699 Matching Annotations
  1. May 2023
    1. Typewriter Cleaning and Repair Basics #3 Bell Fixed

      Keep in mind that some typewriters don't have hard mechanical margin stops, but rely on the user to hear the bell to know the margin is approaching and return the line manually.

      Bell hammer mechanisms may simply need to be cleaned to get them into functioning order. Dirt and grime may prevent the hammer mechanism from having enough force to strike the bell. Beyond this replacing the spring may be necessary.

    1. Typewriter Cleaning and Repair Basics #2 Type Bars, Case, and Crinkle Finish

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82O_iUAI5og


      Segment comb cleaning - isopropyl alcohol (gentler solvent) - odorless mineral spirits - Lacquer thinner (maybe a bit too aggressive) - naphtha (lighter fluid) take care for flammability and ventilation

      Work solvent into bearing between type bar and segment comb. To dry things out one can used compressed air when done or just air dry.

      If sticking keys not due to being gummed up, bend portions slightly for better alighment.

      Do not lubricate the segment comb.

      Only lubricate the carriage rails when necessary.

      Exterior cleaning

      Brass bristle or nylon bristle brushes (toothbrushes) can be used to clean the exterior of the typewriter and/or cases with mild detergents or other solvents. Depending on the finish, try the brush and solvent on a small portion to determine colorfastness and potential scratching first.

    1. Typewriter Cleaning and Repair Basics #1 Assessment and Testing

      Recommends against any lubrication on the key mechanism, just keep it clean. Lubrication in some cases may actually gum up the works and cause the keys to return slowly.

      He suggests Krud Kutter as a cleaner/degreaser.

  2. Apr 2023
    1. How I annotate books as a PhD student (simple and efficient)

      She's definitely not morally against writing in her books, but there are so many highlights and underlining that it's almost useless.

      She read the book four times because she didn't take good enough notes on it the first three times.

      Bruno Latour's Down to Earth

      Tools: - sticky tags (reusable) - purple for things that draw attention - yellow/green referencing sources, often in bibliography - pink/orange - extremely important - highlighter - Post It notes with longer thoughts she's likely to forget, but also for writing summaries in her own words

      Interesting to see another Bruno Latour reference hiding in a note taking context. See https://hypothes.is/a/EbNKbLIaEe27q0dhRVXUGQ

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5PDWfWli54

    1. Zettelkasten - How Categories Emerge by Nicolas Gatien

      Gatien uses Scheper's suggested top level categories, but shows that it doesn't take long for things to end up in dramatically disparate areas. As a result, why bother with a pre-defined set of categories in the first place?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdHH3YjOnZE

    1. does my zettelkasten make writing... harder?

      Worried about self-plagiarizing in the future? Others like Hans Blumenberg have struck through used cards with red pencil. This could also be done with metadata or other searchable means in the digital realm as well. (See: https://hypothes.is/a/mT8Twk2cEe2bvj8lq2Lgpw)

      General problems she faces: 1. Notetaking vs. writing voice (shifting between one and another and not just copy/pasting) 2. discovery during writing (put new ideas into ZK as you go or just keep writing on the page when the muse strikes) 3. Linearity of output: books are linear and ZK is not

      Using transclusion may help in the initial draft/zero draft?<br /> ie: ![[example]] (This was mentioned in the comments as well.)

      directional vs. indirectional notes - see Sascha Fast's article


      Borrowing from the telecom/cable industry, one might call this the zettelkasten "last mile problem". I've also referred to it in the past as the zettelkasten output problem. (See also the description and comments at https://boffosocko.com/2022/07/12/call-for-model-examples-of-zettelkasten-output-processes/ as well as some of the examples linked at https://boffosocko.com/research/zettelkasten-commonplace-books-and-note-taking-collection/)

      Many journal articles that review books (written in English) in the last half of the 20th century which include the word zettelkasten have a negative connotation with respect to ZK and frequently mention the problem that researchers/book writers have of "tipping out their ZKs" without the outlining and argument building/editing work to make their texts more comprehensible or understandable.

      Ward Cunningham has spoken in the past about the idea of a Markov Monkey who can traverse one's atomic notes in a variety of paths (like a Choose Your Own Adventure, but the monkey knows all the potential paths). The thesis in some sense is the author choosing a potential "best" path (a form of "travelling salesperson problem), for a specific audience, who presumably may have some context of the general area.

      Many mention Sonke Ahrens' book, but fail to notice Umberto Eco's How to Write a Thesis (MIT, 2015) and Gerald Weinberg's "The Fieldstone Method (Dorset House, 2005) which touch a bit on these composition problems.

      I'm not exactly sure of the particulars and perhaps there isn't enough historical data to prove one direction or another, but Wittgenstein left behind a zettelkasten which his intellectual heirs published as a book. In it they posit (in the introduction) that rather than it being a notetaking store which he used to compose longer works, that the seeming similarities between the ideas in his zettelkasten and some of his typescripts were the result of him taking his typescripts and cutting them up to put into his zettelkasten. It may be difficult to know which direction was which, but my working hypothesis is that the only way it could have been ideas from typescripts into his zettelkasten would have been if he was a "pantser", to use your terminology, and he was chopping up ideas from his discovery writing to place into contexts within his zettelkasten for later use. Perhaps access to the original physical materials may be helpful in determining which way he was moving. Cross reference: https://hypothes.is/a/BptoKsRPEe2zuW8MRUY1hw

      Some helpful examples: - academia : Victor Margolin - fiction/screenwriting: - Dustin Lance Black - Vladimir Nabokov - others...

