The mainstream adoption of intelligent assistants like Siri and Alexa demonstrated that even scripted agents could be breakout consumer hits.
Johnson states that Alexa and Siri are breakout consumer hits, but Amazon is actively scaling back it's Alexa teams and products as the devices haven't been as popular as we might otherwise expect. Siri is fine, but it's bundled into the already popular iPhone without an explicit choice.
The supercomputer complex in Iowa is running a program created by OpenAI, an organization established in late 2015 by a handful of Silicon Valley luminaries, including Elon Musk; Greg Brockman, who until recently had been chief technology officer of the e-payment juggernaut Stripe; and Sam Altman, at the time the president of the start-up incubator Y Combinator.
ChatGPT Is Dumber Than You Think<br /> by Ian Bogost
GPT and other large language models are aesthetic instruments rather than epistemological ones. Imagine a weird, unholy synthesizer whose buttons sample textual information, style, and semantics. Such a thing is compelling not because it offers answers in the form of text, but because it makes it possible to play text—all the text, almost—like an instrument.
ChatGPT as an instrument that allows one to play text like an instrument.
We are drowning in an ocean of content, desperate for form’s life raft.
example of information overload
We're already drowning in information overload, but ChatGPT wants to increase the tsunami! Where is the tool that compresses and concatenates?
talking to ChatGPT began to feel like every other interaction one has on the internet, where some guy (always a guy) tries to convert the skim of a Wikipedia article into a case of definitive expertise. Except ChatGPT was always willing to admit that it was wrong.
What do you guys think of this note taking style? (Just follow the arrows from one box to another)
reply to u/mouseVed at https://www.reddit.com/r/NoteTaking/comments/11xu4vh/what_do_you_guys_think_of_this_note_taking_style/
Looks a tad messy to me, but I'm not the audience for it, you are. Some additional empty space on the page could potentially help. If this style works for you, perhaps take a look at the sketchnotes space. This book might be a good place to start (especially the sections on Visual Direction, Headers, and Layouts:<br /> Mills, Emily. The Art of Visual Notetaking: An Interactive Guide to Visual Communication and Sketchnoting. Illustrated edition. Walter Foster Publishing, 2019.
If you're keen on location as a key to memory and learning, you should also take a look at the idea of the 'method of loci'/memory palaces/songlines. The best modern coverage of this and various methods can be found in:<br /> Kelly, Lynne. Memory Craft: Improve Your Memory Using the Most Powerful Methods from around the World. Pegasus Books, 2019.
https://twitter.com/raulpacheco/status/1067406555455389697 by Raul Pacheco-Vega
See also related blog post with most of the contents of this thread. (I just read it before this.)
I also “thread” index cards, particularly when they’re all associated with the same journal article or book chapter (or book). Note that I number my index cards “1/“, “2/“, until I know the total number of cards I will use. To store them, I collate them with a paper clip.
https://www.pikeschool.org/uploaded/Library/Files/takingnotesusingnotecards.pdf
found via:
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>Here are a few links to resources (in PDF format) to different models, strategies and techniques to take notes in index cards: https://t.co/tIVaeRA5nS and https://t.co/1CLkiyekzq
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) November 26, 2018
Note-taking techniques I: The index card method<br /> by Raul Pacheco-Vega
What does his full collection look like? Does he have a larger filing cabinet or boxes or are they all smaller modular boxes?
How does he handle the variety of sizes here? Particularly the differences between 4 x 6 and 5 x 8 as it sounds like he may use them similarly outside of their size difference.
Pacheco-Vega uses 3 x 5, 4 x 6, and 5 x 8" index cards for various needs/purposes, meaning he breaks the guideline for using "cards of equal size". Though in his description it sounds like he files cards separately by size.
Raul Pacheco-Vega uses five different types of index cards (notes): - direct quotations - bibliographic references - one idea index card (a major idea or them in one or two sentences) - summaries - combined (or content) index card
How do you store and classify index cards? I usually have boxes that fit my index cards, and add a plastic tab with the reference in Author (Date) format. Other people use different classification systems (by keyword, by topic, by author). I just recommend that the process be consistent across.
Pacheco-Vega stores his card with plastic tabs labeled by the references rather than by keyword or topic.
He does recommend consistency in filing though.
the Content Index Card is a combination type of index card that includes direct quotations, draft notes and ideas, conceptual diagrams, etc. that are all associated with the main article, book chapter or book discussed in the index card. I use larger (5″ x 8″) index cards for those cases.
