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Comment by coherentpony | Hacker News Reader

This is dumb; my handwriting sucks. I'd hate to give a hand-written talk.

I don't think this is a good attitude. It similar to saying "Give presentations? This sucks. My presentation skills suck. I'd have to give a talk." Both presentation skills and handwriting are attributes you can improve and if they are part of your job, you should improve them. People seem to think handwriting as something not worth working on, as the last time it was on the table was when we were children. Or maybe they see it as fixed and unmalleable.

You try explaining that to 250 students that can't read what you write. "It'll be ok, my handwriting will improve over time," doesn't exactly fly too well.

Also note that it's pretty hard to give numerical results to a computation on the blackboard. A plot generated by a computer program and embedded on a Beamer slide is optimal in this case.

My handwriting is improving, and I do try to improve. The fact you didn't glean that from my, albeit curt, response is hardly cause for putting words into my mouth. I appreciate the feedback though.

I don't think that's a fair comparison. Forcing hand writing instead of typing is an artificial limitation not related to the core skill set of presenting. I would consider that like telling a graphical artist, sorry no wacom, you can only use this 2 button mouse. Sure, they can likely improve their mousing skills over time, but what is the benefit?

I'm dysgraphic and have typed every school report in since 3rd grade, so perhaps my view is biased on this matter. I remember being unable to learn cursive and my teachers telling my parents "Don't worry, by the time he's an adult everyone will type everything.". Their prediction has held true. Cursive is dead, removed from common core. Handwriting is up next. In my adult life, the only thing I've had to hand write other than my signature has been a few checks.

Forcing hand writing is like forcing modern day car drivers to only take a horse and buggy to work. They could get better at it, but why?

so what you're saying is 'this is dumb because i'm lazy'?

Weird, you might want to talk to your ISP about issues with your connection.

GP actually said: " This is dumb; my handwriting sucks. I'd hate to give a hand-written talk."

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