10,000 Matching Annotations
  1. Jul 2023
    1. One day, when Richard was reading “Karamazov” (in a translation by one of Garnett’s epigones, David Magarshak), Larissa, who had read the book many times in the original, began peeking over her husband’s shoulder to read along with him.

      epigones is a lovely little word...

  2. scription.typepad.com scription.typepad.com
    1. https://scription.typepad.com/

      Patrick Ng seems to be the inventor of a chronodex visual planning system. His website has half yearly printable planner inserts for Midori's Traveler's Notebooks.

      One of his downloadable templates reads:

      Chronodex ideas and notations are copyrighted, it is free for personal use, please contact Patrick Ng (patrickng@mac.com) for commercial usage.

      Examples of chronodex layouts on his website show his uses which also seem to include some sketchnoting usage as well.

    1. https://stationerymanor.com/products/kokuyo-mo-series-round-stencil-template-97018

      Kokuyo has a circular stencil/template (WCN-CDTAS13), which one presumably holds down in the center and then uses the various slots with a pen/pencil to circle around to make their own custom chronodex stencil outlines.

      It doesn't take a genius to see how Baum-kuchen could potentially use such a tool or stamp to make a branded chronodex that also might suggest the circular layers of an actual Baum-kuchen cake.

    1. Inserting a maincards with lack of memory .t3_14ot4na._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; } Lihmann's system of inserting a maincard is fundamentally based on a person's ability to remember there are other maincards already inserted that would be related to the card you want to insert.What if you have very poor memory like many people do, what is your process of inserting maincards?In my Antinet I handled it in an enhanced method from what I did in my 27 yrs of research notebooks which is very different then Lihmann's method.

      reply to u/drogers8 at https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/14ot4na/inserting_a_maincards_with_lack_of_memory/

      I would submit that your first sentence is wildly false.

      What topic(s) cover your newly made cards? Look those up in your index and find where those potentially related cards are (whether you remember them or not). Go to that top level card listed in your index and see what's there or in the section of cards that come after it. Find the best card in that branch and file your new card(s) as appropriate. If necessary, cross-index them with sub-topics in your index to make them more findable in the future. If you don't find one or more of those topics in your index, then create a new branch and start an index entry for one or more of those terms. (You'll find yourself making lots of index entries to start, but it will eventually slow down—though it shouldn't stop—as your collection grows.)

      Ideally, with regular use, you'll likely remember more and more, especially for active areas you're really interested in. However, take comfort that the system is designed to let you forget everything! This forgetting will actually help create future surprise as well as serendipity that will actually be beneficial for potentially generating new ideas as you use (and review) your notes.

      And if you don't believe me, consider that Alberto Cevolini edited an entire book, broadly about these techniques—including an entire chapter on Luhmann—, which he aptly named Forgetting Machines!

    1. "I keep a dated diary of sorts on index cards, though they rarely go past one card a day."This is something I haven't heard of before. So, you journal/diary on index cards, one per day?

      reply to u/taurusnoises (Bob Doto) at tk

      Yep, for almost a full year now on 4x6" index cards. (Receipts for the kids: https://boffosocko.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/wp-1688411021709-scaled.jpg)

      Previously I'd used a Hobonichi Cousin (page per day) journal for this. (Perhaps I should have stayed with the A6 size instead of the larger A5 for consistency?) Decades ago (around 1988ish?) I had started using a 2 page per day DayTimer pocket planners (essentially pre-printed/timed index cards spiral bound into monthly booklets which they actually shipped in index card-like plastic boxes for storage/archival purposes). Technically I've been doing a version of this for a really long time in one form or another.

      It generally includes a schedule, to do lists (bullet journal style), and various fleeting notes/journaling similar to the older Memindex format, just done on larger cards for extra space. I generally either fold them in half for pocket storage for the day or carry about in groups for the coming week(s) when I'm away from my desk for extended periods (also with custom blank index card notebooks/pads).

      I won't go into the fact that in the 90's I had a 5,000+ person rolodex... or an index card (in the entertainment they called them buck slips) with the phone numbers and names of \~100 people I dealt with regularly when early brick cell phones didn't have great (or any) storage/functionality.

    2. reply to Bob Doto at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/14lcb4z/using_diaries_and_journals_as_source_material_for/

      Ross Ashby kept his notes in notebooks/journals but he did cross-index them by topic using index cards. Rather than reference them by notebook (name/title/date) and page number, he kept a set of handwritten running page numbers across the entirety of his notebooks, so instead of Notebook 15 page 55, 1952 he'd simply write "3786" for page 3786. This can be seen on his index card for the indexed word "determinate" as an example.

      For other examples, see: http://www.rossashby.info/journal/index/index.html

      My own notebooks are usually titled by year and date spans along with page numbers, so I'll use those roughly as Bob describes. This has made it much easier to not need to move all my older notes into a card-based system, but still make them useable and referenceable.

      For those with more explicit journaling, diary, or other writing habits, Ralph Waldo Emmerson makes an interesting example of practice as he maintained at least two commonplace books (a poetry-specific one and a general one) as well as a large set of writing journals where he experimented with writing before later publishing his work. Since there are extant (digitized and published copies) and large bodies of scholarship around them, they make an interesting case study of how his process worked and how others might imitate it.

