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  1. Last 7 days
    1. In the third stage, you will return to the Source Note and begin analyzing it, describing your reaction to the source material and how it relates to a problem you are working on or a question you’re addressing.
    2. writing about something you have read or researched should serve at least three purposes: to explore the material; to describe your reactions to it; and to communicate with yourreader.
  2. Mar 2024
    1. Theindexer will want a feel, before they begin, for the concepts that willneed to be flagged, or taxonomized with subheadings. They mightskim the book – reading it in full but at a canter – before tackling itproperly with the software open. Or they may spend a while, as apreliminary, with the book’s introduction, paying attention to itschapter outline – if it has one – to gain a sense of what to look outfor. Often, having reached the end of the book, the indexer will returnto the first few chapters, going over them again now that they havegained a conceptual mapping of the work as a whole.

      It's no wonder that Mortimer J. Adler was able to write such a deep analysis of reading in How to Read a Book after having spent so much time indexing the ideas behind The Great Books of the Western World.

      Indexing requires a solid inspectional read at minimum, but will often go deeper into contexts which require at least some analytical reading. To produce the Syntopicon, one must go even further into analytical reading to provide the proper indexing of ideas so that they may be sub-categorized and used for deeper analysis for things such as comparison and contrast of those ideas.

  3. Feb 2024
    1. https://web.archive.org/web/20240202060134/https://andymatuschak.org/books/

      Books and lectures are transmissionism (I'd say for historical reasons mostly). Engagement (different forms) is needed, but what form of medium would drive such engagement and do it flexibly is the hard question. (Seeing lecture as warm-up to engagement is a rationalisation afterwards, textbooks already do more but lack emotional and social scaffolding.) This is the research question behind his [[Timeful Texts 20201124070427]]. There's also a connection to my [[Boeken schrijven is flauwekul 20210930172532]] because the distrust in author's motives is that they don't even aim for transmissionism. Just the pretension of it.

      Edit #2024/02/28 : Saw [[Chris Aldrich]] mention elsewhere that lectures started out as oral comments on a source text, sharing interpretation and sensemaking as it were. The word deriving from L lectio, reading.

    1. There were scattered admonitions,
      1. What was he drinking while watching the musicians?
      2. Pomegranate Juice
      3. How is the Neopolitan performer described? What color eyebrows?
      4. Brutal and audacious, dangerous and amusing; ambiguity, vaguely repulsive. Eyebrows were reddish.
      5. When the performer approached A, what was their conversation about the “sickness” outbreak?
      6. Performer completely denied the existence of a plague, calling it a precautionary measure.
      7. According to the Englishman, where did cholera originate from? (Does that setting remind you of any other imagery from the beginning of the novella?)
      8. NOxious breath of the unfit, primitive world. Hatched in warm swamps of the delta, island wilderness - HIS DREAM AT THE BEGINNING!
      9. What are some public and social reactions to the plague that eerily is similar to our pandemic?
      10. The silencing of deaths, the constant denial or downplaying of the problem by city officials until it could no longer be hidden. Citizens against government, sparked movements and rebellion, rising crime, etc.
      11. What does A think about doing? A “decent action that would cleanse his conscience?”
      12. to tell Tadzio and the woman about the plague.
      13. At this point, when he thinks about returning home to “levelheadedness,” how does he feel?
      14. he doesn't want to do it because he's still tied to venice. what were art and virtue worth to him, over against the advantages of chaos?" "egregious sweetness"
      15. Describe some bizarre images from his dream. Stop reading after “annihilation”
      16. a raging mob whirling downwards in a riotous round dance
      17. deep coaxing flute playing in the background
      18. he became aoart if the crowd, and the crowd became him
      19. in sacrifice to a foreign god, lost himself to chaos and savagery.
    1. For digital tools themain concern has been with developing software that enables the accessing, manipulation, andtransformation of these digital archives for the use of scholars, particularly in the fields of Englishand History, with the emphasis on augmenting scholarly work through larger dataset analysis,sometimes called “distant reading”

      Enfoque Herramientas Digitales. En cambio, con las Herramientas Digitales se evidencia esa interactividad entre datos, visualizaciones, mapeo, colecciones no estáticas.

      "Se centra en el desarrollo de Software que permiten el acceso, la manipulación y la transformación, particularmente en los campos de inglés e historia".

    1. Not so the tenth-century John of Gorze, who issaid to have pored continuously over the psalms with a soft buzzing‘in morem apis’: in the manner of a bee.8

      quoted portion via:<br /> John of St Arnulf, ‘Vita Joannis abbatis Gorziensis’, Patrologia Latina, 137.280D.

      relationship to collecting like the bees (rhetoric)

      relationship to humming and rocking practices of Hassidic readers/learners/memorizers

    2. Looking back on his first encounters withAmbrose, Bishop of Milan, in the late fourth century, Augustineremembers noticing the curious way Ambrose would read: ‘his eyeswould scan over the pages and his heart would scrutinize theirmeaning – yet his voice and tongue remained silent’.7 This –reading in silence – is not normal, and Augustine wonders whatcould possess Ambrose to adopt such a practice. (Was it to preservehis voice? Or a way of avoiding unwanted discussions about the texthe was reading?)

      quoted section via:<br /> St Augustine, Confessions, trans. by Carolyn J. B. Hammond, 2 vols. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014), I, p. 243 (VI 3.3).

    3. As thehistorian Jean Leclercq, himself a Benedictine monk, puts it, ‘in theMiddle Ages, one generally read by speaking with one’s lips, at leastin a whisper, and consequently hearing the phrases that the eyessee’.6

      quoted section from:<br /> [au moyen âge, on lit généralement en pronançant avec les lèvres, au moins à voix basse, par conséquent en entendant les phrases que les yeux voient.] Jean Leclercq, Initiation aux auteurs monastiques du Moyen Âge, 2nd edn (Paris: Cerf, 1963), p. 72.

      What connection, if any, is there to the muscle memory of movement while speaking/reading along with sound/hearing to remembering what we read? Is there research on this? Implications for orality and memory?

    4. in the nunnery, where St Caesarius prescribes two hours to beset aside for reading in the early morning and a nominated reader tobe the only audible voice both at mealtimes and during the nuns’daily weaving. And woe betide the sister who finds herself drifting off:‘If anyone should become drowsy, she shall be ordered to standwhile the others are seated, so that she can banish the heaviness ofsleep.’5

      quoted portion from:<br /> The Rule for Nuns of St Caesarius of Arles, trans. by Maria McCarthy (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1960), p. 175.

      see related version in Benedictine Rule: https://hypothes.is/a/oJWB5tKAEe6FRGuIAPWmZQ

    5. the Benedictine Rule stipulatesthat monks should then apply themselves to two hours of reading,after which they may either go back to bed, ‘or if anyone mayperhaps want to read, let him read to himself in such a way as not todisturb anyone else’.4 At mealtimes, one monk will be appointed toread to the others, who must keep absolute silence ‘so that nowhispering may be heard nor any voice except the reader’s’.

      quoted portions from:<br /> St. Benedict’s Rule for Monasteries, trans. by Leonard J. Doyle (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1948), p. 67.

    6. ‘Blessed Lord, which hast caused al holy Scriptures to bee written forour learnyng; graunte us that we maye in such wise heare them,read, marke, learne, and inwardly digeste them.’2

      quote from:<br /> The Booke of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments (London: 1549), sig. B iiv.

    1. Generally I’ll pull up a short review or two to see what the topic broadly covers as well as to see how others are associating it to their own areas of work. I’ll usually do a quick inspectional flip through the table of contents and index to highlight any thing I think is particularly relevant to me.

      Chris, this reminds me of Bill Cosby's three strategies for reading faster.

    1. he very degree of wornness ofcertain cards that you once ipped to daily but now perhaps do not—since that author is drunk and forgotten or that magazine editorhas been red and now makes high-end apple chutneys inBinghamton—constitutes signicant information about what partsof the Rolodex were of importance to you over the years.

      The wear of cards can be an important part of your history with the information you handle.


      Luhmann’s slips show some of this sort of wear as well, though his show it to extreme as he used thinner paper than the standard index card so some of his slips have incredibly worn/ripped/torn tops more than any grime. Many of my own books show that grime layer on the fore-edge in sections which I’ve read and re-read.

      One of my favorite examples of this sort of wear through use occurs in early manuscripts (usually only religious ones) where readers literally kissed off portions of illuminations when venerating the images in their books. Later illuminators included osculation targets to help prevent these problems. (Cross reference: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370119878_Touching_Parchment_How_Medieval_Users_Rubbed_Handled_and_Kissed_Their_Manuscripts_Volume_1_Officials_and_Their_Books)

      (syndication link: https://boffosocko.com/2024/02/04/55821315/#comment-430267)

    1. we—are the beginningour work is today:A mugA floor brushBootsA catalogAnd when one person in his laboratory set upA squar

      I see this quote as a direct declaration of war against technology as a whole. Going back to analog roots of brushes, well-worn boots, and a magazine. All things needed in order to set up the grid behind art, a guideline of human creativity.

    2. We say that the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty:the beauty of speed.

      I feel this rule of the manifesto of futurism still holds up to this day. News, ads, and tabloids come at us faster than ever. There is always something to turn our eyes to and whenever the 15 minutes of fame and attention are up, we move on to the next thing. It is a constant, overstimulating cycle of content.

    3. We, however, are satisfied if in our bookthe lyric and epic evolution of our times is given shape.

      Each era has their own version of what the world should follow and believe. It is an constant evolving movement.

