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Ask HN: Has your handwriting suffered from years on the keyboard?

34 points by teehee ↗ HN
HN,

It being the holiday season, I felt compelled to write some thank you cards. I was shocked to see how terrible my handwriting has become, both script and print. I'm a techie in my late twenties and wanted to see if I am the only one who's handwriting quality has been impacted.

82 comments

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ErrantX
yes - a lot.

Partly from lack of practice but also from RSI which gives me cramps :(

EDIT: I'm in my twenties too

mdasen
I was in that same position about a year ago. On a whim, I decided I'd try one of those split keyboards and it helped enormously. I hated it for about a week (typos), but then I adjusted and the pain is gone.
ErrantX
Interesting. I might look into that thx.

Although the major sourceo f my problem comes from using a laptop on my knees.. so :(

aaronblohowiak
Don't take RSI lightly. If it hurts when you do that, don't do that. RSI is not protected by ADA, and it can take years to recover from.
ErrantX
ADA? I know it's a problem.. and I do have to get it fixed. But it's all a bad habit thing. and I am weak like that.

It is getting to the point I have to do something though.

aaronblohowiak
the disabilities act (the law that governs things like what should happen if you are unable to work, what kind of accomodations your employer must make if you should become disabled, et cetera._

i feel you on the bad habit thing, 20 days is all it takes to have a new habit, though.

stanley
Most definitely, both in quality and speed. It shouldn't come as a surprise though, if you don't use it you lose it.
lallysingh
I think more than a few of us start typing so early that it's hard to separate the two.

OTOH, I find that the kinds of pen & paper I use have a significant effect on the quality of my handwriting.

steveplace
Gotta love that Pilot G2
silencio
A few months ago I splurged on a fountain pen that met all my needs (the sleek black lamy studio), and I've never looked back since.
donw
What type of pen did you get? I've been writing with the G2s for a long time now, but a fountain pen has been very tempting...
silencio
like I said, the lamy studio ;) see http://www.lamyusa.com/stpaficosoco.html

I got it mainly because of the looks (most fountain pens tend to lean towards the ornate, if you get what I mean, while this one was exactly the kind of design I loved in matte black, exactly the color I wanted), the weight (since I have tremors, heavier pens help with writing) and the price (less than $100).

Since what everyone will be looking for in a pen will be different, maybe you could look online...but if there's a store near you that sells lots of different types of fountain pens, I really suggest going in person to try out a few, and to talk about what kind of pen you had in mind.

When I went to Flax (a local store in los angeles) I went there with a couple different pens I saw online in mind, but trying them out in person, I wasn't satisfied. I spent a while talking to the guy helping me, really stressing the weight and price point as being my main criteria for selecting one, and he pointed out this little beauty I didn't even know existed.

I like the G2s, I even still have one around for when the fountain pen would be inappropriate to pull out (one being my favorite color was green, so I got a dark green ink for it that I usually use over black), but this makes writing fun again :)

grouchyOldGuy
That was my favorite pen until I tried the Pentel EnerGel. It has gel ink, like the G2, but the barrel is slightly fatter (thus easier for me to grip). The "killer feature" of that pen though is the pocket clip automatically retracts the point inside the pen. I've had a few shirts ruined by forgetting to retract the point before clipping it to my shirt, and this pen does that automatically. When you push the "clicker" on the end to extend the point, a little plastic tab gets pushed down and wedges under the end of the pocket clip. As soon as the clip is slightly lifted (or a piece of fabric gets shoved under it), the tab is released and the spring pulls the point back inside.
Xichekolas
I have tried many a fancy pen and always come back to the sweet dime-a-million Bic Roundstic.
jjs
My handwriting was always bad, and deserved to suffer. :P
alex_c
Not really, I've always had terrible handwriting. Never had the patience to do all the silly writing exercises back in grade 1 :p

On the other hand, I do all my brainstorming and to-do lists on paper (and occasionally whiteboard), so I don't think I'll ever be completely out of practice.

mikeyur
I'm in the same boat. I remember doing handwriting practice in grade 2 or 3, writing the alphabet out in books. Each letter had to be done 6 times and they all had to look the same. I never bothered with it. I can read handwriting fairly well, but I just can't write. I can force myself to, but it's just an unreadable mess.

My signature is even pretty bad. My name is quite long so I tend to just initial everything - otherwise I feel like a dbag standing there trying to sign something for like 20 seconds.

And in school, all my in-class essays/assignments were printed, any other homework I would just type up.

crux
My handwriting was always pretty bad and erratic; no doubt because I spent most of my time at a keyboard. But a couple years ago I decided to basically engineer myself a style of handwriting, first designing an alphabet, then training myself to use it (and only it). That project has grown to something of a full-fledged writing system. I would recommend to any geeks that they take a couple weeks to work out something for themselves and then try to learn it. It's been quite satisfying.
ArcticCelt
Did you found any place where they have nice models of letters to get some inspiration and pick the ones I like? I just did a quick search but did not found any satisfying results yet.
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light3
Back in high school tried doing this by printing out the alphabet with a font I liked, and could be written without too much hassle. Then I tried to imitate this, with success for a few month but it didn't last as my style changed.
crux
I did; I drew inspiration from a very wide variety of historical scripts. I am actually documenting the whole thing, but it grows too fast for me to get it all into the computer. Some day I'll publish it, though.

