19,850 Matching Annotations
  1. May 2023
    1. Map of Content Vizualized (VMOC)

      a start of thinking on the space of converging written and visual thinking, but not as advanced as even Raymond Llull or indigenous ways of knowing which more naturally merge these modes of thinking.

      Western though is just missing so much... sigh

    1. Zettelkasten is just a variant of index-card based commonplace books that got super hyped online thanks to Ahren's book and the productivity industrial complex.

      productivity industrial complex!

      quote from u/Powerful-Finger-4376

    1. I went to that website and he mentions the Dewey Decimal Classification System. I have look around and only found examples/files that goes a few levels deep. He gives an example: 516.375 Finsler geometry BUT I can not find any DDC files that goes to that level of classification. The DDC is finer grain than the what the AOoD system goes so for me I am going with the DDC for possible keywords list.Any ideas where I can find a complete DDC listing I can download?

      reply to drogers8 at https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/13eyg8p/comment/jkaksn4/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

      You can find some basic top level or second level DDC listings online, but to get the full set of listings, you've got to subscribe to the system which is updated every few years, something only library systems and large publishers typically do. To give yourself an idea of how deep this rabbit hole goes the DDC 23 is four volumes long and each volume is in the 1,000 page range. The DDC 23 self-identifies as 0.25.4'31-dc22. For most categories DDC generally only goes as deep as the thousands place (like Finsler geometry) though others will go slightly deeper usually to designate locations/cities. Most libraries only categorize to the tenths place, and sometimes these numbers can be found on the copyright page of books, often with the DDC volume number. I mentioned the UDC in that piece, but didn't give any links, but you could try:<br /> - https://udcsummary.info/php/index.php?lang=en - https://udcc.org/index.php/site/page?view=subject_coverage - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Decimal_Classification

      Honestly, you're wasting time and making way more work for yourself to adopt one of these numbering methods for a Luhmann-esque zettelkasten. Try asking yourself this question: What benefits/affordances will I get in the long run for having my numbering system mirror the DDC or UDC? (Unless you can come up with a really fantastic answer, you're just making more work to look up headings/numbers on a regular basis.)

      In practice the numbers are simply addresses so you can quickly find things again using your index. If you're doing threads of cards (folgezettel), you're going to very quickly have tangentially related ideas of things mixed together anyway. (As an example, I've got lots of science and even some anthropology mixed into my math section, so having DDC numbers on those would be generally useless at the end of the day.) If it helps, Nicolas Gatien has a pretty reasonable and short video which makes this apparent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdHH3YjOnZE.

    2. Extended numbering and why use Outline of Disciplines at all? .t3_13eyg8p._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; } Several things:Why are there different listings for the Academic Outline of Disciplines? Some starts the top level with Humanities and other start with Arts which changes the numbering?I am createing an Antinet for all things. Some of the levels of the AOOD has more then 9 items so Scott's 4 digit system would not work. For some levels I would have to use two digits. Thoughts?Why even use said system? Why is it a bad reason to just start with #1 that indicates the first subject sequence, #2 for a different subject etc..?

      reply to u/drogers8 at https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/13eyg8p/extended_numbering_and_why_use_outline_of/

      Based on my research, Scott Scheper was the one of the original source for people adopting the Academic Outline of Disciplines. I've heard him say before that he recommends it only as a potential starting place for people who are new to the space and need it as a crutch to get going. It's an odd suggestion as almost all of the rest of his system is so Luhmann-based. I suspect it's a quirk of how he personally started and once moving it was easier than starting over. He also used his own ZK for showing others, and it's hard to say one thing in a teaching video when showing people something else. Ultimately it's hard to mess up on numbering choices unless you're insistent on using only whole numbers or natural numbers. I generally wouldn't suggest complex numbers either, but you might find some interesting things within your system if you did. More detail: https://boffosocko.com/2022/10/27/thoughts-on-zettelkasten-numbering-systems/ The only reason to have any standardized base or standardized numbers would be if you were attempting to have a large shared ZK with others. If this is your intent, then perhaps look at the Universal Decimal Classification, though a variety of things might also work including Dewey Decimal.

    1. Requesting advice for where to put a related idea to a note I'm currently writing .t3_13gcbj1._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; } Hi! I am new to building a physical ZK. Would appreciate some help.Pictures here: https://imgur.com/a/WvyNVXfI have a section in my ZK about the concept of "knowledge transmission" (4170/7). The below notes are within that section.I am currently writing a note about how you have to earn your understanding... when receiving knowledge / learning from others. (Picture #1)Whilst writing this note, I had an idea that I'm not quite sure belongs on that note itself - and I'm not sure where it belongs. About how you also have to "earn" the sharing of knowledge. (Picture #2)Here are what I think my options are for writing about the idea "you have to earn your sharing of knowledge":Write this idea on my current card. 4170/7/1Write this idea on a new note - as a variant idea of my current note. 4170/7/1aWrite this idea on a new note - as a continuation of my current note. 4170/7/1/1Write this idea on a new note - as a new idea within my "knowledge transmission" branch. 4170/7/2What would you do here?

      reply to u/throwthis_throwthat at https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/13gcbj1/requesting_advice_for_where_to_put_a_related_idea/

      I don't accept the premise of your question. This doesn't get said often enough to people new to zettelkasten practice: Trust your gut! What does it say? You'll learn through practice that there are no "right" answers to these. Put a number on it, file it, and move on. Practice, practice, practice. You'll be doing this in your sleep soon enough. As long as it's close enough, you'll find it. Save your mental cycles for deeper thoughts than this.

      Asking others for their advice is fine, but it's akin to asking a well-practiced mnemonist what visual image they would use to remember something. Everyone is different and has different experiences and different things that make their memories sticky for them. What works incredibly well for how someone else thinks and the level of importance they give an idea is never as useful or as "true" as how you think about it. Going with your gut is going to help you remember it better and is far likelier to make it easier to find in the future.

    2. "So when they continued asking him, he lifted himself up and said to them, he who has not misfiled an idea among you, let him cast the first zettel at her." —Iēsū's zettelkasten, card 8/7,1 #John ⚡🗃️

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcmKWrDzEIw

      For a 9 x 13 pan of approximately 30 smallish bars: - 3 cups of rolled oats (toast 15 - 25 minutes if desired; longer if self-rolled) - 2 cups of almonds - 2 cups of pitted dates - 1/2 cup honey - 1/2 cup peanut butter - 1 cup of chocolate chips

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wTt8VGyBdk

      Starting yeast from scratch

      • Use a approx. 1 qt "breathable" jar
        • need breathability to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide
      • equal parts water and flour (by weight)
        • (~2 tbsp water and 3 tbsp flour)
        • alternately use unsweetened pineapple juice in stead of water (lowers ph and provides additional natural sugar for yeast)
        • (for water, used distilled or highly filtered as tap water can have chlorine and other chemicals which make it more difficult for yeast to get started)
      • stir and set aside
        • stir three times per day
      • every day add 2 tbsp water and 3 tbsp flour
      • bubbling should begin after 3-5 days

      Ongoing feeding and maintenance

      • can keep in fridge to slow down reaction and feed only once a week for small batch baking
      • if doing baking more frequently, feed it every day
      • When using, use up half of the overall quantity and then continue feeding as before
    1. Want to follow Bluesky users in your RSS reader? Subscribe to: https://bsky.link/feed?user= your username
    1. I wanted to try something very different. So, I use another writing system to write my original thoughts. I use the Wakandan writing system to write my thoughts because I already know how to write in it and I virtually know almost no one else who knows how to.

