The Geography of Thought

I spend an inordinate amount of time searching for things I know I have written down. My digital notes are a vast, searchable repository of everything I have thought over the last few years, yet I often feel completely lost within them. I type a thought, I scroll down, and it vanishes into the ether of the infinite canvas.

I read he Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper Roland Allen recently and also went back and listened to him onThe Vergecast. Research suggests that writing in a physical notebook engages the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for mental mapping, in a way that typing simply does not. When you write on paper, you are creating a physical geography. Your brain longs where the note is. It occupies a specific place in the world.

This explains a lot about my own erratic relationship with productivity tools. I have written before about The Ups and Downs of My Notebook Habit, often blaming my lack of discipline when I fall off the wagon. In reality, my brain was probably just craving a map. When I use digital tools, I am floating in a void. When I use a notebook, I am standing on solid ground.

The problem, as I’ve noted recently, is that My Handwriting Can’t Keep Up. My hand cramps, and my scrawl becomes illegible because I am trying to match the speed of my typing. I viewed this as a bug, a friction point to be optimised away with a keyboard. But if the science is right, that friction is actually a feature. Slowing down doesn't just make my writing legible; it gives my brain the time it needs to place the thought on the map.

We are constantly sold the idea that digital is better because it is faster and limitless. Yet, I often wonder if Simplicity Could Be The Key to actually retaining information. The messiness of a notebook, the inability to command-F your way to an answer, and the physical limits of the page force you to engage with your thoughts differently.

I don’t think I will ever abandon digital notes completely; the utility is too high. But its important to remember that while Tech companies want us to believe an infinite canvas is freedom. Our brains seem to prefer edges, corners, and a sense of where things are.