18,142 Matching Annotations
  1. Apr 2024
    1. Reference numbers to paragraphs in vol I are distinguishedby a preceding I

      Even in writing his book, which takes the form of a numbered and indexed card index, he's making explicit links to the similar card index which he made in volume 1 of the book. It's as if he's created his own hypertext of linked material between the two volumes.

    2. The first draft of this scheme of indexing was worked out inPhiladelphia in 1896-7 and after some years of constant appli-cation involving an index of some 50,000 cards it was re-written-in the light of experience gained.

      Julius Kaiser built a card index (zettelkasten) of 50,000 index cards based on a system he says he worked out between 1896-7 when he was Librarian of the Philadelphia Commercial Museum. In following years he applied the system to three additional card indexes (of unmentioned sizes).

      His experience in doing this provides significant ethos for his coming arguments and discussion.

    3. by system we eliminate duplication, we concentratecontrol;

      Part of Luhmann's practice in looking up ideas to place in his zettelkasten first was a means of preventing duplication of ideas. If an idea is repeated, that can be noted on the extant card as evidence that others see the idea too or one can compare the potential subtle differences as a means of expanding the space.

      Eliminating duplication also assists in the ratchet effect of collecting information and connecting it.

    4. means of control.

      Note Kaiser's repeated use of "control" within the book as an ongoing theme. He, like many is looking to overcome information overload, but frames it within a system which provides readers and knowledge workers with control over it.

      He doesn't mention information overload as a phrase, but hints at it in earlier portions. (where? find an example)

    5. You cannot buy a ready-made intelligence departmenton which to run your business.
    6. what little indexing is attempted can only 14be described as an unsystematic effort. The catchword methodof the catalogue has been bodily transplanted to indexing,which makes it very difficult to control our indexed informationproperly, and limits our supply of information to that whichwill fall in with the catchword method

      Catchwords (broad or even narrow topics) can be useful, but one should expand beyond these short words to full phrases or even sentences/paragraphs which contain atomic (or perhaps molecular) ideas that can be linked.

      We could reframe the atomic as simple catchwords, and make molecular ideas combinations of these smaller atoms which form larger and fuller thoughts which can be linked and remixed with others.

      Dennis Duncan (2022) touches on this in his book on Indexing when he looks at indexes which contained portions of their fuller text which were later removed and thereby collapsing context. Having these pieces added back in gave a fuller picture of ideas within an index. Connect this idea with his historical examples.

      Great indexes go beyond the catchword to incorporate full ideas with additional context. To some extent this is what Luhmann was doing at larger scale compared to his commonplacing brethren who were operating far more closely to the catchword (tag) level. (Fortunately they held the context in their heads and were thus able to overcome some of the otherwise inherent problems.)

      The development of all of this historically seems to follow the principle of small pieces loosely joined.

    7. The dif-ference between a catalogue and an index is so great thatthey ought not to be confused; a catalogue mainly deals withbooks, an index mainly handles information.
    8. t our index would refer us to electricitywherever mentioned in the text of our literature if usableinformation is given, and it should also tell us something more—the aspect under which it is treated in each case. Whetherand from what aspect information is usable, that we must decidefor ourselves.

      Kaiser speaks here of the issue of missing index entries in commercial and even library-based indexes versus the personal indexing of one's own card index/zettelkasten.

      Some of the problem comes down to a question of scale as well as semantics, but there's also something tied up with the levels of specificity from broad category headwords to more specific, and finally down to the level of individual ideas. Some of this can be seen in the levels of specificity within the Syntopicon though there aren't any (?, doublecheck) of links from one idea directly to another.

      Note that while there may be direct links from a single idea to another, there is still infinite space by which one can interpose additional ideas between them.

    9. printed indexes leave the contents almost entirelyuntouched.
    10. it follows that no purchasable articlecan supply our individual wants so far as a key to our stockof information is concerned. We shall always be mainly de-pendent in this direction upon our own efforts to meet ourown situation.

      I appreciate his emphasis on "always" here. Though given our current rise of artificial intelligence and ChatGPT, this is obviously a problem which people are attempting to overcome.

      Sadly, AI seem to be designed for the commercial masses in the same way that Google Search is (cross reference: https://hypothes.is/a/jx6MYvETEe6Ip2OnCJnJbg), so without a large enough model of your own interests, can AI solve your personal problems? And if this is the case, how much data will it really need? To solve this problem, you need your own storehouse of personally curated data to teach an AI. Even if you have such a store for an AI, will the AI still proceed in the direction you would in reality or will it represent some stochastic or random process from the point it leaves your personal data set?

      How do we get around the chicken-and-egg problem here? What else might the solution space look like outside of this sketch?

    11. That is not the case.It is true, a variety of published indexes, catalogues and biblio-graphies to periodical and other literature exists, but they donot and cannot meet our individual case, for1 Every individual moves in a sphere of his own and coversindividual ground such as a printed index cannot touch.2 Printed indexes although they give usable information,cannot go sufficiently into details, they must studyabove all the common requirements of a number ofsubscribers sufficiently large to assure their existenceand continuance (apart from the question of adver-tising).

      Kaiser's argument for why building a personal index of notes is more valuable than relying on the indexes of others.

      Note that this is answer still stands firmly even after the advent of both the Mundaneum, Google, and other digital search methods (not to mention his statement about ignoring advertising, which obviously had irksome aspects even in 1911.) Our needs and desires are idiosyncratic, so our personal indexes are going to be imminently more valuable to us over time because of these idiosyncrasies. Sure, you could just Google it, but Google answers stand alone and don't build you toward insight without the added work of creating your own index.

      Some of this is bound up in the idea that your own personal notes are far more valuable than the notes someone else may have taken and passed along to you.

    12. Indexing, whichis the process by which our information is collected and madeaccessible is therefore a subject whose importance it would bedifficult to overestimate; it is. a subject which no man aspiringto success can afford to ignore altogether.
    13. When our stock of information has been systematically arranged,and is available for use, it has ceased to be a mere note-book,which it may have been at the start; it h;i^ x'adually developedinto tin- nucleus of an intelligence department, «>\crin- .-illthe subjects and their ramifications within the scope of oaractivity.

      intelligence department!!!

      subtlety in definition of "mere note-book" versus card index

      Kaiser doesn't give a strong definition of the difference between notes (here taking on a fleeting sort of definition), and notes indexed and arranged, but he gives it a powerful sounding name and implies that there is useful power within the practice of doing so.

    14. we are not giving ourselves a deal of trouble merely forthe pleasure thereof

      😂

    15. we shall beginto realise that a more judicious selection may be desirable.Experience alone can guide us in this.

      Only personal experience in your note taking practice will guide you on what is most valuable for excerpting. After time you will come to know and understand what is worth spending your time on and what isn't. You will not learn this from others experience, only your own, and this is why we call it practice.

    16. We make notes mentally too,for that is the only way to gather knowledge, and a well trainedmemory is always a great asset,

      I appreciate the space for an oral perspective here in a book from1911.

    17. wait his future volumes with aconsiderable amount of interest. The third volume — namely, " The

      this was never produced?