      An example of someone (u/Nervous-Deal7560) using the Wakandan writing system to distinguish their ideas from those of sources!

      see also: - https://omniglot.com/conscripts/wakandan.htm - https://www.fandom.com/articles/how-the-black-panther-writing-system-subverts-our-expectations-of-africa

    1. Figure 2.3 The fi xation of paper slips. (From Wellisch 1981, p. 12.)

      This is essentially a version of a modern pinboard with ribbons which are used to hold various pieces onto the board!

      Also similar in functionality to Post-it Notes, but with string instead of glue.

    2. Fortschritt GmbH: Karteien kö nnen alles! (“ Card indexes can do anything!” , Zeitschriftfü r Organisation und moderne Betriebsfü hrung 3 (23):6 (1929))

      The 1929 desk in this image isn't too far from a physical instantiation of Vannevar Bush's Memex which didn't appear until 1939 (1945 published).

    1. jdm @chrisaldrich Definitely inspired by your blogging.

      reply to @jdm at https://micro.blog/jdm/19064665

      Thanks! If you want sneak peaks of upcoming pieces, you might try subscribing to my "other" microblog: https://hypothes.is/users/chrisaldrich

    1. IngredientsMakes one 8″-diameter loafNonstick vegetable oil spray2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting5 Tbsp. sugar, divided1½ tsp. baking powder1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt¾ tsp. baking soda3 Tbsp. chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces1 cup buttermilk⅔ cup raisinsStep 1Place a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 375°. Coat an 8″-diameter cake pan or cast-iron skillet with nonstick vegetable oil spray. Whisk 2 cups all-purpose flour, 4 Tbsp. sugar, 1½ tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt, and ¾ tsp. baking soda in a large bowl to combine. Add 3 Tbsp. chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces, to dry ingredients and rub in with your fingers until mixture resembles coarse meal. Make a well in the center and pour in 1 cup buttermilk. Gradually mix dry ingredients into buttermilk just until incorporated and a shaggy dough comes together. Mix in ⅔ cup raisins.Step 2Using lightly floured hands, form dough into a ball and transfer to prepared pan. Gently press dough to flatten slightly (dough will not reach edges of pan). Sprinkle with remaining 1 Tbsp. sugar.Step 3Bake bread until golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 40–45 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let bread cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn bread out onto rack. Serve warm or let cool completely.

      Irish Soda Bread With Raisins

    1. Red Fife Soda Bread with Seeds & Fruit Ingredients 4 C Red Fife flour (or Renan, Hard Red, Marquis) – or Spelt! Yum! 1 3/4 tsp baking soda 1 ½ tsp kosher salt ¼ C sugar ¾ C currants 3 Tbsp Sunflower seeds 3 Tbsp Pumpkin seeds 3 Tbsp Flax seeds 4 Tbsp butter, melted and slightly cooled 2 C Buttermilk, plus additional for brushing *optional 2 Tbsp additional mixed seeds for sprinkling Method Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a sheet pan with parchment. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, currants and seeds. Combine melted butter and buttermilk. Pour buttermilk mixture over dry ingredients and stir just until everything comes together. Turn out onto a floured work surface. Lightly knead to bring dough together. Form a slightly flattened ball, about 8 inches wide. Place on prepared sheet pan. Brush top and sides with buttermilk. Sprinkle with mixed seeds if desired. Using a sharp knife, cut a deep X into the top of the bread. Bake until nicely browned and bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, approximately 40–50 minutes. Enjoy with good salted butter!
    2. Edison-Rye Soda Bread Ingredients 1 ½ C Edison flour (or Sonora, Hard White, Wit Wolkoring, Chiddam Blanc de Mars) 2 ½ C Rye flour 1 ¾ tsp baking soda 1 ½ tsp kosher salt 2 C + 2 tbsp Buttermilk Method Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line sheet pan with parchment. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda and salt. Pour buttermilk over dry ingredients and stir just until everything comes together. Turn out onto a floured work surface. Lightly knead to bring dough together. Form a slightly flattened ball, about 8 inches wide. Place on prepared sheet pan. Brush top and sides with buttermilk. Sprinkle with mixed seeds if desired. Using a sharp knife, cut a deep X into the top of the bread. Bake until nicely browned and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, approximately 40–50 minutes.
    1. Commonplacing, florilegia, anthologies, miscellanies, zettelkasten are such a fascinating tradition. They make a lovely ratchet for thinking.

      Commonplacing, florilegia, anthologies, miscellanies, zettelkasten are a ratchet for thinking.

    2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaHEgPk0tNM

      Rowan Williams quote - not who I thought he was

      • Read
      • Write (collect)
      • Reflect
    3. Commonplace books begin with observation.

    4. Jared Henderson writes excerpted ideas in block capital letters and his own observations and thoughts in small print as a means of distinguishing his own ideas from others.

      Others might do this using other means: fonts, color, writing instrument, etc.

    5. Jared Henderson defines commonplace books as only containing the thoughts of others collected while reading. In the following breath, he then says he writes summaries of his own ideas and then creates links between the ideas...

    1. Grist & Toll 990 S. Arroyo Pkwy #1,<br /> Pasadena, CA 91105<br /> 626-441-7400<br /> info@gristandtoll.com<br /> Retail Shop Hours: Wed-Sat 11-5<br /> https://www.gristandtoll.com/

    1. Simply Bread Oven | $8,490.00Bake 12 to 15 loaves at a time in this compact, electric, 3-deck oven with integrated steam
    1. Hi Chris, I remember seeing your writing elsewhere. That's... a lot of index cards. Also, the cost per card is higher than I expected but then again if I ever pay $0.01 per card I should expect lower quality...

      reply to Mark Dykeman at https://howaboutthis.substack.com/p/rethinking-the-notebook-snob-meets/comment/15885993

      Given our overlap of topics, you most likely saw something via https://boffosocko.com/research/zettelkasten-commonplace-books-and-note-taking-collection/. I may have been responsible for you trying out the digital annotation tool Hypothes.is once upon a time?

      The price I quoted was for the ubiquitous and inexpensive Oxford index cards and not for the much higher quality Exacompta/Bristol cards which can run up to 10¢ a card or more—they're closer to the fountain pen quality papers you'd find in the higher end notebooks and are manufactured by the a subsidiary of the corporate parent that makes Rhodia/Clairefontaine.

    1. “From that time, now the native citizens and now the enemyhave triumphed ... up to the year of the siege of Mount Badon,when the last but certainly not the least slaughter of these lowlyscoundrels occurred, which, I know, makes 44 years and onemonth, and which was also the time of my birth.”

      —Gildas, Chapter 26 of De excidio et conquestu Britanniae (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain)

      We don't have a specific date or exact location for the siege of Mount Badon, roughly in the 5th century, but Gildas writes about the battle within the timeframe of his own life, and thus places a timeframe on the original Arthur.

      Gildas also writes about Ambrosius Aurelianus, who he identifies as having Roman heritage. Some scholars believe that this is another name for King Arthur.


      Is there any relation to the Mountbatten family from Battenberg in Hesse, Germany? (Unlikely due to distance, though Saxon invaders may have renamed a place location in Britain after a local Batten or Battenberg related name from their homeland.)

      Or the location Mount Batten? Likely not, as the previously known How Stert in Plymouth Sound, Devon, England was renamed after Sir William Batten (c.1600-1667), MP and Surveyor of the Navy.

    2. King Arthur in the Latin ChroniclesLecture 3
    1. https://analogoffice.net/2023/05/03/too-much-information.html

      Your title made me think it was about a different, but related book...