Pacheco-Vega defines a "combined" or "content index card" or one might say a content note as a one with "direct quotations, draft notes and ideas, conceptual diagrams, etc. that are associated with" the work in question. These seem similar to Ahrens' fleeting notes, though seem a bit more fleshed out.
The One Idea Index Card
Some people recommend writing JUST ONE IDEA/quotation per index card. I don’t do this. I use 1 index card per article, and per book chapter. If a book has 9 chapters I write one for each chapter (more of chapter is very dense). via embedded tweet: https://twitter.com/raulpacheco/status/1067406555455389697
Hawk Sugano has shared his Pile of Index Cards (PoIC) method as well.
Interesting to see a passing mention of Hawk Sugano's Pile of Index Cards here in a note taking context rather than a productivity one.
I will share my processes to take notes using different methods. The very first method I use is the Index Cards Method.
Professor Raul Pacheco-Vega calls his note taking process the "Index Cards Method" and only subtly differentiates it from Niklas Luhmann's zettelkasten method.
https://www.tiktok.com/@bronwenlewismusic/video/7103936171306142981<br /> Running up that Hill
How to Write a Thesis (Umberto Eco) - my reading notes<br /> by Raul Pacheco-Vega
perfunctory positive review; no great insight
Schiller, Melanie. “Ahrens, S. (2017). How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers.” Journal of Writing Research 9, no. 2 (October 15, 2017): 227–31. https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2017.09.02.05.
Since Luhmann’s system of the slip box is well-known, Ahrens’ valuable contribution lies less in providing an innovative technique of note-taking and the organization of academic writing, but more in reflecting critically on the very nature of writing as a medium of knowledge generation.
I think that by saying "Luhmann's system of the slip box is well-known", Stephanie Schiller is not talking about his specific box or his specific method, but the broader rhetorical method of the ars excerpendi and note taking in general. There isn't a whole lot of evidence to indicate that, except for a small segment of sociologists who may have know his work, that Luhmann's slip box was specifically well known at all up to the point of Ahrens' book.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/115727768658
The Shaw=Walker Card Systems catalogue from circa 1899.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/155447667554
This Catalog has a page with the various sizes of card catalog boxes available from Cole Steel in 1950s. The external sizes can be useful for placing the individual card sizes for some of these boxes on the secondary market.
They also include approximate card capacities.
I agree with Ahrens that most writing books teach you about making time to write (Zeruvabel), taking it easy with your writing (Jensen), writing properly and without bullshit (Bernoff), producing text (Dunleavy, Kamler & Thomson), but very few if any teach note-taking FOR WRITING
Raul Pacheco-Vega 2018-11-29 https://twitter.com/raulpacheco/status/1068166332947021825
Some excellent references on writing and their strengths. Heavy focus on academic writing.
(via longer thread starting with https://twitter.com/raulpacheco/status/1325630582894850048?lang=en)
If I have many notes, is it more effective to load into chapters, or into ZK, organise, then load into chapters? .t3_11xcnqg._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; }
reply to u/jaybestnz https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/11xcnqg/if_i_have_many_notes_is_it_more_effective_to_load/
Part of the benefit of having a Luhmann-esque structured ZK, which is what I'm presuming your definition of a zettelkasten is, is that you're doing some of the interconnecting and building links and structures along the way. Instead, you'll now be doing that work after the fact and en-masse.
The underlying question is: do you plan on keeping and maintaining a more Luhmann-esque zettelkasten after your book? If you do, then it may be useful to take that step, otherwise, you're likely doing additional work that you may not see benefit from.
Making some broad assumptions about what you may have so far... If you've got physical index cards, things will be easier to collate and arrange. In your case, the closest (easy) workflow is that of Ryan Holiday who outlines his process in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU7efgGEOgk
Beyond this, your next best bets might be informed by:
If you prefer your writing structural advice in written form, then perhaps you're already in the latter part of the process broadly described by Umberto Eco in How to Write a Thesis (MIT, 2015).
I find that last claim highly unlikely. If you walk through a bog, you get bogged down. That's where the phrase comes from, Magnus.
