Talk to the Hand

In my experience, the smartest people have perfectly awful handwritings, barely legible, almost as if the brain is too engrossed in more complex thoughts to care about aesthetics. This observation bothered me. What gets you a slap on the wrist with a ruler (not that I was in that kind of school) when you’re young is perceived as character and the willingness to be different when you’re older. This was a matter of great concern for me because my writing has always been more than legible. I was quite worried that I would come off rather dense, as I probably do in this neatly typed post.

Lately, however, I’ve changed my mind. Yes, a lot of smart people I know do have dreadful handwritings. But any handwriting that’s legible and doesn’t look like it’s straight out of a cursive writing book is a mark of artistic ability. I write like crap when I’m “not in the mood.” Can a person with a lousy hand write well when they “feel like it?” More choice means better optimisation. So there.

Sometimes I can’t help feeling that 2 years of economics hasn’t done much for me other than adding the words “optimisation” and “equilibrium” to my daily vocabulary.