[HN Gopher] Tell HN: I'm a programmer who bought a typewriter
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Tell HN: I'm a programmer who bought a typewriter
I have been programming for the last 7 years professionally. I like
computers from my early age. My father bought me Sinclair ZX
Spectrum+ when I was in the first grade. Since then, computers were
part of my life, significantly. I stare at my screen almost whole
day. One day there was some voice in me saying "Buy a typewriter".
I listened to the voice and bought Smith Corona Silent from 1946.
It was the most profound experience I ever had with some kind of
machine. I was not so happy when I got my first cell phone, and
later smartphone nor computer. This is something different,
probably because the basics are the same, I'm still typing.
Suddenly I found myself writing a diary, and a novel. I never wrote
anything other than blog posts (many of them since I had website
similar to The Verge) - which I sold later. I now have 3
typewriters, 2x Smith Corona Silent (1946 and 1956), and Olympia
Monica (I think it's from '70). What I found very interesting is
that writing on a typewriter is perfectly synchronized with how
fast my mind is working. Time slows down! I read that on the web
somewhere, and it is slowing the time when you type on a
typewriter! I can confess that! My fingers are too fast on
computer keyboard, and I even don't want to talk about distractions
like auto correct and other stuff that always pops up. This is
something what really makes me feel good. I can write a story,
poem, diary, or a letter to a friend. It's truly something we
should have on our desk somewhere in the room, and just put our
thoughts on a paper.
Author : sasha_fishter
Score : 46 points
Date : 2025-01-10 20:50 UTC (4 days ago)
| Devasta wrote:
| I know what you mean, its the same reason I do not have a kindle
| or buy e-books in general: With a physical book I take the time
| to sit down and read what is written, but on a screen I find
| myself skimming through to get the key points.
|
| Sometimes, efficiency is the least important thing.
| skydhash wrote:
| I love my kobo for the fact that I can carry it with me
| everywhere, but navigation is so slow that I'm not tempted to
| switch books or even quick scan them. I only have to charge it
| every 3-4 days (heavy readings sessions). I only use it for
| fiction and text heavy books.
|
| It has my whole library on it and I open it everytime I'm
| waiting for something.
| taylodl wrote:
| Having grown up at a time where I was _forced_ to use typewriters
| and listen to vinyl LP records, I don 't wax so nostalgic over
| those old technologies. As soon as I got my Commodore 64 and my
| Star Gemini 10x dot matrix printer, I never used a typewriter
| again!
|
| Vinyl took a little longer to get off of as I had (and still
| have) a fairly significant vinyl collection.
| mberlove wrote:
| Can I ask, do you find that the benefits that other respondents
| are claiming (maybe younger respondents) are artifacts of a
| wishful thinking? Is it possible that the benefits are somewhat
| real, but come with downsides? I'm not leading in any one
| direction, but I am curious if the experience is more objective
| or subjective.
| brudgers wrote:
| I'm not younger and listened to records and used a
| typewriter. I have a typewriter because it creates an
| environment that is not a computer. Unlike a phonograph, a
| typewriter is an entire ecosystem less commodity supplies (a
| phonograph is useless without the activity selecting and
| acquiring and storing records).
|
| I don't recommend getting a typewriter. If someone wants to
| try one, they will do it. And if someone doesn't they won't.
| They are not for everyone and there is no moral distinction
| between those two groups.
| taylodl wrote:
| Could be a couple things:
|
| 1. ASMR. Typewriters make a nice sound as you type. A lot of
| people like it. With regards to vinyl LPs, while growing up a
| friend of mine always remarked how much the static reminded
| him of a crackling fire. He felt like you were listening to
| music beside a fire.
|
| 2. I grew up in a time when these were simply the tools we
| had. I'd already learned how to be mindful about doing work -
| the tools forced us! I learned how to write and compose
| without the benefit of a computer. I learned photography at a
| time when I processed my own film and made my own prints in a
| darkroom. I know that experience has greatly affected how I
| approach digital photography. Younger people might simply be
| getting a thrill learning what I learned decades ago. Maybe
| they appreciate a completely different approach to achieving
| the same thing? With an entirely different workflow? That
| might give them new insights.
|
| There are still aspects of the old that I like and prefer.
| For example, I still prefer books over screens. I still write
| notes on pen and paper and later transcribe them to my
| computer because I've learned I'll retain the information
| better if I actually physically write it down. When recording
| music, I prefer to use Audacity because it's like using the
| computer as a giant R2R and I get a more natural sound. I
| still shoot digital cameras in manual mode (or semi-automatic
| depending on the situation) because I like to control the
| different technical aspects of the shot. Stuff like that.