      On the diary front, of the historical examples I've seen floating around, only Roland Barthes had a significant practice of keeping his "diary" in index card form, a portion of which was published on October 12, 2010. Mourning Diary is a collection published for the first time from Roland Barthes' 330 index cards focusing on his mourning following the death of his mother in 1977.

      Not as extensive, Vladimir Nabokov recorded a "diary" of sixty-four dreams on 118 index cards beginning on October 14, 1964 as an experiment. He was following the instructions of John Dunne, a British philosopher, in An Experiment with Time. The results were published by Princeton University Press in Insomniac Dreams: Experiments with Time by Vladimir Nabokov which was edited by Gennady Barabtarlo.

      Presumably if one keeps a diary or journal in index card form in chronological order, they can simply reference it by date and either time or card X of Y, if there are multiple card entries for a single day. I keep a dated diary of sorts on index cards, though they rarely go past one card a day.

    1. When I tag a note with a new keyword like [[Productivity]], it then becomes a ghost note on the graph.

      This is the first time I've seen someone use the phrase "ghost note" to mean a future implied note which could be created by using wiki syntax [[*]] which in some systems like Obsidian or WikiMedia creates a (red) link which one could click on to create that note.

      via u/THX-Eleven38 at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/14ox2tw/what_is_the_proper_way_to_create_a_moc_note_from/

    1. https://erinflotodesigns.com/collections/metal-stencils/products/bullet-journal-monthly-circle-tracker-stencil-habit-tracker-stencil-unique-design-stencil-cleaning-tracker-stencil

      Erin Floto has a metal stencil for a chronodex circular design for use in bullet journals. It's a form of circular calendar with the inner circle containing space for daily, bi-weekly, weekly, monthly and longer time horizons with succeeding rings of the circle containing space for data related to the inner categories. Some of the exterior rings also include numbered squares representing days of the month or week on which a task should be done or for which a habit on an interior part of the circle might be tracked.

      The chronodex, a portmanteau of chrono (time) and index, idea is fairly simple, but can be quite complex. For actual use, one may need to be able to spin the visualization around to read and understand it.

      Other stencils with habit trackers, etc: https://erinflotodesigns.com/collections/metal-stencils

    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.

    1. https://writing.bobdoto.computer/using-diaries-and-journals-as-source-material-for-zettelkasten-notes/

      Additional commentary at r/Zettelkasten - Using diaries and journals as source material for zettelkasten notes by Bob Doto

      Bob lays out some basic ideas for citing one's personal journal, diaries, notebooks, and other non-published writing for use in a Luhmann-artig zettelkasten. While he focuses on the scale of the mechanics of citation of one's own notes in other forms, what he's really doing is giving people explicit permission to overlap traditions to more easily use their work from other places in their zettelkasten.

      Compare this with Scott Scheper's related article on 2023-05-24 at https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/13qzgjs/connecting_a_zettelkasten_to_a_commonplace_book/ (and the related YouTube video in which he talks about giving things an "address".

      Unmentioned is that in many citation managers, one would likely use a "manuscript" format for citations here. Upon checking it looks like Zotero doesn't have data fields for page number, paragraph, or line numbers for their manuscript type.

    2. anachronistic zettelkasten

      Does he really mean anachronistic here? It doesn't seem to suit the context. While he seems to be comparing the time-ordered nature of a journal versus the non-time ordered structure of a zettelkasten, I can't help but read it from the alternate, and more common (and also pejorative) perspective. Seems odd to call it out specifically as it's not an issue with respect to any other of the more commonly used sources (books, journal articles, magazines, newspapers.)

      Might have been better to use anachronistic to modify zettel rather than zettelkasten which is a collective noun--that's the dissonance here for me.

      Compare those, like Roland Barthes, who used a slip box as a diary, which would have been chronological. I've also got a chronological section of my slip box.

    1. Anyone here use a method like Pile of Index Cards? .t3_7wtz59._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; }

      It's been a while since this was asked, but in case folks stumbling across it are interested, there are a few useful examples and resources: - Original Pile of Index Cards set up: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hawkexpress/albums/72157594200490122/ (Be sure to click on some of the example card photos which have descriptions of set up/use.) - 43 tabs: https://web.archive.org/web/20110714192833/http://pileofindexcards.org/wiki/index.php?title=43Tabs_System - Lifehacker Article: https://lifehacker.com/the-pile-of-index-cards-system-efficiently-organizes-ta-1599093089 - Uncluterer: https://web.archive.org/web/20140708133632/http://unclutterer.com/2014/06/17/the-pile-of-index-cards-poic-system/ - Some historical systems (esp. Memindex which preceded the PoIC): https://boffosocko.com/2023/03/09/the-memindex-method-an-early-precursor-of-the-memex-hipster-pda-43-folders-gtd-basb-and-bullet-journal-systems/

    1. Zk for analyzing components

      reply to u/graidan at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/14n5131/zk_for_analyzing_components/

      I'm intending to use some of my zk for analysis of components for their uses. Specifically, for looking at materia magica (magical ingredients) across authors / books / systems / etc. For example, all the ways that dandelion is used, looking for consistent commonalities and reasoning.