In re: Last lines of: https://www.nb.admin.ch/snl/en/home/about-us/sla/insights-outlooks/einsichten---aussichten-2012/aus-dem-nachlass-von-james-peter-zollinger.html
Google translate does a reasonable job on translating it as 'getting bogged down' but the original sich ‹verzettelt› would mean roughly to "get lost in the slips", perhaps in a way similar to Anatole France's novel Penguin Island (L’Île des Pingouins. Calmann-Lévy, 1908) but without the storm or the death.
A native and bi-lingual German speaker might be better at explaining it, but this is a useful explanation of the prefix (sich) ver- : https://yourdailygerman.com/german-prefix-ver-meaning/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/11uibsm/zettelkasten_or_hopeless_paper_chaos/
I guess a collection of notes is now a zettelkasten.
Don't be blinded by availability bias. It was historically almost always thus! Especially in Germany. (The French have traditionally called it a fichier boîte and in English it's the card index.) It's only been since the rise in popularity of the use of the German word in English (beginning in late 2013 with zettelkasten.de) where it has almost always been associated with Niklas Luhmann that has has most people now associating Luhmann's method with the word Zettelkasten.
If you look back at the 2013 exhibition "Zettelkästen. Machines of Fantasy" at the Museum of Modern Literature, Marbach am Neckar, you'll notice that there were six zettelkasten featured there including those of Arno Schmidt, Walter Kempowski, Friedrich Kittler, Aby Warburg, Paul, Blumenberg, and Luhmann. Of those, the structure of Luhmann's was the exception which wasn't primarily organized broadly by subject heading. You'll also find some historians and sociologists organizing theirs by date or geographic regions as well as other custom arrangements as their needs and work might dictate.
The preponderance of books talking about these note taking methods suggest a topic heading arrangement for filing, including the book by Johnannes Erich Heyde from which Luhmann's son has indicated he learned an old technique from which he evolved his own practice.
See also:
The Two Definitions of Zettelkasten https://boffosocko.com/2022/10/22/the-two-definitions-of-zettelkasten/
Heyde, Johannes Erich. Technik des wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens: zeitgemässe Mittel und Verfahrungsweisen. Junker und Dünnhaupt, 1931.
Rarely does a week go by that I don't run across another new/significant example of a zettelkasten. Thanks u/atomicnotes for keeping up the pace with James Peter Zollinger. (Though this week may be a twofer given my notes on Ludwig Wittgenstein's over the last few days.)
Aus dem Nachlass von James Peter Zollinger<br /> Swiss National Library NL
ᔥ u/atomicnotes in r/Zettelkasten - Zettelkasten, or "hopeless paper chaos"? <br /> (accessed:: 2023-03-20 04:49:15)
The Mountains of Pi
Not sure of the truth of the story either @Josh, but thanks for the trip down memory lane. My math teacher gave me that article when I was in the 12th grade because he knew I had been variously killing time in his math classes since 9th grade memorizing the first 8,000 digits of pi and reading for fun.
Universities are factories of human knowledge. They’re also monuments to individual ignorance.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/03/opinion/college-learning-students-success.html
ChatGPT Can't Kill Anything Worth Preserving<br /> by John Warner
Writing is rewarding. Writing is empowering. Writing is even fun. As human, we are wired to communicate. We are also wired for “play.” Under the right circumstances, writing allows us to do both of these things at the same time.
In a piece like this, writing is the expression and exploration of an idea (or collection of ideas). It is only through the writing that I can fully understand what I think.
one of the things I value about writing, is the act of writing itself. It is an embodied process that connects me to my own humanity, by putting me in touch with my mind, the same way a vigorous hike through the woods can put me in touch with my body.
If we assume students want to learn - and I do - we should show our interest in their learning, rather than their performance.
Value the process, rather than the product.
Good writing is often about practices and process to arrive at an end product and not just the end product itself.
Writing is a means to an end, but most don't have the means to begin with.
Writing with a card index, zettelkasten, commonplace book or other related tools can dramatically help almost any writer because it provides them with a means from the start rather than facing a blank page and having to produce whole cloth in bulk.
https://openai.com/product/dall-e-2
DALL·E 2 is an AI system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language.
See also: https://www.moreincommon.com/
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Zettel. Edited by Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe and Georg Henrik von Wright,. Translated by G. E. M. Anscombe. Second California Paperback Printing. 1967. Reprint, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 2007.
annotation target: urn:x-pdf:15f4a1e48274f28b55eb6f8411c1ff1c
we have supplied the missingwords from the original typescript where we could; once wehad to supply the last few words ourselves.
Important caveat here....
