21 Matching Annotations
  1. Sep 2024
    1. Not everyone in “The Thief of Time” approves of the reliance on the extended will. Mark D. White advances an idealist argument rooted in Kantian ethics: recognizing procrastination as a failure of will, we should seek to strengthen the will rather than relying on external controls that will allow it to atrophy further.

      I like to being able to see these differences in views on how to deal with procrastination. I can only imagine how different it is for various people and how they come to deal with it. I can even imagine the number of people who actually do research on it vs those who just live with it.

    2. Philosophers are interested in procrastination for another reason. It’s a powerful example of what the Greeks called akrasia—doing something against one’s own better judgment.

      Procrastination is something I have always wanted others opinion about and to read about how philosophers have delve into it, a sort of "been there done that" is refreshing to know. I really enjoy philosophy and the different avenues that you can go off of just one subject.

    3. but anxiety about it as a serious problem seems to have emerged in the early modern era

      Going through this reading, it is great to know that I am not the only one. It is always a good feeling to know you are not alone in certain situations. Its not enough to just procrastinate, but then to have anxiety about doing it.

    4. in other words, about a voluntary abnegation of freedom.

      I like conclusions, seeing how to repeat and summarize the wording already used to explain the points of the work. Reformulation is used in this last paragraph to sum up everything that the reader has processed so far and to process it once more.

    5. surveys suggest that the vast majority of college students procrastinate

      This is geared toward the beginning of the statement. Used for showing how those in the academia field procrastinate because of lengths of studying, etc. It guides the reader through another type of group that relates to "putting things off".

    6. He genuinely intended to send the box to his friend, yet, as he wrote

      This was an opposition to Akerlof wanting to send the box off, it becomes specific enough to describe the contrast in his thinking by highlighting a paper he wrote on procrastination. Even though we know we should, still we push the task to another day.

    1. fully accepted

      We are being showed this everyday, how new tech becomes normalized and almost easily accepted by the masses. This shines a light on writing and how going from pen and paper to a screen.

    2. Calculators made mathematical calculations fast

      I have had this discussion before on whether or not calculators make it easier to find calculations but more lax on the actual calculating. This speaks volumes to certain tech that can make things faster, but may take away from the steps to do it.

    3. oral culture was the primary means of cultural transmission

      When looking at both versions, I believe this is an a great way to think deeper about what Plato and Socrates were saying because this sentence makes me think about the game telephone and how easy it was back then to distort a story or conversation

    4. they will not use their memories."

      As one who enjoys philosophy, this makes sense! In a sense when one writes at some points the focus goes to technical and analytical instead of the details of the idea.

    1. How to do you formulate a thesis? By asking a series of questions: Do you agree with an existing perspective on the topic? If so, why? If not, why not? Are the existing perspectives too simplistic and need to be complicated? Is the conventional wisdom on the topic deficient in some respect, and does it need to be modified or revised? Do the existing perspectives omit a key consideration (for example, gender or race or class)?

      Reading this now I can say that a thesis was one of my weaker points in the beginning. I could come up with the entire paper, but summing up why, aww man lol.

    2. Ideas must come first.

      This line sums up where people start on their journey, but not just where they start, how they finish, how they get stuck. I just liked the sentence when I read it because of its simplicity to how ideas are transferred to paper.

    3. The key to writing, I have found, lies in the process: a process that requires us to think systematically: To enter into a conversation, a controversy or a debate To assess and analyze existing points of view To reconsider the controversy and in the process gradually construct a fresh interpretation or thesis To refine and revise that argument, and To figure out how to convey the argument in an interesting, engaging and provocative manner, with a catchy lead and a bang-up conclusion.

      I think this is a very detailed and good way of explaining a process on how to view writing in any style.

    4. So, how do we get beyond intuitions? Obviously through research

      Sometimes I feel as though research is portrayed to be the easiest step or the step that comes first. Between these two articles, there isn't much depth on how to research.

    1. When should you write a shitty first draft, and when should you write a fat outline?

      As I was reading, I literally had this question going through my mind. Should I do both?

    2. While both of these prescriptions will get you unstuck

      Just the idea of getting UNSTUCK gets me to want to read more of what this author has to say about writing. It makes me want to read the book that was offered. This is one of the differences between this article and the other one. The one by Steven Mintz is well written and helps with certain issues, but some of those points don't focus on writers block as much as this one does in my opinion.

    3. no constraints whatsoever.

      I love how this is repeated. The writing process as an idea is easier than the actual writing because when it gets to that point now I'm putting constraints on my ideas because I am writing. I notice I tend to do this.

    4. If one of the characters wants to say, “Well, so what, Mr. Poopy Pants?,” you let her. No one is going to see it. If the kid wants to get into really sentimental, weepy, emotional territory, you let him.

      THIS!!! I love this because speaking specifically, we all as humans, still have some of our inner child in us. To see that others begin their writing with "blah" in a sense helps with the process.

    5. I work only with writers of nonfiction. In her book Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott is, mostly, solving a problem for writers of fiction.

      I appreciate that even though he doesn't work with writers of fiction, he doesn't hold a prejudice against fiction writers. Even using a fictional writer as his example for the article.