      How would you do this in a ZK system? Create a branch per items under investigation? I feel like a digital solution like notion might work best, but I'd like to incorporate into my analog if I can figure out a good way to do it.

      I like u/taurusnoises' description and understand it, but perhaps an alternate perspective and some examples of how others have done these things may be helpful?

      One feature/affordance that a Luhmann-esque zettelkasten emphasizes is the ability to build on knowledge from the bottom up while older commonplace book and non-Luhmann zettelkasten traditions have a more top-down and/or categorical-first approach. Either of these methods can be tried in your use case to good benefit, but it helps to think about what is happening over the long run. Bottom up approaches are more useful when you're encountering new material and aren't always sure how to categorize it or know where things may be heading. These also tend to encourage greater admixtures of disparate topics, especially over use with time. Top down approaches are potentially better when you've got a broad idea of fields and sub-fields to begin with and know exactly where new ideas will best fit. Because of this they don't naturally tend to mix disparate fields of knowledge as easily, though this can be done with foresight.

      It sounds like you're well-acquainted with your area (of magical ingredients) already, so you're more likely to appreciate a top down approach as a result. A Luhmann-esque zettelkasten is certainly workable here, but you'll be able to scaffold some of your material more easily from the start. You know in advance some of the structure of where you're going and what sorts of questions you'll want to ask of your notes, so you can structure it to be more helpful from the start.

      As an example, in your materia magica case (for which I'll make some broad assumptions without any knowledge of the field), you might have a branch for dandelion. Under dandelion you can aggregate notes on what various authors have to say about specific uses and features. Over time you'll have a variety of notes which will allow you to quickly compare and contrast what those authors have to say about the topic. You can repeat this for other herbs, mushrooms, etc. This may make your writing on this particular area much easier.

      Of course, potential complications may occur later when you may have different questions about the ideas you've collected. Perhaps you'll ask something like, how did practices differ in different geographical areas? Was practice with dandelions the same across different regions or across time? Did practices for other herbs show similar patterns? This may require additional sets of notes which can cross reference time spans and areas. To better handle this with your initial notes branching according to herbs, you may want to make project notes (maps of content, hub notes, structure notes, or whatever you want to call them) on each of these criteria with links back to the originals for studying and comparing these differences.

      To make this easier, you can pull out all the original notes and reorder them accordingly and then make your project notes by noting the original card identifiers/numbers. Or perhaps you just use them to write the particular section directly. Once you're done, you can use the original numbers to file them back into the appropriate places for later use.

      The broader ZK community doesn't talk as frequently or as in-depth about adding metadata relating to time, place, etc. for sorting/resorting or searching for material. Having actual index cards may make doing all of this a lot easier.

      As illustrative examples, Beatrice Webb talks a bit about her use of collecting notes/data across a variety of dimensions for her sociology work as "scientific notetaking" in Appendix C of her book My Apprenticeship (1926). Broadly speaking, she's using her notes as an early form of searchable database. Similarly, Victor Margolin has a short video about his process for writing about history of design and there he's using his notes along the lines of both location as well as time. In both of these examples, we're looking at non-Luhmann-artig practices (somehow it seems more appropriate to use the German -artig than the French -esque), but I'm sure they would have worked just as well with a Luhmann structured practice as well.

      And of course if none of this still makes any sense, I highly recommend you try it anyway. Your experience will assuredly bear out results and you're sure to find the answers you're looking for, and probably a little more to boot. Let us know what you find.

    1. I recently discovered a fantastically curated Japanese and German design inspired stationery store in Southern California not far from the Rose Bowl and the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, CA. Baum-kuchen mentioned that they plan to carry a huge array of Hobonichi products beginning this fall!! The only thing better than a Hobonichi or even a store full of them is a store full of them 10 minutes from one's home.

      I had high hopes that they might already have the July start planners or blank notebooks, but alas, I'm going to have to be patient for the new Fall releases.

      In addition to all the fantastic appointments in their store/atelier, I'm most impressed with their community table where they invite everyone to come in with their planners to work and plan, write, or draw in the store itself. This gives you the ability to share with others in person as well as to sample their pens, stamps, and other materials with your own notebooks and planners. Their planning table space also gives one the ability to pull a variety of items off of shelves to more easily mix and match items for building your ideal planner set up with all the trimmings and accessories. They also offer a wide array of notebook cover customization services and a fantastically kind and knowledgeable staff.

      The community table at Baum-kuchen surrounded by displays of pens, pencils, stationery, and accessories.

      If you find yourself in Southern California and want a unique analog and very tactile experience, stop in and see the wonders that they've got on offer at Baum-Kuchen. Lately they've been open only on Sundays at their store/atelier, but their online store is open 24/7: https://www.baum-kuchen.net/. For those who live farther afield and don't have the opportunity to visit often, you can get a strong sense of their character and wabi-sabi philosophy on their YouTube channel.