      Elaine Svenonius in Facet Definition: a Case Study https://web.archive.org/web/20220803153450id_/https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/0943-7444-1978-3-134.pdf comes to a similar conclusion

    18. The volume we have before us, is thefirst of a series of three,

      Only two volumes of the three were ever produced as far as I can tell.

    19. The book is excel-lently arranged and printed ; it is provided with a full index, and is-bound in a limp cover, which renders it easily handled by a busyman.

      "limp cover"!

    20. The subject is treated quite dispassionately,no particular file or cabinet is thrust upon the reader, but the re-quirements of ideal appliances and the state of existing ones aredescribed.

      Further evidence to the claim at https://hypothes.is/a/iQwqzvC4Ee6PrNfzDQurog

    21. Automobile and Carriage Builders' Journal, October 1908. Duringthe last five or six years the carriage builder has been adopting,perhaps slowly, and often unwillingly, the card system in his office.,owing to the extra detail the motor business has brought with it.It will have probably been introduced by a new partner who hasbrought new money into the business, when extra funds were necessaryto cope with the new state of affairs. The motor manufacturer usesit instinctively, for he brings with him,

      as a rule, the law, order, and precision of an engineer's office.

      There's an interesting dichotomy presented here about the tech forwardness of the automobile industry in 1908 versus the tech reticence of the carriage builders in regard to adopting card indexes with respect to their related (though different) industries.

      Me (sarcastically):<br /> "Oh, those backwards carriage builders will get with the 'program' any day now..."

    22. card system are indebted tothese catalogues for their information. But all these publications areprimarily concerned with the particular cabinet or file of the firm inwhose interest they are published.

      Variations of card index systems were published in booklet form by filing cabinet manufacturers as a means of selling not only their cabinets, but their systems for using them was common in the early 1900s. Examples of magazine advertisements in System Magazine back this up. It is also specifically highlighted in a review of J. Kaiser's book "The Card System at the Office" from Ironmonger (1909-10-03) which appreciates a more fully fleshed out version of a card index system in book form without mention of specific manufacturing firms.

    23. o businesses of varied sizes are set forth and their working illustrated."We note with appreciation the author's use of "flags" as indic.itors.Our experience of these handy and ingenious little devices datesfrom their first introduction in the States, and we can endorse all that"he says in their favour.

      When were bookmark-like "flags" introduced in America? (Certainly prior to 1908, based on this reference.)

    24. Yet it is doubtful whether since theintroduction of the typewriter there has been an invention so beneficialto modern business as the card-index system.
    25. The progress of the card system in England has•undoubtedly been very slow; a fact which may be due primarilyto the constitutional conservatism of English business men, althoughprobably it is partly accounted for by the natural irritation and reaction•caused by the hustling but not always tactful enthusiasm of the manyAmerican salesmen who for several years past have been its principalmissionaries.

      Early "techbro" culture in America from 1908?!?

    26. So far as we are aware, this is the first adequatebook on the card system which has been published in this country.In the main, information on the subject has only been procurablefrom the catalogues and booklets (many of them excellent andinforming; issued by the manufacturers of the impedimenta of thesystem,

      anecdotal evidence from Ironmonger (1908) that this is the first card index book and prior versions are only of shorter booklet-like forms.

      (Naturally, I don't trust this in the fullest sense.)

    1. History of the United States (1834)

      this example of an autocomplete of 1834 tagging is a spectacular and phenomenally useful example of combinatorial creativity with respect to poverty and historical research... of course, following it along with some useful outcome(s) would add additional power, but even the small suggestion here is spectacular.

      https://hypothes.is/a/Gt38VOpFEe6oqSPHU9gL7A

    1. BACK OF CARDS 188, 246, 263
    2. 357 It is this great difficulty involved in consistency which is responsiblefor the fact that however much we may try or desire to do otherwise,the best man to run a system effectively is he who has devised it,''^for however careful and painstaking we may be in trying to repro-duce his system accurately on paper, these reproductions are merelyabstracts of the original ; reproduction can never be absolutelycomplete. We may reproduce a system on paper in clearly markedoutlines, we may add within the general configuration all the inter-woven details, all of which may be concise and manageable, butbeyond the confines of the system there are blank margins in alldirections, which cannot be filled in until such cases arise as willcompel us to extend the ramifications of our system into thesemargins. It is not possible to express these ramifications before-hand on paper, but they no doubt have been allowed for in themind of the originator of the system, even supposing that he is notalways conscious of it. It is precisely these undefined marginswhich in most cases put consistency on its trial ; hence consistency,already a difficult factor in cases where the deviser deals with hisown system, is doubly so in other cases, for the unexpressed rami-fications which remain in suspense until called into being by unfore-seen circumstances can only be depicted consistently with therest of the system in the mind of the originator, who will have tobe consulted in each case for the purpose.

      What great advice this is in general, but especially for those who are attempting to copy or recreate Niklas Luhmann's zettelkasten for themselves.

    3. It is prudent to maturewell before improvements are adopted. Improvements rashlyintroduced may give cause for regret when it is too late to turn back.

      Regular note taking practice will be the best indicator of when potential improvements are worthwhile. Though you may see someone else's advice, workflows, or potential improvements, they may be just as likely not to work for you and your particular needs. Adopting changes without thinking them through or even practicing them for a while are more likely to cause harm, regret, or additional work without any value added to the system.

    4. don't supervise too little, otherwise your staff will soonbecome prolific in the production and application of all manner ofimprovements, which must eventually prove fatal ; superviseenough to assure adequate continuity and consistency in the system,and to leave your staff sufficient of their individuality to make theirwork interesting to them.

      While many will be interested in improving, expanding, or constantly changing their note taking systems, centuries of practice and experience indicate as Julius Kaiser says that they "must eventually prove fatal" (¶361). Allow simplicity, consistency, and continuity to be your watchwords and put your creativity into your reading and writing rather than into the system and workflows themselves. Additional rules and workflows will result in extra work which doesn't produce results in the long term. These will make your work more complicated, less likely to be consistent, and generally will destroy your ability to create continuity.

    5. the supervisormust therefore be prepared to carry the system a step furtherwhenever occasion arises. There is therefore an opportunity tobring individuality into play. If we are not prepared to assert ourindividuality within and without the limits set by the system, wemay depend upon it that our collaborators or subordinates willassert theirs, consciously or unconsciously, and we shall find inthe end that our system has been distorted in all directions, withoutnecessarily transgressing our rules, although the latter will be buta matter of time.

      This advice also generally applies to one's one personal zettelkasten, much less a group version.

    6. The measure of control is also the measure of responsibility. Respon-sibility without control is a hopeless proposition.
    7. System without consistency is an impossibility. 356But let us realise what a difficult matter it is tobe consistent. We are surrounded by changes and inconsistencieseverywhere. Language above all, which we must needs constantlyuse, is not a perfect instrument for giving expression to consistency.We may have our rules all nicely worded and filed in the key cabinet,but if we have not taken the greatest pains in constructing them,if we have not subjected each one to the most searching criticismbefore they are applied, v/e shall find sooner or later that in one

      we have forbidden what we wish to enforce in another in however small a degree it may be ; or very probably we shall find that cases or conditions arise, when our rules are inapplicable, our wording is faulty or our meaning ambiguous.

