> But there is no correlation whatsoever between writing on a typewriter or using a fountain pen (or the physical experience of writing generally) and the quality of the writing
I heard neal stephenson say that he writes using a pen rather than a wordprocessor specifically because it does affect the quality of the writing. Because he handwrites slower than he types, he does more thinking and editing in his head rather than after it's on paper.
And if that works for him then he should do that, and I have no problem with that at all. I just don't think there is anything one can say about writing tools that _generalizes_ to writing quality, and the same applies to the type of conversations programmers often engage in like "functions need to be short!" or "line length MUST be less than 90 or else I will reject this PR!" or "dark mode is objectively better to write code in" etc.
I have no problem whatsoever with people having preferences, I just think people mistake preferences for proof.
I heard neal stephenson say that he writes using a pen rather than a wordprocessor specifically because it does affect the quality of the writing. Because he handwrites slower than he types, he does more thinking and editing in his head rather than after it's on paper.