      When you get the chance, stop by and say hello to Wakako, Frido, and their welcoming and generous staff in person. I'm sure you'll find me there on release day this fall (and maybe every weekend in between😜) putting my name at the top of the list for the 2024 Hobonichi offerings. I'm already practicing baking baum kuchen, a delicious cake after which the store is named, for the coming celebration.

      syndication link: https://www.reddit.com/r/hobonichi/comments/14o08ke/more_hobonichi_in_los_angeles_and_southern/

  3. Jun 2023
    1. Out of curiosity: anyone here joining Camp NaNo this July? :) .t3_14l2dfo._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; }

      reply to u/nagytimi85 at https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/14l2dfo/out_of_curiosity_anyone_here_joining_camp_nano/

      With my ZK I feel like it's NaNoWriMo all the time... Here's some prior conversation about this: https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/xrlnqx/anyone_doing_nanowrimo/

    1. I just can't get into these sort of high-ritual triage approaches to note-taking. I can admire it from afar, which I do, but find this sort of "consider this ahead of time before you make a move" approaches to really drag down my process.But, I do appreciate them from a sort of "aesthetics of academia" perspective.

      Reply to Bob Doto at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/14ikfsy/comment/jplo3j2/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 with respect to PZ Compass Points.

      I'll agree wholeheartedly that applying methods like this to each note one takes is a "make work" exercise. It's apt to encourage people into the completist trap of turning every note they take into some sort of pristine so-called permanent or evergreen note, and there are already too many of those practitioners, who often give up in a few weeks wondering "where did I go wrong?".

      It's useful to know that these methods and tools exist, particularly for younger students, but I would never recommend that one apply them on a daily or even weekly basis. Maybe if one was having trouble with a particular idea or thought and wanted to more exhaustively explore the adjacent space around it, but even here going out for a walk in nature and allowing diffuse thinking to do some of the work is likely to be just as (maybe more?) productive.

      It could be the sort of thing to write down in your collection of Oblique Strategies to pull out when you're hitting a wall?

    2. As Chris Aldridge says, for centuries the Zettelkasten approach was the standard and universal method for producing books and articles - until personal computers took over.

      The entirety of this sentence goes beyond my thoughts and I don't feel it's backed up with historical evidence, particularly outside of specific areas of academia and the humanities.

    3. Today, you either thrive on that word processor model or you don’t. I really don’t, which is why I’ve invested effort, as you have, in researching previous writing workflows, older than the all-conquering PC of the late 1980s and early 90s. At the same time, new writing tools are challenging the established Microsoft way, but in doing so are drawing attention to the fact that each app locks the user into a particular set of assumptions about the drafting and publishing process.

      via u/atomicnotes at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/149knhj/comment/jobi9ro/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 on 2023-06-15

    1. Melissa Rivers also announced today the launch of a special edition 4-disc CD box set collection titled “Joan Rivers – The Diva Rides Again” that will feature five hours of never-before-released recordings of Joan’s comedy, including six decades worth of hilarious material and a special 16-page collector’s book of liner notes with never-before-seen photos. The box set is currently available for preorder on Amazon, Target.com and Walmart.com and will be released on August 18, 2023 on streaming platforms such as iTunes and Spotify. The set is produced and distributed by Comedy Dynamics in partnership with the Joan Rivers estate.
    2. a file cabinet containing over 65,000 original jokes spanning from the start of her career in the 1950s to 2014 when she passed away.

      The NY Times blew her obituary date of 2014 when they published material based on this press release.

      Joan Rivers card index of jokes comprised 65,000 cards spanning the start of her career in the 1950s to 2014, when she passed away.

    1. The idea that what happened was not inevitable. Understanding the contingency of the past, I think, may suggest to them that the present and future are similarly “not a done deal”.

      In some respects, even the past is not a done deal. It must be examined and studied and will be viewed differently in the present and in the future, thus making history a feedback loop, though hopefully in positive ways.

    2. I do think it’s helpful for members of the public to know some basic facts about the past. For me, it’s the same idea as the saying “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” Similarly, if you know nothing you can be convinced of anything.

      These are much pithier versions of what Robert Hutchins is getting at when he's talking about the importance of the Great Conversation with respect to Democracy.

    1. The command to schools—the invective about education—was, perhaps as ever, Janus-like: the injunction was to teach more and getbetter results, but to get kids to be imaginative and creative at the same time.They had to learn the facts of science, but they shouldn’t have original thinkingsqueezed from them in the process. It was the formal versus progressivecontroversy in a nutshell.

      Can the zettelkasten method be a means of fixing/helping with this problem of facts versus creativity in a programmatic way?

    2. We would nowadays probablycall the second group ‘constructivist’ or ‘cognitive’ or ‘sociocultural’psychologists, though the committee did not venture to name them as such. Thislatter school (or schools) they took to be associated with psychologists such asthe British Susan Isaacs, the Russian Alexander Luria, the American JeromeBruner, and the Swiss Jean Piaget.
    3. Given the committee’s constitution, it’s all the more remarkable that itproduced probably the single strongest official impetus for progressive educationin the 20th century anywhere in the world.

      Gary Thomas feels that the 1960s Plowden Report was the strongest official impetus for progressive education in the 20th century.

      He suggest that it was a natural successor to the Hadow Report.