    4. We will glorify war—the world’s only hygiene—militarism, patriotism, thedestructive gesture of freedom-bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, andscorn for woman

      Pro-violence, very problematic

    5. previously—Engineers relaxed with artnow—Artists relax with technology1 For a detailed discussion ofRodchenko’s belief in theideal Soviet citizen, see VictorMargolin, The Struggle forUtopia: Rodchenko, Lissitzky,Moholy-Nagy, 1917–1946(Chicago: university of ChicagoPress, 1998).

      progressive way of thinking

    6. mid-twentieth century, Josef Müller-Brockmann and Paul Randconnected design methodologies to the world of business
    7. El Lissitzky, whose posters, books, and exhibitions are amongthe most influential works of twentieth-century design, had a huge impact
    8. scholar and designer Helen Armstrong,

      https://helenarmstrong.info

      She was "emerging" in 2006 when this was written, nearly 20 years ago. She's still a working professor with interesting projects.

    1. Graphic designers produce representations of society, and they help create access to information and ideas. But who gets to be represented, and who gets access?

      Beyond this question lies another to me. Who is art for? Do artists/graphic designers have a greater responsibility to the people that engage with their art?

    2. Graphic designers produce representations of society, and they help create access to information and ideas. But who gets to be represented, and who gets access?

      It is essential to question what we see as authority just because it looks official. The internet has opened information and platform access to many more people. What that looks like in the future is literally up to us. We can have a great effect as visual artists and strategic thinkers on how culture grows. What will "inclusive" mean 20 years from now. Will we still be fighting the same fights?

    1. Dr Minor would read a text not for its meaning but for its words. It wasa novel approach to the task – the equivalent of cutting up a book word byword, and then placing each in an alphabetical list which helped the editorsquickly find quotations. Just as Google today ‘reads’ text as a series of wordsor symbols that are searchable and discoverable, so with Dr Minor. A manualundertaking of this kind was laborious – he was basically working as acomputer would work – but it probably resulted in a higher percentage of hisquotations making it to the Dictionary page than those of other contributors.
    2. Readers received a list of twelve instructions on how to select a word,which included, ‘Give the date of your book (if you can), author, title (short).Give an exact reference, such as seems to you to be the best to enable anyoneto verify your quotations. Make a quotation for every word that strikes you asrare, obsolete, old-fashioned, new, peculiar, or used in a peculiar way.’
    1. The bad reader is lost amonggood books. He lacks the highest pleasure available to man,according to Mrs. Woolf. If she is right, none but a fool would refuseto learn to read as well as he can.
    2. Reading is not a passive activity
    3. Perhaps the quickest way to understand the elements of what a novelistis doing is not to read, but to write; to make your own experiment withthe dangers and difficulties of words.

      This seems to be the duality of Millard Kaufman (and certainly other writers'?) advice that to be a good writer, one must first be well read.

      Of course, perhaps the two really are meant to be a hand in a glove and the reader should actively write as they read thereby doing both practices at once.

    1. Okay folks. I think I better name my antinet before he gets too big and people start getting suspicious. After some thinking and googling words I don't know in order to make an acronym I think I've decided on "J.A.K.O.B". Which stands for "just a knowledgeable omnilegent box". Omnilegent apparently means reading or having read everything. The name is of course inspired by J.A.R.V.I.S (just a very intelligent system) the artificial intelligence created by Tony Stark.

      u/tylermangelson named his zettelkasten J.A.K.O.B.

      https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/1aecx27/naming_my_baby_antinet/

  4. Jan 2024
    1. And it’s a warning against a fourth mode of note-making that I don’t advise: encyclopedic note-making. This is where you read a book and try to write a summary that will work for everyone. First, it’s hard work, and secondly, it’s probably already been done. If you open the link above you’ll see that the Wikipedia entry for How to Read a Book already includes a summary of the book’s contents. There are circumstances where the careful and complete summary is worthwhile, but I suggest you only start this task with the end - your own end - in mind.

      unless, that is the specific project/purpose at hand.

    1. Curly Cruene Cahall has a practice of "scouting and excavating" books. His first read sounds closest to Adler's inspectional read, though Cahall says his first run through is for "entertainment". Follow this he reads in a more targeted manner which he calls "excavating", which ostensibly entails excerpting the most salient and interesting points for use in his own work.

    1. Sinopsis Original del libro.

      English Translation

      Bibliotec(0n) something to read: Three times you - Federico Moccia (Download the book for free) Do you like to immerse yourself in a world full of magic, fiction, action, drama, comedy, etc…?

      In this blog, dedicated to those lovers of reading, you will find the literary productions that have marked a milestone in the field of contemporary literature, and in addition to that, you can also download for FREE! these books, stories, novels, etc. Wonderful, right?

      Three times you

      Third part of the Federico Moccia saga, I loved the first two books, "Three meters above the sky" and "I want you", and this third is the continuation six years later. I personally loved it and I really liked the continuation of the stories of Step, Babi and Gin, and the other characters. In my opinion, with the last two books the story had not ended and with this third part there is an outcome for all the characters. I think it's not bad at all to have a good time and I hope that, just like with the books, they make the "Three times you" movie. Sometimes the reading becomes a little tedious. But since it tells the life of each of the characters, 6 years later, it is understandable. Although I liked his two previous books much more, it is still a good book. Since you want to know in depth, what would happen to everyone. The ending, although a bit predictable, had to be that way. Do you want to know how the story ends? Well, start reading THREE TIMES YOU.

      Finally, I have to say that from the beginning (the first book), I loved these novels, not only because they are fresh and from life itself, but because they tell us these beautiful love stories. I was very excited to get to know Rome when I read the descriptions of the Eternal City in its pages. The motorcycle tours that Step took, the sea of ​​Ostia, the Roman squares, the Tiber or the famous Milvian bridge of padlocks (one day I would like to go and put a padlock there with my boyfriend). I encourage you to read this book and the other two previous ones. It's worth it because they are very beautiful love stories, with deep characters and beautiful places.


      Original synopsis of the book.

      • Download this book for free

      Six years later, the lives of our protagonists have changed. They have managed to be happy, but when they least expect it, their paths cross again… After the success of Three Meters Above the Sky and I Want You, comes the long-awaited outcome of the love story of Step, Babi, and Gin. Will Step and Gin still be together? Is Babi happy in her marriage?

      Technical sheet Original title: Tre volte tu Author: Federico Moccia Genre: Romantic narrative Year of publication: 2017 Publisher: Planeta Saga: 3/3 Number of pages: 807

      WELCOME TO THE STEEMIT VIRTUAL LIBRARY

    2. Tres veces tu

      This post is a recommendation for the book "Tres veces tu" (Three Times You) by Federico Moccia, which is the third part of a romantic saga and can be downloaded for free. The author shares their personal opinion and enjoyment of the book, encouraging others to read it.

    3. Tres veces tu - Federico Moccia

      Three Times You

      • Who: The author of the post (bibliotec0n).
      • What: The post is about a book called "Tres veces tu" (Three Times You) by Federico Moccia and the author's personal opinion and recommendation of the book.
      • Why: The author writes the post to share their thoughts and recommendation about the book.
      • How: The author describes their personal experience and opinion of the book, mentioning that they enjoyed it and found it to be a good read. They also provide a brief synopsis of the book and mention their interest in visiting the locations mentioned in the book. The author also includes links to download the book for free and promotes various communities and platforms related to literature and writing.
    1. 2023-12-21 BookBridge Talk, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M-nfWI93nY. Andy Matuschak and Derrek Chow

    2. The linking between physical book and digital book is somewhat reminiscent to me to Livescribe.com's use of Anoto digital paper and direct linking of handwriting on the page with recorded audio. Perhaps the physical book and digital book could use such a substrate to effectuate some of the work seen here, but also do it in a way that is easily (digitally) recordable as well as replayable. They've also done some of the handwriting to text work one might want in this space.

    1. [[Dan Allosso]] in How to Read, part 2

    2. Some of these goals might include: - Reading to understand an author's argument, so you can critique it or respond to it;- Reading to accumulate information and data the author uses, for your own purposes; - Reading to learn facts and ideas that will provide background for a narrative or argument;- Reading for enjoyment, which often involves novelty.

      Nice start on a list of goals for reading

      others?

    1. This is why choosing an external system that forces us todeliberate practice and confronts us as much as possible with ourlack of understanding or not-yet-learned information is such a smartmove.

      Choosing an external system for knowledge keeping and production forces the learner into a deliberate practice and confronts them with their lack of understanding. This is a large part of the underlying value not only of the zettelkasten, but of the use of a commonplace book which Benjamin Franklin was getting at when recommending that one "read with a pen in your hand". The external system also creates a modality shift from reading to writing by way of thinking which further underlines the value.

      What other building blocks are present in addition to: - modality shift - deliberate practice - confrontation of lack of understanding

      Are there other systems that do all of these as well as others simultaneously?


      link to Franklin quote: https://hypothes.is/a/HZeDKI3YEeyj9GcNWKX4iA

    1. You should read with a pen in your hand andenter...short hints of what you feel...may be useful; forthis be the best method of imprinting [them] in yourmemory. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

      original source?

      it's Benjamin Franklin letter to Miss Stevenson, Wanstead. Craven-street, May 16, 1760.<br /> see: https://hyp.is/HZeDKI3YEeyj9GcNWKX4iA/www.gutenberg.org/files/40236/40236-h/40236-h.htm

  5. Dec 2023
    1. https://blumm.blog/2022/12/31/dejo-de-recomendarte-cuarenta-y-dos-libros-que-no-has-leido-en-2022-pero-yo-si-una-lista-menos/

      Bernardo Munuera Montero recommends that one never recommend books to others as it's most likely a lost cause. He contends that people are far better of discovering their own reading for their own devices.

    1. Matt GrossMatt Gross (He/Him) • 1st (He/Him) • 1st Vice President, Digital Initiatives at Archetype MediaVice President, Digital Initiatives at Archetype Media 4d • 4d • So, here's an interesting project I launched two weeks ago: The HistoryNet Podcast, a mostly automated transformation of HistoryNet's archive of 25,000+ stories into an AI-driven daily podcast, powered by Instaread and Zapier. The voices are pretty good! The stories are better than pretty good! The implications are... maybe terrifying? Curious to hear what you think. Listen at https://lnkd.in/emUTduyC or, as they always say, "wherever you get your podcasts."

      https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7142905086325780480/

      One can now relatively easily use various tools in combination with artificial intelligence-based voices and reading to convert large corpuses of text into audiobooks, podcasts or other spoken media.