    1. Typewriter Tips: Budgeting (AKA How to get cheap typewriters!)

      • antique malls (look in unconventional places (like luggage))
      • estate sales (everything must go)
      • yard sales
      • auctions
      • facebook marketplace (negotiating)

      Hunting tips - look for cases, folks they often don't know what's in them or think they're luggage - look under things - negotiate<br /> - bundle items as a group to negotiate<br /> - Tell friends and you'll get an army looking for you

    1. Satire in the Age of Murdoch and Trump. The Problem With Jon Stewart Podcast, 2023-03-09. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbOiXmMnyw4.

      Watched most of this passively while reading on 2023-04-06

  3. Mar 2023
    1. Richards, Olly. Interview with Michel Thomas Publisher Sue Hart, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abjrsATBc5A.

      Thomas had a secretive nature and did most communication either over phone or in person. He didn't write letters. Sue Hart felt that it was the result of his experience in World War II. (Potentially relationship with spycraft?)


      He was a bit of a showman and enjoyed dropping names. He enjoyed his fame and status. Thomas seemed to enjoy people listening to him and didn't appreciate confrontation and dealt with it by shutting people off and walking away.


      Nothing deep here about his method really. All just background.


      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abjrsATBc5A

    1. Michel Thomas Method Review

      Michel Thomas method also includes: - atomic pieces built up as building blocks into larger pieces - lots of encouragement to prevent the feeling of failure

      Downsides: - there is no failure mode which can nudge people into a false sense of performance when using their language with actual native speakers

      This reviewer indicates that there is some base level of directed mnemonic work going on, but the repetition level isn't such that long term retention (at least in the space repetition sort of way) is a specific goal. We'll need to look into this piece more closely to firm this up, however.

    1. The Michel Thomas Method in a nutshell

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9Xh-by50pI

      This video indicates that small mnemonic hooks are inserted for some words in the Michel Thomas method. This was not immediately apparent or seen in the 1997 BBC documentary about his method and wasn't immediately apparent in Harold Goodman's discussion.

      Is it apparent in Goodman's session with his nephews? Was it part of Thomas' method originally or was it added later? Is it truly necessary or does it work without it as in the SSiW method which doesn't use it.

    1. The Language Master<br /> BBC - Michel Thomas<br /> [English CC]<br /> [Leg. PT-BR]

      Michel Thomas is one of the most brilliant language teachers in the world. His usual clients are movie stars and business leaders. This programme takes him to a Sixth Form College in London to work with school pupils, to test his claim that he can teach anyone a language in a week - with no reading, writing or homework. The film also explores his personal history - as a hero of the French Resistance during WW II.

      The Michel Thomas method involves: - slow build up of words, phrases, natural grammar - forced production of the language through practice - positive interaction - patience - no stress - no judgement - encouragement - constant evidence of progress

      How does "understanding" of the language evolve out of this method? It's more like revelation rather than understanding...

      This method appears much more atomic than that of SSiW (Aran Jones), but some of this is down to the fact that there's a live person who is able to unjudgementally prompt one with pieces which they've missed. The teacher has the context whereas the taped instructors do not. Presumably this sort of interpersonal prompting and context isn't necessarily required, but it can help to better lower the learner's stress and potentially speed up the learning process. It would require some standardization to set up a specific experiment to test between these two modes to tease this data out.

      Reference key: [[Levy1997]]<br /> “The Language Master.” 1:33 : 1, color. London, UK: BBC 2, March 23, 1997. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0w_uYPAQic.

    1. My Ten Years With Michel Thomas - Dr. Harold Goodman

      https://youtu.be/askAFNzI9Rc

      Michel Thomas taught languages conversationally in both languages by creating absolutely no pressure or worry and always keeping students in the "now".

      Find:<br /> Kaplan, Howard. “The Language Master.” The Jerusalem Report, August 11, 1994.

      Watch:<br /> “The Language Master.” 1:33 : 1, color. London, UK: BBC 2, March 23, 1997. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0w_uYPAQic.

    1. Einblicke in das System der Zettel - Geheimnis um Niklas Luhmanns Zettelkasten, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4veq2i3teVk.

      Watched 2023-03-13

      Mentioned elsewhere, but there's a segment here that he used whatever paper he happened to have around including the receipts from a brewery, tax papers, and even his children's art papers.

  4. Feb 2023
    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwKjuBvNi40

      Ben Rowland uses index cards to outline the plot of his screenplays. This is a common practice among screenwriters. Interestingly he only uses it for plot outlining and not for actual writing the way other writers like Vladimir Nabokov may have. Both Benjamin Rowland and Duston Lance Black use cards for outlining but not at the actual writing stage.

    1. <small><cite class='h-cite via'> <span class='p-author h-card'>Billy Oppenheimer</span> in The Notecard System: Capture, Organize, and Use Everything You Read, Watch, and Listen To (<time class='dt-published'>11/03/2022 16:53:44</time>)</cite></small>

      Nothing stupendous here. Mostly notes on cards and then laid out to outline. Most of the writing sounds like it happens at the transfer stage rather than the card and outline stage.

      This process seems more akin to that of Victor Margolin than Vladimir Nabokov.

    1. Stop Procrastinating With Note-Taking Apps Like Obsidian, Roam, Logseq https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baKCC2uTbRc by Sam Matla

      sophisticated procrastination - tweaking one's system(s) or workflow with the anticipation it will help them in the long run when it is generally almost always make-work which helps them feel smart and/or productive. Having measurable results which can be used against specific goals will help weed this problem out.