    4. Policymakers should perhaps learn more from the Finns, who avoid imposing‘teacher-proof’ approaches on their schools. Instead, they cleave to their respectfor the teacher’s knowledge, skill, and professionalism. In Finland, teaching is ahighly sought-after career; teachers are universally respected, paid well, and areall educated to Master’s degree level. They are trusted to do a good job...and thetrust pays off: even using the most formal measures of success, the Finns’ resultsare among the best in the world.
    5. Direct Instruction, a technique in which great hopeswere invested in the USA in the 1970s and 1980s.

      Direct Instruction was a method promulgated in the 1970s and 80s that touted 'teacher-proof' methods, but ultimately didn't pan out. Some of the early gains seen in use of the method were ultimately attributed to generous resourcing rather to the program itself.

      Generous resourcing might then be a better method to attempt from the start? (snarkmark)

    6. The Reggio Emilia approach has become world famous (see Figure 2).Originating at more or less the same time as changes to ideas about curriculumand styles of teaching in the UK and the USA, it especially caught theimagination of educators worldwide for its energy and for the commitmentinvested by all in the community to make it a success. It combined the discoveryapproaches of the progressive educators with a dedication to communityinvolvement and especially the involvement of parents in education.
    7. There are many things that we have to take on trust; everyminute of every day we have to accept the testimony and the guidance of thosewho are in a position to offer an authoritative view.

      Perhaps there is a need for balance between the two perspectives of formal and progressive education. While one can teach another the broad strokes of the "rules" of note taking, for example, using the zettelkasten method and even give examples of the good and the bad, the affordances, and tricks, individuals are still going to need to try things out to see what works for them in various situations and for their specific needs. In the end, its nice to have someone hand one the broad "rules" (and importantly the reasons for them), so that one has a set of tools which they can then practice as an art.

    8. For formalists, though, learning is, sadly, hard slog. No pain, no gain. Theycontend that it is just a fact of life that there are some things that you need tolearn the hard way. There is complex information that we need to know to whichthere is no easy route. If you want to learn to write, for example, you need tounderstand the ways in which language is put together; you need to know theglue that binds sentences—the rules for making language work. This isn’t easy,say the formalists, and you don’t ‘discover’ it.

      Formalist education stance: One can't simply discover everything and as a result leaning can require specific work and long practice (learning to write, for example).

    9. For progressives, learning is natural; it’s happening all the time and it’s whathumans are programmed for. Children learn to talk, for example, without anyteaching at all. Progressive educators say that this learning of language providesus with a lesson: it shows that we are almost hard-wired for complex learning—it comes easily, if the circumstances for its acquisition are right. We shouldmake use of this strength, putting children in positions where they have theopportunity to think rather than telling them what to think.

      Progressive education stance: learning is easy and we've got an innate ability to do complex learning tasks. As a result, putting students into situations where they have the ability to think is better than simply telling them what to think, which might be a more formalist stance.

    10. For the formalists,though, it’s a process of imparting and acquiring the skills and knowledgenecessary for wellbeing and success in life. It’s about instruction and theacquisition of information and skills needed for the success of the society inwhich you live.
    1. The men who crafted Great Books programs, most prominently John Erskine, Mortimer Adler, and Scott Buchanan, promoted the idea that the reading of classics was a task meant for all students, at all levels, even if the works were translated from their original language. At several colleges, the curricula of undergraduate programs came to be based upon the reading of these Great Books.
    1. The German word 'Arbeit', work, descends from Porto-Germanic *arbaidiz, which meant hardship or suffering. Going a couple of thousand years further back in time, the ancestor of arbaidiz was Porto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos, which mean orphan or slave. 'Orphan' has the same root via Latin. So Arbeit <> orphan: distant cousins. 'Arbeit' did have a relative in Old English too: it was 'earfoþe', difficult, hard

      via Cameron (@Black_Kettle) at https://twitter.com/Black_Kettle/status/1669382585087033347

    1. BookmarkNew book - Personal Knowledge Graphs, by Ivo Velitchkov

      https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/2597/new-book-personal-knowledge-graphs-by-ivo-velitchkov#latest

      For some additional context the work can be found through https://personalknowledgegraphs.com/#/page/pkg. It also has portions of the building of the book which exist as a knowledge graph, though it doesn't appear that they put up the entirety of the book as a linked knowledge graph the way they had initially planned. I've read a few parts in draft form, including Flancian's chapter whose ideas are tremendous, but I have yet to read the remainder of the published work.

      [Disclosure: I had submitted and had been accepted to write an early, historical-flavored chapter for this volume, but ultimately fell out, as did many others, over disagreements regarding their editing and/or publishing process. I'm close with Flancian and appreciate his experimental programming work on https://anagora.org/index, which one might call a multi-layered wiki of personal wikis, commonplace books, zettelkasten, diaries, notes, and other similar forms of personal knowledge. If you've got a public, digitally available version of a zettelkasten you'd like to add to his project, do reach out to him to interconnect it with the Agora and others' work there.]

