I think it is really pretty simple: in an unfamiliar environment and especially using totally unrealistic tools (paper or whiteboard), your "muscle memory" lose

I think it is really pretty simple: in an unfamiliar environment and especially using totally unrealistic tools (paper or whiteboard), your "muscle memory" loses its memory and your thought process is totally derailed by thinking about the pen and whiteboard. In a familiar environment, the mechanical process of typing is subconscious and your brain can concentrate on the problem, and not get tied up thinking about how to write in straight lines on a whiteboard. The flip side equivalent: many modern writers cannot use computers to be creative: http://mashable.com/2014/02/15/modern-writers-technology/ http://mashable.com/2014/02/15/modern-writers-technology/ Here is a list of (mostly manual) typewriters that authors use: http://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/typers.html http://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/typers.html