Starting over
I have set type for nine years and drawn almost none of it. This year I went back to the basics: pencil, tracing paper, and a single lowercase alphabet at a time.
The first lesson was humility. The optical corrections that make a good typeface feel even are invisible until you try to draw a letter without them. An "o" that is mathematically the same height as an "x" looks too short. Every curve needs to overshoot.
What changed in my interface work
Drawing letters made me slower and more careful with the type I set. I notice rhythm now, not only size. I notice when a line length fights the face. I stopped reaching for letter-spacing as a fix for a face that was simply the wrong choice.
The goal is still modest: to draw the letters, not only set them. But even a modest goal changes how you look at every page.