    1. Personal Website

      reply to u/GlitteringFee1047 at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/147yj2b/personal_website/

      I've got a personal site at https://boffosocko.com which I've had for many years and used in part as a digital commonplace book/pseudo-zettelkasten. I've been an active member of the IndieWeb community for many years as well and happy to answer any questions about those experiences. To bring things closer to the overlap of that and this particular community, folks may appreciate the following related material:

    1. I turn to Joan and say, “My word, Joan. I’m so impressed. Melissa knows Yiddish?” Joan goes, “No. She doesn’t know Yiddish and I don’t know Yiddish. But anybody who’s speaking to you in Yiddish is telling you a joke so you laugh at the end of it. I’ve taught her that much so nobody will think she’s stupid.” That was Joan in her 50s. She’s almost 80 now and she still treats her daughter the same way.
    1. Second, the social life of annotation is of greater importance than individual reader response. Annotation must be studied and promoted as a social endeavor that is co-authored by groups of annotators, with interactive media, spanning on-the-ground and online settings, and in response to shared commitments.

      When will we get the civil disobedience version of Mortimer J. Adler's How to Mark a Book?

    1. Here too. I don't make notes in the books (underline, circle, write in the margin, etc) because they will be isolated from my PKD. I've also been "suffering" from overselection, but the points raised in my bib cards are mostly pretty short (4-6 words). I'm still a beginner and practice will show what the ideal selection level is. I think it will suit purpose, familiarity and type of material.

      reply to u/rafael-adao at https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/1466lls/comment/jnp0kpa/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

      If they're your books, then feel free. This will allow you to do more over time; then you can be more selective the second time through for the most important things which you can excerpt for your Ph.D. Later you'll find that you don't have to worry about over or under-selection because you can always revisit your marginalia (or your overselected bibcards) and excerpt things as you need them. If you don't make the marks/traces, it's a lot harder to revisit the path you took through the forest. Your readings and the marks you make can be thought of as blazing a trail for subsequent trips through the material and related materials. This can also be particularly useful when you do syntopical readings with related materials. Quite often I find in retrospect that I need more explicit notes to connect to things from newer readings. Being able to revisit those older highlights and annotations makes it much easier to find those things that I know I know, but didn't manage to capture the first time around.

      Over time, and with practice you'll find your "Goldilocks" zone.

    1. “And yeah, it goes on, and on, and on. And one day, we’re going to get a little intern who thinks they’re in show business and is going to sit and put each and every one of these cards onto a computer so that when I’m in England and I need a joke about doctors, I can just go into my computer and come up with a — oh, this is a tramp. This tramp donated all her organs for transplants, which should make the recipients happy because her body has never rejected anything. [LAUGHS]: So. But it just goes on, and on, and on. These are just jokes over the years, years, and years, and years of jokes. And when I die, I can sell this to some lucky, lucky comedian who will then, if they’re smart, have enough to keep them going for their whole life.”

      standing in front of her card index for comedy, built into a wall of other files.

    2. Rivers, who wrote gags at all hours, paid close attention to setups and punchlines, typing them up and cross-referencing them by categories like “Parents hated me” or “Las Vegas” or “No sex appeal.” The largest subject area is “Tramp,” which includes 1,756 jokes.

      Joan Rivers card index of jokes is categorized by topical headings like "Parents hated me", "Las Vegas", and "No sex appeal". The largest subject category in her collection was "Tramp" with 1,756 jokes.

    3. Instead, Rivers is donating the extensive collection to the National Comedy Center, the high-tech museum in Jamestown, N.Y., joining the archives of A-list comics like George Carlin and Carl Reiner. The fact that the jokes will be accessible is only one of the reasons for Melissa Rivers’s decision.

      To avoid the Raiders of the Lost Ark problem, Melissa Rivers donated her mother's joke collection to the National Comedy Center so it would be on display and accessible. The New York-based museum is also home to the archives of George Carlin and Carl Reiner.

    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. By the 1980s the adage had implausibly been reassigned to Benjamin Franklin. The 1986 book “Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching” by Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers contained the following passage:[12]1986 (Seventh Printing 1991), Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching: A Description and Analysis by Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, Chapter 7: The Silent Way, Quote Page 100, Cambridge … Continue reading These premises are succinctly represented in the words of Benjamin Franklin: Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn.

      The misattribution of this quote often seen in educational settings likely stems from Richards & Rodgers from 1986.

      See also: - https://hypothes.is/a/cKMkaAZQEe6dq0fkeyNabA - https://hypothes.is/a/YWrJKgZPEe6dy2sJU5KcSw

    2. Several English renderings have been published over the years. The following excerpt is from “Xunzi: The Complete Text” within chapter 8 titled “The Achievements of the Ru”. The translator was Eric L. Hutton, and the publisher was Princeton University Press in 2014. Emphasis added to excerpts:[1]2014 Copyright, Xunzi: The Complete Text, Translated by Eric L. Hutton, Chapter 8: The Achievements of the Ru, Quote Page 64, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. (Verified with … Continue reading Not having heard of it is not as good as having heard of it. Having heard of it is not as good as having seen it. Having seen it is not as good as knowing it. Knowing it is not as good as putting it into practice. Learning arrives at putting it into practice and then stops . . .

      The frequent educational quote "Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn.", often misattributed to Benjamin Franklin, is most attributable to 3rd century Confucian philosopher Kunzi (Xun Kuang or 荀子) who wrote:

      Not having heard of it is not as good as having heard of it. Having heard of it is not as good as having seen it. Having seen it is not as good as knowing it. Knowing it is not as good as putting it into practice. Learning arrives at putting it into practice and then stops . . .