After most of the typed fragments had been traced to theirsources, comparison of them with their original forms, togetherwith certain physical features, shewed clearly that Wittgensteindid not merely keep these fragments, but worked on them,altered and polished them in their cut-up condition. This sug-gested that the addition of separate MS pieces to the box wascalculated; the whole collection had a quite different characterfrom the various bundles of more or less 'stray' bits of writingwhich were also among his Nachlass.
Nachlass
Nachlass<br /> : a German word, used in academia to describe the collection of manuscripts, notes, correspondence, and so on left behind when a scholar dies.
compounding of nach as "after", and the verb lassen meaning "to leave".
We were naturally at first rather puzzled to account for thisbox. Were its contents an accidental collection of left-overs?Was it a receptacle for random deposits of casual scraps ofwriting? Should the large works which were some of its sourcesbe published and it be left on one side?
This section makes me question whether or not the editors of this work were aware of the zettelkasten tradition?!?
Often fragments on the same topic were clipped together; butthere were also a large number lying loose in the box. Someyears ago Peter Geach made an arrangement of this material,keeping together what were in single bundles, and otherwisefitting the pieces as well as he could according to subject matter.This arrangement we have retained with a very few alterations
This brings up the question of how Ludwig Wittgenstein arranged his own zettelkasten...
Peter Geach made an arrangement of Wittgenstein's zettels which was broadly kept in the edited and published version Zettel (1967). Apparently fragments on the same topic were clipped together indicating that Wittgenstein's method was most likely by topical headings. However there were also a large number of slips "lying loose in the box." Perhaps these were notes which he had yet to file or which some intervening archivist may have re-arranged?
In any case, Geach otherwise arranged all the materials as best as he could according to subject matter. As a result the printed book version isn't necessarily the arrangement that Wittgenstein would have made, but the editors of the book felt that at least Geach's arrangement made it an "instructive and readable compilation".
This source doesn't indicate the use of alphabetical dividers or other tabbed divisions.
The earliest time of composition of any of these fragmentswas, so far as we can judge, 1929. The date at which the latestdatable fragment was written was August 1948. By far thegreatest number came from typescripts which were dictated from1945- 1948
Based on the dating provided by Anscombe and von Wright, Wittgenstein's zettelkasten slips dated from 1929 to 1948.
for reference LW's dates were 1889-1951
Supposing that the notes preceded the typescripts and not the other way around as Anscombe and von Wright indicate, the majority of the notes were turned into written work (typescripts) which were dictated from 1945-1948.
What was LW's process? Note taking, arranging/outlining, and then dictation followed by editing? Dictating would have been easier/faster certainly if he'd already written down his cards and could simply read from them to a secretary.
Others again were in manuscript,apparently written to add to the remarks on a particular matterpreserved in the box.
Some of the manuscript notes in Wittgenstein's zettelkasten were "apparently written to add to the remarks on a particular matter preserved in the box".ᔥ So much like Niklas Luhmann's wooden conversation partner, Wittgenstein was not only having conversations with the texts he was reading, he was creating a conversation between himself and his pre-existing notes thus extending his lines of thought within his zettelkasten.
. They were for the most partcut from extensive typescripts of his, other copies of which stillexist. Some few were cut from typescripts which we have notbeen able to trace and which it is likely that he destroyed but forthe bits that he put in the box.
In Zettel, the editors indicate that many of Wittgenstein's zettels "were for the most part cut from extensive typescripts of his, other copies of which still exist." Perhaps not knowing of the commonplace book or zettelkasten traditions, they may have mistook the notes in his zettelkasten as having originated in his typescripts rather than them having originated as notes which then later made it into his typescripts!
What in particular about the originals may have made them think it was typescript to zettel?
WB publish here a collection of fragments made by Wittgensteinhimself and left by him in a box-file
In 1967, G. E. M. Anscombe and G. H. von Wright published a collection of notes from Ludwig Wittgenstein's zettelkasten which they aptly titled Zettel.
from issue #4: ‘The Crate-Diggers’ Symposium’ (3: Marshall Wyatt)
No single volume can capture the entire scope of the music, but a good one to start with is Nick Tosches’ Where Dead Voices Gather.
So many of the prewar musicians that I admired, obscure and famous, all had experience playing in the medicine shows. This included black songsters like Frank Stokes and Pink Anderson, as well as seminal country artists like Jimmie Rodgers and Gene Autry. Even Hank Williams played the medicine shows.