| zippyman55 wrote:
| Really nice post. In my final SW engineering job, I bought a ton
| of drafting supplies and artist paper and forced myself to
| architect my algorithms. It forced me to slow down and I fell
| much closer to my objective. I'm going to try your idea.
| sasha_fishter wrote:
| Great idea. It is magical, makes more room for thinking, less
| of distractions.
| m463 wrote:
| reminds me of when I used a film camera. Looking back a the shots
| I took... I would just take ONE photo. Group photo with 30
| people? One picture.
|
| Nowadays I take a ton and pick the best, because they are "free",
| but suspect I might think less about composing.
|
| I think there is something to be said for the need to get it
| right. Maybe it makes you more mindful.
| racktash wrote:
| In June I "accidentally" (I certainly never saw it coming...)
| got back into film photography. I bought a Lomography
| Konstruktor for fun and ended up having way more fun taking
| photos with it than I thought I would.
|
| It's going to be a personal, subjective thing, but not having
| the option to take unlimited photos, as I tend to do with my
| phone when on holiday, say, but having to try to at least give
| each exposure a chance of being worth the expensive cost of
| film, made me rediscover the fun of photography.
| randerson wrote:
| I recently bought a cheap used Canon 35mm film camera which
| fits the same EF lenses I already had for my digital SLR. It
| has proved to be the far more fun camera to take on a photo
| walk. Not just because I have to think about each shot, but for
| the delayed gratification of having to wait days/weeks before
| seeing that it came out as planned.
| brudgers wrote:
| Thinking about efficiency is a reliable way to buzz-kill creative
| inspiration.
|
| Editing is only more work with my typewriter (Olympia Traveler
| Deluxe with British layout) if I write something worth editing
| and am willing to do the work of editing it.
|
| When it comes to self-expression (a somewhat better term than
| creativity) the writing is important. Not having the mental
| burden of possible OS updates, battery, cable and file
| management, etc. makes a typewriter workflow efficient for some
| of my work.
|
| Sure, I wouldn't use a typewriter for ordinary business
| transactions or surfing the web or commenting on HN. Instead I
| use it when I don't want to deal with those habits.
|
| For clarity, I only have one typewriter, not a collection. It is
| the fourth in the last five years bought at a thrift shop. The
| first was a 6 CPI SCM 12. [1] It was replace by a Spanish
| Keyboard Hermes Baby I bought on eBay. Then an Olympia Deluxe
| with Script font given to my beloved.
|
| If you are looking for a typewriter:
|
| + maybe think about the case. Does it stack well? Can you stack
| stuff on top of it? Because at some point you will probably want
| to free up the space where your typewriter sits or transport it
| or store it.
|
| + check the typeface. The Olympia with script typeface was a
| bargain, but it is script. The 6CPI SCM was a surprise. Can you
| live with the typeface?
|
| + are you handy? Typewriter service is basic millwrighting. You
| will want decent flathead screwdrivers and some time on Youtube.
|
| [1] If I come across another SCM with 6CPI for the right price I
| will have two typewriters. 6CPI changes the way I write and
| matches well with images...I got the Hermes Baby because I wanted
| a small font. It was too small and the way the text looked on the
| page turned me off. The Olympia is good enough, which is good
| enough.
| bluGill wrote:
| For those who don't know: a flathead screwdriver should be
| flat. Almost all taper to the point and that makes for a bad
| screwdriver that will cam out and ruin the screws.
| fsckboy wrote:
| > _Thinking about efficiency is a reliable way to buzz-kill
| creative inspiration._
|
| on the autism spectrum are systems thinkers, many liking to
| think precisely about efficiency, we are very creative about it
| and it makes us happy (read Simon Baron-Cohen's _The Pattern
| Seekers: How Autism Drives Human Invention_ )
|
| you're a buzzkill
| brudgers wrote:
| Among the systems I system-think about are systems that
| produce self-expression and systems that produce creative
| work.
|
| Lots of people like to think about efficiency because
| thinking about efficiency is easier than doing work...and
| avoiding work is one of the definitions of efficiency.
|
| Or to put it another way (and in the context of writing),
| thinking about efficiency doesn't put words on the page and
| what's in our heads is not the result of our creative acts.
|
| Efficiency arises from the work, not vice versa. Self-
| expressive work arises from inspiration. The friction of
| inefficiency is often a symptom of important self-expression.
| BitterCritter wrote:
| No, as an autist, this guy is right. I've
| "systematically"thought about it a lot and creativity is
| something that must be done the long and hard way. You can be
| creative about efficiency but not efficient about creativity.
| howard941 wrote:
| My handwriting sucks and nothing's better for filling out forms
| and such. It still has practical use cases.
| ivvve wrote:
| For me, a fountain pen has fulfilled this function, but in my
| teens I had a typewriter collection. I still wonder where they
| all went...