      The translation of which appears in Xunzi: The Complete Text, Translated by Eric L. Hutton, Chapter 8: The Achievements of the Ru, Quote Page 64, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. 2014.

      Variations of the sentiment and attributions have appeared frequently thereafter.

    1. I'm curious if anyone has ever experimented with making an online Luhmann-esque Zettelkasten using WikiMedia as their platform?

      What were the pros/cons you found for doing so?

      Have you tried other methods (index cards, Obsidian, other(s)?), and if so what affordances did MediaWiki provide or were lacking for what you were attempting to accomplish?

      Did you use transclusion functionality?

      Did you attempt to build or implement backlink functionality? Use the API or plugins for this?

      Did you build some sort of custom index (manually, programatically, other)?

      If you used it for writing, what methods did you attempt with respect to taking the smaller pieces/ideas and building them up into longer written pieces?

      Links to specific public examples are welcome here. I'll also accept links to public versions of commonplace books or similar forms which also use MediaWiki as their infrastructure.

      syndication link: https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/144hzn9/zettelkasten_with_mediawiki/

    1. @electricarchaeo@scholar.social My mother, on hearing that my first book had been declined by the press that had been considering it because the marketing guys weren't sure how to sell it: “You mean they were planning on making money off of your book?”

      reply to

      my daughter, when very young, once said to me ‘when are you going to write something that people want to read?’ and i am continually haunted —Shawn Graham @electricarchaeo@scholar.social https://scholar.social/@electricarchaeo/110503595819290672

      and to Kathleen Fitzpatrick at https://hcommons.social/@kfitz/110503673214772574

      @kfitz @electricarchaeo@scholar.social My friend P.M. Forni was always saddened when he spoke about his life's scholarly work only being read by "at most 4 people". But he felt kindness, civility, and generosity were the telos of life. He didn't want his students to be Renaissance experts and then be rude to an old woman in the street, so he wrote "Choosing Civility". He was thrilled when an Oprah appearance we got him garnered it instantaneous audience and overnight best seller status. He still sweated it out for his four readers. I'm certain his advice to you would to not be haunted, but keep sweating it out with kindness. You're influencing more people than you'll ever know. Thank you both for your arete and generosity.

    1. These links to these threads are priceless. Two questions: How can I connect with these Reddit users? Never mind, I’m sure I can find the answer myself. Second question - how do you keep these thread references so handy? Is this hypothes.is ? Zotero? Raindrop.io? I have no idea how to capture this kind of info and keep it accessible.

      reply to u/coachdan007 at https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/13ygoz9/comment/jn80a7z/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

      Mostly these references were using Hypothesis, though I do have some material in Zotero. I don't use Raindrop. IIRC, I knew I'd seen the topics before and did a search for the tag bible and then narrowed it down my adding on zettelkasten and it popped up immediately. A large number of my replies here are just querying my digital ZK and spitting out pre-packaged answers or pointers to relevant material. I also occasionally do the same thing with my analog version, though with those I have to type them out. I follow roughly the same process for doing my own queries and writing. You get surprisingly good at it after a while, particularly when you know it's in there somewhere. Of course r/ has it's own internal search function too, so you could check out: - https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/search/?q=bible&restrict_sr=1 - https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/search/?q=bible&restrict_sr=1

      and have a slightly wider net to get the fishes and loaves you're seeking. With the proper notes at hand, perhaps you'll soon be able to turn water into wine? Interestingly, I think you're the first who's ever asked this question here (or other related fora). I hope people don't think I spend all my time writing all these custom answers when I'm just tipping out my zettelkasten. (Though I do always keep my original answers too in the eventuality that I ever want to turn all of these thoughts into an article or book.)

    2. Thank you, Chris. I have been watching Dan Alosso's antinet book club. So, it's nice to have a face to the name. I just subscribed to your newsletter this morning from an article you wrote.This is probably not the correct place, but I'd like to learn more about your use of Hypothes.is.I think someone else mentioned a branch for each book, as well. I'll read the threads you cited. I am sure there will be some good stuff in there.@Chrisaldrich - have you heard or come across the "Encyclopedia Puritannica Project"?https://www.publishepp.com/This is kind of what I have in mind for my antinet. The ability to cross-reference authors to various topics ot themes or doctrines while also linking them to the specific verses or passages they use to make a point. AND to look up a Bible verse and see what authors in my antinet cite these verses and where. AND, lastly, to look at a theme and see which Bible verses map to that theme and which author wrote on that theme.I think the antinet is a good tool for this. Certainly not in a comprehensive way but in a way that interconnects my own studies and readings. But I suspect that I'll have to do some hard thinking over how to accomplish this.

      reply to u/coachdan007 at https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/13ygoz9/comment/jn6fwzr/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

      Thanks u/coachdan007. I've heard of the EPP, but never delved heavily into it. There's still a lot of digging I want to do into Edwards' Miscellanies, but I just haven't had the time, sadly. Perhaps I'll find it over the summer? While you're searching around you might also find it interesting/useful to have an interleaved bible as well to give you bigger "margins" to write in as you go. This may make some of the direct thinking on the page a bit easier. Don't think too hard about some super custom method, just start practicing something that makes sense and evolve it as you go and as you need to.