There was ‘New Stop And Listen’ by the Mississippi Sheiks on Paramount 13134, one of the greatest violin blues records of all time—hell, it’s one of the greatest blues records, period.
Sam Charter’s LP anthology on Folkways, The Country Blues. This opened up a rabbit hole that still has no end. The LP was meant as a supplement to Charter’s book of the same name, although I didn’t read the book until much later. I first heard the album cold, with no historical context or biographical information. The music was stunning. ‘Careless Love’ by Lonnie Johnson I played over and over again. To this day I love Lonnie Johnson. There was ‘Fixin’ To Die’ by Bukka White and ‘Statesboro Blues’ by Blind Willie McTell. Masterpieces! These performances knocked my socks off. And Gus Cannon’s ‘Walk Right In’—I remembered that as a radio hit by the Rooftop Singers, only this was a thousand times better. The Country Blues anthology gave me an appetite to hear more of this stuff, and to find out more about these musicians.
Medicine shows became popular after the Civil War when patent medicine salesmen traveled the "kerosene circuit" in rural America. Flourishing until the passage of 1906 Fair Food and Drug Act made them obsolete, medicine shows provided entertainment to attract audiences and then used their intermissions to sell their products.
This pattern would later be seen in later radio and television when product pitchmen sponsored entertainment in return for commercial time.
(Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour, "Doctors," February 20, 2008 via http://www.oldhatrecords.com/)
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_show
Also related to tent revival shows which featured music and religion as entertainment and socializing.
Example in music: Neil Diamond's song: Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show
I love the fact that the image for "Research & History" here is a six drawer card index!
I found the format of these Hypothes.is notes to be much more readable than the notes on the same topic in Evernote.
https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/comment/17617#Comment_17617
There is definitely something here from a usability (and reusability) perspective when notes are broken down into smaller pieces the way that is encouraged by Hypothes.is or by writing on index cards.
Compare: - ://www.evernote.com/shard/s170/sh/d69cf793-1f14-48f4-bd48-43f41bd88678/DapavVTQh954eMRGKOVeEPHm7FxEqxBKvaKLfKWaSV1yuOmjREsMkSHvmQ - https://via.hypothes.is/https://www.otherlife.co/pkm/
The first may be most useful for a note taker who is personally trying to make sense of material, but it becomes a massive wall of text that one is unlikely to re-read or attempt to reuse at a later date. If they do attempt to reuse it at a later date, it's not clear which parts are excerpts of the original and which are the author's own words. (This page also looks like it's the sort of notes, highlighting, and underlining recommended by Tiago Forte's Building a Second Brain text using progressive summarization.)
The second set, are more concrete, more atomic, more understandable, and also as a result much more usable.
"Personal Knowledge Management Is Bullshit"
reply to jameslongley at https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/2532/personal-knowledge-management-is-bullshit
I find that these sorts of articles against the variety of practices have one thing in common: the writer fails to state a solid and realistic reason for why they got into it in the first place. They either have no reason "why" or, perhaps, just as often have all-the-reasons "why", which may be worse. Much of this is bound up in the sort of signaling and consumption which @Sascha outlines in point C (above).
Perhaps of interest, there are a large number of Hypothes.is annotations on that original article written by a variety of sense-makers with whom I am familiar. See: https://via.hypothes.is/https://www.otherlife.co/pkm/ Of note, many come from various note making traditions including: commonplace books, bloggers, writers, wiki creators, zettelkasten, digital gardening, writers, thinkers, etc., so they give a broader and relatively diverse perspective. If I were pressed to say what most of them have in common philosophically, I'd say it was ownership of their thought.
Perhaps it's just a point of anecdotal evidence, but I've been noticing that who write about or use the phrase "personal knowledge management" are ones who come at the space without an actual practice or point of view on what they're doing and why—they are either (trying to be) influencers or influencees.
Fortunately it is entirely possible to "fake it until you make it" here, but it helps to have an idea of what you're trying to make.
As if by magic<br /> by Helen Davies on 2000-05-08
Sue Hart, commissioning editor at Hodder and Stoughton, was "pretty pleased" when, in the months that followed a BBC2 broadcast about Thomas, she managed to persuade him to distil his magic on to a series of cassettes and CDs.
Sue Hart at Hodder & Stoughton was able to persuade Michel Thomas to create a series of language courses on cassettes and CDs following his BBC2 broadcast of The Language Master.