    1. Part 2: Search & Inspect. Denote as a Zettelkasten, 2023. https://share.tube/w/4ad929jjNYMLc6eRppVQmc.

      His file naming convention and search operation in this is really fantastic:

      20230226155400==51a3b--note-title__tag1_tag2.org

      This allows one to search the file by date/time, signature, title or tags, by using the =, - or _ along with text.

      Beyond this however, there's a fair amount of context to build to use this system including using regex search.

    1. Part 1: What Do We Need? Denote as a Zettelkasten, 2023. https://share.tube/w/mu7fMr5RWMqetcZRXutSGF.

      It starts and ends with Denote, but has an excellent overview of the folgezettel debate (or should one use Luhmann-esque identifiers within their digital zettelkasten system?)


      Some of the tension within the folgezettel debate comes down to those who might prefer more refined evergreen (reusable) notes in many contexts, or those who have potentially shorter notes that fit within a train of thought (folgezettel) which helps to add some of the added context.

      The difference is putting in additional up-front work to more heavily decontextualize excerpts and make them reusable in more contexts, which has an uncertain future payoff versus doing a bit less contextualization as the note will speak to it's neighbors as a means of providing some of this context. With respect to reusing a note in a written work, one is likely to remove their notes and their neighbors to provide this context when needed for writing.


      (apparently I didn't save this note when I watched it prior to number 2, blech....)

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX2p-1afdRA

      wrt: https://hypothes.is/a/uDIE9q70Ee2xxiszhAZGOQ<br /> I'll give him a little credit that he's at least aliasing his notes as he "files" them, but I suspect that over time he's making more work for himself than not. This seems unsustainable over time.

      It also seems like he's doing a lot more make-work here than he otherwise ought to?

      Notice that he's making this to sell a course: https://joshduffney.gumroad.com/l/take-smart-notes-obsidian

      He doesn't directly link the GitHub repo as he indicated, but it can be found here: https://github.com/Duffney/smart-notes. In looking at it, the timestamped notes will become problematic.

      This was from 2021-10-17. I'm curious what his "system" looks like today? Has it changed through time and experience?

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyBIT0Q7fOc

      Dealing with someone who is passive aggressive:

      • Hold eye contact
      • maintain the benefit of the doubt
      • give a warning shot: "I don't know why we're talking about this"
      • call it out: "What are we doing here? What are you trying to do?"
      • if it continues, remove yourself from the situation
    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZgMpjjgCRA

      Combining sketchnotes with Cornell Notes in a fairly straightforward manner.

      He mentions anecdotally that teachers who have used custom icons for their subjects see students drawing some of them on their exam papers as mental associative tags. This is the same sort of use that drolleries had in medieval manuscripts.

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qGRPOzMWnA

      Watched the first 46:39 on 2023-02-02. His personal communication style is a bit off-putting, but remedied slightly by watching at 1.25 or 1.5x speed. He's broadly covering pieces directly from his text which seems much more compact and elegant. Questions from the viewers in real time is a bit muddy with respect to understanding what they're saying.

      I gave up on the video due to streaming issues.

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuzRkac2n-c

      Beginning to realize that some of the pattern that I describe as productivity porn is more likely done as a means of creativity, art, or even therapeutic use.

      In this one (at the end), she's got a notebook specifically for putting washi tape into because it's calming and therapeutic.

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2zY7l2tzoQ

      Ugh... another short mediocre introduction. Repeats the origin myth.

      Seems to take a very Ahrens' based framing, but screws up a few pieces. More focus on "hub notes" and completely misses the idea of an index somehow?!?

      The last section of 2+ minutes really goes off the rails and recommends converting notes from other places and muddles about "Favorite problems" (ostensibly a reference to Feynman's 12 Favorite Problems, but isn't direct about it?).

      Also encourages the "Feynman technique"...

  5. Jan 2023
    1. 3.1 Guest Lecture: Lauren Klein » Q&A on "What is Feminist Data Science?"<br /> https://www.complexityexplorer.org/courses/162-foundations-applications-of-humanities-analytics/segments/15631

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7HmG5b87B8

      Theories of Power

      Patricia Hill Collins' matrix of domination - no hierarchy, thus the matrix format

      What are other broad theories of power? are there schools?

      Relationship to Mary Parker Follett's work?

      Bright, Liam Kofi, Daniel Malinsky, and Morgan Thompson. “Causally Interpreting Intersectionality Theory.” Philosophy of Science 83, no. 1 (January 2016): 60–81. https://doi.org/10.1086/684173.

      about Bayesian modeling for intersectionality


      Where is Foucault in all this? Klein may have references, as I've not got the context.


      How do words index action? —Laura Klein


      The power to shape discourse and choose words - relationship to soft power - linguistic memes

      Color Conventions Project


      20:15 Word embeddings as a method within her research


      General result (outside of the proximal research) discussed: women are more likely to change language... references for this?


      [[academic research skills]]: It's important to be aware of the current discussions within one's field. (LK)


      36:36 quantitative imperialism is not the goal of humanities analytics, lived experiences are incredibly important as well. (DK)

    1. https://www.complexityexplorer.org/courses/162-foundations-applications-of-humanities-analytics/segments/15630

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwkRfN-7UWI


      Seven Principles of Data Feminism

      • Examine power
      • Challenge power
      • Rethink binaries and hierarchies
      • Elevate emotion an embodiment
      • Embrace pluralism
      • Consider context
      • Make labor visible

      Abolitionist movement

      There are some interesting analogies to be drawn between the abolitionist movement in the 1800s and modern day movements like abolition of police and racial justice, etc.