    1. The only advice, indeed,that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, tofollow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your ownconclusions
    2. How Should OneRead a Book

      Woolf, Virginia. “How Should One Read a Book?” In Gateway to the Great Books: 5 Critical Essays, edited by Robert M. Hutchins, Mortimer J. Adler, and Clifton Fadiman, 2nd ed., 5–14. Gateway to the Great Books 5. 1932. Reprint, Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1990.

      Originally:<br /> “How Should One Read a Book?” from The Second Common Reader by Virginia Woolf. Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1932.

    1. Readwise Reader

      A great article on the history of reading online that might just nudge me into trying out and eventually becoming a Reader paid subscriber.

    1. Your having said "Friends of the Library" makes me think that your set likely isn't actually ex-Library (reference or otherwise), but likely was privately owned and donated directly to the library or their friends, who then sold them to raise money for the library itself. This is a common pattern in libraries across America and explains how you've gotten such a pristine copy.

    1. Figure 11 shows that the resolvers that account for 50% of theIPv6 ingress set have relatively close number of IPv4 and IPv6egress addresses; the left 50% resolvers have more IPv4 egress IPaddresses than IPv6 egress IP addresse

      Only Figure 12 shows that this is indeed the distribution (for 99%)

      Otherwise, I think that's only one possible distribution matching Figure 11. And still, like the author's mentioned analysis of Figure 9, under assumption of equal distribution.

    2. under the premise of resolverswith the same proportion

      "Under premise of equal distribution (of both groups: IPv4 and IPv6)" - Interesting wording and probably the only one you can make from an ECDF graph.

      Figure 10 actually conveniently shows that this conclusion (under the simplifying assumption) is false, as ~1% resolvers have >50% IPv6-to-IPv4 ratio (p99 = 0.5).

    3. Figure 9

      Description: The graph shows that resolvers overall have more IPv4 than IPv6 egress IP addresses. - ~99% of resolvers have about at most 10 IPv6 addresses only. - The top 20% of resolvers with most IPv4 egress addresses have >80 IPv4 egress addresses.

  6. Nov 2023
    1. 渐进阅读的必然性

      The Inevitability of Incremental Reading 漸進閱讀的必然性

      這是此頁的簡中翻譯: https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Inevitability_of_incremental_reading

    1. I appreciate they're anagrams, but Adler wrote about syntopical reading, not synoptical reading. Syntopical = same topic. Show less Read more 15

      reply to RichardCarter, timbushell8640, _jared, et al at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laXcJyx9xCc&lc=UgwDgpIktVi8yFDjEVZ4AaABAg

      I see you @timbushell8640 and @RichardCarter. ;)

      Let's be clear that synoptic (meaning "seen together") is certainly a useful word apart from syntopic. Quite often it's used to describe the books Matthew, Mark, and Luke of the New Testament which are sometimes placed together on the same page to compare the stories, particularly for historical analysis. This sort of reading, not too dissimilar to syntopical reading, is a fantastic analytical tool as well and is described well by Bart Ehrman in one of his more scholarly works. Reading these books this way shows that the so-called synoptic gospels are anything but consistent (talk about crosses to bear....) Given the increase in the number of biblical scholars in the late 1800s doing this specific sort of reading (synoptic) may have influenced Adler's choice of neologism to describe that particular reading method. For those that haven't seen a synoptic book presentation, Throckmorton's version is a fairly good/popular one, though others certainly exist, including versions for translators which have side by side versions of books in Hebrew, Latin, Greek, etc. These can be found by searching for books with "interlinear", "parallel" and/or "polyglot" in their titles, especially with respect to bibles. They're somewhat similar to the layouts of the Loeb Classics collection, though those only have Greek/English or Latin/English in parallel.

      Ehrman, Bart D. The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. Second Edition. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Chapter 6, "The Synoptic Problem and Its Significance for Interpretation", pp76-83.

      Throckmorton, Jr., Burton H. Gospel Parallels: A Comparison of the Synoptic Gospels, New Revised Standard Version. 5th Revised edition. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1992.

    1. Eco was aware of this predicament. As a university profes-sor, he knew that the majority of students in Italian univer-sities seldom attended classes, that very few of them wouldcontinue to write and do research, and that the degree theyeventually earned would not necessarily improve their socialconditions. It would have been easy to call for the system tobe reformed so as not to require a thesis from students ill-equipped to write one, and for whom the benefit of spendingseveral months working on a thesis might be difficult to jus-tify in cold economic terms.

      Some of the missing piece here is knowing a method for extracting and subsequently building. Without the recipe in hand, it's difficult to bake a complex cake.

      Not mentioned here as something which may be missing, but which Adler & Van Doren identify as strength and ability to read at multiple levels including inspectionally, analytically, and ultimately syntopically.

      To some extent, the knowledge of the method for excerpting and arranging will ultimately allow the interested lifelong learner the ability to read syntopically even if it isn't the sort of targeted exercise it might be within creating a thesis.

    1. Studs Terkel, the oral historian, was known to admonish friends who would read his books but leave them free of markings. He told them that reading a book should not be a passive exercise, but rather a raucous conversation.

      love "raucous conversation"!

  7. Oct 2023
    1. Alter’s commentary benefits from his allusions to, among others, Freud, Gilgamesh, Herodotus, Hesiod, Homer, Josephus, Joyce, Kafka, Melville, Milton, Molière, Nabokov, Shakespeare, Shelley, and Sophocles. But technical words and phrases often appear without explanation: aleatory device, autochthonous, collocation, deictic, diachronic collage, dittography, durance vile, emphatic anaphora, gnomic, haplography, metonymy, and threnody. (To my knowledge, there is no readily available glossary containing all these words—so you will just have to google one word at a time, dear reader.) Even when Alter offers a definition as an aside, I wonder how many people will benefit from his explanations., e.g., “This pairing is virtually a zeugma, the syntactic yoking together of disparate items” (Isaiah 44:15).

      Is it really incumbent on the author to translate every word he's using with respect to the language in which he's writing. He's already doing us a service by translating the Hebrew. Are modern readers somehow with out a dictionary? I might believe they've not been classically educated to capture all the allusions, but the dictionary portion is a simple fix that is difficult to call him out on from a critical perspective, especially in a publication like "Law & Liberty" whose audience is specifically the liberally educated!?!

    2. But sometimes Alter’s comments seem exactly wrong. Alter calls Proverbs 29:2 “no more than a formulation in verse of a platitude,” but Daniel L. Dreisbach’s Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers devotes an entire chapter to that single verse, much loved at the time of the American Founding: “When the righteous are many, a people rejoices, / but when the wicked man rules, a people groans.” Early Americans “widely, if not universally,” embraced the notion that—as one political sermon proclaimed—“The character of a nation is justly decided by the character of their rulers, especially in a free and elective government.” Dreisbach writes, “They believed it was essential that the American people be reminded of this biblical maxim and select their civil magistrates accordingly.” Annual election sermons and other political sermons often had Proverbs 29:2 as “the primary text.” Far from being a platitude, this single verse may contain a cure to the contagion that is contemporary American political life.

      Ungenerous to take Alter to task for context which he might not have the background to comment upon.

      Does Alter call it a "platitude" from it's historical context, or with respect to the modern context of Donald J. Trump and a wide variety of Republican Party members who are anything but Christian?

    1. They find that exposing populations to lead in their drinking water causes much higher homicide rates 20 years later, relative to similar places where kids avoided such exposure. They find that exposing populations to lead in their drinking water causes much higher homicide rates 20 years later, relative to similar places where kids avoided such exposure.

      Example of the repetition of the body text of an article immediately after it as a featured pull quote to draw the attention of the skimming reader to the importance of the portion of the passage.

    1. zeppelin

      a large German dirigible airship of the early 20th century, long and cylindrical in shape and with a rigid framework. Zeppelins were used during World War I for reconnaissance and bombing, and after the war as passenger transports until the 1930s.

    2. upheaval

      a violent or sudden change or disruption to something

    3. unabashedly

      without embarrassment or shame.

    1. Any recommendations on Analog way of doing it? Not the Antinet shit

      reply to u/IamOkei at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/17beucn/comment/k5s6aek/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

      u/IamOkei, I know you've got a significant enough practice that not much of what I might suggest may be helpful beyond your own extension of what you've got and how it is or isn't working for you. Perhaps chatting with a zettelkasten therapist may be helpful? Does anyone have "Zettelkasten Whisperer" on a business card yet?! More seriously, I occasionally dump some of my problems and issues into a notebook, unpublished on my blog, or even into a section of my own zettelkasten, which I never index or reconsult, as a helpful practice. Others like Henry David Thoreau have done something like this and there's a common related practice of writing "Morning Pages" that you can explore. My own version is somewhat similar to the idea of rubber duck debugging but focuses on my own work. You might try doing something like this in one of Bob Doto's cohorts or by way of private consulting sessions. Another free version of this could be found by participating in Will's regular weekly posts/threads "Share with us what is happening in your ZK this week" at https://forum.zettelkasten.de/. It's always a welcoming and constructive space. There are also some public and private (I won't out them) Discords where some of the practiced hands chat and commiserate with each other. Even the Obsidian PKM/Zettelkasten Discord channels aren't very Obsidian/digital-focused that you couldn't participate as an analog practitioner. I've even found that participating in book clubs related to some of my interests can be quite helpful in talking out ideas before writing them down. There are certainly options for working out and extending your own practice.

      Beyond this, and without knowing more of your specific issues, I can only offer some broad thoughts which expand on some of the earlier discussion above.

      I recommend stripping away Scheper's religious fervor, some of which he seems to have thrown over lately along with the idea of a permanent note or "main card" (something I think is a grave mistake), and trying something closer to Luhmann's idea of ZKII.