Michel Thomas method also includes: - atomic pieces built up as building blocks into larger pieces - lots of encouragement to prevent the feeling of failure
Downsides: - there is no failure mode which can nudge people into a false sense of performance when using their language with actual native speakers
This reviewer indicates that there is some base level of directed mnemonic work going on, but the repetition level isn't such that long term retention (at least in the space repetition sort of way) is a specific goal. We'll need to look into this piece more closely to firm this up, however.
The Michel Thomas Method in a nutshell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9Xh-by50pI
This video indicates that small mnemonic hooks are inserted for some words in the Michel Thomas method. This was not immediately apparent or seen in the 1997 BBC documentary about his method and wasn't immediately apparent in Harold Goodman's discussion.
Is it apparent in Goodman's session with his nephews? Was it part of Thomas' method originally or was it added later? Is it truly necessary or does it work without it as in the SSiW method which doesn't use it.
It will take some deeper dives, but ostensibly this method seems to look like that of Pimsleur, Mormon Church, SSiW, and other methods.
The Language Master<br /> BBC - Michel Thomas<br /> [English CC]<br /> [Leg. PT-BR]
Michel Thomas is one of the most brilliant language teachers in the world. His usual clients are movie stars and business leaders. This programme takes him to a Sixth Form College in London to work with school pupils, to test his claim that he can teach anyone a language in a week - with no reading, writing or homework. The film also explores his personal history - as a hero of the French Resistance during WW II.
The Michel Thomas method involves: - slow build up of words, phrases, natural grammar - forced production of the language through practice - positive interaction - patience - no stress - no judgement - encouragement - constant evidence of progress
How does "understanding" of the language evolve out of this method? It's more like revelation rather than understanding...
This method appears much more atomic than that of SSiW (Aran Jones), but some of this is down to the fact that there's a live person who is able to unjudgementally prompt one with pieces which they've missed. The teacher has the context whereas the taped instructors do not. Presumably this sort of interpersonal prompting and context isn't necessarily required, but it can help to better lower the learner's stress and potentially speed up the learning process. It would require some standardization to set up a specific experiment to test between these two modes to tease this data out.
Reference key: [[Levy1997]]<br /> “The Language Master.” 1:33 : 1, color. London, UK: BBC 2, March 23, 1997. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0w_uYPAQic.
Learning has to be knowledge. 00:10:07 And learning has to be based on understanding. And what you understand you can absorb, internalize and it becomes knowledge. What you know, you don't forget. You can block something that you know, but not forget.
Dr. Pimsleur’s research on memory was perhaps one of his most revolutionary achievements. He discovered that if learners were reminded of new words at gradually increasing intervals, each time they would remember longer than the time before. He documented the optimal spacing for information to move from short-term into long-term, or permanent, memory.
I thought Ebbinghaus did this in the late 1800s?! 😜
Don't Dehorsify the Horse<br /> by Sasha Fast
If someone tells you that your Zettelkasten is not a Zettelkasten, just refer him to the late Wittgenstein and send him a three-legged horse. It might not solve the issue but bring some peace to your mind.
Perhaps apropos from Wittgenstein's own zettelkasten? 🐎
- ''Putting the cart before the horse" may be said of an explanation like the following: we tend someone else because by analogy with our own case we believe that he is experiencing pain too.—Instead of saying: Get to know a new aspect from this special chapter of human behaviour—from this use of language. (p96)
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Zettel. Edited by Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe and Georg Henrik von Wright,. Translated by G. E. M. Anscombe. Second California Paperback Printing. 1967. Reprint, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 2007.
the very point of a Zettelkasten is to ditch the categories.
If we believe as previously indicated by Luhmann's son that Luhmann learned the basics of his evolved method from Johannes Erich Heyde, then the point of the original was all about categories and subject headings. It ultimately became something which Luhmann minimized, perhaps in part for the relationship of work and the cost of hiring assistants to do this additional manual labor.
The Zettelkasten Method seems to get more and more popular. With popularity of methods there always comes a problem: Overzealous Orthodoxy. Some people, for various reasons, try to state what a Zettelkasten is and what not.
The hilarious part of this is that within a much broader tradition of Western intellectual history, Niklas Luhmann's zettelkasten is one of the most heterodox approaches on the map.
https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/charging-tray-for-library-readers-tickets-14436111112.html
A wooden 5 tray charging tray with lid! This could make a fascinating portable zettelkasten. It has options for both 2"x3" and 3"x5"Cards.