      Topic modeling - What would topic modeling look like for corpuses of commonplace books? Over time?


      wrt article: Soni, Sandeep, Lauren F. Klein, and Jacob Eisenstein. “Abolitionist Networks: Modeling Language Change in Nineteenth-Century Activist Newspapers.” Journal of Cultural Analytics 6, no. 1 (January 18, 2021). https://doi.org/10.22148/001c.18841. - Brings to mind the difference in power and invisible labor between literate societies and oral societies. It's easier to erase oral cultures with the overwhelm available to literate cultures because the former are harder to see.

      How to find unbiased datasets to study these?


      aspirational abolitionism driven by African Americans in the 1800s over and above (basic) abolitionism

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPqjgN-pNDw


      When did the switch in commonplace book framing did the idea of "second brain" hit? (This may be the first time I've seen it personally. Does it appear in other places?) Sift through r/commonplace books to see if there are mentions there.


      By keeping one's commonplace in an analog form, it forces a greater level of intentionality because it's harder to excerpt material by hand. Doing this requires greater work than arbitrarily excerpting almost everything digitally. Manual provides a higher bar of value and edits out the lower value material.

      • Llyn Bochlwyd (lake gray cheek)
      • Foel Fawr
      • Coed Llugwy
      • Cwm Cneifion

      Erasure of culture

      Memory and place names

      "A nation which forgets its past has no future." - Winston Churchill (check quote and provenance)

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLQ6XlG0MQ4

    1. https://www.complexityexplorer.org/courses/162-foundations-applications-of-humanities-analytics/segments/15625

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZklLt80wqg

      Looking at three broad ideas with examples of each to follow: - signals - patterns - pattern making, pattern breaking

      Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913

      Jane Kent for witchcraft

      250 years with ~200,000 trial transcripts

      Can be viewed as: - storytelling, - history - information process of signals

      All the best trials include the words "Covent Garden".

      Example: 1163. Emma Smith and Corfe indictment for stealing.

      19:45 Norbert Elias. The Civilizing Process. (book)

      Prozhito: large-scale archive of Russian (and Soviet) diaries; 1900s - 2000s

      How do people understand the act of diary-writing?

      Diaries are:

      Leo Tolstoy

      a convenient way to evaluate the self

      Franz Kafka

      a means to see, with reassuring clarity [...] the changes which you constantly suffer.

      Virginia Woolf'

      a kindly blankfaced old confidante

      Diary entries in five categories - spirit - routine - literary - material form (talking about the diary itself) - interpersonal (people sharing diaries)

      Are there specific periods in which these emerge or how do they fluctuate? How would these change between and over cultures?

      The pattern of talking about diaries in this study are relatively stable over the century.

      pre-print available of DeDeo's work here

      Pattern making, pattern breaking

      Individuals, institutions, and innovation in the debates of the French Revolution

      • transcripts of debates in the constituent assembly

      the idea of revolution through tedium and boredom is fascinating.

      speeches broken into combinations of patterns using topic modeling

      (what would this look like on commonplace book and zettelkasten corpora?)

      emergent patterns from one speech to the next (information theory) question of novelty - hi novelty versus low novelty as predictors of leaders and followers

      Robespierre bringing in novel ideas

      How do you differentiate Robespierre versus a Muppet (like Animal)? What is the level of following after novelty?

      Four parts (2x2 grid) - high novelty, high imitation (novelty with ideas that stick) - high novelty, low imitation (new ideas ignored) - low novelty, high imitation - low novelty, low imitation (discussion killers)

      Could one analyze television scripts over time to determine the good/bad, when they'll "jump the shark"?

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds90JeVyKiE

      Review of variety of Boox e-readers.

      • Boox Note 3 - NO (older model)
      • Best 7.8" is probably Note Air for $350
      • 10" Note Air 2 >> Note Air
      • 10" Note Air 2+ is $500 and has a bigger battery and batteries over it's smaller v2
      • 13.3" Max Lumi >> Max Lumi2 especially because of price and heavy reflectivity issues with the Lumi 2
    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpvEY-2dSdU

      In this episode, I explain the memory system I created in order to expand my memory to new heights. I call it the Sirianni Method and with it, you can learn how to create an intentional photographic memory.

      Who the hell is the Sirianni this is named for, himself? (In the comments he mentions that "it's my italian grandpa's last name, I always liked it and a while back started naming things after it)

      tl;dr: He's reinvented the wheel, but certainly not the best version of it.

      What he's describing isn't remotely related to the idea of a photographic memory, so he's over-hyping the results, which is dreadful. If it were a photographic memory, he wouldn't need the spaced-repetition portion of his practice. While he mentions how he's regularly reviewing his cards he doesn't mention any of the last century+ of research and work on spaced repetition. https://super-memory.com/articles/20rules.htm is a good place to start for some of this.

      A lot of what he's doing is based on associative memory, particularly by drawing connections/links to other things he already knows. He's also taking advantage of visual memory by associating his knowledge with a specific picture.

      He highlights emotion and memory, but isn't drawing clear connections between his knowledge and any specific emotions that he's tying or associating them to.

      "Intentional" seems to be one of the few honest portions of the piece.