    8. To run a system effectively, we must be prepared 355Servant to uphold it ourselves, we must give the examplein effective work, we must be the first to submitto it although we supply the directing energy to run it. If we thinkourselves above our own system, then it has already ceased to exist.We must bear in mind therefore that any rules we may make, anyinstructions we may give, any supervision we may effect, applyto ourselves equally with others. We may be the masters of thesystem, we are also its servants, but for all that we need not beslaves to it.
    9. It is therefore best to prepare a Daily List

      The description here is almost similar to interdepartmental memos or corporate emails which are sent out now instead. This information flows out, but broadly isn't kept or filed in the same sorts of ways.

    10. A four drawer cabinetis as a rule ample for the purposes of the key cabinet.

      Key cabinets are used to control the information found in other card indexes as well as for private business information which should be restricted within a firm.

    11. Business In former years the account ledger representedLedger

      Business Ledger

      This section looks at index cards for communication to/from clients and appropriate follow up with respect to sales management in a manufacturing firm. It broadly represents some examples of how one would do larger scale project management and follow up with index cards.

    12. Chronological registers or directories may beRegisters used for a variety of purposes in almost everyoffice, not only as future reminders^ but alsoas records of past events.

      Broadly this sounds like an indexed corporate diary of sorts, but his use of future reminders (or ticklers in the footnote) certainly points to the use of index cards in a Memindex-like fashion.

      Keep in mind that he's writing in Britain and the Memindex from 1903 was a US-based product, though similar ideas may have been used at the time across the pond.

    13. By this plan the subjects of the books may be scattered, but thatis no disadvantage, for they are brought together by the cards.

      Repetition of the idea that indexing brings ideas together.

      https://hypothes.is/a/psgmlu7qEe6MIiNGfuzB2A

    14. For larger collections of books it may be thought preferable to use a libraryclassification, such as Mr. Dewey's Decimal Classification, but I doubt very muchif the gain will be in proportion to the additional labour involved.

      Some interesting shade here, but he's probably right with respect to the additional work involved in a personal collection which isn't shared at scale.

      The real work is the indexing of the material within the books, the assigned numbers are just a means of finding them.

    15. Summaries*

      examples of specific workflows within Kaiser's card system

    1. How Trump has Funded His $100 Million in Legal Bills by [[Molly Cook Escobar]], [[Albert Sun]], [[Shane Goldmacher]]

    2. Since leaving office in 2021, former President Donald J. Trump has spent more than $100 million on lawyers and other costs related to fending off various investigations, indictments and his coming criminal trials, according to a New York Times review of federal records.
    1. There is a reason that the abolitionist Frederick Douglass said that between the Christianity of this land (America) and the Christianity of Christ, he recognized the “widest possible difference.”

      specific quote? direct source?

    2. Whether this Bible is an example of Christian nationalism I will leave to others. It is at least an example of Christian syncretism, a linking of certain myths about American exceptionalism and the Christian faith. This is the American church’s consistent folly: thinking that we are the protagonists in a story that began long before us and whose main character is in fact the Almighty.
  2. Mar 2024
    1. https://www.ebay.com/itm/276403515343 <br /> archived copy

      In 1984, Memindex was selling monthly planning calendars (pocket notebook size with spiral binding and a case) rather than their older small index card sized formats. Their calendar format looks eerily like what Day-Timer, a division of ACCO Brands, has been selling since at least the early 1990s.

      This goes down to even the "cut here" triangles in the lower right corners of pages to help bookmark the current page.

    2. 1984 spiral bound pocket planner<br /> Memindex, 149 Carter Street, Rochester, NY 14601 Copyright 1977, so presumably they'd been making a version of this pocket calendar/planner since then.

    1. The term 'knowledge work' appeared in The Landmarks of Tomorrow (1959) by Peter Drucker.[12] Drucker later coined the term 'knowledge worker' in The Effective Executive[13] in 1966. Later, in 1999, he suggested that "the most valuable asset of a 21st-century institution, whether business or non-business, will be its knowledge workers and their productivity."
    1. Ongweso Jr., Edward. “The Miseducation of Kara Swisher: Soul-Searching with the Tech ‘Journalist.’” The Baffler, March 29, 2024. https://thebaffler.com/latest/the-miseducation-of-kara-swisher-ongweso.

      ᔥ[[Pete Brown]] in Exploding Comma

    2. I use “we” loosely because Swisher’s intended audience is not you or me, but instead those with power: she writes about and for them. Over the course of a long and storied career closely reporting on the tech industry and its titans, she has aped their motions, sat at their dinner tables, drunk their wine, gone to their weird parties, played with their baubles, repeated their lies, and offered them counsel. Swisher may style herself as Silicon Valley’s critic laureate, but she’s much closer to the court fool.

      Ouch!

    3. ‘speak truth to power,’

      simultaneously one should speak truth to the dis-empowered and dis-enfranchised to rise up against those who have power as a check to that power.

    4. Kara Swisher certainly can't blame the issues within technology on diversity, equity, or incluse and simultaneously call herself a journalist. As a woman with a self-professed diverse view of the world, she allowed too much boosterism in her take on technology without voicing any concerns of its effects.

    5. We need a better catch-all term for the ills perpetrated on humanity and society by technology companies' extractive practices and general blindness to their own effects while they become rich. It should have a terrifically pejorative tone.

      Something which subsumes the crazy bound up in some of the following: - social media machine guns - toxic technology - mass produced toxicity - attention economy - bad technology - surveillance capitalism - technology and the military - weapons of math destruction

      It should be the polar opposite of: - techno-utopianism

    6. By insisting the issue with Uber was largely cultural, Swisher ends up affirming the myth that Uber was not only an inevitable but ultimately good innovation, a few bad apples notwithstanding.

      Perhaps without the toxic capitalism portion Uber may have been a great innovation? Maybe it would have been better as a co-op, community, or government supported organization which put the value into both drivers' and riders' pockets?

      Naturally the crazy hype which generated the VC money would have been needed to be replaced, so the question becomes: who would have funded the start up?

    7. In fact, Uber’s top lawyer—Tony West, a Black man—has been the public face of Uber’s campaign against laws that would force the company to pay livable wages to its largely Black and brown workforce.
    8. “white male homogeneity”

      or even more specific cis-gender white male homogeneity or cisheteropatriarchy

      Does cis-gender white male homogeneity act in ways (cuckoo-like) similar to how narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths can act when brought to power in society? (Though obviously at much larger percentages of the population.) What are the long term effects?

    9. Sam Harnett’s 2020 paper “Words Matter: How Tech Media Helped Write Gig Companies Into Existence” remains one of the best accounts of how swaths of the media enthusiastically generated on-demand propaganda for the tech industry, directly setting the stage for these firms to exploit, codify, and expand legal loopholes that largely exempted them from regulation as they raided their users for data and generated billions in revenue. Such intellectual acquiescence would, as Harnett writes, “pave the way for a handful of companies that represent a tiny fraction of the economy to have an outsized impact on law, mainstream corporate practices, and the way we think about work.”

      Harnett, Sam. “Words Matter: How Tech Media Helped Write Gig Companies into Existence.” SSRN Scholarly Paper. Rochester, NY, August 7, 2020. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3668606.

