In the fast-paced world of modern work today, where decision loops are closed within a few minutes, the image of a person sitting quietly, contemplating ideas, with a pen in hand and eyes on a simple sheet of paper, might look a bit outdated. We live in times ruled by computational power and artificial intelligence processing information in the blink of an eye. Yet experts who study how we think believe that the most efficient tool for any professional is not a digital assistant, but the simple act of thinking on paper first through writing and reading. Let the reuse of one-sided or even recycled paper take care of environmentalists’ concerns. My opinion, which many may consider outdated, stands on six props: cognitive externalisation, comparing natural intelligence and automation, reduction in cognitive load, the tradeoff between deep thinking and digital speed, humanisation of context, and, last but not least, the collaborative bridge that thinking on paper offers. To be honest, I thought out these ideas on paper first, as I outlined this piece.
Foremost is the process of cognitive externalisation. Our minds need an extension of space, which thinking on paper actually imparts. It helps connect complicated data streams with the natural way a human brain processes information. The point to remember here is that information is not the complete truth in itself. We need intellectual investment to search for the truth. The quest, therefore, needs transferring internalised intricate ideas onto some real-world medium, which can be paper, to get a multidimensional view by externalising our thinking.
When people pick up pens to scribble new ideas or read them out from the paper, they are not just making a note for later. They are helping their brain create a physical space that allows them to explore ideas. The way our brains work when we write or draw by hand is very different from how we use a computer, and this difference is becoming more important as technology takes over the repetitive parts of our jobs.
The human-centric context of thinking on paper for a better understanding of what a situation really needs and helps us find critical solutions that a smart machine, devoid of human context, might miss.
Next is comparing natural intelligence with automation. While a computer program is very efficient at doing exactly what it is told, it lacks natural intelligence: the human ability to think through confusing problems and guess what might go wrong before it actually happens. Bringing ideas on paper allows us to organise our thoughts and understand a requirement before we even punch a key. Automation handles the routine, but the human mind clasps the unknown and can review complex plans while ensuring that their linkages with the real world remain intact.
Most creative works rely on a person’s own intuition and feelings. We understand the immense magnitude of mental effort required when learning something new or facing a challenge, as we develop context, understand a problem, and then design and enact solutions accordingly. The strategy of reducing cognitive load through written content provides a helpful way to lower this mental stress. By putting our thoughts on paper, we can organise our search for answers without being distracted. This allows the human mind to focus on the most important part of any job: creativity.
While automated tools can save information quickly, they often miss the “why” behind a choice. This is where true human intelligence comes in handy. By charting out a plan on paper, one can create a map that helps navigate to the right solutions, peculiar to a certain context.
Akin to the positive effects of scribbling on paper, reading from the paper instead of a screen also has its benefits. There are a number of referenced studies conducted on thishypothesis including 2024 Meta analysis of 49 studies in which students who read on paper consistently scored higher on comprehension tests than those reading the same material on screens. Researchers refer to this as the “screen inferiority effect.”
We can develop a deeper understanding of the tradeoff between deep thinking and digital speed. We experience, every now and then, that digital screens might help us read faster in some cases, but in the process, it can cost us our comprehension. Our thinking somehow has to remain in step or preferably supersede the digital speed to impart a humanised and well-thought-out context. For any professional, relying only on digital, automated, or AI-powered tools can lead to focusing on just the final result, relegating the importance of quality and depth of the requisite output and its comprehension; it can therefore have an effect on its actual relation to real people in the real world.
So, this brings us to the fact that handwriting, drawing or reading from paper serves us as a collaborative bridge between our messy ideas and the perfect logic of a computer. The human-centric context of thinking on paper allows for a better understanding of what a situation really needs and helps us find critical solutions that a smart machine, devoid of human context, might miss. The best outputs come from carefully balanced input from both: the machines and the human hands and eyes. Despite the computing power, we can still keep our seat at the table, ensuring that the technologies we develop remain subservient to us rather than being our masters. By reclaiming the pen and the paper, we ensure that our insights drive the outputs from the machines too.
In a nutshell, we need to bring back the forgotten skill of thinking on paper, as humans have been doing this with their hands and eyes for thousands of years. However, in today’s world we prompt more than we think deeply. We are not really thinking; we are only selecting from whatever the machine throws at us. And if we are not thinking it means we have outsourced it to the computers and their screens. Correlating it with what the famous French philosopher Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am”, we can make out that this implied outsourcing leaves nothing at our prerogative.
The writer is a freelance columnist and can be reached at [email protected]