      Overview of his Sirianni method: pseudo-zettelkasten notes with written links to things he already knows (but without any Luhmann-esque numbering system or explicit links between cards, unless they're hiding in his connections section, which isn't well supported by the video) as well as a mnemonic image and lots of ad hoc spaced repetition.

      One would be better off mixing their note taking practice with associative mnemonic methods (method of loci, songlines, memory palaces, sketchnotes, major system, orality, etc.) all well described by Lynne Kelly (amongst hundreds before her who got smaller portions of these practices) in combination with state of the art spaced repetition.

      The description of Luhmann's note taking system here is barely passable at best. He certainly didn't invent the system which was based on several hundred years of commonplace book methodology before him. Luhmann also didn't popularize it in any sense (he actually lamented how people were unimpressed by it when he showed them). Popularization was done post-2013 generally by internet hype based on his prolific academic output.

      There is nothing new here other than that he thinks he's discovered something new and is repackaging it for the masses with a new name in a flashy video package. There's a long history of hucksters doing this sort of fabulist tale including Kevin Trudeau with Mega Memory in the 1990s and going back to at least the late 1800s with "Professor" Alphonse Loisette and the system he sold for inordinate amounts to the masses including Mark Twain.

      Most of these methods have been around for millennia and are all generally useful and well documented though the cultural West has just chosen to forget most of them. A week's worth of research and reading on these topics would have resulted in a much stronger "system" more quickly.

      Beyond this, providing a fuller range of specific options and sub-options in these areas so that individuals could pick and choose the specifics which work best for them might have been a better way to go.

      Content research: D- Production value: A+

      {syndication link](https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/10ehrbd/comment/j4u495q/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYj1jneBUQo

      Forrest Perry shows part of his note taking and idea development process in his hybrid digital-analog zettelkasten practice. He's read a book and written down some brief fleeting notes on an index card. He then chooses a few key ideas he wants to expand upon, finds the physical index card he's going to link his new idea to, then reviews the relevant portion of the book and writes a draft of a card in his notebook. Once satisfied with it, he transfers his draft from his notebook into Obsidian (ostensibly for search and as a digital back up) where he may also be refining the note further. Finally he writes a final draft of his "permanent" (my framing, not his) note on a physical index card, numbers it with respect to his earlier card, and then (presumably) installs it into his card collection.

      In comparison to my own practice, it seems like he's spending a lot of time after-the-fact in reviewing over the original material to write and rewrite an awful lot of material for what seems (at least to me—and perhaps some of it is as a result of lack of interest in the proximal topic), not much substance. For things like this that I've got more direct interest in, I'll usually have a more direct (written) conversation with the text and work out more of the details while reading directly. This saves me from re-contextualizing the author's original words and arguments while I'm making my arguments and writing against the substrate of the author's thoughts. Putting this work in up front is often more productive at least for areas of direct interest. I would suspect that in Perry's case, he was generally interested in the book, but it doesn't impinge on his immediate areas of research and he only got three or four solid ideas out of it as opposed to a dozen or so.

      The level of one's conversation with the text will obviously depend on their interest and goals, a topic which is relatively well laid out by Adler & Van Doren (1940).

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIfH-iSGa5M

      2021-05-12

      Dr. Hanan Harif started out as a Geniza scholar but is now a biographer of Shlomo Dov Goitein.

      In the 1920s Goitein published his only play Pulcellina about a Jewish woman who was burned at the stake in France in 1171.

      Had a friendship with Levi Billig (1897-1936)

      You know very well the verse on Tabari that says: 'You wrote history with such zeal that you have become history yourself.' Although in your modesty you would deny it, we suggest that his couplet applies to yourself as well." —Norman Stillman to S.D. Goitein in letter dated 1977-07-20

      Norman Stillman was a student of Goitein.


      What has Hanan Harif written on Goitein? Any material on his Geniza research and his note cards? He addressed some note card material in the Q&A, but nothing direct or specific.

      Goitein's Mediterranean Society project was from 1967-1988 with the last volume published three years after his death. The entirety of the project was undertaken at University of Pennsylvania.

      The India Book, India Traders was published in 2007 (posthumously) as a collaboration with M.A. Friedman.

      Goitein wrote My Life as a Scholar in 1970, which may have some methodological clues about his work and his card index.

      He also left his diaries to the National Library of Israel as well and these may also have some clues.

      His bibliography is somewhere around 800 publications according to Harif, including his magnum opus.

      Harif shows a small card index at 1:15:20 of one of Goitein's collaborators (and later rival) Professor Eliasto (unsure of this name, can't find direct reference?). Harif indicates that the boxes are in the archives where he's at (https://www.nli.org.il/en/discover/archives/archives-list ? though I don't see a reasonable name/materials there, so perhaps it's at his home at Rothberg International School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem).

  6. Dec 2022
    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPuqBdPULx4

      Mostly this is a lot of yammering about what is to come and the trials and tribulations it's taken him to get set up for making the video tutorials. Just skip to the later videos in the series.

      He did mention that he would be giving a sort of "peep show" of his note taking method, though he didn't indicate whether or not we might be satisfied with it. This calls to mind Luhmann's quote about showing his own zettelkasten being like a pornfilm, but somehow people were left disappointed.

      cross reference: https://hyp.is/GFj15IcbEe21OIMwT2TOJA/niklas-luhmann-archiv.de/bestand/zettelkasten/zettel/ZK_2_NB_9-8-3_V

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYycpKcUhc4

      We need more social acceptability for neurodivergence in much the way we accept the use of eyeglasses without attaching a social stigma to it.