    10. The long and short of it is that Swisher is not a good journalist—or, framed more generously, that she thrived in an industry with remarkably low standards for which we are still paying the price. For decades, tech journalism and criticism has primarily consisted of glowing gadget reviews, laudatory profiles, and reprinted press releases, all of it colored by Silicon Valley’s self-aggrandizing vision of itself as a laboratory of a brighter future.

      The tech press is responsible in part for a large portion of our techno-utopianism. They wore rose colored glasses and didn't ask the more probative questions they should have been asking until it was too late?

      Where was our tech Cassandra?

    11. Internet technology accelerates connections. It does so beyond the human beings evolved ability to cope with inputs. As a result it will accelerate the bad portions of humanity of which there are many we gloss over too often with our rose colored glasses. If we don't approach the world from a humanistic perspective, the bad will swamp us.

    1. All missing letters are charged out anonymously in theusual way, the slips being marked missing.
    2. The last card representsthe reverse side of the previous card and shows how to utilise the back of cardswhen necessary.

      J. Kaiser doesn't admonish against on writing only on one side of cards, but does show examples of how to use them thusly when necessary.

    3. Correspondence
    4. 163

      Early 20th century mail merge using a card index!

    5. A very effective way of differentiation is themarking of the upper edge of the cards with ink,either its whole length or any portion of it.

      This is similar to the idea of edge notched cards, but is done visually instead of cutting the cards. It's also seen in the Pile of Index Card method which uses a variety of marks on gridded cards.

    6. No provision is made for charging out cards, becausethey are not supposed to be withdrawn at any time.

      Materials are charged out to either individuals and/or departments, but index cards should never be withdrawn or charged out under any circumstances.

    7. Thus the name written on the tab will indicate theposition of the guide among the cards, that is : the tab bearsthe term or name on the card immediately following the guide.

      It shouldn't matter whether or not one has tabs in front of or behind sections of cards about which they are labeling, but a determination should be made at the start and followed religiously for ease of use.

      Kaiser suggest placing tabbed cards in front of their related sections.

    8. Frequent re- arrangements are a distinct disadvantage,for with every change the filer loses much time in becoming familiaragain with the new positions.

      While Kaiser recommends against the need to re-arrange physical cards from one drawer to another, which creates the need to refamiliarize oneself with their new locations, the same idea applies to switching from one digital note taking application to another as a similar switch of user interface functionality may cause additional overhead and stress thereby preventing quick use of the system itself.

    9. Kegisters refer to the materials and help tolocate them, indexes refer to the information contained in thesematerials. Ag their function, so their construction is quite distinct.Both however treat the same materials, only in different ways.In some offices no indexes may be required.

      does this fit in with his prior definitions of these things?

    10. The most important portion of the face of the card is the left uppercorner, and this place should always be reserved for the subjectof the register.
    11. A central registercertainly offers considerable advantages, it is a great saving incards and labour, the making of corrections which is a consider-able item is reduced to one register instead of many which in itsturn will reduce the percentage of errors to a minimum.

      Luhmann's topical index was a form of a central register as he concatenated words on cards rather than having a separate card for each word.

    12. On the other hand the alphabetical register of firm names mustbe regarded not only as indispensable but as occupying a some-what different position from the others.

      The equivalent of an alphabetical register of company (firm) names within card index for business would be a register of author names in a bibliographical file.

    13. It was said (76) that it isimpossible to devise a system wliich could be applied universally,the card registers give a very clear illustration of tliis.

      This is a restatement that a particular system should be customized to its users.

      There is potential that a system could be applied universally, but it requires a very large amount of data and metadata to suit the needs of a greater number of people and use cases. It also requires a reasonable amount of work in practical use to make it operate as expected.

      The Mundaneum was likely close on paper and Google comes close to this, but still isn't perfect.

      quote via ¶76 and 92

    14. As the functionof the caU number is separation, so the function of references isconcentration.

      Placing call numbers or location numbers on items to be filed allows them to be separated from other items while placing cross-references or links allows them to be brought back together again. These two affordances allow for divergence as well as convergence of items or ideas.

    15. AU references are indicated by the word " See," " See also,"" compare," etc. preceding the term to which reference is made.
    16. It is the object of crossreferences to bring these materials together again when required.

      Cross references in Kaiser's card system are broadly similar to links from one item to another as a means of helping to associate them or "bringing these materials together again when required."

    17. Now the strength of consecutive numbers undoubtedly lies inthe fact that there cannot be any gaps, whatever the size of afile, the series of numbers is always complete.

      While some sources (which? Kaiser implies that there are some, though they may have been based on anecdotal evidence) apparently recommend to use one number for each firm, Kaiser admonishes users to stay away from this rule as not all firms will also take up space within each particular category. He recommends using consecutive numbering within each category so that there are no gaps. This lack of any gaps will reveal in the future when things may be missing from one's system.

    18. registering
    19. filing
    20. indexing
    21. registersor directories
    22. recording.
    23. cataloguing
    24. The card system suffers at presentunder one great disadvantage, it has no fixed terminology.

      Kaiser might be surprised at the overuse and confusing nature of terminology in the modern note taking space now. Somehow the terminology still suffers from lack of consistent and fixed terminology.

    25. Devising Once a proper system has been devised, it requiresCard Systems

      Devising Card Systems

      Many modern-day note takers and knowledge workers might take solace in the broad advice provided by J. Kaiser in 1908. In describing some of the broad categories of uses of card index filing systems for business use he says that each entity "has its individual character and individual requirements, and its individual character" (ie, everyone is different and has different needs), therefore everyone "must devise [their] system in accordance with [their] own requirements" and should "be the best judge as to what these requirements are." He continues on in the rest of the book to outline a variety of suggestions and methods which one might use or adopt, but he doesn't dictate specific methods and leaves those decisions up to the end user.

      When devising their own systems, one certainly ought to heed this advice when looking at a variety of alternative methods like Forte's P.A.R.A., Milo's LYT, or even in mimicking Luhmann's idiosyncratic Zettelkasten set up. Are these methods best for your particular use cases? Are they simple enough for what you want to do, or are they overly structured and complicated? The key is to be able to classify and file things quickly so that they can be easily accessed in the future, all the rest becomes additional details and overhead to support on an ongoing basis.

      (¶76)

    26. Elaborate library classifications were either inapplicable or much 74too complicated and therefore unmanageable. Their applicationto business was out of the question. Something simple, easy toimderstand and easy to handle was required. This was foundin the numerical arrangement. The numerical classification inspite of its arbitrary character will always have this advantagethat it ensures accuracy with the least trouble, and this is stillmore the case where large quantities are handled. It was quitenatural therefore that this should be preferred for business purposes.As there are many sets of things arranged numerically, it isnecessary to distinguish one set from the other, so as to know towhat set a given number refers. This is done by affixing dis-tinguishing initials to the numbers, each class being assigned somecharacteristic initial of its own.

      In describing classification schemes for card index-based business uses, Julius Kaiser indicated in 1908 that "elaborate library classifications were either inapplicable or much too complicated and therefore unmanageable." This is in part because of the standardization of the Dewey Decimal System, which may have provided efficiencies for library systems, but proved too rigid for the idiosyncrasies of a variety of businesses. Instead he describes an alpha-numeric system in which numbers provide simple means of finding while the initial alphabetic codes assign specific office-related classes (correspondence, press cuttings, catalogs, etc.) to the indexed materials.