      As for Hypothesis, following my account or reading past notes may be useful/helpful. For the day to day, I've documented pieces of it along with tips and tricks over time on my site at https://boffosocko.com/tag/hypothes.is/. Some of the older posts when I was first starting out are probably more interesting as more recent ones can be sort of meta.

    1. Tipps for purchasing a Dictation Device

      reply to Sascha at https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/2583/tipps-for-purchasing-a-dictation-device#latest:

      I've got an older Livescribe Pulse pen I love with a small pocket notebook or Post-It Notes. It has an optical character reader and special paper but also records audio and links it to the written text (either before or after the fact). I primarily use it for longer lectures where I'll take scant notes, but have the ability to add to them based on the recorded audio later. They've also got some 3rd party OCR solutions that will take your handwriting and convert it to digital text later. While they do larger sized notebooks and a variety of other papers as well (including printing your own), the small pocket size and ease of use has been fantastic. I've owned one version or another for more than a decade and really love them for this sort of audio on-the-go functionality. Since it's a digital pen, it's also unobtrusive in meetings. The added ability to share pdf documents with embedded audio after the fact isn't bad for classmates or meeting attendees.

    1. 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.

    2. Unlike many developed countries, the United States lacks a national curriculum or teacher-training standards. Local policies change constantly, as governors, school boards, mayors and superintendents flow in and out of jobs.

      Many developed countries have national curricula and specific teacher-training standards, but the United States does not. Instead decisions on curricular and standards are created and enforced at the state and local levels, often by politically elected figures including governors, mayors, superintendents, and school boards.

      This leaves early education in the United States open to a much greater sway of political influence. This can be seen in examples of Texas attempting to legislate the display the ten commandments in school classrooms in 2023, reading science being neglected in the adoption of Culkins' Units of Study curriculum, and other footballs like the supposed suppression of critical race theory in right leaning states.

    3. 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.

    4. 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. I love my new Retro 1951 pens, but love my Pentel EnerGel refills better than the stock rollerball or even Parker Gel refills.  So, I chopped the ends off of my EnerGel refills to match the Length of the Parker and Retro refills with an exacto knife - worked great.

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/rohdesign/5815595176/

      Mike Rohde has previously had luck with the Bic Gel 0.7mm refill chopped down to fit his Retro 51 pens. Similarly he's done the Parker Gel 0.7mm refill and the Pentel Energel 0.7mm refill chopped down to fit.

    1. At 9¢/card these are very expensive in comparison to bulk cards which usually can be found for 1-2¢/card. The difference however is in the luxuriousness of the silky smooth texture. Whether you're writing with your favorite fountain pen or a carefully chosen pencil. I don't know if these are the same brand of Bristol cards that Vladimir Nabokov used for his writing, but one could easily image him using such lovely material.

      These provide a very smooth writing experience for fountain pens, gel pens and pencils. I particularly love the way my Tennessee Reds and Blackwing 602s glide over their surface. In comparison to some Japanese stationery, I'd put these cards somewhere between tsuru tsuru (slippery) and sara sara (smooth). If you're looking for a toothier paper, you'll definitely want to look elsewhere. They take fountain pens pretty well with no feathering or ghosting. My juiciest fountain pen dries in about 15 seconds, while a drier extra fine is dry in about 7 seconds, so it may take some care not to smear ink if you're on the messier end of the spectrum.

      Pencil erases reasonably well, though there may be some minimal residual ghosting here. At 205 gsm, they've got a satisfying thickness unseen in most index cards and one is unlikely to rip or crinkle them when erasing. They're also thick enough that the wettest Sharpie won't bleed much less ghost through. You have to hold a card up to a backlight to see the appearance of any ghosting through it and even then, not well.

      For the sticklers used to using standard 4 x 6" index cards, one should take note that the dimensions of these are slightly shorter in both dimensions—they're closer to 3.94" x 5.91". This means that you might have to take some care that while flipping through mixed company of cards your Exacompta can potentially hide between larger imperial sized cards. They're also close to, but not quite A6 in size either (105 x 148.5 mm or 4.1 x 5.8 inches).

    1. Technology is valuable and empowering, but at what end direct cost? Consumers don't have available data for the actual costs of the options they're choosing in many contexts.

      What if that reprocessing costs the equivalent of three glasses of waters? Is it worth it for our environment, especially when the direct costs to the "consumer" are hidden into advertising models.

      (via Brenna)

  4. google-research.github.io google-research.github.io
    1. SoundStorm

      We present SoundStorm, a model for efficient, non-autoregressive audio generation. SoundStorm receives as input the semantic tokens of AudioLM, and relies on bidirectional attention and confidence-based parallel decoding to generate the tokens of a neural audio codec. Compared to the autoregressive generation approach of AudioLM, our model produces audio of the same quality and with higher consistency in voice and acoustic conditions, while being two orders of magnitude faster. SoundStorm generates 30 seconds of audio in 0.5 seconds on a TPU-v4. We demonstrate the ability of our model to scale audio generation to longer sequences by synthesizing high-quality, natural dialogue segments, given a transcript annotated with speaker turns and a short prompt with the speakers' voices.