I recommend you should check out http://medievalwriting.50megs.com as a good first step for inspiration.

eru
Incidentally I did something like this back in school to improve my handwriting. At first I stopped connecting letters, but reintroduced some connections later.
electromagnetic
My handwriting quality has actually improved, but I've been using a computer since I was about 4 so I guess the only thing that could happen was improvement!
critke
Yep. It's nuts. The only thing I write by hand is to-dos into my small notebook. And it really sucks when I can't figure out what I have to do because I can't read what I wrote.
eddycole
I can'r really comment on the quality of my own handwriting (nerve damage in my right arm from motorcycle accident years ago means limited dexterity in that hand) but observing others, like my daughter, her friends, etc. handwriting - yes, handwriting quality seems to be suffering. As is grammer, sentence structure, and punctuation. ;^)

I fear that like many of the skills we as people used on a daily basis, computers, automation and our 'convenience oriented' lifestyles are causing us to lose those skills like handwriting.

vaksel
Of course it has. Especially since in the last 3 years, I haven't written one sentence on a piece of paper(I don't count filling out checks, signing credit card slips, or writing a shopping list).

In fact my writing is so bad, I find it easier to type out a shopping list in notepad and print it out, than write it on a piece of paper. Why? Because if I write it on a piece of paper, I most likely won't be able to read all of it, when I actually get to the store.

symptic
My handwriting has been very neat and tight. I write in cursive and in pencil, since being left-handed is horrible with pens, but people complain about it being too small and too light.

Woe is me? :P

zack
I actually have pretty good handwriting, so no. My handwriting has perhaps only improved from years on the keyboard. Coding and related pursuits are, for me, creative activities; my handwriting, I feel, is a manifestation of this temperament.
thomasmallen
No, because I usually plan things out on paper.
baha_man
Yes, definitely. I find that using a fountain pen improves my handwriting, as well as being more pleasurable than using a biro.
joe_the_user
FM Alexander argued that the process of learning handwriting was detrimental to the functioning of the human organism. The sooner computer abolish the activity, the better.
time_management
Just as the quality of the language determines that of your code, the quality of your pen determines that of your handwriting. When I use a nice pen, my handwriting's pretty good. When I use a cheap pen, it looks like that of a six-year-old.
qqq
i don't know. i'd have to do some hand writing to find out.
Devilboy
Yea your credit card signature doesn't qualify
petercooper
Use it or lose it. It's like asking if your weight has suffered from years of sitting on a couch eating pizza every night.

If you type a lot but you also continue to write a lot, your handwriting will be a lot better than if you write a lot less due to keyboard use.

Dilpil
Taking higher level math classes is a good way to force yourself to maintain good handwriting. You quickly learn that if you want to have any chance of finishing a question, your going to have to write your solution neatly and in easily readable steps.
teuobk
...unless you discover the joy of doing your math homework in LaTeX. Beautiful results.
Zev
Doesn't quite work for in-class exams where you can't type stuff up.
SapphireSun
In high school, I was doing poorly in my freshman math classes partly because I had terrible handwriting and my '6' looked like a 'b'. Try keeping track of your work when you're using the quadratic formula :P

A friendly biology teacher recognized my plight and helped me retrain my handwriting into something legible. It still isn't great, but at least I don't make that mistake anymore.

rms
I had to do the same thing in college with t's and +'s, I resisted curling my t's in physics and math class for a while until it was explained to me that everyone did it.
Xichekolas
Yeah I started crossing my z's in Calc II because I was getting them mixed up with my 2's.
mhartl
I found math classes particularly good for developing my Greek handwriting. (I'm not making this up.)
m_eiman
You'll never know if it's better or worse than it would have been without a computer. It might be worse, but it might also be better. Some professions who write a lot are notorious for their bad handwriting, e.g. doctors. And I dare you to read anything my grandfather has written, and he writes most everything by hand!
mickt
My handwriting has always looked like a spider fell in an inkwell and the ran across a page. After 10 years using a keyboard, all I can say is that my hand writing has gotten even worse. I do find that if I use a really good pen, it doesn't have to be expensive, that I can write reasonably well, bit it's still crap ... :)
brentr
I hate my handwriting. When I have to turn something in, I always type it. Since I am studying mathematics right now, that means I format almost everything using LaTeX.
cgranade
LyX is a godsend for taking LaTeX-formatted notes in class.
puzzle-out
My handwriting: lower case - bad and getting worse; upper case - rock steady. Thankfully most written applications ask for upper case anyhow.