    27. But by means of the cards, these materials canbe arranged and re-arranged in almost endless variety, we mayclassify them roughly or minutely, we may arrange them by thealphabet, by numbers, trades or professions, territories, we maylimit ourselves to certain trades or territories only
    28. The card system has undoubtedly come to stayand will more and more replace the book system.

      grin

    29. It must not be forgotten that the directaim of the card system is : maximum of work with minimumof labour (60).
    30. It will be seen from the foregoing that care isrequired in the appKcation of the card system,and that neglect must sooner or later lead to failure. There wasindeed a time when it seemed doubtful whether the card systemwould survive the first attempts. It was even tried and abandonedby some. These early failures were in the main due to the absenceof expert labour and to the higher order of accuracy required ascompared with the book system. The systems were not thenplanned out with that care that is bestowed upon them now. Onesystem would be started and presently there would be a decisionto alter it so as to fall in with riper experience. In the absenceof one system consistently adhered to the files soon got into achaotic condition until at last they had to be abandoned, for infact they had become useless.

      This sort of failure is still seen today with people setting up note taking systems in a variety of digital environments.

    31. It is there-fore to be expected that the initial cost of the card system is nota fair criterion of its cost when in working order.

      Setting up and learning a note taking or card index system has a reasonably large up-front cost, but learning it well and being able to rely on it over long periods of time will eventually reap larger and cheaper long-term outcomes and benefits.

      Unless changing systems creates dramatically larger improvements, the cost of change will surely swamp the benefits making the switch useless. This advice given by Kaiser is still as true today as it was in 1908, we tend not to think about the efficiency as much now as he may have then however and fall trap to shiny object syndrome.

    32. Accuracy This is one of the chief claims of the card system. 63To increase accuracy in fUing, the materials arealways arranged numerically. We thereby approach as nearlyas possible to mathematical exactness. The advantages of thecard system become more and more apparejit as the files increasein bulk, and accuracy must remain a constant factor in aU workconnected with it. It will also bring its reward in the smoothworking of the files and the immediate accessibility of anythingrequired. In accuracy might be included consistency, which isindispensable for effective work (356).

      In modern, digital settings, the work of approapriately indexing content is lost in exchange for other forms of organization (tagging, for example), this means one is less reliant on an index for looking up material and more reliant on concordance search of particular words within an ever-growing corpus of collected knowledge.

      Over time and with scale, simple tagging may become overwhelming as a search method for finding the requisite material, even when one knows it exists.

      As a result a repository may do better in the long run with a small handful of carefully applied rules from the start.

    33. Labour saving therefore means systematic application of expertlabour.

      This quote is broadly recognized in economic settings as true, but few in the knowledge management space place emphasis or focus on designing both simple systems which are easy to master and use on a regular, ongoing basis. This allows the knowledge worker the ability to more quickly (almost blindly) handle their indexing and filing operations so that things are precisely where they need them when required for use.

      Poor design will not only decrease the ease of use, but also discourage the user from both efficiently using and benefiting from their systems.

      Even simple and efficient filing systems require familiarity and expertise for them to effect useful gains to their users, and prove their effectiveness over time. If a user can't get to a basic level of functionality in short time, they're likely to give up on it and never see the ultimate benefits.

    34. The development of the card system and itsmore universal adoption within recent years isundoubtedly due in the mail to the development in modernbusiness and factory organisation ; it may be regarded as anoffspring of manufacture in quantities. (Massenfabrikation, Gross-industrie.) The recognised principle in manufacture in quantities ismaximum of output with minimum of labour. The means to attainthis end is specialisation, which in its turn yields greater precisionand accuracy as it^ result. All this is equally applicable to thecard system, and the last factor, greater precision and accuracy,is one of its most conspicuous claims.

      Julius Kaiser contemporaneously posits that mass manufacture and maximizing efficiency (greater output for minimum input) are the primary drivers of card index system use in the early 20th century. These also improve both precision and accuracy in handling information which allow for better company or factory operation, which would have been rising concerns for businesses and manufacturing operations at the rise of scientific management during the time period.

    35. Card Each drawer should be provided with a catchDrawers

      Given this date, he's potentially either giving advice to consumers about what to buy or manufacturers about how to design and improve their systems.

    36. It requires but a moment's reflection to perceivethat even the vertical files with the correspondence binders arebut an imitation of a set of cards, on a larger scale. The set ofcards can fairly be regarded as the basis of the entire system,hence it is properly called the card system.

      He notes the general equivalency of cards and papers in vertical files.

      One of the primary affordances that individual atomic cards have is the ability to more easily re-arrange and reuse them for various purposes in comparison with larger sheets with greater amounts of data on them.

    37. When the card guidesare also used for classification purposes (144) a specially strongguide should be selected, as their replacing entails a great dealof re-writing.
    38. The quality of the cardshould correspond to the performances required of it. Cardsused for permanent registers or indexes should be of good strongquality, for temporary work a cheaper card can usually be employed.

      Index card quality can be important for cards that are repeatedly used.

      This admonition was more frequently attended to with respect to library card catalogs, but potentially less followed in personal use—Niklas Luhmann's self-cut paper slips which wore ragged over time come quickly to mind here.

    39. All cards should be matliematically uniform insize and uniform in thickness, both the indi-vidual card in itself and card as compared with card. The cardsshould he perfectly flat, and if bent, must on release at once assumethe original position. These conditions are necessary for thequick handling of quantities of cards.

      Kaiser recommends cards of "mathematically uniform size and uniform in thickness" for the quick handling of cards.

      He makes no mention of other reasons or affordances of this (like hiding cards).

    40. All screws used on the face of the drawers should be sunk in.Round headed screws are apt to tear the skin of the fingers.
    41. It is best to have the verticalcabinets and the card cabinets entirely separate.

      I've seen some mixed cabinet in the early 1900s, but apparently by 1908, it was common practice to separate vertical filing cabinets and card cabinets.

    42. The charging cabinet, which provides a system, by whichmaterials withdrawn from their places can be debitedto the person having possession of them for the timebeing, that is : each article is charged out to whoevercalls for it and is charged off when returned.
    43. In each class the individual articles or the folders containing anumber of articles belonging to the same firm are numbered con-secutively, CI, C2, Tl, T2 etc. that is : a new series of consecutivenumbers is started with each initial letter. The correspondenceof Smith & Co. may for instance be in a folder marked C34, thecatalogues of Jones Bros, may be numbered T89. But theremay be a hundred letters to and from Smith & Co. and a dozencatalogues from Jones Bros, so that it will be necessary to dividefurther until each specific article will have a specific numberby which it can be quoted exclusively reserved to it. This isdone by suffixing the date to the previous numbers thus : C34-3VII7or T89-1906 etc. The former refers to a letter of Smith & Co.dated July the third 1907, the latter refers to a catalogue ofJones Bros, of 1906. No matter how large the files will becomein time, the meaning of these numbers will remain the same, andthere can be no other articles bearing these numbers. If a numberor numbers refer to more than one article, confusion is invariablythe result

      Kaiser lays out an alphanumeric system for indexing materials using letters, numbers, and even dates and importantly suggests a 1-1 and onto relationship (though not in these terms) to prevent confusion.

