The Handwritten Revolution: Lessons from Sanjay’s 70 Pages

I recently had a conversation with my colleague Sanjay Kotecha , who had just passed the Generative AI Engineer certification this week. His excitement was contagious, but what truly caught my attention wasn’t just his achievement—it was how he prepared.

Sanjay used 70 handwritten pages of notes to study. Not digital PDFs, not a Notion doc. Actual, pen-to-paper, hand-cramped scribbles. And as he recounted his journey, I recalled something profound I heard before: “Writing by hand made the concepts stick in a way that typing never did.”

This was no small feat in the age of AI-powered note-taking tools and instant searchability. Sanjay leaned into a practice that feels almost revolutionary in our increasingly digital lives.

Why Write by Hand?

Handwriting is more than just a throwback to simpler times. It’s a cognitive supercharger. Several studies have uncovered the unique benefits of putting pen to paper:

1. Stronger Brain Connectivity: Research from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology shows that handwriting activates more areas of the brain compared to typing. Memory-related regions light up, and the multisensory engagement—seeing, moving, and feeling—cements what we learn.
2. Better Retention: A study out of the University of Tokyo revealed that handwritten notes led to a 25% improvement in recall speed compared to notes taken on a smartphone. The tactile engagement makes information more memorable.
3. Deeper Focus: Typing tempts us with distractions—notifications, quick edits, copy-paste shortcuts. Writing by hand demands focus. It’s you, the pen, and the blank page.

Sanjay’s Secret Weapon

By handcrafting his preparation, Sanjay wasn’t just studying. He was engaging in a kind of dialogue with the material, creating a cognitive web that typing could never replicate.

And yet, here’s the twist: when Sanjay finally passed, I inevitably asked him for the OCR-scanned version of his notes. He laughed and promised to send them over, but then, the magic is not in the digital copy—it was in the act of writing them in the first place.

Because it wasn't just about writing things down—it was about slowing down, reflecting on each concept, and determining what truly mattered. It wasn't merely taking notes; it was transforming them into something personal and meaningful

The Takeaway

Writing by hand is inconvenient. It’s slower. It demands more from you. But that’s exactly the point. In a world obsessed with optimization and speed, sometimes slowing down is the shortcut to mastery.

Sanjay’s 70 pages are a reminder: the best tools aren’t always the most advanced ones. Sometimes, it’s the ones that have been with us all along.