating something you should stop if the facts are wrong (no point in continuing when you suddenly realize your argument depends on something that might be false) even though fact check is an editing process. You cannot refer to data in a chart until you create the chart. For many people a misspelling is something their brain will not ignore even though they know the word they mean and fixing it belongs to editing - your flow is already interrupted either way and not fixing it means the flow stays interrupted.

[pickleglitch]

I don't use anything like a "writer deck" but for me pen and paper is a non-starter due to hand fatigue. I can type for much, much longer periods than I could ever hope to write by hand.

[voidhorse]

It also introduces significantly more lag, at least for me, between the thinking and actual writing down of the words.

Sometimes slowing down the process like this is helpful, in other cases it's better to make the emission of the words onto the page as immediate as possible, depends on the piece.

[lproven]

> hand fatigue

Try a fountain pen. Seriously. Many people press far too hard with ballpoints; with a fountain pen, you can't -- you'll bend the nib and smudge.

Some adults won't have written with one since school; younger ones, never. But they exist for goods solid ergonomic reasons.

After you get used to them you write better, too.

There are good disposable fountain pens now, and I've been using them for a decade and a half. I like the Pilot V-Pen.

https://macchiatoman.com/blog/2020/1/22/pen-review-pilot-v-p...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pilot-Pen-Disposable-Fountain-Black...

Costs about £5, lasts many months of heavy use -- much more than any cartridge pen as the whole barrel is full of ink -- and I have never ever had one leak in my bag or pocket.

Highly recommended.

[basscomm]

> but for me pen and paper is a non-starter due to hand fatigue

You may want to look into writing with your arm instead of your hand

[lproven]

Or just using a different type of pen, rather than trying to re-learn to write.

[kstrauser]

Not the person you were replying to, but “oh, gee, I wish I’d thought of that! /s”.

I spent my first few decades trying to train myself not to write in a way that causes physical pain. The closest I got was when I discover Lamy Safari pens, which won’t let me hold them the “wrong” way. That only makes it a little less horrid.

[Xss3]

I can type at spees of thought without discomfort for hours. If i write at that speed for that long i get messy handwriting and pain.

[zgk7iqea]

it's the same kind of "workflow optimization" that notion and obsidian users suffer from. You spend so much time making your tools more productive but don't get any actual work done.

[Xss3]

I just use obsidian out of the box. No extensions. I dont use tags. I dont use any fancy features. Its a markdown editor with a file tree to me. Its great.

[UltraSane]

I can type about 10x faster than I can write sustained. And handwritten drafts will need to be typed anyway.

[presbyterian]

Ergonomics. I can type for far longer than I can write by hand.

[lproven]

As I said in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45932398 -- try a fountain pen.

[presbyterian]

I have, same problem.