      An alternate method, especially if you like a nice notebook or a particular fountain pen, might be to take all of your basic literature/fleeting notes along with the bibliographic data in a notebook and then just use your analog index cards/slips to make your permanent notes and your index.

      Ultimately it's all a lot of the same process, though it may come down to what you want to call it and your broad philosophy. If you're anti-antinet, definitely quit using the verbiage for the framing there and lean toward the words used by Ahrens, Dan Allosso, Gerald Weinberg, Mark Bernstein, Umberto Eco, Beatrice Webb, Jacques Barzun & Henry Graff, or any of the dozens of others or even make up your own. Goodness knows we need a lot more names and categories for types of notes—just like we all need another one page blog post about how the Zettelkasten method works by someone who's been at it for a week. Maybe someone will bring all these authors to terms one day?

      Generally once you know what sorts of ideas you're most interested in, you take fewer big notes on administrivia and focus more of your note taking towards your own personal goals and desires. (Taking notes to learn a subject are certainly game, but often they serve little purpose after-the-fact.) You can also focus less on note taking within your entertainment reading (usually a waste) and focusing more heavily on richer material (books and journal articles) that is "above you" in Adler's framing. You might make hundreds of highlights and annotations in a particular book, but only get two or three serious ideas and notes out of it ultimately. Focus on this and leave the rest. If you're aware of the Pareto principle or the 80/20 rule, then spend the majority of your time on the grander permanent notes (10-20%), and a lot less time worrying about the all the rest (the 80-90%).

      In the example above relating to Marx, you can breeze through some low level introductory material for context, but nothing is going to beat reading Marx himself a few times. The notes you make on his text will have tremendously more value than the ones you took on the low level context. A corollary to this is that you're highly unlikely to earn a Ph.D. or discover massive insight by reading and taking note posts on Twitter, Medium, or Substack (except possibly unless your work is on the cultural anthropology of those platforms).

      A lot of the zettelkasten spaces focus heavily on the note taking part of the process and not enough on the quality of what you're reading and how you're reading it. This portion is possibly more valuable than the note taking piece, but the two should be hand-in-glove and work toward something.

      I suspect that most people who have 1000 notes know which five or ten are the most important to where they're going and how they're growing. Focus on those and your "conversations with texts" relating to those. The rest is either low level context for where you're headed or either pure noise/digital exhaust.

      If you think of ideas as incunables, which notes will be worth of putting on your tombstone? In other words: What are your "tombstone notes"? (See what I did there? I came up with another name for a type of note, a sin for which I'm certainly going to spend a lot of time in zettelkasten purgatory.)

    2. This is great and yes it makes perfect sense, thank you!The comment on reading is super helpful. As I've mentioned on here before I've come ti PhD straight from industry, so learning these skills from scratch. Reading especially is still tricky for me after a year, and I tend to read too deeply, and try to read whole texts, and then over annotate.It's good to be reminded that this isn't how academic reading works.

      reply to Admirable_Discount75 at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/17beucn/comment/k5nzic6/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

      If you've not come across it before you'll likely find Adler & Van Doren (1972) for reading a useful place to start, especially their idea of syntopical reading. Umberto Eco (2015) is also a good supplement to a lot of the internet-based and Ahrensian ZK material. After those try Mills.

      Adler, Mortimer J., and Charles Van Doren. How to Read a Book: The Classical Guide to Intelligent Reading. Revised and Updated ed. edition. 1940. Reprint, Touchstone, 2011. https://amzn.to/45IjBcV. (audiobook available; or a video synopsis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_rizr8bb0c)

      Eco, Umberto. How to Write a Thesis. Translated by Caterina Mongiat Farina and Geoff Farina. 1977. Reprint, Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press, 2015. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/how-write-thesis.

      Mills, C. Wright. “On Intellectual Craftsmanship (1952).” Society 17, no. 2 (January 1, 1980): 63–70. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02700062.

      Should it help, I often find that audiobook versions of books or coursework sources like The Great Courses (often free at local libraries, through Hoopla, or other sources), or the highest quality material from YouTube/podcasts listened to at 1.5 - 2x speed while you're walking/commuting can give you quick overviews and/or inspectional reads at a relatively low time cost. Short reminder notes/keywords (to search) while listening can then allow you to do fast searches of the actual texts and/or course guidebooks for excerpting and note making afterwards. Highly selective use of the audiobook bookmarking features let you relisten to short portions as necessary.

      As an example, one could do a quick crash course/overview of something like Marx and Communism over a week by quickly listening to all or parts of:

      These in combination with sources like Oxford's: Very Short Introduction series book on Marx (which usually have good bibliographies) would allow you to quickly expand into more specialized "handbooks" (Oxford, Cambridge, Routledge, Sage) on the subject of Marx and from there into even more technical literature and journal articles. Obviously the deeper you go, the slower things may become depending on the depth you're looking to go.

    1. A good college, ifit does nothing else, ought to produce competent syntopicalreaders.

      Adler and Van Doren's minimal bar of a college education is that it produce competent syntopical readers.

    2. Aunity can be variously stated

      Every book, while holding the same words, will be different based on the context and needs of the individual reader.

    3. RULE 2. STATE THE UNITY OF THE WHOLE BOOK

      The first several rules of reading a book analytically follow the same process of writing a book as suggested in the snowflake method.

    4. just as there is a difference in the art of teaching indifferent fields, so there is a reciprocal difference in the art ofbeing taught.

      Analogy of reading (and learning) to teaching.

    5. RuLE 3. SETFORTH THE MAJOR PARTS OF THE BOOK, AND SHOW HOW THESEARE ORGANIZED INTO A WHOLE, BY BEING ORDERED TO ONE .(\NOTHER AND TO THE UNITY OF THE WHOLE,
    6. RULE 2. STATE THE UNITY OF THE WHOLE BOOK IN A

      SINGLE SENTENCE, OR AT MOST A FEW SENTENCES ( A SHORT PARAGRAPH )

      p. 75-76

    7. Analytical reading is preeminently for thesake of understanding.
    8. To make knowledge practical we must convert it intorules of operation. We must pass from knowing what is thecase to knowing what to do about it if we wish to get somewhere. This can be summarized in the distinction betweenknowing that and knowing how. Theoretical books teach youthat something is the case. Practical books teach you how todo something you want to do or think you should do.
    1. Father emptied a card le for Margot and me and lled it withindex cards that are blank on one side. This is to become ourreading le, in which Margot and I are supposed to note down thebooks we’ve read, the author and the date. I’ve learned two newwords: “brothel” and “coquette.” I’ve bought a separate notebookfor new words.

      —Anne Frank (1929-1945), diary entry dated Saturday, February 27, 1943 (age 13)

      Anne Frank was given an empty card file by her father who filled it with index cards that were blank on one side. They were intended to use it as a "reading file" in which she and Margot were "supposed to note down the books we've read, the author and the date."


      In the same entry she mentioned that she'd bought a separate notebook for writing down new words she encountered. Recent words she mentions encountering were "brothel" and "coquette".

    2. Father emptied a card le for Margot and me and lled it withindex cards that are blank on one side. This is to become ourreading le, in which Margot and I are supposed to note down thebooks we’ve read, the author and the date.

      Anne Frank (June 12, 1929-1945)<br /> Niklas Luhmann (December 8, 1927-1998)

      Niklas Luhmann was a year and a half older than Anne Frank who received her first card index file in February 1943 (likely between the 27th, the date of her diary entry mentioning it and the prior diary entry on February 5th), from her father at the age of 13. She was intended to use it as a "reading file" to note down the books she'd read along with the author and the date.

      One can only wonder at how many entries she would have made over the span of her life had it not come to such an abrupt end.

    1. I'm not so much saying Adler and Van Doren were trying to prevent readers from coming to grips with the unresolved issues of American history illustrated in this example. But I am suggesting that the idea that there's a "message" in these foundational texts and they know what it is and our job is to find out, is flawed. Too deterministic, too hierarchical, too supportive of a master narrative that needs to be challenged so truth can be appreciated in its complexity.

      Amen!

    1. They then spent a couple of pages on the history of elementary education, followed by a discussion of the stages of instruction, beginning with "reading readiness" and continuing through "sight words" and "context clues", to mature skills that allow the reader to compare the views of different writers.

      The broad idea of "reading readiness" stemmed from Jean Piaget's work, much of which was debunked by Peter Bryant during the 1970s. Yet we're still apparently discussing it and attempting to figure out how to do all this better: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/22/us/reading-teaching-curriculum-phonics.html

      They didn't tackle the lowest level very thoroughly, but I was a bit surprised that with their discussion of speed reading they didn't give at least a passing mention to phonics which had a big rise in the 1960s before declining in the 70s and 80s only to see another big uptick in the 90s.

    1. this little discussion we're having reminds me of a lecture I once gave many years ago shortly after how to read a book was first published which which I said that I thought that solitary 02:17:34 reading was almost as much advice as solitary drinking

      Solitary reading [is] was almost as much a vice as solitary drinking. —Mortimer J. Adler, in Part 11: Activating Poetry and Plays

  8. Sep 2023
    1. syntopicalreading

      relationship of synoptical and syntopical

      Did the idea of syntopicality exist prior to Adler? Did it spring from the work of German religious scholars of XIX C who began doing synoptical readings and comparisons of the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke in the Bible?

      link to the "great conversation" quote of Whitehead about Plato: https://hypothes.is/a/qb2T7l9nEe6uVVOdez8mKw

    2. If you are not of the faith, if you do not belong to thechurch, you can nevertheless read such a theological bookweU by treating its dogmas with the same respect you treatthe assumptions of a mathematician. But you must always keepin mind that an article of faith is not something that the faithful assume. Faith, for those who have it, is the most certainform of knowledge, not a tentative opinion.

      What comes out of alternately reading theological books with understanding and compassion and then switching to raw logic?