      Compare with Niklas Luhmann's system.

    44. The text in this book is numbered by paragraphs and where asubject is treated in more than one place, the numbers in bracketsindicate the additional paragraphs bearing on the subject underdiscussion.

      ¶5

      The book is ostensibly in the form of a card index with numbers laid out in running order to create a book. The index is also done keyed to these paragraph numbers rather than by page as has traditionally been done.

      As a result, one could cut up the book (or two copies to get both sides) and turn it back into a card index with very little work.

    45. It is best not to trust too much tomemory until the routine vrork is thoroughly mastered.
    46. Volume 2 will be almost entirelydevoted to the work of indexing in the sense of analysing literatureand will go more fully into the question of classification and themanagement of guide cards. The present volume is confined asfar as practicable to the use of plain cards. Tabulated cards,methods of tabulating and the application of tabulated cards topractical business will be dealt with in volume 3, " The CardSystem at the Factory."

      companion volumes treated the topics of "analysing literature" and the application of tabulated cards to practical business "at the Factory".

      see: Kaiser, J. Systematic Indexing. The Card System Series 2. London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., 1911. http://archive.org/details/systematicindexi00kaisuoft.

    Tags

    Annotators

    1. Male orphans were taught to hold a musket as soon as they werephysically able.44

      based on context, this is presumably in Georgia in the mid-to-late 1700s.

    2. As Reverend Bolzius had observed, if slaves were encouraged to“breed like animals,” then poor whites could not reproduce at the same rateand hold on to their land or their freedom.
    3. By 1760, only 5 percent of white Georgians owned even a singleslave, while a handful of families possessed them in the hundreds. JonathanBryan was the perfect embodiment of the “Slave Merchants” whoOglethorpe had warned would dominate the colony.59
    4. In 1750, settlers were formally granted the right toown slaves.58
    5. Georgia also instituted a policy of keeping the land “tail-male,”which meant that land descended to the eldest male child. This feudal rulebound men to their families. The tail-male provision protected heirs whosepoor fathers might otherwise feel pressure to sell their land.53
    6. In the largerscheme of things, his reform philosophy recognized that weak anddesperate men could be led to choose a path that dictated against their owninterests. A man might sell his land for a glass of rum; debt and idlenesswere always a temptation.52

      And this sort of philosophy seems to be exactly how whites disenfranchised the indigenous peoples...

    7. ProslaveryGeorgians were not above accusing Oglethorpe of running a prisoncolony.50

      My early memory of Georgia history in 4th grade (1984) was that Georgia was founded "as a penal colony".

    8. trustees: “to relieve the distressed.” Instead of offering a sanctuary forhonest laborers, Georgia would become an oppressive regime, promoting“the misery of thousands in Africa” by permitting a “free people” to be“sold into perpetual Slavery.”48

      At the height of the controversy, in 1739, he argued that African slavery should never be introduced into his colony, because it went against the core principle of the

    9. A NorthCarolina proprietor, John Colleton, observed in Barbados that poor whiteswere called “white slaves” by black slaves; it struck him that the samecontempt for white field hands prevailed in the southern colonies in NorthAmerica.47
    10. Many contemporaries connected slavery to English idleness. WilliamByrd weighed in on the ban against slavery in Georgia in a letter to aGeorgia trustee. He saw how slavery had sparked discontent among poorwhites in Virginia, who routinely refused to “dirty their hands with Labourof any kind,” preferring to steal or starve rather than work in the fields.Slavery ruined the “industry of our White People,” he confessed, for theysaw a “Rank of Poor Creatures below them,” and detested the thought ofwork out of a perverse pride, lest they might “look like slaves.”
    11. Slavery, however, could not be kept apart from future projections inGeorgia. After allowing South Carolina to send over slaves to fell trees andclear the land for the town of Savannah, Oglethorpe came to regret thedecision. He made a brief trip to Charles Town, and returned to discoverthat in the interim the white settlers had grown “impatient of Labour andDiscipline.” Some had sold good food for rum punch. With drunkenesscame disease. And so, Oglethorpe wrote, the “Negroes who sawed for us”and encouraged white “Idleness” were sent back.46

      early slavery in Georgia

    12. Oglethorpe felt the disadvantaged could bereclaimed if they were given a fair chance.

      note the lack of "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" sentiment here in 1730s Georgia.

    13. He marveled at how the SouthCarolinians deluded themselves in believing they were safe, burdened asthey were with a large slave population—“stupid security,” he called it.
    14. Having foughtas an officer under Prince Eugene of Savoy in the Austro–Turkish War of1716–18, he understood military discipline. This was how he came to trustin the power of emulation; he believed that people could be conditioned todo the right thing by observing good leaders. He shared food with thosewho were ill or deprived. Visiting a Scottish community north of Savannah,he refused a soft bed and slept outside on the hard ground with the men.More than any other colonial founder, Oglethorpe made himself one of thepeople, promoting collective effort.43

      Description of James Edward Oglethorpe

    15. the colony’s motto, Non sibi sed aliis (Not for themselves, but for others)
    16. According to Francis Moore, who visited the settlement in its secondyear of operation, two “peculiar” customs stood out: both alcohol and dark-skinned people were prohibited. “No slavery is allowed, nor negroes,”Moore wrote. As a sanctuary for “free white people,” Georgia “would notpermit slaves, for slaves starve the poor laborer.” Free labor encouragedpoor white men in sober cultivation and steeled them in the event they hadto defend the land from outside aggression. It also promised to cure settlersof that most deadly of English diseases, idleness.41
    17. Conservative land policies limited individual settlers to a maximum offive hundred acres, thus discouraging the growth of a large-scale plantationeconomy and slave-based oligarchy such as existed in neighboring SouthCarolina. North Carolina squatters would not be found here either. Poorsettlers coming from England, Scotland, and other parts of Europe weregranted fifty acres of land, free of charge, plus a home and a garden.Distinct from its neighbors to the north, Georgia experimented with a socialorder that neither exploited the lower classes nor favored the rich. Itsfounders deliberately sought to convert the territory into a haven forhardworking families. They aimed to do something completelyunprecedented: to build a “free labor” colony.
    18. under the direction of anambitious projector.
    19. Explorers, amateurscientists, and early ethnologists like William Byrd all assumed—andunabashedly professed—that inferior or mismanaged lands bred inferior,ungovernable people.

      Assumptions of the 1700s America

    20. He mused that colonization would have had a better outcomeif male settlers had been encouraged to intermarry with Indian women.Over two generations, the Indian stock would have improved, as a speciesof flower or tree might; dark skin blanched white, heathen ways dimmed.Here, Byrd was borrowing from the author John Lawson, who wrote in ANew Voyage to Carolina that men of lower rank gained an economicadvantage by marrying Native women who brought land to the union.
    21. In a “porcivorous” country, people spent their days foragingand fornicating; when upset, they could be heard yelling out, “Flesh aliveand tear it.” It was their “favorite exclamation,” Byrd said. This bizarrecolloquialism suggested cannibalism, or perhaps hyenas surrounding a freshkill and devouring it. How could these carnivorous swamp monsters bethought of as English?37

      "flesh alive and tear it"

      denigrating language towards lubbers (poor white trash)

    22. The Mapp of Lubberland or the Ile of Lazye (ca. 1670) portrayed an imaginaryterritory in which sloth is contagious and normal men lack the will to work.British Print, #1953.0411.69AN48846001, The British Museum, London, England
    23. When Byrd identified the Carolinians as residents of “Lubberland,” hedrew upon a familiar English folktale that featured one “Lawrence Lazy,”born in the county of Sloth near the town of Neverwork.
    24. In milder weather they got as far as thinking aboutplunging a hoe into the ground.