      I too bought Hess' book at Kimberly's recommendation, but I'm still plowing through the end of Ann M. Blair's Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information before the Modern Age. Yale University Press, 2010. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300165395/too-much-know. You might find it interesting, but hopefully not overwhelming.

      syndication link

    1. My magic trick (having faced a similar dilemma with many lovely notebooks over the years) is to turn to the first double page and write in large lettersDON'T BE AFRAID TO MAKE YOUR MARK UPON LIFE'S PAGE.And just like that the new notebook spell is broken and the pen is free to write again.
    2. I somehow made myself write in it and started with a sentence that I think would make for an excellent essay title some day: "Cheap paper is the perfectionist's salvation."
    1. Enter the venerable composition notebook. For $1.507, I get 180 pages at that composition book size (larger than A5) with a reasonably durable hard cover. The paper is quite acceptable for writing and I really don’t care if I make a huge mess within because it’s relatively inexpensive8.

      At Mark Dykeman's rate, to convert to cheap composition books, he's looking at $26/year for the equivalent paper consumption. On a per day basis, it's $0.071 per day in paper.

      This can be compared with my per day cost of $0.421 per day for index cards, which is more expensive, though not $1-2 per day for more expensive notebooks.

    2. I take a lot of notes during my day job. More like a huge amount of notes. On paper. As an experiment I started using several Dingbats* notebooks during the day job to see how they would work4 for me. After about 9 weeks of trials, I learned that I could fill up a 180 page notebook in about 3 weeks, plus or minus a few days. Unfortunately, when you factor in the cost of these notebooks, that’s like spending $1 - $2 per day on notebooks. Dingbats* are lovely, durable notebooks. But my work notes are not going to be enshrined in a museum for the ages5 and until I finally get that sponsorship from Dingbats* or Leuchtuurm19176, I probably need a different solution.

      Mark Dykeman indicates that at regular work, he fills up a 180 page notebook and at the relatively steep cost of notebooks, he's paying $1-2 a day for paper.


      This naturally brings up the idea of what it might cost per day in index cards for some zettlers' practices. I've already got some notes on price of storage...

      As a rough calculation, despite most of my note taking being done digitally, I'm going through a pack of 500 Oxford cards at $12.87 every 5 months at my current pace. This is $0.02574 per card and 5 months is roughly 150 days. My current card cost per day is: $0.02574/card * 500 cards / (150 days) = $12.78/150 days = $0.0858 per day which is far better than $2/day.

      Though if I had an all-physical card habit, I would be using quite a bit more.

      On July 3, 2022 I was at 10,099 annotations and today May 11, 2023 I'm at 15,259 annotations. At one annotation per card that's 5,160 cards in the span of 312 days giving me a cost of $0.02574/card * 5,160 cards / 312 days = $0.421 per day or an average of $153.75 per year averaging 6,036 cards per year.

      (Note that this doesn't also include the average of three physical cards a day I'm using in addition, so the total would be slightly higher.)

      Index cards are thus, quite a bit cheaper a habit than fine stationery notebooks.

    1. ’ve been studying notebooks for over a decade and I still haven’t landed on a perfect organization method. I have, however, found the perfect pen: uni-ball signo, .38mm. I discovered them while teaching in Korea in 2008 and haven’t looked back.

      It can't be a good sign that an academic who has spent over a decade studying notebooks and note taking still hasn't found the "perfect" organization method.

    1. Patricia Highsmith's Cahiers by [[Jillian Hess]]

    2. 4/20/52[Keime.] Murder by mental nagging. Woman nags her husband to suicide, which he does so it looks like he has been murdered. Poison, which he puts in her desk drawer, her fingerprints on it.

      Jillian Hess noted that Patricia Highsmith uses the German word Keime, meaning "germ of an idea" in her cahiers to indicate ideas which might be used in her novels or short stories.

    3. July 7, 1942I want to take all my notebooks and read through them for important phrases — use them. It would be wonderful to do it on a weekend. Alone, in the quiet.

      from Patricia Highsmith's diaries

      this seems similar to Ralph Waldo Emmerson's journals/commonplaces where he collected interesting phrases for use in his writing. Here she's explicitly stating her desire to do this for her writing work.

      The "Alone, in the quite." quote seems to mirror her appreciation and stated desire to be alone at home in the 1978 Good Afternoon interview.

    4. Even three or four words are often worth jotting down if they will evoke a thought, an idea or a mood. In the barren periods, one should browse through the notebooks. Some ideas may suddenly start to move. Two ideas may combine, perhaps because they were meant to combine in the first place. —Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction
    5. I highly recommend notebooks for writers, a small one if one has to be out on a job all day, a larger one if one has the luxury of staying at home.

      from Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction

    1. Patricia Highsmith | American Author | Good Afternoon | 1978

      Patricia Highsmith talks a bit about her writing process. She talks about her early family life and her current personal life, but doesn't mention her sexuality at all.

      The tail end of the interview mentions the prevalence for murder within one's family. (When did this truism emerge within culture or at least within the crime space?)

    1. Write down all these slender ideas. It is surprising how often one sentence, jotted in a notebook, leads immediately to a second sentence. A plot can develop as you write notes. Close the notebook and think about it for a few days — and then presto! you’re ready to write a short story. — Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks

      quote is from Highsmith's Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction

      I love the concept of "slender ideas" as small, fleeting notes which might accumulate into something if written down. In saying "Close the notebook and think about it for a few days" Patricia Highsmith seems to be suggesting that one engage in diffuse thinking, passive digesting, or mulling rather than active or proactive thinking.

      She also invokes the magic word "presto!" (which she exclaims) as if to indicate that magically the difficult work of writing is somehow no longer difficult. Many writers seem to indicate that this is a phenomenon, but never seem to put their finger on the mechanism of why it happens. Some seems to stem from the passive digestion over days with diffuse thinking, with portions may also stem from not starting from a blank page and having some material to work against instead of a vacuum.


      From Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks: 1941-1995 (Swiss Literary Archives)

    2. Noted, a welcome by [[Jillian Hess]]

    3. As you go about town…constantly observe, note, and consider the circumstances and behavior of men as they talk, quarrel, or laugh, or come to blows. — Codex Ash.
    4. Let us take down one of those old notebooks which we have all, at one time or another, had a passion for beginning. Most of the pages are blank, it is true; but at the beginning we shall find a certain number very beautifully covered with a strikingly legible hand-writing. Here we have written down the names of great writers in their order of merit; here we have copied out fine passages from the classics; here are lists of books to be read; and here, most interesting of all, lists of books that have actually been read, as the reader testifies with some youthful vanity by a dash of red ink. —“Hours in a Library”
    1. What's with the bees? by [[Jillian Hess]]

      A tipping out of Hess' zettelkasten on the theme of bees (apes) in note taking.

    2. As they flit like so many little bees between Greek and Latin authors of every species, here noting down something to imitate, here culling some notable saying to put into practice in their behavior, there getting by heart some witty anecdote to relate among their friends, you would swear you were watching the Muses at graceful play in the lovely pastures of Mount Helicon, gathering flowers and marjoram to make well-woven garlands. —The Adages of Erasmus
    3. The bee plunders the flowers here and there, but afterwards they make of them honey, which is all theirs; it is no longer thyme or marjoram. Even so with the pieces borrowed from others; he will transform and blend them to make a work that is all his own, to wit, his judgment — The Complete Essays of Michel de Montaigne

      Cross reference with Seneca's note taking metaphors with apes.

    4. Besides the metaphor of the honeybee, Seneca also compares this method to a stomach digesting food as well as a choir that produces one sound from many harmonized voices.