      What ways is this like exacerbating the stigmas of racism and institutionalized racism? How can we break down these broader barriers without othering people?

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFs3_COOMp8

      He opens up saying that he uses some small plastic containers for mushrooms that he got from the supermarket for storing his notes/slips! This is definitely a unique form of zettelkasten box!


      He talks about the benefits and some of the joys of using analog practices, particularly in analogy to music and arts.


      "meine kleine zettelkasten show" sounds like it ought to be a Mozart compisition like Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

    1. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuJbg6eLC7Y3M9cFmc6QkDmP6z9FMIi_i

      I made it through the first four and a bit, but wasn't quite sure what was going on at all to be interested to continue on... Still not sure what the point was...

    1. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuJbg6eLC7Y3shnika1fdfHifoUPOeEp7

      Frank was a middle grades teacher before retiring and now teaches a school online. He's done so for 7+ years starting at the 7th/8th grade level and moving upward each year.

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Xaw72ESdA

      According to researcher Danny Hatcher, the "Feynman Technique" was coined by Scott H. Young in the August 22, 2011 YouTube video Learn Faster with The Feynman Technique and the subsequent 2022-09-01 article Learn Faster with Feynman Technique, ostensibly in a summarization of Gleick, James (1992). Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman. Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-679-40836-3. OCLC 243743850.

      The frequently quoted Einstein that accompanies many instances of the Feynman Technique is also wrong and not said by Einstein.

      The root Einstein quote, is apparently as follows:

      that all physical theories, their mathematical expressions apart ought to lend themselves to so simple a description 'that even a child could understand them.' —Ronald W. Clark, p418 of Einstein: His Life and Times (1972)

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Wp0sLpnMY

      PVA Glue used in bookbinding, but isn't inexpensive.

      • Tacky glue - okay
      • rubber cement - not great
      • elmer's glue - not great, tears esp. for 2 layers
      • Mod podge - pulls nicely and strong
      • mod podge hard shell - cracks, not great
      • PVA Glue - the best of the group

      Recommendations in order: PVA, Tacky Glue, Mod Podge (regular)

      Brush on top edge and do two coats. Don't get it down between sheets.

  7. Nov 2022
    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEXF3JgdHVY

      Fountain pen network

      ink journals for keeping track of pens, ink, and samples

      ink review formats

      swab books

      q-tip swabs

      ink sample vials and tray holders

      a bulb syringe for flushing water through to clean pens is a good idea when doing many at a time

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxyy0THLfuI

      <small><cite class='h-cite via'> <span class='p-author h-card'>Intrigue</span> in intrigue (<time class='dt-published'>08/29/2022 15:00:52</time>)</cite></small>

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCLCIw-HSJc

      I'm curious if you knew if Nelson, Engelbart or any of their contemporaries had/maintained/used commonplace books or card indexes as precursors of their computing work? That is, those along the lines of those most commonly used by academics, for example as described by Markus Krajewski in Paper Machines (MIT Press, 2011) or even Beatrice Webb's Appendix C on Note Taking in My Apprenticeship (Longmans, 1926) in which she describes a slip (or index card)-based database method of scientific note taking. I've always felt that Vannevar Bush held things back unnecessarily by not mentioning commonplace book traditions in As We May Think.

    1. Genealogy Garage: Researching at the Huntington Library

      <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/0f2j2K6JWGg" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
      • Julie Huffman jhuffman@lapl.org (host)
      • Stephanie Arias
      • Anne Blecksmith
      • Li Wei Yang
      • Clay Stalls cstalls@huntington.org

      ECPP

      Huntington Library

      Visit checklist

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ueMHkGljK0

      Robert Greene's method goes back to junior high school when he was practicing something similar. He doesn't say he invented it, and it may be likely that teachers modeled some of the system for him. He revised the system over time to make it work for himself.


      • [x] Revisit this for some pull quotes and fine details of his method. (Done on 2022-11-08)
  8. Oct 2022
    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvxbl7Iwep4

      Lots of levels here to pull apart, but this should be particularly interesting to novices.

      Modes of note taking: * note taking for raw information * note taking (or writing) for understanding * note taking for relationships of and between knowledge * note taking for creating proficiency * note taking for productivity

      Sung takes the viewpoint that linear note taking isn't as effective as mind mapping and drawing out relationships; in part this is why handwriting is more effective means of note taking compared to typing, particularly as most note taking apps force one into a linear pathway that doesn't mirror the affordances available within handwriting.

      This video is definitely more about note taking than note making.

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI3yiPA6npA

      Generally interesting and useful, but is broadly an extended advertisement for JetPens products.

      Transparent sticky notes allow one to take notes on them, but the text is still visible through the paper.

      One can use separate pages to write notes and then use washi tape to tape the notes to the page in a hinge-like fashion similar to selectively interleaving one's books.

    1. https://www.loom.com/share/a05f636661cb41628b9cb7061bd749ae

      Synopsis: Maggie Delano looks at some of the affordances supplied by Tana (compared to Roam Research) in terms of providing better block-based user interface for note type creation, search, and filtering.


      These sorts of tools and programmable note implementations remind me of Beatrice Webb's idea of scientific note taking or using her note cards like a database to sort and search for data to analyze it and create new results and insight.