| veddox wrote:
| Ditto for the fountain pen. For the past few months I've been
| trying to switch off the computer as much as possible and do as
| much writing as I can by hand. I can concentrate a lot better
| and I enjoy the physicality of handling a good pen and actual
| paper.
| xanderlewis wrote:
| I've loved fountain pens and ink for years. Used an iPad with
| an Apple Pencil (which are great) for a couple of years, and
| then recently came back to fountain pens and pencils. I
| missed them so much!
|
| What pens have you/others been using? I like the TWSBI 580.
| agentultra wrote:
| If you want to try something wild: take a side project and do
| your programming on paper.
|
| Type the code in and run it if you must. But go back and
| write in pen and ink.
|
| It sounds weird. Programming languages have a lot of funky
| syntax. You'll find the impulse to either find short-hand or
| else you will start structuring the program such that you can
| keep (parts of) it in your head.
| yatharthk wrote:
| You should definitely check out https://getfreewrite.com/. You'd
| like that. It's like getting the best of both worlds.
| ThePhysicist wrote:
| I have a Monica and while I like typing on it I couldn't imagine
| writing anything substantial with it, the physical effort
| required to hammer down the keys hard enough is already quite
| fatiguing, even for someone enjoying mechanical keyboards. There
| are a few more modern electrical typewriters that I would
| consider for serious writing duty.
| piltdownman wrote:
| This is somewhat compounded by the fact the QWERTY layout
| itself is an inefficient legacy remnant of typewriters, whereby
| the most utilised keys would have a tendency to stick together
| if placed side by side, so QWERTY was envisaged as a way of
| spacing out these keys across the keyboard. Not for ergonomics
| or efficiency, but as an engineering workaround.
| cge wrote:
| There appears to be some disagreement on whether that is
| true, for example, in this paper: https://repository.kulib.ky
| oto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433...
| nottorp wrote:
| Hmm YMMV. I like it even slower for writing fiction, as in
| handwriting.
|
| But the most important part is probably not the slowness but the
| distraction-free environment. Get a DOS machine with WordPerfect
| and it will work as well. But don't run DOS in an emulator that
| you can alt+tab away from and doomscroll...
| cluckindan wrote:
| An old 486 DOS laptop is great for this!
| mkovach wrote:
| While I love typing on typewriters, it doesn't compare to writing
| with a good fountain pen loaded with excellent ink. But more and
| more, for writing that I intend to end up is some where in the
| digital void, I have found myself writing writing using WordStar,
| running DR DOS 7.0 on a ThinkPad T23, using a clone of an IBM M13
| keyboard.
|
| So, for my major writing projects it is: * Outline, snippets, and
| drafts with a fountain pen. * Writing, re-writing, etc. on
| WordStar. * Typeset (i.e.: prepare digitally) on my regular
| systems. This is the only place I get distracted.
| darkwater wrote:
| I always hated the feeling of the fountain pen scratching the
| paper while writing, but I only used it for school when I was
| very very young, and probably it was a crappy fountain pen.
| derekp7 wrote:
| Some of the nicer fountain pens just glide over the paper --
| you can look for reviews on several fountain pen forums, and
| on the fountain pen subreddit. I personally like several of
| the ones from Pilot. Also, Sailor pens will give you feedback
| that feels more like a good graphite pencil (so not scratchy,
| but not glass smooth either). Another good option is the
| Pilot Varsity ones, those are disposable (and priced as
| such), but for something built to be cheap price they sure do
| write good.
| lovegrenoble wrote:
| Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ from my childhood too <3<3<3
| valeg wrote:
| This one can erase letters
| https://youtube.com/watch?v=AModvOasrG8
| teddyh wrote:
| I don't need a computer.
|
| -- _The Guy I Almost Was_
| <http://www.electricsheepcomix.com/almostguy/>
| jmclnx wrote:
| All you need now is white-out :)
| hartator wrote:
| Why not just pen and paper?
|
| ReMarkable is also a good option for epaper.
| theogravity wrote:
| For those who want a hardware+digital writing-focused experience,
| I'd recommend the Kingjim Pomera series.
|
| https://artvsentropy.wordpress.com/2023/08/12/retro-writing-...
|
| We bought a Pomera DM250 a few months ago while in Japan. It's
| really sleek and feature-rich compared to western-built writing-
| only devices which are limited, more expensive, and bulky. It
| opens up directly to a word processor; runs Linux under the hood.
|
| You can buy them via ebay as well if you're not in Japan.
| otterpro wrote:
| Van Neistat (Youtuber) uses typeweriter exclusively for writing,
| because it helps him focus, and also it seems to magically
| enhance his creativity. (He is one of the most creative person
| I've watched on youtube.)
|
| [Manual Typewriter vs. The Computer - Van Neistat -
| YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iViMlNj_Ca4)
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