      In addition to the honeybee metaphor, Seneca compared note taking and collecting sententiae to a stomach digesting food and a choir producing a harmonized sound out of many voices.

      (Sources from these last two? Potentially Epistle LXXXIV?)

    5. We also, I say, ought to copy these bees, and sift whatever we have gathered from a varied course of reading, for such things are better preserved if they are kept separate; then, by applying the supervising care with which our nature has endowed us, – in other words, our natural gifts, – we should so blend those several flavours into one delicious compound that, even though it betrays its origin, yet it nevertheless is clearly a different thing from that whence it came. —Epistle LXXXIV

      Her own translation?

    1. https://substack.com/notes

      Yet another status update-like product, this time from Substack as Twitter is heavily waning...

    1. Looking forward to being notespired!

      notespired

    2. reply to Jillian Hess at https://jillianhess.substack.com/p/noted-a-welcome/comments

      At last, my sort of alveary! No longer need I flit about as all the flowers to be culled are being aggregated for me. I look forward to reading your work as you (as our Vergil says) "pack close the flowering honey, and swell their cells with nectar sweet."

    1. e know if this Mike has a website/newsletter? I've just started reading up on Celtic history, delving deep down into druidry, so I'd be interested to see what he's doing.2 commentsAwardshare

      reply to u/atrebatian at https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/13dsj8v/celtic_druid_history/

      I've only scratched the surface of the Druids, but have gotten pretty deep into Celtic history over the past few years, including becoming reasonably fluent in colloquial Welsh and working on old Welsh for some research.

      As an excellent set of introductions, I'd recommend:

      Paxton, Jennifer. The Celtic World. Great Courses, 2251. The Teaching Company, Chantilly, VA, 2018. Cunliffe, Barry. The Celts: A Very Short Introduction. Very Short Introductions. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.<br /> ———. Druids: A Very Short Introduction. Very Short Introductions. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

      You'll also probably appreciate the following:

      Aldhouse-Green, Miranda. Animals in Celtic Life and Myth. Routledge, 1993.<br /> ———. Caesar’s Druids: An Ancient Priesthood. Yale University Press, 2010.<br /> ———. The Celtic Myths: A Guide to the Ancient Gods and Legends. Thames and Hudson, 2015.<br /> ———. The Celtic World. Routledge, 2012.<br /> Avalon, Annwyn. Water Witchcraft: Magic and Lore from the Celtic Tradition. Red Wheel Weiser.<br /> Bridgman, Timothy P. Hyperboreans: Myth and History in Celtic-Hellenic Contacts.<br /> Chadwick, Nora. The Celts: Second Edition. Revised edition. London ; New York, N.Y: Penguin Books, 1998.<br /> Conway, D. J. Celtic Magic. LLewellyn’s World Magic Series, 1.0, 2011.<br /> Cunliffe, Barry. The Ancient Celts. 1st edition. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.<br /> Fagan, Edited by Brian M., ed. The Oxford Companion to Archaeology. Oxford Companions. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.<br /> Fimi, Dimitra. Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children’s Fantasy: Idealization, Identity, Ideology. Critical Approaches to Children’s Literature, 1.0, 2017.<br /> Forest, Danu. Celtic Tree Magic: Ogham Lore and Druid Mysteries. Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD., 2014.<br /> Hughes, Kristoffer. The Book of Celtic Magic: Transformative Teachings from the Cauldron of Awen. Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD., 2014.<br /> King Arthur: History and Legend. Streaming Video. Vol. 2376. The Great Courses: Literature and Language. Chantilly, VA: The Teaching Company, 2015. https://www.wondrium.com/king-arthur-history-and-legend.<br /> Rutherford, Ward. Celtic Mythology: The Nature and Influence of Celtic Myth from Druidism to Arthurian Legend. Red Wheel Weiser.

      One of my favorites on memory which underpins early Celtic life and is likely related to Druids, (but which doesn't cover them directly, but is likely similar to their memory practice) is the anthropology text:

      Kelly, Lynne. Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies: Orality, Memory and the Transmission of Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107444973.

      I've also got lots of research on henges and wooden/stone circles and related archaeology in early British isles history, but this may be afield from your interests.

    1. It’s great that there’s interest in this stuff. Your articles are inspiring, as is Jillian Hess’s NotesSubstack, team Greene/Holiday/Oppenheimer, and the German scholars who focus on the technology of writing, such as Hektor Haarkötter. But I don’t see this as nostalgia. For me it’s history in service of the present and the future.

      reply to u/atomicnotes at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/13cqnsk/comment/jjkwc05/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

      Definitely history in service of the present and the future. Too many people are doing some terribly hard work attempting to reinvent wheels which have been around for centuries.

    2. He even coined a phrase: Verknüpfungszwang - the compulsion to seek connections.

      original source?

    1. Tinderbox Meetup - Sunday, May 7, 2023 Video: Connect with Sönke Ahrens live, the author of How to Take Smart Notes

      reply for Fidel at https://forum.eastgate.com/t/tinderbox-meetup-sunday-may-7-2023-video-connect-with-sonke-ahrens-live-the-author-of-how-to-take-smart-notes/6659

      @fidel (I'm presuming you're the same one from the meetup on Sunday, if not perhaps someone might tag the appropriate person?), I was thinking a bit more on your question of using physical index cards for writing fiction. You might find the examples of both Vladimir Nabokov and Dustin Lance Black, a screenwriter, useful as they both use index card-based workflows.

      Vladimir Nabokov died in 1977 leaving an unfinished manuscript in note card form for the novel The Original of Laura . Penguin later published the incomplete novel with in 2012 with the subtitle A Novel in Fragments . Unlike most manuscripts written or typewritten on larger paper, this one came in the form of 138 index cards. Penguin's published version recreated these cards in full-color reproductions including the smudges, scribbles, scrawlings, strikeouts, and annotations in English, French, and Russian. Perforated, one could tear the cards out of the book and reorganize in any way they saw fit or even potentially add their own cards to finish the novel that Nabokov couldn't. Taking a look at this might give you some ideas of how Nabokov worked and how you might adapt the style for yourself. Another interesting resource is this article with some photos/links about his method with respect to writing Lolita: https://www.openculture.com/2014/02/the-notecards-on-which-vladimir-nabokov-wrote-lolita.html

      You might also find some useful tidbits on his writing process (Bristol cards/Exacompta anyone?) in: Gold, Herbert. “Vladimir Nabokov, The Art of Fiction No. 40.” The Paris Review, 1967. https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4310/the-art-of-fiction-no-40-vladimir-nabokov.

      Carl Mydans photographed Nabokov while writing in September 1958 and some of those may be interesting to you as well.

      Dustin Lance Black outlines his index card process in this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrvawtrRxsw

      If you dig around you'll also find Michael Ende and a variety of other German fiction writers who used index cards on the Zettelkasten page on Wikipedia, but I suspect most of the material on their processes are written in German.

      Index cards for fiction writing may allow some writers some useful affordances/benefits. By using small atomic pieces on note cards, one can be far more focused on the idea and words immediately at hand. It's also far easier in a creative and editorial process to move pieces around experimentally.

      Similarly, when facing Hemmingway's "White Bull", the size and space of an index card is fall smaller. This may have the effect that Twitter's short status updates have for writers who aren't faced with the seemingly insurmountable burden of writing a long blog post or essay in other software. They can write 280 characters and stop. Of if they feel motivated, they can continue on by adding to the prior parts of a growing thread.

      However, if you can, try to use a card catalog drawer with a rod so that you don't spill all of your well-ordered cards the way the character in Robert M. Pirsig's novel Lila (1991) did.