      It would seem that many of these note taking tools like Roam and Tana are using blocks and sub blocks as a means of defining atomic notes or database-like data in a way in which sub-blocks are linked to or "filed underneath" their parent blocks. In reality it would seem that they're still using a broadly defined index card type system as used in the late 1800s/early 1900s to implement a set up that otherwise would be a traditional database in the Microsoft Excel or MySQL sort of fashion, the major difference being that the user interface is cognitively easier to understand for most people.

      These allow people to take a form of structured textual notes to which might be attached other smaller data or meta data chunks that can be easily searched, sorted, and filtered to allow for quicker or easier use.

      Ostensibly from a mathematical (or set theoretic and even topological) point of view there should be a variety of one-to-one and onto relationships (some might even extend these to "links") between these sorts of notes and database representations such that one should be able to implement their note taking system in Excel or MySQL and do all of these sorts of things.

      Cascading Idea Sheets or Cascading Idea Relationships

      One might analogize these sorts of note taking interfaces to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). While there is the perennial question about whether or not CSS is a programming language, if we presume that it is (and it is), then we can apply the same sorts of class, id, and inheritance structures to our notes and their meta data. Thus one could have an incredibly atomic word, phrase, or even number(s) which inherits a set of semantic relationships to those ideas which it sits below. These links and relationships then more clearly define and contextualize them with respect to other similar ideas that may be situated outside of or adjacent to them. Once one has done this then there is a variety of Boolean operations which might be applied to various similar sets and classes of ideas.

      If one wanted to go an additional level of abstraction further, then one could apply the ideas of category theory to one's notes to generate new ideas and structures. This may allow using abstractions in one field of academic research to others much further afield.

      The user interface then becomes the key differentiator when bringing these ideas to the masses. Developers and designers should be endeavoring to allow the power of complex searches, sorts, and filtering while minimizing the sorts of advanced search queries that an average person would be expected to execute for themselves while also allowing some reasonable flexibility in the sorts of ways that users might (most easily for them) add data and meta data to their ideas.


      Jupyter programmable notebooks are of this sort, but do they have the same sort of hierarchical "card" type (or atomic note type) implementation?

    1. https://youtu.be/ILuSxUYYjMs

      Luhmann zettelkasten origin myth at 165 second mark

      A short outline of several numbering schemes (essentially all decimal in nature) for zettelkasten including: - Luhmann's numbering - Bob Doto - Scott Scheper - Dan Allosso - Forrest Perry

      A little light on the "why", though it does get location as a primary focus. Misses the idea of density and branching. Touches on but broadly misses the arbitrariness of using the comma, period, or slash which functions primarily for readability.

  9. Sep 2022
    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2HegcwDRnU

      Makes the argument that note taking is an information system, and if it is, then we can use the research from the corpus of information system (IS) theory to examine how to take better notes.

      He looks at the Wang and Wang 2006 research and applies their framework of "complete, meaningful, unambiguous, and correct" dimensions of data quality to example note areas of study notes, project management notes (or to do lists) and recipes.

      Looks at dimensions of data quality from Mahanti, 2019.


      What is the difference between notes and annotations?

  10. Aug 2022
    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o49C8jQIsvs

      Video about the Double-Bubble Map: https://youtu.be/Hm4En13TDjs

      The double-bubble map is a tool for thought for comparing and contrasting ideas. Albert Rosenberg indicates that construction of opposites is one of the most reliable ways for generating ideas. (35:50)

      Bluma Zeigarnik - open tasks tend to occupy short-term memory.

      I love his compounding interest graphic with the steps moving up to the right with the quote: "Even groundbreaking paradigm shifts are most often the consequence of many small moves in the right direction instead of one big idea." This could be an awesome t-shirt or motivational poster.

      Watched this up to about 36 minutes on 2022-08-10 and finished on 2022-08-22.

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y07l5AsWEUs

      I really love something about the phrase "get them [ideas] into a form that students can work with them". There's a nice idea of play and coming to an understanding that I get from it. More teachers should frame their work like this.

    1. In 1951, Adelbert Ames created the mind-boggling ‘Ames Window’. It’s so effective that even when you know how it works you can’t break the illusion [video from The Curiosity Show: https://t.co/DF82ASFj1a] pic.twitter.com/lm7aoCBxVs

      — Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) August 8, 2022
      <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
  11. Jul 2022
    1. https://vimeo.com/729407073

      <iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/729407073?h=054ecbcc7b" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

      MakingKnowledge: Scott Scheper from Dan Allosso on Vimeo.


      Various names Luhmann gives to the effects seen in his slip box: - ghost in the box - second mind - alter ego - communication partner

      These are tangential ideas and words which lead up to the serendipity of combinatorial creativity, but aren't quite there.

    1. https://danallosso.substack.com/p/thoughts-prior-to-publishing

      <iframe title="vimeo-player" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/735211043?h=68a6bdd022" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

      I love the pointed focus @danallosso puts on output here. I think he's right that the "conversation between the writer, the text, and their notes" (in my framing combinatorial creativity) is where the real value is to be had.

      His explanation of the "evergreen note" is highly valuable here. One should really do as much work upfront to make it as evergreen as possible. Too many people (especially in the digital gardens space) put the emphasis on working on these evergreen notes over time to slowly improve and evolve them and that's probably the wrong framing to take. Write it once, write it well, then reuse it.

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7XbgD4VVa4

      Matthias Melcher's note taking process. Quick capture as text. Linking and categorizing later, and then import into a private WordPress space.

