The complex tactile movement of writing by hand stimulates our mind more effectively than typing. It activates multiple regions of the brain simultaneously, thereby imprinting what we learn on a deeper level. As a result, we retain information longer than we would by tapping it into an app.

Long practice teaches an artist to direct their gaze in an unusually focused way; it trains them to repurpose areas of their brain; and it changes the very structure of the brain’s neural networks. Ocean’s unusual patterns of thought – and his unusually developed brain – were normal in trained artists. Other neurological researchers have shown that

This is because you can type faster than you can handwrite. When it’s possible to keep up with a speaker and type verbatim notes, that’s what students do: but when using a ponderous pen or pencil, they have to develop alternative strategies to prioritise, organise, abbreviate and structure what they hear. This in turn leads to much better learning.