    3. "verbalism" is the besetting sin of those who fail to read analytically.
    4. What do you do then? You can take the book to someone else who, you think, can read better than you, and have him explain the parts that trouble you. ("He" may be a living person or another book-a commentary or textbook. )

      This may be an interesting use case for artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT which can provide the reader of complex material with simplified synopses to allow better penetration of the material (potentially by removing jargon, argot, etc.)

    5. Your success in reading it is determined by the extent to which you receive everything the writer intended to com­municate.

      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.

    6. What does active reading entail? We will return to this question many times in this book. For the moment, it suffices to say that, given the sam<' thing to read, one person reads it better than another, first, by reading it more actively, and second, by performing each of the acts involved more skill­fully.

      Initial stab at a definition of "active reading"

    7. 1939 when Professor James Mursell of Columbia University's Teachers College wrote an article for the Atlantic Monthly entitled "The Failure of the Schools."

      https://www.theatlantic.com/author/james-l-mursell/

      See: Mursell, James L. “The Defeat of the Schools.” The Atlantic, March 1939. https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/95dec/chilearn/murde.htm.

      ———. “The Reform of the Schools.” The Atlantic, December 1, 1939. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1939/12/the-reform-of-the-schools/654746/.

    8. Since speed-reading has become a national fad, this new edition of How to Read a Book deals with the prob­lem and proposes variable-speed-reading as the solution, the aim being to read better, always better, but sometimes slower, sometimes faster.

      Framing of his book as a remedy to the speed reading fad in the 1970s...

      What did those books at the time indicate that their purpose was? Were they aimed at helping people consume more (hopefully with greater comprehension?) while there was a continuing glut of information overload building up in society?

      Which is better, more deep understanding of less or more surface understanding of more? How does combinatorial creativity effect the choice?

    9. As Pascal observed three hundred years ago, "When we read too fast or too slowly, we under­stand nothing."
    10. On Philosophical Method

      How do historical method and philosophical method compare? contrast?

      Were they tied to similar traditions? co-evolve? evolve separately?

    1. This is one of the challenges of being reactive to the public mood, rather than shaping it. Donald Trump, too, launched his first presidential campaign by elevating arguments and rhetoric from right-wing media, but he also shaped what the media was talking about. DeSantis has largely followed the trends, and the trends shift.

      While Donald J. Trump seemed to hold say over what was trending and the media was discussing, Philip Bump notices that Ron DeSantis seems to be trailing or perhaps riding the trends rather than leading them.

      Is this because he's only tubthumping one or two at a time while Trump floats trial balloons regularly and is pushing half a dozen or more at time?

    1. t may be that in using his system hedeveloped his mind and his knowledge of history to the point wherehe expected his readers to draw more inferences from the facts heselected than most modern readers are accustomed to doing, in thisday of the predigested book.

      It's possible that the process of note taking and excerpting may impose levels of analysis and synthesis on their users such that when writing and synthesizing their works that they more subtly expect their readers to do the same thing when their audiences may require more handholding and explanation.

      Here, both the authors' experiences and that of the cultures in which they're writing will determine the relationship.


      There's lots of analogies between thinking and digesting (rumination, consumption, etc), in reading and understanding contexts.

      Source: https://hypothes.is/a/hhCGsljeEe2QlccJUQ55fA

    1. Often I don't care to be persuaded or deeply accept and understand an author's perspective, but I still value the information they assemble to support their narrative or argument. This is something that happens quite a bit for me, where I gain lots of really valuable historical background and data from articles or monographs whose interpretation I am never going to buy.

      Sometimes one reads for raw information and background details that one can excerpt or use--things which an author may use to support their own arguments, but which the reader doesn't care about at all.

    1. Stories act like an anaesthetic on our sceptical, questioning faculties. It can be valuable and pleasurable to subdue that part of our brain, and immerse ourselves in an imaginary world; I love reading stories, including non-fictional ones. But if you come across a history book, or a scientific study, or a news report, which tells a great story, or which slots neatly into a master-narrative in which you already believe, you should be more sceptical of its truth-value, not less. Narrative can give an illusion of solidity. When the expert narrative about the world changes, as with China (see below), we shouldn‘t just conclude that the old narrative was false, but that all such narratives are unreliable.
    1. Underlines and margin notes in an unknown hand are interspersed throughout the texts. Volume I includes a daily devotional page that has been used as a bookmark. The back endpapers of Volume IV has been copiously annotated.

      Jack Kerouac followed the general advice of Mortimer J. Adler to write notes into the endpapers of his books as evidenced by the endpapers of Volume IV of the 7th Year Course of The Great Books Foundation series with which Adler was closely associated.

    1. 1. we processedthe human being2. we organizetechnology1. we discovered2. propagate3. clean out4. mergepreviously—Engineers relaxed with artnow—Artists relax with technology

      The manifestos focus on technology, efficiency and collective purpose over individualism have echoes today.

    2. We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind, will fightmoralism, feminism, every opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice

      The Futurist manifesto is all about collective action and getting aggressive instead of just sitting around thinking. Marinetti aimed to hype up crowds and shake things up.

    3. aleKsanDr roDchenKo Was The son oF a propMan anD a launDress. aT TheBeGinninG oF The sovieT revoluTion, he TransForMeD hiMselF FroM a painTerinTo soMeThinG enTirely neW.

      The rise of communism and the soviet revolution influenced Rodchenko embrace to constructivism.

    1. (1:20.00-1:40.00) What he describes is the following: Most of his notes originate from the digital using hypothes.is, where he reads material online and can annotate, highlight, and tag to help future him find the material by tag or bulk digital search. He calls his hypothes.is a commonplace book that is somewhat pre-organized.

      Aldrich continues by explaining that in his commonplace hypothes.is his notes are not interlinked in a Luhmannian Zettelkasten sense, but he "sucks the data" right into Obsidian where he plays around with the content and does some of that interlinking and massage it.

      Then, the best of the best material, or that which he is most interested in working with, writing about, etc., converted into a more Luhmannesque type Zettelkasten where it is much more densely interlinked. He emphasizes that his Luhmann zettelkasten is mostly consisting of his own thoughts and is very well-developed, to the point where he can "take a string of 20 cards and ostensibly it's its own essay and then publish it as a blog post or article."

    1. Gould, Jessica. “Teachers College, Columbia U. Dissolves Program behind Literacy Curriculum Used in NYC Public Schools.” Gothamist, September 8, 2023. https://gothamist.com/news/columbia-university-dissolves-program-behind-literacy-curriculum-used-in-nyc-public-schools.

      The Teachers College of Columbia University has shut down the Lucy Calkins Units of Study literacy program.

      Missing from the story is more emphasis on not only the social costs, which they touch on, but the tremendous financial (sunk) cost to the system by not only adopting it but enriching Calkins and the institution (in a position of trust) which benefitted from having sold it.

      link to: https://hypothes.is/a/eicbpgSKEe6vc0fPdIm05w

  9. Aug 2023
    1. Sortes Vergilianae: taking random quotes from Vergilius and interpret their meaning either as prediction or as advice. The latter as a trigger for self reflection makes it a #leeswijze #reading manner that is non-linear

      Vgl. [[Skillful reading is generally non-linear 20210303154148]]

      St. Antonius (of Egypt, 3rd century) is said to have read the bible this way (sortes sanctorum it's called if you use it for divination), and Augustinus followed that thus picking up Paul's letter to the Romans and getting converted in the 4th century.

      Is this ripping up of the text into isolated paragraphs to access and read a text an early input into commonplace books and florilegia? As a gathering of such things?

      Mentioned in [[Information edited by Ann Blair]] in lemma 'Readers' p730.

    1. the influential composition professor Peter Elbow suggested reading a poem backwards as a way to “breathe life into a text” (Elbow 201).
    2. Reading backwards revitalizes a text, revealing its constructedness, its seams, edges, and working parts.
  10. Jul 2023
    1. Books aren’t something one approves or disapproves of; they are to be understood, interpreted, learned from, shocked by, argued with and enjoyed. Moreover, the evolution of literature and the other arts, their constant renewal over the centuries, has always been fueled by what is now censoriously labeled “cultural appropriation” but which is more properly described as “influence,” “inspiration” or “homage.” Poets, painters, novelists and other artists all borrow, distort and transform. That’s their job; that’s what they do.
    2. I’ve never used a Kindle or any type of e-reader. I value books as physical artifacts, each one distinct. Screens impose homogeneity.
    3. Except for beautifully printed or rarely found books, I read almost everything with a pencil in my hand. I mark favorite passages, scribble notes in margins, sometimes even make shopping lists on the end papers.
    1. the reader becomes to thisextent his own editor.
    2. In many cases, all or some of an author'sworks included in this set were unavailable.

      One of the primary goals of The Great Books, was to make some of the (especially ancient writers) more accessible to modern audiences with respect to ready availability of their works which were otherwise much more expensive.

      This certainly says something about both publishing and reading practices of the early 20th century.

    1. here's the problem very predictably experts use language in one set of 00:07:42 patterns to do their thinking but those very same experts read with a different pattern
      • fundamental problem of research writing / reading

        • researchers write to think in one way
        • and read and process information in another
        • we interfere with the reading comprehension process of the reader by writing to think
      • there are three reactions to reading text we do not understand

        • we reread - it slows us down
        • we don't understand
        • we feel frustrated
    1. CPB vs Reading Notes .t3_14li1ri._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; } Does anyone separate their reading notes from their common place Notebook? I’ve always used a notebook to combine my Bullet Journal, reading notes, and Common Place. It’s been a mesh of words and I’ve been ok w that, but I just got the Remarkable 2 and I’m trying to figure out how to set it up. Any ideas?

      reply to u/Nil205 at https://www.reddit.com/r/commonplacebook/comments/14li1ri/cpb_vs_reading_notes/

      I have a similar and differently formed, but still simple system compared to most here. Rather than a traditional commonplace book, I keep all my notes on index cards. I keep all my reading notes for a particular book on a series of index cards that I staple together with a citation card for the book and then file them by author and title.