    1. "[What] I like about the [zettlekasten] system is that it's a constant reminder to to make up your mind and to specify what you what you're thinking."<br /> —Sönke Ahrens, [Tinderbox Meetup - May 7, 2023 00:30:36]

    2. Tinderbox Meetup - May 7, 2023: A Discussion with Sönke Ahrens, Author of How to Take Smart Notes. Tinderbox Meetup, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx1Ax8z_eDY.

    3. Within the pantheon of types of notes there are: - paraphrasing notes, which one can use to summarize ideas for later recall and review as well as to check one's own knowledge and understanding of what an author has said. - commentary notes, which take the text and create a commentary on them, often as part of having a conversation with the text. These can be seen historically in the Midrashim tradition of commenting on Torah.

      [23:12 - 24:47]


      separately also: - productivity notes - to do lists, reminders of work to be done, often within or as part of a larger complex project

    1. Apophenia (/æpoʊˈfiːniə/) is the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things.[1] The term (German: Apophänie from the Greek verb ἀποφαίνειν (apophaínein)) was coined by psychiatrist Klaus Conrad in his 1958 publication on the beginning stages of schizophrenia.[2] He defined it as "unmotivated seeing of connections [accompanied by] a specific feeling of abnormal meaningfulness".[3][4] He described the early stages of delusional thought as self-referential over-interpretations of actual sensory perceptions, as opposed to hallucinations.[1][5]

      link to: - https://boffosocko.com/2022/05/14/55804938/ - Aby Warburg's coinage of Verknüpfungszwang

    1. I may not understand this right, but if I'm creating an original idea, who am I citing for? Maybe it's just something I never understood properly how that worked and that's the issue. Part of the reason I was asking if anyone knew of actual academic research that had been published while using a ZK was so I could see how it worked, in action.

      reply to u/ruthlessreuben at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/w5yz0n/comment/ihxojq0/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

      u/ruthlessreuben, as a historian, you're likely to appreciate some variations which aren't as Luhmann-centric. Try some of the following:

      The following note taking manuals (or which cover it in part) all bear close similarities to Luhmann's system, but were written by historians and related to the ideas of "historical method":

      Although she's a sociologist, you might also appreciate Beatrice Webb's coverage which also has some early database collection flavor:

      Webb, Sidney, and Beatrice Webb. Methods of Social Study. London; New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1932. http://archive.org/details/b31357891.

    1. Note taking should serve a specific purpose; it should be a means to some end.

    2. Note taking can also be done to create a database (a la Beatrice Webb's scientific note taking).

    3. Writing permanent notes was time consuming as f***.

      The framing of "permanent notes" or "evergreen notes" has probably hurt a large portion of the personal knowledge management space. Too many people are approaching these as some sort of gold standard without understanding their goal or purpose. Why are you writing such permanent/evergreen notes? Unless you have an active goal to reuse a particular note for a specific purpose, you're probably wasting your time. The work you put into the permanent note is to solidify an idea which you firmly intend to reuse again in one or more contexts. The whole point of "evergreen" as an idea is that it can actively be reused multiple times in multiple places. If you've spent time refining it to the nth degree and writing it well, then you had better be doing so to reuse it.

      Of course many writers will end up (or should end up) properly contextualizing individual ideas and example directly into their finished writing. As a result, one's notes can certainly be rough and ready and don't need to be highly polished because the raw idea will be encapsulated somewhere else and then refined and rewritten directly into that context.

      Certainly there's some benefit for refining and shaping ideas down to individual atomic cores so that they might be used and reused in combination with other ideas, but I get the impression that some think that their notes need to be highly polished gems. Even worse, they feel that every note should be this way. This is a dreadful perspective.

      For context I may make 40 - 60 highlights and annotations on an average day of reading. Of these, I'll review most and refine or combine a few into better rougher shape. Of this group maybe 3 - 6 will be interesting enough to turn into permanent/evergreen notes of some sort that might be reused. And even at this probably only one is interesting enough to be placed permanently into my zettelkasten. This one will likely be an aggregation of many smaller ideas combined with other pre-existing ideas in my collection; my goal is to have the most interesting and unique of my own ideas in my permanent collection. The other 2 or 3 may still be useful later when I get to the creation/writing stage when I'll primarily focus on my own ideas, but I'll use those other rougher notes and the writing in them to help frame and recontextualize the bigger ideas so that the reader will be in a better place to understand my idea, where it comes from, and why it might be something they should find interesting.

      Thus some of my notes made while learning can be reused in my own ultimate work to help others learn and understand my more permanent/evergreen notes.

      If you think that every note you're making should be highly polished, refined, and heavily linked, then you're definitely doing this wrong. Hopefully a few days of attempting this will disabuse you of the notion and you'll slow down to figure out what's really worth keeping and maintaining. You can always refer back to rough notes if you need to later, but polishing turds is often thankless work. Sadly too many misread or misunderstand articles and books on the general theory of note taking and overshoot the mark thinking that the theory needs to be applied to every note. It does not.

      If you find that you're tiring of making notes and not getting anything out of the process, it's almost an assured sign that you're doing something wrong. Are you collecting thousands of ideas (bookmarking behavior) and not doing anything with them? Are you refining and linking low level ideas of easy understanding and little value? Take a step back and focus on the important and the new. What are you trying to do? What are you trying to create?

    4. The few notes I did refer back to frequently where checklists, self-written instructions to complete regular tasks, lists (reading lists, watchlists, etc.) or recipes. Funnily enough the ROI on these notes was a lot higher than all the permanent/evergreen/zettel notes I had written.

      Notes can be used for different purposes.

      • productivity
      • Knowledge
        • basic sense-making
        • knowledge construction and dispersion

      The broad distinction is between productivity goals and knowledge. (Is there a broad range I'm missing here within the traditions?) You can take notes about projects that need to be taken care of, lists of things to do, reminders of what needs to be done. These all fall within productivity and doing and checking them off a list will help one get to a different place or location and this can be an excellent thing, particularly when the project was consciously decided upon and is a worthy goal.

      Notes for knowledge sake can be far more elusive for people. The value here generally comes with far more planning and foresight towards a particular goal. Are you writing a newsletter, article, book, or making a video or performance of some sort (play, movie, music, etc.)? Collecting small pieces of these things on a pathway is then important as you build your ideas and a structure toward some finished product.

      Often times, before getting to this construction phase, one needs to take notes to be able to scaffold their understanding of a particular topic. Once basically understood some of these notes may be useless and not need to be reviewed, or if they are reviewed, it is for the purpose of ensconcing ideas into long term memory. Once this is finished, then the notes may be broadly useless. (This is why it's simple to "hide them with one's references/literature notes.) Other notes are more seminal towards scaffolding ideas towards larger projects for summarization and dissemination to other audiences. If you're researching a topic, a fair number of your notes will be used to help you understand the basics while others will help you to compare/contrast and analyze. Notes you make built on these will help you shape new structures and new, original thoughts. (note taking for paradigm shifts). These then can be used (re-used) when you write your article, book, or other creative project.

    5. I used Apple Notes, Evernote, Roam, Obsidian, Bear, Notion, Anki, RemNote, the Archive and a few others. I was pondering about different note types, fleeting, permanent, different organisational systems, hierarchical, non-hierarchical, you know the deal. I often felt lost about what to takes notes on and what not to take notes on.

      Example of someone falling prey to shiny object syndrome, switching tools incessantly, then focusing on too many of the wrong things/minutiae and getting lost in the shuffle.