      No indication here what happens after, though ostensibly some of it is covered here: https://x28newblog.wordpress.com/2022/07/13/pruning-for-output/

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s4xx_muNcs

      Don't recommend unless you have 100 hours to follow up on everything here that goes beyond the surface.

      Be aware that this is a gateway for what I'm sure is a relatively sophisticated sales funnel.


      Motivational and a great start, but I wonder how many followed up on these techniques and methods, internalized them and used them every day? I've not read his book, but I suspect it's got the usual mnemonic methods that go back millennia. And yet, these things are still not commonplace. People just don't seem to want to put in the work.

      As a result, they become a sales tool with a get rich quick (get smart quick) hook/scheme. Great for Kwik's pocketbook, but what about actual outcomes for the hundreds who attended or the 34.6k people who've watched this video so far?

      These methods need to be instilled in youth as it's rare for adults to bother.


      Acronyms for remembering things are alright, but not incredibly effective as most people will have issues remembering the acronym itself much less what the letters stand for.


      There seems to be an over-fondness for acronyms for people selling systems like this. (See also Tiago Forte as another example.)

  12. Jun 2022
    1. Where are My Children?, Universal's top film of 1916, written and directed by their top director Lois Weber, discussed abortion and birth control. It was added to the National Film Registry in 1993.

      See also - Stamp, Shelley. Lois Weber in Early Hollywood. University of California Press, May 2015. ISBN 9780520284463


      Watched this last night

      https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/episodes/dream-factory

    1. https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la

      This is a stunningly excellent little series! It started auto streaming last night after I watched PBS News Hour and I watched it in the background all evening.

      I'd seen at least one episode previously, but definitely worth re-watching in its entirety. So much history hiding around us...

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPHw-WdiNbw

      Example of someone's explicit note taking practice. While there's some missing context hiding without pre-knowledge of what a zettelkasten is, it's an n interesting example for modeling purposes for beginners.

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxfTVdohSwA

      Christine Moskell talks about a professor's final exam design prompting students to go back to annotations and add new commentary (or links to other related knowledge) that they've gained during the length of a course.


      Link to:

      This is very similar to the sort of sensemaking and interlinking of information that Sönke Ahrens outlines in his book How to Take Smart Notes though his broader note taking thesis goes a few additional steps for more broadly synthesizing ideas into longer papers, articles, theses, and books.

      Dr. Moskell also outlined a similar tactic at the [[Hypothesis Social Learning Summit - Spotlight on Social Reading & Social Annotation]] earlier today, though that video may not be accessible for a bit.

      Cross reference: https://web.hypothes.is/event/social-learning-summit-spotlight-on-social-reading-social-annotation/

      How can we better center and model these educational practices in our pedagogies?

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awce_j2myQw

      Francis Ford Coppola talks about his notes and notebook on The Godfather.

      He went to the Cafe Trieste to work.

      Coppola had an Olivetti typewriter. (4:20)

      Sections on pitfalls

      I didn't need a script cause I could have made the movie just from this notebook.

    1. a short documentary titled Francis Coppola’s Notebook3released in 2001, Coppola explained his process.

      I've seen a short snippet of this, but I suspect it's longer and has more depth.


      The citation of this documentary here via IMDb.com is just lame. Cite the actual movie and details for finding and watching it please.


      Apparently the entirety of the piece is just the 10 minutes I saw.

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWkwOefBPZY

      Some of the basic outline of this looks like OER (Open Educational Resources) and its "five Rs": Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix and/or Redistribute content. (To which I've already suggested the sixth: Request update (or revision control).

      Some of this is similar to:

      The Read Write Web is no longer sufficient. I want the Read Fork Write Merge Web. #osb11 lunch table. #diso #indieweb [Tantek Çelik](http://tantek.com/2011/174/t1/read-fork-write-merge-web-osb110

      Idea of collections of learning as collections or "playlists" or "readlists". Similar to the old tool Readlist which bundled articles into books relatively easily. See also: https://boffosocko.com/2022/03/26/indieweb-readlists-tools-and-brainstorming/

      Use of Wiki version histories

      Some of this has the form of a Wiki but with smaller nuggets of information (sort of like Tiddlywiki perhaps, which also allows for creating custom orderings of things which had specific URLs for displaying and sharing them.) The Zettelkasten idea has some of this embedded into it. Shared zettelkasten could be an interesting thing.

      Data is the new soil. A way to reframe "data is the new oil" but as a part of the commons. This fits well into the gardens and streams metaphor.

      Jerry, have you seen Matt Ridley's work on Ideas Have Sex? https://www.ted.com/talks/matt_ridley_when_ideas_have_sex Of course you have: https://app.thebrain.com/brains/3d80058c-14d8-5361-0b61-a061f89baf87/thoughts/3e2c5c75-fc49-0688-f455-6de58e4487f1/attachments/8aab91d4-5fc8-93fe-7850-d6fa828c10a9

      I've heard Jerry mention the idea of "crystallization of knowledge" before. How can we concretely link this version with Cesar Hidalgo's work, esp. Why Information Grows.

      Cross reference Jerry's Brain: https://app.thebrain.com/brains/3d80058c-14d8-5361-0b61-a061f89baf87/thoughts/4bfe6526-9884-4b6d-9548-23659da7811e/notes

    1. https://www.b98.tv/video/wise-quacking-duck/

      "Say. Now you're cooking with gas." Daffy Duck in an oven bathing himself in gravy.

      The Wise Quacking Duck Warner Bros. (1943)<br /> Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Bob Clampett. <br /> Released on May 1, 1943