      When I'm done, I'll excerpt the most important parts each individual note (highlight/annotation) and expand on them on its own index card which I file away and index. In your case you might equivalently have a reading notebook where you might keep a section of notes as you read a book and then excerpt the most important or salient parts into your main commonplace. Some may prefer, especially if they own the book in question, to annotate (put their reading notes into) the book directly and then excerpt either as they go or at the end when they're done and can frame their ideas with a broader knowledge of the area in question. Sometimes at later dates you may realize you read something useful which you don't find in your commonplace book, but you can find the gist of it in your reading notes which you can reference, refresh your memory, and then excerpt into your commonplace.

      For more on my sort of card index or zettelkasten (German: slip box) practice you might take a look at one or more of the following which explain the broad generalities:

      If it's useful/inspiring as an example, Ross Ashby had a lifelong series of notebooks, much like a commonplace, and a separate card index where he cross-indexed all of his ideas to make them more easily searchable, findable, and cross referenceable. You can see digitized versions of the journals and index online which you can explore at http://www.rossashby.info/journal/index.html.

  11. Jun 2023
    1. The author, Rediscovering Analog, reads a book at least twice, usually. He first reads it mainly for pleasure, just to enjoy it and to see what's in it. During the second time, if applicable, he goes through the book using intellectual (or learning) systems and methodologies to extract value from the book.

      The first pass, which the author terms Scouting, is thus namely for enjoyment, but keeping in mind what might be valuable or interesting that will be valuable in the future, basically an unguided open ear. He has a list of scouted books in each section of the Zettelkasten that might be relevant to the section. What he does is have a stack of physical cards there with just the name of the book and the author, without anything else. Then when author proceeds to extract value from the book, he takes the card out and puts it in the respective book. Afterwards throwing this particular card into the trash. It's a form of the Anti-Library.

      ( Personally, I would include an appropriate reading cost and a level on Adler's hierarchy of books. In addition, I would make sure that my process of orientation, in the Inquiry-Based Learning framework, has been completed before I put it as a book within the Anti-Library. )


      This may not be the most efficient for the purpose of acquiring value, but efficiency is not all there is. Enjoyment is a big part of intellectual work as well, as Antonin Sertillanges argues in his book The Intellectual Life: Its spirit, methods, conditions, as well as Mihaly Csikszentmihaliy in his book Flow.

    1. There is a difference between normal academic reading and reading for the Zettelkasten. It is not about understanding the author but about filling your archive with meaningful thoughts and how to improve its content and connections.
    1. (1:21:20-1:39:40) Chris Aldrich describes his hypothes.is to Zettelkasten workflow. Prevents Collector's Fallacy, still allows to collect a lot. Open Bucket vs. Closed Bucket. Aldrich mentions he uses a common place book using hypothes.is which is where all his interesting highlights and annotations go to, unfiltered, but adequately tagged. This allows him to easily find his material whenever necessary in the future. These are digital. Then the best of the best material that he's interested in and works with (in a project or writing sense?) will go into his Zettelkasten and become fully fledged. This allows to maintain a high gold to mud (signal to noise) ratio for the Zettelkasten. In addition, Aldrich mentions that his ZK is more of his own thoughts and reflections whilst the commonplace book is more of other people's thoughts.

    1. Indeed the mainstream embraces almost anything edgy; although once the label is applied it is no longer on the edge.

      Once a movement becomes mainstream it's no longer sortout by the masses.

    2. emergence of other confrontational art and design movements, including Punk and Grunge, sought to unhinge dominant methods and mannerisms, but were ultimately absorbed into the mass culture.

      This is an example of underground turned mainstream.

    3. Despite its anti-establishment symbolism, Cubistic, Futuristic and Expressionistic veneers, he argued, would capture consumers’ attention better than a hundred slogans.

      The rawness of the avant-garde's talent connects to the public better than a structured sortout slogan. It speaks the language of the public.

    4. Yet when an intrepid commercial artist attempted to push the boundaries of design, they had to be cognizant of what industrial designer Raymond Loewy called MAYA (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable).

      Basically the underground talent is too raw to be publicized on its own so it needs to be watered down to be acceptable to become mainstream.

    1. I would advise you to read with a pen in your hand, and enter in a little book short hints of what you find that is curious or that may be useful; for this will be the best method of imprinting such particulars in your memory, where they will be ready either for practice on some future occasion if they are matters of utility, or at least to adorn and improve your conversation if they are rather points of curiosity.

      Benjamin Franklin letter to Miss Stevenson, Wanstead. Craven-street, May 16, 1760.

      Franklin doesn't use the word commonplace book here, but is actively recommending the creation and use of one. He's also encouraging the practice of annotation, though in commonplace form rather than within the book itself.

    1. Lucy Calkins Retreats on Phonics in Fight Over Reading Curriculum by Dana Goldstein

      Not much talk of potentially splitting out methods for neurodivergent learners here. Teaching reading strategies may net out dramatically differently between neurotypical children and those with issues like dyslexia. Perceptual and processing issues may make some methods dramatically harder for some learners over others, and we still don't seem to have any respect for that.

      This example is an interesting one of the sort of generational die out of old ideas and adoption of new ones as seen in Kuhn's scientific revolutions.

    2. Diane Dragan, a mother of three dyslexic children, aged 9 to 14, has spent years pushing the Lindbergh school district in St. Louis to drop the Units of Study. She said she paid $4,500 a month for intensive tutoring, to help her children catch up on foundational skills overlooked by the curriculum.

      What sort of tutoring was this?! At 8 hours a day for the entire month this cost comes down to $18/hour!!!

      More likely 2.5 hours a day on workdays would still net out at $90/hour and even this would have to be quackery of the highest magnitude.

    3. For children stuck on a difficult word, Professor Calkins said little about sounding-out and recommended a word-guessing method, sometimes called three-cueing. This practice is one of the most controversial legacies of balanced literacy. It directs children’s attention away from the only reliable source of information for reading a word: letters.

      source for claim in final sentence?

    4. “All of us are imperfect,” Professor Calkins said. “The last two or three years, what I’ve learned from the science of reading work has been transformational.”

      This is a painful statement to be said by an educator, a word whose root means to "lead out".

    5. Her curriculum, “Units of Study,” is built on a vision of children as natural readers, and it has been wildly popular and profitable. She estimates that a quarter of the country’s 67,000 elementary schools use it. At Columbia University’s Teachers College, she and her team have trained hundreds of thousands of educators.

      Calkins' Units of Study curriculum has been estimated to be used by nearly 25% of the 67,000 elementary schools in the United States in 2023.

    6. For decades, Lucy Calkins has determined how millions of children learn to read. An education professor, she has been a pre-eminent leader of “balanced literacy,” a loosely defined teaching philosophy.

      Columbia University Teachers College education professor Lucy Calkins, a leader of the "balanced literacy" teaching philosophy in reading, has been influential in how millions of children have been learning to read for decades.

    1. Actually, as Davidson argues, multitasking helps us see more and do more, and experience texts and tasks in different ways. There’s no evidence that anyone ever was deeply reading for hours on end with no interruptions. All we have are claims from Plato saying that writing is going to kill our ability to memorize. Our minds have always been wandering; we’ve always been distractible. We’ve always been doodling on the sides of pages, or thinking about our lunch, or stopping to converse with someone. Now we just have distraction that’s more readily available and purposefully attuned to distracting us — like popup ads, notifications; things that quite literally fly across your screen to distract you. But the fact that we have students who have grown up with those and have trained themselves to deal with those in such interesting ways is something that I think we should bring into the classroom and be talking about and critically thinking about

      1) the point that multitasking can offer different experiences with texts and tasks is interesting to me. initially, the comparison between multitasking and single-tasking seems like a clear distinction between what is beneficial (focus) and what is detrimental (distraction)

      2) taking a bold stance, i would venture to say that there exists a significant number of individuals who engage in deep work, which is perhaps one of the most profound pursuits throughout human history. after all, most of us have experienced a state of flow at least once, to some extent, and our brains subconsciously crave this state of heightened focus and productivity

      3) this observation all the more underscores the rarity of deep work in a world that is perpetually plagued by distractions

      here is one of my notes from deep work by cal newport:

      the connection between depth and meaning in human experience is undeniable. whether approached from the perspectives of neuroscience, psychology, or philosophy, there appears to be a profound correlation between engaging in deep, meaningful activities and a sense of fulfillment. this suggests that our species may have evolved to thrive in the realm of deep work and purposeful engagement

    2. I always like to point to a text that changed my thinking about this question, and that’s Kathleen Yancey’s “Writing in the 21st Century.” It basically states that students are writing more than ever before. If you were to challenge a group of students (which I have) to document how many text messages, TikTok, IG posts, Facebook posts, tweets, emails they send out in a day, the sheer volume of writing is staggering. Why we don’t value that writing in academia is the question for me.

      interesting point! some other things in my head:

      1) in addition to our increased writing endeavors, we've also been engaging in extensive reading as well, but our reading material has evolved beyond books, encompassing the plethora of content available in the vast expanse of cyberspace

      2) and while the quantity of reading has expanded significantly, it is equally intriguing to recognize that the nature of these texts has shifted towards shorter formats—tweets, ig post captions, microblogs, etc

      3) AND lastly, the act of reading has swiftly evolved into the realm of listening, with the emergence of podcasts, audiobooks, listenable videos, and similar forms of content consumption

    1. And because libraries generally do not take possession of the ebook files they rent from publishers, their crucial role as long-term preservers of culture has been severed from their role as institutions that provide democratic access—a striking change.

      E-books have caused the missions of many libraries to shift away from institutions that provide democratic access to a preserved culture.

  12. May 2023
    1. Contents

      Suggestions on reading: If you have little time, just focus on the conclusion. Chapter 1 is helpful for the intellectual and community origins--it's quite hostile to constructionism. I thought Chapters 5 and 6 were also relevant to previous conversations we've had.