      Don't get caught up into this. Understand the basics of types of notes, but don't focus on them. Let them just be. Does what you've written remind you of the end goal?

    1. I'd been looking at it like a collection of knowledge. A collection that has no purpose apart from... being a collection. But Zettelkasten should be a place for creativity, playing with ideas with output as the goal (at least for me). It should be fun. And managing it definitely shouldn't take more time than using it for your purposes.

      u/ittspelledsindi

    1. I'm not actually setting a productivity goal, I'm just tracking metadata because it's related to my research. Of which the ZettelKasten is one subject.That being said, in your other post you point to "Quality over Quantity" what, in your opinion, is a quality note?Size? Number of Links? Subjective "goodness"?

      reply to u/jordynfly at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/13b0b5c/comment/jjcu3cn/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

      I'm curious what your area of research is? What are you studying with respect to Zettelkasten?

      Caveat notetarius. Note collections are highly idiosyncratic to the user or intended audience, thus quality will vary dramatically on the creator's needs and future desires and potential uses. Contemporaneous, very simple notes can be valuable for their initial sensemaking and quite often in actual practice stop there.

      Ultimately, only the user can determine perceived quality and long term value for themselves. Future generations of historians, anthropologists, scholars, and readers, might also find value in notes and note collections, but it seems rare that the initial creators have written them with future readers and audiences in mind. Often they're less useful as the external reader is missing large swaths of context.

      For my own personal notes, I consider high quality notes to be well-sourced, highly reusable, easily findable, and reasonably tagged/linked. My favorite, highest quality notes are those that are new ideas which stem from the combination of two high quality notes. With respect to subjectivity, some of my philosophy is summarized by one of my favorite meta-zettels (alt text also available) from zettelmeister Umberto Eco.

      Anecdotally, 95% of my notes are done digitally and in public, but I've only got scant personal evidence that anyone is reading or interacting with them. I never write them with any perceived public consumption in mind (beyond the readers of the finished pieces that ultimately make use of them), but it is often very useful to get comments and reactions to them. I'm only aware of a small handful of people publishing their otherwise personal note collections (usually subsets) to the web (outside of social media presences which generally have a different function and intent).

      Intellectual historians have looked at and documented external use cases of shared note collections, commonplace books, annotated volumes, and even diaries. There are even examples of published (usually posthumously) commonplace books, waste books, etc., but these are often for influential public and intellectual figures. Here Ludwig Wittgenstein's Zettel, Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project, Vladimir Nabokov's The Original of Laura, Roland Barthes' Mourning Diary, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg's Waste Books, Ralph Waldo Emmerson, Ronald Reagan's card index commonplace, Stobaeus' Anthology, W. H. Auden's A Certain World, and Robert Southey’s Common-Place Book come quickly to mind not to mention digitized scholarly collections of Niklas Luhmann, W. Ross Ashby, S.D. Goitein, Jonathan Edwards' Miscellanies, and Aby Warburg's notes. Some of these latter will give you an idea of what they may have thought quality notes to have been for them, but often they mean little if nothing to the unstudied reader because they lack broader context or indication of linkages.

    2. How big is your ZettelKasten? .t3_13b0b5c._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; }

      reply to u/jordynfly at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/13b0b5c/how_big_is_your_zettelkasten/

      The idea of notes per day comes up occasionally, here's some discussion on the last go-round: https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/11z08fq/comment/jdbnchv/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

      Many people, especially when getting started, get wrapped up in the idea of doing this for "increased productivity" or the goal of being as prolific as Niklas Luhmann. I would submit (and think others would back me up anecdotally) that there's far more to the practice than raw (or measurable) productivity as the single, driving value. Perhaps approach it as a way to sharpen and improve your thinking instead? If you're seeing life-like behavior already, that's a good sign of appreciating some of the hidden benefits which are difficult to describe and which are likely more valuable than the "productivity" goals many may have.

      I've noted before that S.D. Goitein had 1/3 less index cards than Luhmann over an equivalent research lifetime, but produced a 1/3 more written output (in terms of books and journal articles). Others like Aby Warburg and Gotthard Deutsch (70,000 notes) had significant practices, but their writing output was marginal at best, though their impact and influence were outsized, in part, I would suggest as a result of their zettelkasten work.

      Others like Roland Barthes (generally low card output of \~12,500) and Deutsch also used their fichier boîte/card index/zettelkasten as teaching tools, so while their written outputs may have varied considerably, their teaching practices were incredibly influential for the students and generations they encountered afterwards.

      This being said, I'll share my current easily countable lower bound dating roughly from 2016 as:

      • 15,200 notes
      • 32,000+ links
      • 2.1M words

      (Having a zk in digital form makes it reasonably easy to do these sorts of counts versus analog methods of note making.)

      Some additional pathways to learning and practicing, including my own, can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/11ay28d/how_did_you_teach_yourself_zettelkasten/

    3. Why are folks so obsessed with notes per day? Perhaps a proxy for toxic capitalism and productivity issues? Is the number of notes the best measure or the things they allow one to do after having made them? What is the best measure? Especially when there are those who use them for other purposes like lecturing, general growth, knowledge acquisition, or even happiness?

    1. I don't show my entire "ZK Stats" all the time. But you might be interested in this little snippet. It helps me keep on top of where the level of my zettelkasting moves. The 10-day and the 100-day workflow give me a trend that I can quickly compare with the "since day zero" to objectively feel my place in the world. This may sound grand, but from the current ZK Stats, I feel my ZK involvement is low because of class. This has been my experience of the periods where my coursework overwhelms my zettelkasting. Maybe overwhelm is too strong a word. I have created 63 notes tagged ENGL501 in the last 12 weeks. I watch this and expect it to rebound in a few weeks. Last year, on this day, I was at 20 notes in 10 days, 204 in 100 days, and 2.12 per day. Today I'm at 13 notes in the last ten days, 152 notes in 100 days, and I've dropped to 2.03 per day. This all can't be blamed on class pressures. Some of it concerns my growing disinterest in the mechanics of zettelkasting and just doing it.

      example of Will's notes output

      931447 total word count<br /> 16190 total link count<br /> 3279 total zettel count

      11 new zettel in the last 10 days<br /> 156 new zettel in the last 100 days<br /> 2.03 zettel created on average since day zero.

    1. Get some of the lowest ad prices while protecting your brand with a system backed by Verity and Grapeshot. Rest easy that your ads will only show up where you’d like them to.

      Is there a word or phrase in the advertising space which covers the filtering out of websites and networks which have objectionable material one doesn't want their content running against?

      Contextual intelligence seems to be one...

      Apparently the platforms Verity and Grapeshot (from Oracle) protect against this.

    2. https://jetpack.com/blaze/

      Looks like Jetpack is getting into the ad space leveraging WordPress.com and Tumblr.com with a product called "Blaze".

      Saw this by an ad in my own website back end as a result of the Jetpack plugin with a text ad that read:

      Reach more people across millions of sites. Promote your content on the WordPress.com and Tumblr ad network using Blaze.

    1. Tagging and linking with AI (Napkin.one) by Nicole van der Hoeven

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2E3gRXiLYY

      Nicole underlines the value of a good user interface for traversing one's notes. She'd had issues with tagging things in Obsidian using their #tag functionality, but never with their [[WikiLink]] functionality. Something about the autotagging done by Napkin's artificial intelligence makes the process easier for her. Some of this may be down to how their user interface makes it easier/more intuitive as well as how it changes and presents related notes in succession.

      Most interesting however is the visual presentation of notes and tags in conjunction with an outliner for taking one's notes and composing a draft using drag and drop.