      How then were they making any sort of living at all in such conditions? Hunting? Gathering? (1700s)

    25. Evenbefore his betrayal, though, he felt little identification with the colonists,writing that North Carolinians were the most “cowardly Blockheads[another word for lubber] that ever God created & must be used likenegro[e]s if you expect any good of them.”29

      blockheads as a synonym for lubber

      This gives new meaning to the use of "blockhead" in Charles Schultz' Peanuts (usually Lucy in reference to Charlie Brown).

      Recall Samuel Johnson's (1709-1784) aphorism:

      “No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.”


      Definition from Webster's Dictionary (1913):

      Block"head` (?), n. [Block + head.] A stupid fellow; a dolt; a person deficient in understanding.

      "The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, With loads of learned lumber in his head." —Pope.

    26. In an unexpected development, the proprietor Lord Shaftesbury came toCulpeper’s defense. He delivered an eloquent oration before the Court ofKing’s Bench, arguing that a stable government had never legally existed inNorth Carolina. Anticipating Locke’s Two Treatises of Government,Shaftesbury concluded that the colony remained effectively in a state ofnature. Without a genuine government, there could be no rebellion.Commentary like this merely underscored northern Carolina’s outlierstatus.26

      Did some of Locke's Two Treatises of Government stem from influence of Lord Shaftesbury's argument in favor of Thomas Culpeper?

      Cross reference Dawn of Everything and "state of nature" / primitive man.

    27. The misnamed Culpeper’s Rebellion (1677–79) isparticularly instructive. In a contest with Thomas Miller, an ambitioustrader and tobacco planter who wanted to crack down on smugglers, collectcustoms duties, and gain favor with proprietors, Thomas Culpeper, asurveyor, sided with the poorer settlers.

      Note that Culpeper's Rebellion involved Thomas Culpeper organizing an informal militia to oust Thomas Miller, a petty tyrant with an armed guard.

      There is obviously a class division at the root of this dispute.

    28. By 1700, we should note, slaves comprised half the population of thesouthern portion of the Carolina colony, an imbalance that widened to 72percent by 1740. Beginning in 1714, a series of laws required that for everysix slaves an owner purchased, he had to acquire one white servant.Lamenting that the “white population do not proportionally multiply,”South Carolina lawmakers had one more reason to wish that a corps ofLeet-men and women had actually been formed. Encouraged to marry andmultiply, tied to the land, they might have provided a racial and class barrierbetween the slaves and the landed elites.13
    29. “lazy lubbers,” meaning stupid, clumsy oafs,the word that came to describe the vagrant poor of Carolina.11
    30. The Fundamental Constitutions was really a declaration of war againstpoor settlers.
    31. unemployed men entitled to poor relief.
    32. “Leet-men,” who were encouraged to marry andhave children but were tied to the land and to their lord.
    33. A court of heraldry was added to this strange brew: in overseeingmarriages and maintaining pedigree, it provided further evidence of theintention to fix (and police) class identity.

      Presumably these early ideas of marriage and pedigree in the Carolinas heavily influenced not only class laws but issues with miscegenation which still have root there today.

    34. The Fundamental Constitutions did more than endorse slavery. It was amanifesto promoting a semifeudalistic and wholly aristocratic society.

      freedom?? really?

    35. Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury,
    36. Albemarle County, named after one of the proprietors, GeorgeMonck, Duke of Albemarle.
    37. he authoredthe Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina (1669), which granted that“every Freeman in Carolina shall have ABSOLUTE POWER ANDAUTHORITY over his Negro Slaves.”

      we often conveniently ignore Locke on slavery...

    38. Slavery was thus a logicaloutgrowth of the colonial class system imagined by Hakluyt. It emergedfrom three interrelated phenomena: harsh labor conditions, the treatment ofindentures as commodities, and, most of all, the deliberate choice to breedchildren so that they should become an exploitable pool of workers.

      While there is a strong thread of hierarchical male domination over women and their bodies, is some of the anti-abortion movement in the 21st century an historical appendage or outgrowth of "breeding children" as an exploitable pool of workers for capitalists?

    39. Slavery was thus a logicaloutgrowth of the colonial class system imagined by Hakluyt. It emergedfrom three interrelated phenomena: harsh labor conditions, the treatment ofindentures as commodities, and, most of all, the deliberate choice to breedchildren so that they should become an exploitable pool of workers.
    40. His rescue story perfectly mimicked a popular Scottish ballad ofthe day in which the beautiful daughter of a Turkish prince rescues anEnglish adventurer who is about to lose his head.
    41. a farsexier fable in the dramatic rescue of John Smith by the “Indian princess”Pocahontas.

      extended look at the mythology of Pocahontas here

    42. The best-known, most recent version of the story is the 1995 WaltDisney animated film. Strikingly beautiful, unnervingly buxom, and morelike a pop culture diva than a member of the Tsenacommacah tribe,Disney’s Pocahontas fabulously communes with nature, befriending araccoon, talking to a tree;
    43. The word “Pilgrim” was not even popularized until1794.
    44. The master of ceremonies was their Indian interpreter, Squanto, who hadhelped the English survive a difficult winter. Left out of this story is thedetail (not so minor) that Squanto only knew English because he had beenkidnapped and sold as a slave to an English ship’s captain.

      The fact that early Americans needed to be bailed out by others also doesn't seem to do anything to dampen either the mythology of American exceptionalism nor their "can-do attitude".

    45. we have the Pilgrims (a people who are celebrated atThanksgiving, a holiday that did not exist until the Civil War), who cameashore at Plymouth Rock (a place only designated as such in the lateeighteenth century). The quintessential American holiday was associatedwith the native turkey to help promote the struggling poultry industryduring the Civil War.

      Why does it seem so apropos that Thanksgiving, a quintessential American holiday, is the product of corporate marketing?

    46. Exceptionalism emerges from a host of earlier myths of redemption andgood intentions. Pilgrims, persecuted in the Old World, brave the Atlanticdreaming of finding religious freedom on America’s shores; wagon trains ofhopeful pioneer families head west to start a new life. Nowhere else, we aremeant to understand, was personal freedom so treasured as it was in theAmerican experience. The very act of migration claims to equalize thepeople involved, molding them into a homogeneous, effectively classlesssociety.

      Do some of these same types of stories and mythologies also erase the harm of an over-armed populace with respect to the lack of appropriate gun control and mass shootings versus gun rights in America?

      As a country our gun mythology is stronger than our desire to act to improve our (collective) lives....