      Worth keeping in mind some of the book's criticism as well: https://sites.google.com/view/colonialist-charisma-machine/home

    1. As they flit like so many little bees between Greek and Latin authors of every species, here noting down something to imitate, here culling some notable saying to put into practice in their behavior, there getting by heart some witty anecdote to relate among their friends, you would swear you were watching the Muses at graceful play in the lovely pastures of Mount Helicon, gathering flowers and marjoram to make well-woven garlands. —The Adages of Erasmus
    1. Johnson, Dirk. “Book Lovers Fear Dim Future for Notes in the Margins.” The New York Times, February 21, 2011, sec. Books. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/books/21margin.html.

      suggested by The Margins of Marginalia by Tom Peters, ALA TechSource on 2011-05-02

    2. In her markings, Rose Caylor gave us a sense of her husband, the playwright Ben Hecht. In her copy of “A Child of the Century,” which Mr. Hecht wrote, she had drawn an arrow pointing to burns on a page. “Strikes matches on books,” she noted about her husband, who was a smoker.

      This is a fascinating bit of reading practice.

    3. Not everyone values marginalia, said Paul Ruxin, a member of the Caxton Club. “If you think about the traditional view that the book is only about the text,” he said, “then this is kind of foolish, I suppose.”

      A book can't only be about the text, it has to be about the reader's interaction with it and thoughts about it. Without these, the object has no value.

      Annotations are the traces left behind of how one valued a book as they read and interacted with it.

    4. In the 20th century it mostly came to be regarded like graffiti: something polite and respectful people did not do.AdvertisementContinue reading the main storyPaul F. Gehl, a curator at the Newberry, blamed generations of librarians and teachers for “inflicting us with the idea” that writing in books makes them “spoiled or damaged.”
    1. The Margins of Marginalia by Tom Peters, ALA TechSource on 2011-05-02

      Peters talks about his own reading practices and his annotation habits throughout his life. There's some discussion of the oncoming annotation functionality in the digital space in 2011.

    2. The Readum app (readum.com) does something similar (Google Book to Facebook).

      readum.com no longer resolves in 2023. It was apparently a annotation tool in 2011...

    3. reading with pen in hand
    4. Coleridge was such a renowned marginaliac that his friends would actually lend their books to him so that he could scribble in the margins.  Studs Turkel expected the books he loaned to friends to come back with additional marks made by friendly fingers.
    1. This raises both the floor and the ceiling for the quality of writing.

      I wonder about reading after this entire section about writing. Why would I ever bother reading generated texts (apart from 'anonymous' texts like manuals? It does not negate the need to be able to identify a human author, on the contrary, but it would also make even the cheapest way of generating too costly if noone will ever read it or act upon it. Current troll farming has effect because we read it, and still assume it's human written and genuine. As soon as that assumption is fully eroded whatever gets generated will not have impact, because there's no reader left to be impacted. The current transitional assymmetry in judging output vs generating it is costly to humans, people will learn to avoid that cost. Another angle is humans pretending to be the actual author of generated texts.

  13. 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. To return to information overload: this means treating your "to read" pile like a river (a stream that flows past you, and from which you pluck a few choice items, here and there) instead of a bucket (which demands that you empty it). After all, you presumably don't feel overwhelmed by all the unread books in the British Library – and not because there aren't an overwhelming number of them, but because it never occurred to you that it might be your job to get through them all.

      Lesson on how to treat one's to-read list

    2. To return to information overload: this means treating your "to read" pile like a river (a stream that flows past you, and from which you pluck a few choice items, here and there) instead of a bucket (which demands that you empty it). After all, you presumably don't feel overwhelmed by all the unread books in the British Library – and not because there aren't an overwhelming number of them, but because it never occurred to you that it might be your job to get through them all.

      回到信息过载的问题上:将你的「待读」清单视作一条河流(一条从你身边流过的小溪,你从中到处挑选一些精华内容),而不是一只等待你清空的桶。毕竟,大英图书馆中未读书籍的数量可能也令人不知所措,但你并不为此感到压抑。这并不是因为它们的数量不多,而是因为你从未想过你的工作内容是通读它们全部。

      A different perspective than that of atomicnature on ​​Hacker News, but the underlying logic is the same. One's ability to read is always limited, so don't worry too much about not being able to read all the information. Both perspectives are designed to help the person alleviate this unnecessary anxiety.

      Hacker Newsatomicnature 不同的视角,但内在的逻辑是一样的。人阅读的能力总是有限的,不要为没法阅读全部的信息而过于焦虑。这两种视角都旨在帮助人缓解这种不必要的焦虑。

    1. There is no real difference if you think about the boundaries between reading and notetaking. Moving the eyes over text: Sounds like reading. Highlighting key words while reading: Still sounds like reading. Jotting down keywords in the margins: Some writing, but still could count as reading. Writing tasks in the marings (e.g. "Should compare that to Buddhism"): Don't know. Reformulating key sections in your own words: Sounds like writing. But could be just the externalisation of what could be internal. Does make a difference if you stop and think about what you read or do it in written form?

      Perhaps there is a model for reading and note taking/writing with respect to both learning and creating new knowledge that follows an inverse mapping in a way similar to that seen in Galois theory?

      Explore this a bit to see what falls out.

    1. The first rule of analytical reading can be expressed asfollows : RULE 1. You MUST KNOW WHAT KIND OF BOK YOU AREREADING, AND YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS AS EARLY IN THE PROCESSAS POSSIBLE, PREFERABLY BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO READ.
    1. The beginning of a novel is, variously, a social contract negotiation, an invitation to a dance, a list of rules of the game, and a fairly complex seduction.

      This metaphor suggests that the beginning of a novel: 1. Sets the stage for the reader's expectations and the author's responsibilities 2. Should be alluring and captivating to make the reader want to keep reading 3. Should be clear and concise to avoid confusion or misunderstanding. 4. Should be seductive and irresistible to make the reader want to keep reading.

    1. appeared in his Rochester, New York newspaper, The North Star, on July 28, 1848.

      Who is the audience? Is the document/artifact created for public/private setting?

      It was created for the public. Fredrick Douglas published his article in his Rochester, New York newspaper. The article, The North Star, dates July 28th, 1848.

    2. One of the most interesting events of the past week, was the holding of what is technically styled a Woman’s Rights Convention, at Seneca Falls

      What is the main argument/thesis/idea/ of the document in one sentence?

      Women need to be as equal as a man.

    3. All that distinguishes man as an intelligent and accountable being, is equally true of woman;

      Why is it important and or significant?

      This is significant because women have been recognized equal to a man. Whereas these observations and impressions were taken at the very first womens rights convention. This convention was followed by the article, The North Star by Fredrick Douglas.

  14. Mar 2023
    1. Die Erfahrungen Ermans und seiner Mitarbeiter lehren nur zu deutlich, dass die Buchform der Präsentation eines solchen Materialbestands durchaus nicht entgegenkommt.

      For some research the book form is just not conducive to the most productive work. Both the experiences of Beatrice Webb (My Apprenticeship, Appendix C) and Adolph Erman (on Wb) show that database forms for sorting, filtering, and comparing have been highly productive and provide a wealth of information which simply couldn't be done otherwise.

    1. Some topics move to fast. Until someone wrote a book, blogs sometimes are the only source of insight.The day after stable diffusion appeared people were already blogging about it, long form writing can never be that fast…↳Even worse, blogs often are the only free source of insight, with books and papers locked behind paywalls.

      有些领域变化非常快,在有人写书之前,博客有时是唯一的信息来源。Stable diffusion 模型出现后的第二天,人们就已经在写博客了,书籍永远不会那么快。

      而且,博客往往是免费的,而书籍和论文则被锁定在付费墙之后。因此,你可以这么认为,博客获取灵感,书籍获取知识。

    1. I'd like to highlight a key idea for pack rats of knowledge/scholarship.Life is too short for content that's not worthwhile (seriously).↳If you're a serious reader, and you live upto 70+ year old, maybe you can finish off 15k books on various topics.↳Library of congress alone has 38 million books. That's a meagre 0.04% of the content available at the great library.↳

      我想强调一个关于知识/学术研究的诀窍。

      生命太短暂,不能花在那些不值得阅读的内容上面。

      就算你是一个很爱读书的人,活到 70 岁最多大概能阅读 15000 本书,这只占世界最大图书馆美国国会图书馆 3800 万册藏书的 0.04%。

      我们一生中能够阅读的书籍其实很少。因此,诀窍不是多读,而是跳过那些不值得读的内容。

    1. There is a rebel in me—the Shadow-Beast. It is a part of me that refuses to take orders from outside authorities.

      Anzaldua uses a metaphor to describe the part of her that refuses to take orders from outside authorities and hates any kind of limitations. She personifies her rebellion as a powerful and uncontrollable force within her.

    1. Kids barefoot/snotty-nosed        playing marbles/munching on bean tacos        (the kind you’ll never find in a café)        2 peaceful generations removed from        their abuelos’ revolution.

      The word choice and setting here work together to create a vivid image of poverty and tradition. The use of "bean tacos" emphasizes the cultural roots of the community, while the mention of "2 peaceful generations removed" emphasizes how long it has been since the revolution that inspired those roots.

  15. Feb 2023
    1. Am I taking too long to finish notes? .t3_11bxjms._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; }

      reply to u/m_t_rv_s__n at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/11bxjms/am_i_taking_too_long_to_finish_notes/

      Some of it depends on what you're reading for and what you're trying to get out of the reading. On a recent 26 page journal article, I spent several hours over a couple of days (months apart) reading and taking notes in a relatively thorough fashion. I spent another hour or so refining them further and filing them and another 15 minutes noting out references for follow up. It was in an area I'm generally very familiar with, so it wasn't difficult or dense, but has lots of material I specifically know I'll be using in the near future for some very specific writing. Because I know it's something of specific interest to me and several overlapping projects, I had a much deeper "conversation with the text" than I otherwise might have.