      Napkin as a visual layer over tooling like Obsidian, Logseq, et. al. would be a much more compelling choice for me in terms of taking my pre-existing data and doing something useful with it rather than just creating yet another digital copy of all my things (and potentially needing sync to keep them up to date).

      What is Napkin doing with all of their user's data?

    1. I am an art theory student and started in Zettelkasten in February. I knew about Warburg moodboards of images but only now I realized that he was using zettelkasten too. Thats nice to know.

      reply to cristinadias7 at https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/comment/17804/#Comment_17804

      @cristinadias7 If you're interested in the overlap of zettelkasten and art or even zettelkasten for art, I've got a small collection available digitally if you think it would be useful/helpful.

      Some artworks are difficult to index on physical cards because of their physical nature, so if it helps and you don't have pictures available to file away, you can index their storage locations the way libraries would index "realia" and keep your notes on them there. Twyla Tharpe kept actual objects in larger boxes by categories which is another fascinating way of doing things.

    1. https://www.napkin.one/

      Yet another collection app that belies the work of taking, making, and connecting notes.

      Looks pretty and makes a promise, but how does it actually deliver? How much work and curation is involved? What are the outputs at the other end?

    2. Circling back around to this after a mention by Tim Bushell at Dan Allosso's Book Club this morning. Nicole van der Hoeven has been using it for a while now and has several videos.

      Though called Napkin, which conjures the idea of (wastebook) notes scribbled on a napkin, is a card-based UI which has both manual and AI generated tags in a constellation-like UI. It allows creating "stacks" of notes which are savable and archivable in an outline-esque form (though the outline doesn't appear collapsible) as a means of composition.

      It's got a lot of web clipper tooling for saving and some dovetails for bringing in material from Readwise, but doesn't have great data export (JSON, CSV) at the moment. (Not great here means that one probably needs to do some reasonably heavy lifting to do the back and forth with other tools and may require programming skills.)

      At present, it looks like just another tool in the space but could be richer with better data dovetailing with other services.

    1. Johnson, Dirk. “Book Lovers Fear Dim Future for Notes in the Margins.” The New York Times, February 21, 2011, sec. Books. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/books/21margin.html.

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

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

      This is a fascinating bit of reading practice.

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

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

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

    4. In the 20th century it mostly came to be regarded like graffiti: something polite and respectful people did not do.AdvertisementContinue reading the main storyPaul F. Gehl, a curator at the Newberry, blamed generations of librarians and teachers for “inflicting us with the idea” that writing in books makes them “spoiled or damaged.”
    5. association copies — books once owned or annotated by the authors

      An association copy is a copy of a book which belonged to the author or someone connected to them or a copy of a book that once belonged to someone particularly associated with its contents, often annotated.


      I've got association copies of some information theory texts...

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

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

    2. the Openmargin iPad app announced in late April (http://www.the- digital-reader.com/2011/04/28/openmargin-brings-margin-notes-to-life/) looks very interesting.
    3. The Readum app (readum.com) does something similar (Google Book to Facebook).

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

    4. It became extremely easy to highlight passages and add notes, which are then situated in the text I'm reading but also pulled together into my Kindle account on Amazon where I can, for instance, share them with students in a course, fellow members of a book discussion group, family, and friends…even, in theory, with enemies.  I’ll rebut and rebuke them with my rapier marginalia.

      this last bit is poetry of a fascinating sort...

    5. reading with pen in hand
    6. Coleridge was such a renowned marginaliac that his friends would actually lend their books to him so that he could scribble in the margins.  Studs Turkel expected the books he loaned to friends to come back with additional marks made by friendly fingers.
    7. Coleridge, Melville, Twain, David Foster Wallace, and a host of others made marginalia into a form of literary expression.

      Marginalia is a form of literary expression.

    1. Unlike most books published today, Library of America volumes bend all the way back without cracking the spine or endangering the binding. Series volumes feature Smyth-sewn binding, the most durable—and the most expensive—commercial process available. In addition, two pieces of material are added to reinforce the spine of each book. If you bend a book all the way back, you’ll see the piece of “crash” (a gray, heavy-duty Kraft paper). Hidden underneath the crash is a wrap of “super,” an extremely strong and very flexible open-mesh fabric affixed with adhesive to the front and back case, to the endsheets, and to the sewn-together signatures. Note how the edges of signatures stay perfectly aligned while the cloth of the spine bends in an optimal “semi-round” shape.
    2. Most publishers save money in the printing and binding process by arranging the pages on the sheet perpendicular to the direction that the roll of paper travels through the press. The Library of America requires that the pages be printed in the direction of the paper’s grain. “Printing with the grain” keeps the binding from crackling when the book is opened (you can actually hear the difference), ensures the durability of the binding, and allows the book to lie completely flat.

      Book pages should be printed in the direction of the paper's grain. This does three things: improves the durability of the binding, allows the book to lie completely flat, and keeps the binding from crackling when opened.

    1. Arno Schmidt compulsively wrote and hoarded scraps of text on index cards, which he cataloged meticulously. 130,000 of these were compiled together to form the basis for his magnum opus "Bottom's Dream". The German word for an index card is "Zettel". .t3_1267heb._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; }

      reply to https://www.reddit.com/r/Arno_Schmidt/comments/1267heb/arno_schmidt_compulsively_wrote_and_hoarded/

      Schmidt's zettelkasten (the direct English translation would be slip box thought card index is more appropriate) (or most likely only portions of it) was featured in the 2013 "Zettelkästen. Maschinen der Phantasie" exhibition in Marbach: https://www.dla-marbach.de/presse/presse-details/news/pm-11-2013/. For the interested, the exhibition did publish a book which will likely have more details, but when I looked about a year ago, it was only available in German.

      There is a lot of research on zettelkasten methods, which are most often variations of the commonplace book method transferred into the index card or slip form rather than books/notebooks. I've not looked intensively at Schmidt's practice (yet), but it was likely similar to that of Victor Margolin outlined here, though in Margolin's case it was non-fiction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxyy0THLfuI. Vladimir Nabokov and Michael Ende are other writers who used similar methods.

      There's some more examples/detail about the idea of zettelkasten (aka card indexes) in general on Wikipedia.

    1. Josh Sargent, a member of the Akwesasne Mohawk community in upstate New York, where Hoover researched the impact of industrial contamination in the St. Lawrence River for her dissertation, said she’s “a good person and always welcome here.” Debates about her identity seem to be taking place in the “bubble of academia,” he said, while the real challenges facing Native people are being overlooked. He said she’s doing important work, and her book, “The River Is in Us,” accurately depicted the environmental harm suffered by his community. “I hope people read it.”

      An important question here: her identity may not have been completely authentic, but is this a reason not to heed and consider her work on its own merit?

      How do any of us really know our identities?

    2. But in recent months, she’s been labeled a “Pretendian,” a high-profile figure in academia, publishing or entertainment who is accused of using a false Native American identity for money, fame or professional opportunities.
    1. Tinderbox Meetup - Sunday, May 7, 2023: Connect with Sönke Ahrens live, the author of How to Take Smart Notes

      Sunday, May 7, 2023, 12:00 noon Eastern Time (US and Canada)<br /> 9 AM Pacific Time<br /> Zoom link for the meetup: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8850659900?pwd=ZE9ROUs1czNiK2FTTStjTUJuVkIydz09 4

      Agenda This one is going to be fun! Sönke Ahrens, the author of How to Take Smart Notes 12 will join our meetup on May 7th. Let’s start a thread on what we’d like to review with him. The meetup is not for a couple of weeks. If you have the time, I highly suggest you grab a copy and give it a read.

      https://forum.eastgate.com/t/tinderbox-meetup-sunday-may-7-2023-connect-with-sonke-ahrens-live-the-author-of-how-to-take-smart-notes/6636/1

    1. Ddanielson @hjertnes Absolutely correct. Then I end up hoarding what Nock Co. cards I have left. cc: @brad

      @Ddanielson @brad We have lots of fountain pen reviewers online🖋️. How can we normalize more/better index card reviews? Maybe even sommelier-style reviews that pair fountain pens with index cards: "You might appreciate this Stockroom Plus gridded card paired with your Montblanc Meisterstück" or "Roland Barthes would have gushed over these green Bristol cards with the TWSBI Diamond in Prussian Blue for his fichier vert." Also who's making Tomoe River paper in card stock thickness?!?

