Zettelkasten is a method for creating "slow productivity" against a sea of information overload

Some of the framing goes back to using the card index as a means of overcoming the eternal problem of "information overload" [see A. Blair, Yale University Press, 2010]. I ran into an example the other day in David Blight's DeVane Lectures at Yale in which he simultaneously shrugged at the problem while talking about (perhaps unknown to him) the actual remedy: https://boffosocko.com/2024/09/16/paul-conkins-zettelkasten-advice/

It's also seen in Luhmann claiming he only worked on things he found easy/fun. The secret is that while you're doing this, your zettelkasten is functioning as a pawl against the ratchet of ideas so that as you proceed, you don't lose your place in your train of thought (folgezettel) even if it's months since you thought of something last. This allows you to always be building something of interest to you even (especially) if the pace is slow and you don't know where you're going as you proceed. It's definitely a form of advanced productivity, but not in the sort of "give-me-results-right-now" way that most have come to expect in a post-Industrial Revolution world. This distinction is what is usually lost on those coming from a productivity first perspective and causes friction because it's not the sort of productivity they've come to expect.

In reply to writingslowly and Bob Doto at https://discord.com/channels/992400632390615070/992400632776507447/1285175583877103749<br /> Conversation/context not for direct attribution

for - Brehon Laws - of early Ireland - etymology - glossary - reading between the lines - adjacency - Brehon Laws - Indyweb - reading between the lines - glossary

adjacency - between - Brehon Laws - Indyweb - reading between the lines - etymology - glossary - adjacency relationship - Brehon Laws of early Ireland emerged from the people themselves over many generations - and were not imposed by some authority - For a long time, these laws were orally transmitted and memorized - When writing emerged, the style of writing used by the early Irish was to write with many gaps in between written verses of text - for the purpose of readers to be able to be writers and contribute to the text with their own perspectives - In other words, they were early annotators! - The etymology of the world glossary comes from "gloss" from the practice of writing meaning between the lines - "Glosses were common in the Middle Ages, usually rendering Hebrew, Greek, or Latin words into vernacular Germanic, Celtic, or Romanic. Originally written between the lines, later in the margins." ( https://www.etymonline.com/word/glossary)

source - Zoom meeting this evening with Paul and Trace, as Paul introduced from his understanding of his Irish roots

Der britische Premierminister Sunak hat in n Wales an Protesten von militanten Vertreter:innen der konventionellen Landwirtschaft teilgenommen, die eine Abkehr von der Net-Zero-Politik fordern.

Presenter says that Coppola divided the book into 50 scenes. Source for this?

Link to Frank Daniel's advice for 70 scenes.

What is the average number of scenes in a film? (Measured by slug lines.) Average over time? (5 year or 10 year increments?)

The difficult thing to pick apart here is the writer's intention and the reader's reception and base of knowledge.

In particular a lot of imaginative literature is based on having a common level of shared context to get a potentially wider set of references and implied meanings which are almost never apparent in a surface reading. As a result literature may use phrases from other unmentioned sources which the author has read/knows, but which the reader is unaware. Those who read Western literature without any grounding in the stories within the Bible will often obviously be left out of the conversation which is happening, but which they won't know exists.

Indigenous knowledge bases have this same feature despite the fact that they're based on orality instead of literacy.

Historians, sociologists, anthropologists, and surely other researchers must often "read against the grain" which historian Keith Thomas defines as reading a text, not so much for what the author was explicitly trying to directly communicate to the reader, but for the small tidbits that the author through the text "incidentally or unintentionally reveals."

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo63098990.html Lines of Thought: Branching Diagrams and the Medieval Mind by Ayelet Even-Ezra

Mentioned during Tinderbox Meetup: https://forum.eastgate.com/t/tagging-meetup-saturday-august-7/4841

They apparently discussed the book last week. (May be able to find the video of the discussion)

Sascha Fast analogizes the writing process using a zettelkasten to Henry Ford's assembly line for building cars. Each worker on the assembly line has a limited bit of knowledge for their individual part of the process, but most of the knowledge and value is built into the overarching process itself. This makes the overall system quicker and more efficient.

Similarly with note taking, each individual portion of the process is simple and self-contained, but it allows the writer to create a much more creative and complex piece in the end. Here an individual can accomplish all of the individual steps in a self-contained way while focusing on individual steps without becoming lost in the subsequent steps which would otherwise require a tremendous additional amount of energy.

69 Yeo, ‘Loose Notes’, 336

Robert Boyle kept loose sheets of notes, which he called memorials or adversaria. He didn't have a system of organization for them and tried out variations of colored strings, labels made of letters, and numerical codes. Ultimately his scrap heap failed him for lack of any order and his trust in memory to hold them together failed.

I love the idea of calling one's notes adversaria. The idea calls one to compare one note to another as if they were combatants in a fight (for truth).

Are working with one's ideas able to fit into the idea of adversarial interoperability?

If you see something, say something is a lot over-the-top for a Hollywood rag.

Tangent lines touch each other but do not intersect. if it does intersect it could be a secant line instead.

This does not appear to work as hoped

This crow called to me; I had to zoom in too much, but I loved the lines and spaces within the rule of thirds. https://flic.kr/p/245A9sn

Maybe this is to say we shouldn't be blurring the lines of the boundaries so much then? Sounds a bit like playing with fire..

This is a nice example of multiple resources. The CoP was available when Sally needed help and she had access but could engage with them or work alone when she wanted. The group shared material resources as well as ideas about their observations. There was support for learning but Sally was able to choose when and how she wanted that support.