Writing is a thinking tool: without paper you're just a finite automaton
DynamicWebPaige · x · 2026-11-09
swyx highlights a new blog post by Murat Demirbas arguing humans, like LLMs, get far more capable with a scratchpad.
Citing Manuel Blum's advice to graders: the only difference between a finite automaton and a Turing machine is that the TM has paper and pencil. Without writing you are reduced to a finite automaton; with writing you gain the power of a Turing machine — remove the paper and you downgrade yourself by an entire complexity class.
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