      Incidentally, index cards + bullet journal = Memindex might be your sort of rabbit hole @hjertnes?

    1. For $1,900.00 ?

      reply to rogerscrafford at tk

      Fine furniture comes at a fine price. 🗃️🤩 I suspect that it won't sell for quite a while and one could potentially make an offer at a fraction of that to take it off their hands. It might bear considering that if one had a practice large enough to fill half or more, then that price probably wouldn't seem too steep for the long term security and value of the contents.

      On a price per card of storage for some of the cheaper cardboard or metal boxes you're going to pay about $0.02-0.03 per card, but you'd need about 14 of those to equal this and those aren't always easy to stack and access regularly. With this, even at the full $1,900, you're looking at storage costs of $0.10/card, but you've got a lot more ease of use which will save you a lot of time and headache as more than adequate compensation, particularly if you're regularly using the approximately 20,400 index cards it would hold. Not everyone has the same esthetic, but I suspect that most would find that this will look a lot nicer in your office than 14 cheap cardboard boxes. That many index cards even at discount rates are going to cost you about $825 just in cards much less beautiful, convenient, and highly usable storage.

      Even for some of the more prolific zettelkasten users, this sort of storage is about 20 years of use and if you compare it with $96/year for Notion or $130/year for Evernote, you're probably on par for cost either way, but at least with the wooden option, you don't have to worry about your note storage provider going out of business a few years down the line. Even if you go the "free" Obsidian route, with computers/storage/backups over time, you're probably not going to come out ahead in the long run. It's not all apples to apples comparison and there are differences in some of the affordances, but on balance and put into some perspective, it's probably not the steep investment it may seem.

      And as an added bonus, while you're slowly filling up drawers, as a writer you might appreciate the slowly decreasing wine/whiskey bottle storage over time? A 5 x 8 drawer ought to fit three bottles of wine or as many fifths of Scotch. It'll definitely accommodate a couple of magnums of Jack Daniels. 🥃🍸🍷My experience also tells me that an old fashioned glass can make a convenient following block in card index boxes.

      A crystal old fashioned glass serves as a following block to some index cards and card dividers in a Shaw-Walker card index box (zettelkasten). On the table next to the index are a fifth of Scotch (Glenmorangie) and a bowl of lemons.

    1. WD-40 for Crinkle Finish Typewriters — Does it work??

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz1t6QtARyI

      WD-40, which has paraffin wax as an ingredient, can be brushed onto the crinkle finish of a typewriter to clean it up and give it some shine. Use a rag to wipe off excess and take care not to get any in the segment comb. The difference on a generally clean typewriter appears to be negligible and primarily results in a WD-40 smell.

      Would something like Armor All work better? Car wax might also work as well. Powder coating polish could work, but it may act as a gentle abrasive as it is also meant to lift stains.

    1. Typewriter Cleaning and Repair Basics #3 Bell Fixed

      Keep in mind that some typewriters don't have hard mechanical margin stops, but rely on the user to hear the bell to know the margin is approaching and return the line manually.

      Bell hammer mechanisms may simply need to be cleaned to get them into functioning order. Dirt and grime may prevent the hammer mechanism from having enough force to strike the bell. Beyond this replacing the spring may be necessary.

    1. Typewriter Cleaning and Repair Basics #2 Type Bars, Case, and Crinkle Finish

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82O_iUAI5og


      Segment comb cleaning - isopropyl alcohol (gentler solvent) - odorless mineral spirits - Lacquer thinner (maybe a bit too aggressive) - naphtha (lighter fluid) take care for flammability and ventilation

      Work solvent into bearing between type bar and segment comb. To dry things out one can used compressed air when done or just air dry.

      If sticking keys not due to being gummed up, bend portions slightly for better alighment.

      Do not lubricate the segment comb.

      Only lubricate the carriage rails when necessary.

      Exterior cleaning

      Brass bristle or nylon bristle brushes (toothbrushes) can be used to clean the exterior of the typewriter and/or cases with mild detergents or other solvents. Depending on the finish, try the brush and solvent on a small portion to determine colorfastness and potential scratching first.

    1. Typewriter Cleaning and Repair Basics #1 Assessment and Testing

      Recommends against any lubrication on the key mechanism, just keep it clean. Lubrication in some cases may actually gum up the works and cause the keys to return slowly.

      He suggests Krud Kutter as a cleaner/degreaser.

    1. A repository, especially of knowledge or information.

      https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alveary

      This could be a fine English translation of the German word Zettelkasten.

      The relationship to bees here is fascinating with respect to the commonplace tradition as well.

    1. Alternative numbering and classifications .t3_132o4w7._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; } Although Wikipedia Outline of academic disciplines seems like an ok place to start, it seems not ideal. Are there any guides I could use to develop my own numbering? I'm a historian, so treating it as a subcategory is not ideal, especially given how diverse this field is when it comes to its scope (what I mean by that is that you can divide history into many subcategories by period, field, geography etc.) I've taken a look at Propædia, which provides some interesting categories, but again, some of which are no interest to me (in terms of making notes about them).TLDR; Do you have any times for developing personal numbering system for your notes using decimal system? I'm developing ideas for my thesis and future dissertation, so I could arrange my notes around categories that, but I'd like to still have place for notes outside this spectrum (ideas for future papers etc.).

      reply to u/zielkarz at https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/132o4w7/alternative_numbering_and_classifications/

      Assigning random decimal numbers is more than adequate and is roughly what you'll have in the long term anyway... see https://boffosocko.com/2022/10/27/thoughts-on-zettelkasten-numbering-systems/ for some of what I've written on this before.

      Because of the way that the topology of dense sets work in the real (decimal) numbers, any topic you give a number can be made arbitrarily close to any other topic you choose. As a result the numbers you choose are generally inconsequential, so simply choose something that you feel makes sense to you.

    1. Words that people on Twitter don't think are words.I wrote a little script that runs every day. It searches the Twitter API for tweets containing the words, "is not a word". Each (non)word is then looked up using the Wordnik API. If we don't have any definitions for the word, it makes the cut and ends up on this list.
  2. Apr 2023
    1. Catalog cards were 2 by 5 inches (5 cm × 13 cm); the Harvard College size.

      Early library card catalogs used cards that were 2 x 5" cards, the Harvard College size, before the standardization of 3 x 5" index cards.

    2. Each book was assigned a call number which identified the subject and location, with a decimal point dividing different sections of the call number.

      Why do people not generally use the name "call number" when referring to the numbers on their Niklas Luhmann-esque zettelkasten cards?

    1. A writer collective is a set of editorial and financial structures designed to give writers the autonomy and upside that they get from writing alone, and the support and security they get from working for a media company. 

      If the "whole is greater than the sum of its parts" who benefits from the excess value and how is that economically broken up in a fair manner?