I sat down to write a few notes for a blog post on a sheet of paper today. That turned out to be an impossible exercise. I’m so used to my PC keyboard now - not least my delete and arrow keys - that I’m almost unable to write down notes in longhand.

In meetings I can still do it. I write what I hear, and I don’t have a problem with it. The problem occurs when I sit down to express my thoughts, or to analyze something. Then I’m more or less completely stuck.

I used to be able to write entire essays in longhand, without a single strike-through. I went to college in the late-80s, and when I look at some of the analytic texts I wrote back then, it’s almost incomprehensible to me that I was able to write such coherent sentences and paragraphs at first try.

Anyways, I tried to write a blog draft but ended up with some kind of chaotic thought map with arrows and bubbles pointing and spreading in all directions. When I finally got access to my computer again and tried to convert my analog notes into a digital text I had to give it up. The notes were completely useless, and I had to do a complete rewrite of the whole thing.

It was a little frightening to see how helpless I’d become without the aid of a computer. Am I totally dependent on my PC to be able to express my thoughts now? Am I reduced to a stuttering idiot whenever I’m left to pen and paper?

I’m beginning to wonder…