Neal Stephenson on writing by hand

It’s not every day that one of my favorite authors writes about one of my favorite topics, so my brain did a little “ooh ooh ooh!” dance when I saw this post from Neal Stephenson show up on HN: Writing by Hand is Good for your Brain - Here’s how to do it. This is timely for me, as I’ve been experimenting with writing by hand on paper, on my iPad, and, most recently, on my Supernote Manta. I don’t have the minutes to do a thorough post on this, but here are my quick thoughts. Cursive Neal says, There’s a reason cursive was invented. Don’t even think about not using it. It is far less tiring than printing one letter at a time. I was just wondering about this and whether I should experiment with cursive. I’ll give it a go! Gadgets Neal says “don’t use a gadget.” Having just spent nearly $700 on my Supernote kit, this made me wince. But he focuses on the downsides of the iPad’s frictionlessness. My Manta is all about reproducing the friction and feel of paper, so I’m choosing to believe…