    47. And so the great American saga,as taught, excludes the very pertinent fact that after the 1630s, less than halfcame to Massachusetts for religious reasons.
    48. The compression of history, the winnowing of history, may seem naturaland neutral, but it is decidedly not. It is the means by which grade schoolhistory becomes our standard adult history.

      Broad ideas which are scaffolded in youth should be more closely examined as children grow and develop. Being left with only basic "myths" is a disservice not only to the students, but to the societies in which they live and the early education would be better left off if it isn't followed up on in stages at later times. Or if it's the case, then stronger versions of the basics should be included for better long term outcomes.

    49. progress on the march
    50. Monuments imperfectly record the past

      Examples of this to collect in the future, including:

      • Civil War monuments
      • Pilgrim monument ( National Monument to the Forefathers) 1898 by Hammatt Billings (mentioned in White Trash)
      • others...
    51. These efforts were magnified as a result of promotional skillsdemonstrated by such organizations as the Colonial Dames, who worked toelevate the Mayflower Pilgrims and Winthrop’s Puritans into some of theforemost figures in our national memory.

      What parallelisms were there between the Colonial Dames, Daughters of the American Revolution, or Lost Cause societies that fundraised for Civil War statues in the post-Civil War and 19-teens to promote white power in the American south?

      Did the structures and existence inform later efforts?

    52. History of the United States (1834)

      1834 was also interesting with respect to this thesis as Britain was working at the "principles of 1834" which Beatrice Webb focused on and debunked in English Poor Law Policy (1910).

      see: https://hypothes.is/a/NLJSJAe7Ee2xvIeHyTL7vQ

      Would this 1832 work in Britain have bleed over to a similar set of poverty principles in the United States in the same era? Could this have compounded issues in America leading to greater class divisions in the decades before the Civil War?

    53. the first volume of GeorgeBancroft’s widely praised History of the United States (1834) may be thebest example of how the Mayflower and Arbella washed ashore and seededthe ground where love of liberty bore its ripest fruit
    54. Beyond the web of stories the founding generation itself wove, ourmodern beliefs have most to do with the grand mythmakers of thenineteenth century. The inspired historians of that period were nearly allNew Englanders; they outpaced all others in shaping the historicalnarrative, so that the dominant story of origins worked in their favor. That ishow we got the primordial Puritan narrative of a sentimental communityand a commendable work ethic.

      A fascinating thesis about American historical perspective and our identity.

      Does this play out with respect to Max Weber's thesis?

    55. most colonizing schemesthat took root in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British America werebuilt on privilege and subordination, not any kind of proto-democracy.
    56. John Adams,heralded the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop, asan earlier and stronger model for an American patrician-patriarch.

      This adds additional weight to the concept of "city upon a hill" which was highlighted in a speech by John Winthrop.

    57. Historical mythmaking is made possible only by forgetting.

      The Dan Allosso book club continues on its tour of looking at historical myths, particularly with respect to economics in the United States.

    58. waste people

      waste people seems to already be emerging as her catch-all term for the variety of euphemisms for the poor/lower classes

      see also the list at: https://hypothes.is/a/qmesAuoyEe6tq8NIATUmYQ

    59. And then themedia giants find new crises and the nation’s inherited disregard for classreboots, as the subject recedes into the background again.

      The pushing of the attention economy broadly prevents society from facing its most important problems. We're constantly distracted and are ultimately unable to focus on what is really important.

    60. Because of how history is taught, Americans tend toassociate Plymouth and Jamestown with cooperation rather than classdivision.

      The largest swaths of taught American history have propagated the idea of American Exceptionalism rather than actual truth.

    61. Wary investors and state officials had to beconvinced to take the plunge into a risky overseas venture. But mostimportant, it was a place into which they could export their ownmarginalized people.

      Historically it would seem that there are always going to be marginzalized people in a society, even when new spaces like America pop up into which the marginalized are exported from somewhere else.... but this also shows that marginalized, when given opportunity can easily improve themselves...

      better than allowing them to stay marginalized, how can they be helped institutionally to be better for not only themselves but for society itself? constant flow of improvement?

    Tags

    Annotators

    1. https://archive.org/details/run-de-1986-10/page/120/mode/2up

      "RUN – Unabhängiges Commodore Computermagazin", Ausgabe 10/Oktober 1986, which has a hexdump code listing of a C64 Zettelkasten

      ᔥ[Michael Gisiger[]] in mastodon: (@gisiger@nerdculture.de)

      Lust auf #Retrocomputing und #PKM mit einem #Zettelkasten? Bitte schön, in der Oktober-Ausgabe 1986 des #Commodore Magazins RUN findet sich ein Listing für den #C64 dazu. Viel Spass beim Abtippen 😅

      https://archive.org/details/run-de-1986-10/page/120/mode/2up

      See additional conversation at: https://www.reddit.com/r/c64/comments/1bg0ja1/does_anyone_have_the_zettelkasten_program_from/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

    1. My quick typewriter purchasing crash course: <br /> Most typewriters are solid beasts and can take a serious beating and still work really well. I've got 5 now that I bought for $10-50 and mostly really only needed small tweaks to work perfectly. One has an issue that will require some more heavy work, but having gotten it for $10, it's not really much of an issue. Several of them worked incredibly well right out of the box with no work at all. Occasionally kids will pound on the keys which can cause the linkages to come undone, but a pair of needle nose pliers and some patience to look at the mechanics of what's not working underneath can usually get them repaired without any real work. Beyond this there's a wealth of online videos and help that can get you pretty far without paying for a repair shop. Some are just old and dusty and need a quick cleaning with compressed air and/or a toothbrush.

      Ebay can tend to have heavily overinflated prices because a lot of folks think that all typewriters are rare. A very small percentage of some of the oldest are, but generally as a group they're not. If you don't want to fool around with repair issues you can purchase machines from repair shops serviced in full working condition from $75-200, but at least you can expect that they're nearly perfect beyond some small blemishes due to age. Sadly, a lot of places will list broken machines in questionable shape for this much because they see others listing (great machines) for the same amount. Don't fall prey to this. Some of the best places to look for functional machines are donation shops (Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc.) as well as yard sales or estate sales. Online sites like Facebook marketplace, https://shopgoodwill.com, or https://offerup.com can have inexpensive listings, but most are listed as untested because most folks don't know how to test them fully and are scared of them, but this is usually where you can find some great deals. You can also ask for typewriters on https://buynothingproject.org/ or a Facebook group for your particular area.

      If you're able to test things in person, it can help to have some blank paper or index cards and even a universal ribbon ($5-15, in case the old ribbon is missing or too old and dry to work) with you. Then you can put in paper, try out each key (with/without shift), and all the other buttons, knobs, and switches as well as the margin stops, and the bell. Most folks listing them are well aware they're not actually selling for prices over $50 and will be open for 10-25% discounts off of what they're listing them for. I will mention that I bought one machine as dirt cheap because someone had it on the stencil setting (rather than the usual black or red ribbon settings) and they didn't know that this meant it wouldn't type anything visible. A quick flip of the switch after purchase and I was on my way.

      r/typewriters is a wealth of information as are https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/index.html and https://typewriterdatabase.com/. Usually, you can't go too far wrong with one of the most popular models which are generally ranked at https://typewriterdatabase.com/popular.0.typewriter-models.

      Good luck!