🌱 transcription and copying leads to lack of understanding. It leads to passive study instead of active engagement

Zettelkasten and Evergreen MOC

Transcription and copying leads to lack of understanding. It leads to passive study instead of active engagement (Active reading is the foundation of continued self-improvement)

Laptop use might lead the negative side of flow, getting so much into typing, that one is no longer thinking (the wrong kind of flow). Writing more does have its uses, but for proper understanding notes need to be rewritten and condensed for real understanding. This happens more or less automatically taking notes by hand.

When writing (longhand), to be succinct, one is more careful in choosing words → naming Another option is creating a mindmap, which also forces active thought, translating ideas into (terrible) images Copying is bad, translating is better. Having moved to mindmapping again seems to be a good fit. It’s better than blindly typing. I haven’t used my mobile keyboard since. I do have terrible handwriting, that is annoying.

Also:

• two ways in which note taking affect learning

Literature notes

The pen is mightier than the keyboard Advantages of longhand over laptop note taking Using a laptop will lead to mindlessly transcribing notes instead of actively choosing the more important parts of a lecture or a book.

• The differences between using notes on a laptop vs using a pen, become especially apparent after study, where it becomes obvious that laptop transcription reduces understanding. Having more notes does not lead to more understanding

Transclude of @muellerPenMightierKeyboard2014#^n2nxzvqw

Transclude of @muellerPenMightierKeyboard2014#^x86q57xp

As a partial counterpoint:

Transclude of @muellerPenMightierKeyboard2014#^ulueid5h

Fleeting notes

Laptops make it too easy to not be present, and concentrate on the technique of note taking instead of analysing the material Encoding hypothesis

• while taking notes, information sticks
  • freer to think. You don’t write as fast, so you have more time to think
    • thinking > transcribing
      • thinking → analysing → combining things in your head

External-storage hypothesis

• store information for later retrieval
  • writing less, but better quality notes → easier to analyse and synthesise
    • better connections again

Laptop → mindlessly transcribe

• instructions don’t help
• typing is more technical, concentration goes to speed, instead of thinking
• mindmap > transcription
  • other parts of the brain used for typing or writing?
  • flow of typing is mindless, it’s like sports. Energy goes to your fingers

Without extra studying, closer results, but with study vastly outperformed

• in the short term either study method is fine
  • it’s the lack of synthesis and analysis that’s the problem
    • ==if you type, you must go over the text again far analysis==

Longhand is better both encoding as external-storage

• more in the moment, more busy with the actual text.
  • want to write less, you have to think more
    • already synthesising during a lecture, or while reading a book
      • when you’re just highlighting, you just gather instead of choose
        • it’s passive vs active studying