      Because it was done digitally, you can see the actual highlights and annotations and even check the timestamps if you like (you'll have to click through individual notes to get these timestamps): https://hypothes.is/users/chrisaldrich?q=url%3Aurn%3Ax-pdf%3A6053dd751da0fa870cad9a71a28882ba Some of it is basic data I'll use for a variety of purposes on several already well-defined projects. A few are for more slowly developing projects further out on the horizon. It's relatively easy to see the 10 or 15 permanent notes that I'll pull out of this group of about 74 notes. Since writing them, I've already referenced two of the more fleeting notes/highlights by searching for related tags on other reading which look like they may actually develop further.

      Had this been something less targeted to my specific area, say for a master's level course of general interest, I'd probably have spent far less time on it and likely not gone over about 15 or so notes. Sometimes for these, I'll just read the abstract and conclusions and scan the references. Reading lots of these in your area of interest gives you some idea of the space and types of questions you might be asking. As you hone in on a thesis, you'll begin asking more and more questions and delve more deeply into material, and if something you read in the past becomes more specific to your project then you'll likely go back to re-read it at a deeper level, but you'll still have your prior work at your fingertips as a potential guide.

      Once you know what your particular thesis is going to be your reading becomes more dense and targeted. Some things you'll read several times and go through with fine-toothed combs while others you'll skim to get the gist/context and only excerpt small specific pieces which you need and then move on.

      (If you need it, remember that you only need one or two good permanent notes per day to make some serious progress.)

    1. level 2A_Dull_SignificanceOp · 2 hr. agoYes! When I run across a comment on a book I haven’t read yet but seems interesting I make a little card with the comment and book title2ReplyGive AwardShareReportSaveFollowlevel 2taurusnoises · 2 hr. agoObsidianSo, you keep the titles of books you want to read organized in folgezettel (you give them an alphanumeric ID?) among your ZK notes? That's really interesting!

      I've done something like this when I think a particular reference(s) can answer a question related to a train of thought. But I keep cards of unread sources at the front of my sources section so that it's easier to pull it out frequently to prioritize and decide what I should be reading or working on next. These will then have links to the open questions I've noted, so that I can go back to those sections either as I'm reading/writing or to add those ideas into the appropriate folgezettel. These sorts of small amounts of work documented briefly can add up quickly over time. Source cards with indications of multiple open questions that might be answered is sometimes a good measure of desire to read, though other factors can also be at play.

      That to-read pile of bibliographic source notes (a mini antilibrary) is akin to walking into a party and surveying a room. I may be aware of some of the people I haven't met yet and the conversations we might have, but if there are interesting questions I know I want to ask of specific ones or conversations I already know I want to have, it can be more productive to visit those first.

      This sort of practice has been particularly helpful for times when I want to double check someone's sources or an original context, but don't have the time to do it immediately, don't want to break another extended train of thought, have to wait on materials, or may have to make a trip to consult physical materials that are singular or rare. For quick consultative reading, this can be a boon when I know I don't want or need to read an entire work, but skimming a chapter or a few pages for a close reading of a particular passage. I'll often keep a pile of these sorts of sources at hand so that I can make a short trip to a library, pick them up, find what I need and move on without having to recreate large portions of context to get the thing done because I've already laid most of the groundwork.

    1. reply https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/comment/16622/#Comment_16622

      Adler has an excellent primer on this subject that covers a lot of the basics in reasonable depth: - Adler, Mortimer J. “How to Mark a Book.” Saturday Review of Literature, July 6, 1940. (https://stevenson.ucsc.edu/academics/stevenson-college-core-courses/how-to-mark-a-book-1.pdf)

      Marking books can be useful not only to the original reader, but future academics and historians studying material culture (eg: https://apps.lib.umich.edu/online-exhibits/exhibits/show/marks-in-books), and as @GeoEng51 indicates they might be shared by friends, family, romantic interests, or even perhaps all of the above (see: https://newcriterion.com/issues/2017/4/mrs-custers-tennyson).

      For those interested in annotation marks and symbols (like @ctietze's "bolt" ↯) I outlined a few ideas this last month at: https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/10qw4l5/comment/j6vxn6a/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

    1. Every visual creative work is a manifestation of the character of thedesigner.

      This emphasizes the importance of the designer understanding how their work ties into how people determine their level as designers.

    2. The resulting International Style leapt from Europe to the United States, spreading valuesof neutrality, objectivity, and rationality expressed through tightly gridded layouts andrestricted typography.

      The values that this style presented were impactful enough to reach the U.S thus foreshadowing it's importance.

    3. turned revolutIonary avant-garde Ideals Into forMal Method–ologIes, detachIng desIgn froM a dIsruptIve aesthetIc agenda.

      This can relate to their approaches to design and how they may relate to our approaches.

    4. A movementcalled the New Typography emergedfrom the Bauhaus

      This will be important to keep in mind for later in the reading.

    1. Unlike books, tablets do not offer a medium for demonstrating taste and refinement. That is why interior decorators use shelves of books to create an impression of elegance and refinement in the room.
    2. If Seneca or Martial were around today, they would probably write sarcastic epigrams about the very public exhibition of reading text messages and in-your-face displays of texting. Digital reading, like the perusing of ancient scrolls, constitutes an important statement about who we are. Like the public readers of Martial’s Rome, the avid readers of text messages and other forms of social media appear to be everywhere. Though in both cases the performers of reading are tirelessly constructing their self-image, the identity they aspire to establish is very different. Young people sitting in a bar checking their phones for texts are not making a statement about their refined literary status. They are signalling that they are connected and – most importantly – that their attention is in constant demand.
    1. How long do you spend in a single note-taking session? .t3_112k929._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; } questionBasically, just curious how much time people spend writing down notes in a typical session, as well as how many notecards you usually finish. If you can give me an idea of how long a single lit/permanent note takes you to write, even better

      reply to u/m_t_rv_s__n at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/112k929/how_long_do_you_spend_in_a_single_notetaking/

      Quite often my sessions can be in small 5-10 minute blocks doing one or more individual tasks that compose reading, writing, or filing/linking things together. Usually I don't go over a couple of hours without at least a small break or two.

      Like Luhmann “I only do what is easy. I only write when I immediately know how to do it. If I falter for a moment, I put the matter aside and do something else.” Incidentally by "easy" here, I think Luhmann also includes the ideas of fun, interesting, pleasurable, and (Csikszentmihalyi's) flow.

      For my lowest level reading I'll only quickly log what I've read along with a few index terms and a short note or two, if at all. For deeper analytical reading (as defined by Adler & van Doren) those sessions are more intense and I aim to have a direct "conversation with the text". Notes made there can sometimes be 2 - 10 minutes in length. I can often average about 50 annotations in a given day of which maybe 2 or 3 will be longer, fileable zettels. Most of my notes start as digital public annotations which one can view at https://hypothes.is/users/chrisaldrich if they like. On the topic of notes per day, I have a collection for that, some of which is given as a synopsis with some caveats here: https://boffosocko.com/2023/01/14/s-d-goiteins-card-index-or-zettelkasten/#Notes%20per%20day%20comparison.

    1. When dealing withimperfect models and data, it is beneficial to integratethe Bayesian approach with physics-informed learningfor uncertainty quantification, such as Bayesian PINNs(B- PINNs) 107 .

    Tags

    Annotators

    1. at a time when anything that takes more than a few minutes to skim is called a “longread”—it’s understandable that devoting a small chunk of one’s frisky twenties to writing a thesis can seem a waste of time, outlandishly quaint, maybe even selfish. And, as higher education continues to bend to the logic of consumption and marketable skills, platitudes about pursuing knowledge for its own sake can seem certifiably bananas.
    1. As in any science class, you learn how tointerpret and apply what you observe. Elders refer to this process as “reading the stars.”

      This idea is closely related to "talking rocks" and seems a very apt parallel.

    1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incremental_reading

      Incremental reading is spaced parallel reading of multiple sources with note taking and spaced repetition.


      It's not far from how I read and take notes myself, though I place less emphasis on the spaced repetition piece as I tend to run across things naturally within my note collection anyway.


      One of the major potential benefits of incremental reading (not mentioned in the Wikipedia article; is it in Wozniak's work?) is the increase of combinatorial creativity created by mixing a variety of topics simultaneously.

      There is also likely a useful diffuse thinking effect happening between reading sessions.

    1. synthesizes reading with writing (e.g.Wolfe, 2002)

      Yes, I would like to read more on this topic.

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  16. Jan 2023
    1. It’s far more complicated than that, obviously. Different parts of this process are going on all the time. While working on one chapter, I’m also capturing and working on unrelated—for the time being at least—notes on other topics that interest me, including stuff that might well end up in future books.

      Because reading, annotating/note taking, and occasional outlining and writing can be broken down into small, concrete building blocks, each part of the process can be done separately and discretely with relatively easy ability to shift from one part of the process to another.

      Importantly, one can be working on multiple different high level projects (content production: writing, audio, video, etc.) simultaneously in a way which doesn't break the flow of one's immediate reading. While a particular note within a piece may not come to fruition within a current imagined project, it may spark an idea for a future as yet unimagined project.


      Aside: It would seem that Ryan Holiday's descriptions of his process are discrete with respect to each individual project. He's never mentioned using or reusing notes from past projects for current or future projects. He's even gone to the level that he creates custom note cards for his current project which have a title pre-printed on them.

      Does this pre-titling help to provide him with more singular focus for his specific workflow? Some who may be prone to being side-tracked or with specific ADHD issues may need or be helped by these visual and workflow cues to stay on task, and as a result be helped by them. For others it may hinder their workflows and creativity.

      This process may be different for beginning students or single project writers versus career writers (academics, journalists, fiction and non-fiction writers).


      As a concrete example of the above, I personally made a note here about Darwin and Lamarck for a separate interest in evolution which falls outside of my immediate area of interest with respect to note taking and writing output.