Brodart Full-Length Single Charging Tray<br /> Full- length charging tray with 1,000-card capacity<br /> Price: $96.32
See also: https://hypothes.is/a/ao89RMQmEe2zIvsu3lf6kw for a smaller version
Brodart Mini Single Charging Tray Mini single charging tray with 600-card capacity More Info Price: $76.76
This could be used for a modern day Memindex box for portrait oriented 3 x 5" index cards.
https://www.universityproducts.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=card%20catalog
In 2023, University Products offered catalog cards for printing, but no longer offers physical card catalogs.
As a result of the interest generated by this documentary, UK publisher Hodder and Stoughton commissioned Thomas to produce commercial versions of his courses.
https://americantvdatabase.fandom.com/wiki/1997_in_British_television
My Ten Years With Michel Thomas - Dr. Harold Goodman
Michel Thomas taught languages conversationally in both languages by creating absolutely no pressure or worry and always keeping students in the "now".
Find:<br /> Kaplan, Howard. “The Language Master.” The Jerusalem Report, August 11, 1994.
Watch:<br /> “The Language Master.” 1:33 : 1, color. London, UK: BBC 2, March 23, 1997. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0w_uYPAQic.
Rask is especially known for his contributions to comparative linguistics, including an early formulation of what would later be known as Grimm's Law.
Mankind, Nation and Individual: from a linguistic point of view (1925) is one of the pioneering works on sociolinguistics.
In fact the idea of creating a phonetic alphabet that could be used by every language was first put forward by Jespersen in a letter he sent to Paul Passy.[4]
Andrew Tate: Romanian court rejects bail application<br /> by Lucy Williamson & Laura Gozzi
he gained popularity, particularly among young men, by promoting what he presented as a hyper-masculine, ultra-luxurious lifestyle.
Andrew Tate, a former kickboxer and Big Brother (17, UK) housemate, has gained popularity among young men for promoting a "hyper-masculine, ultra-luxurious lifestyle".
Where does Tate fit into the pantheon of the prosperity gospel? Is he touching on it or extending it to the nth degree? How much of his audience overlaps with the religious right that would internalize such a viewpoint?
Twitter banning him for saying women should "bear responsibility" for being sexually assaulted. He has since been reinstated.
Twitter had banned and then later reinstated Andrew Tate for saying women should "bear responsibility" for being sexually assaulted.
The account of Hatti’s rise from the ashes is contained in the Hittite document called the Deeds ofSuppiluliumas.
Hatti reached the pinnacle of its power between about 1430 and 1200 B.C., during the period known as the NewKingdom
The New Kingdom from around 1430 to 1200 BCE was the peak of Hatti power in the ancient Near East.
The Climax and Collapse of Hatti
Isuwans
Isuwa (transcribed Išuwa and sometimes rendered Ishuwa) was the ancient Hittite name for one of its neighboring Anatolian kingdoms to the east. Isuwa is the origin of our word 'Asia'.
Like the rest of Hittite life, religion permeated the planning and execution of Hittite military campaigns.
Religion was a major part of Hittite life as was the military and war. In all parts of strategy and execution, the gods were consulted before carrying out any military campaigns.
The Hittites treated their defeated enemies the same way other Near Eastern states did. Cities were generally looted,except for their temple precincts. Captured populations were deported, either in whole or in part
Defeated Hatti enemies who weren't deported were usually left to rebuild with a three year tax exemption.
Hatti at War
Iron at this time was meteoric in origin and incredibly valuable, so it wouldn't have been used until after the collapse of the Hittite Empire when iron smelting began its rise; bronze weapons would have been more common as a result.
When they were inducted into the army, soldiers and junior officers had to swear elaborate oaths of loyalty tothe Great King, including a bringing down of curses on their heads if they were disloyal.
Some of the oaths taken by Hatti warriors involved mutton fat and melted wax on one's hands. Another version indicated that the breaking of the oath would turn them into women, their troops into women, and their weapons destroyed and replaced with weaving sticks and mirrors.
Dise, Jr., Robert L. “Ancient Empires Before Alexander: Course Guidebook.” The Teaching Company, 2009. https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/ancient-empires-before-alexander.
annotation target: urn:x-pdf:1e4821a1d889703f671b666411312026 annotations: https://hypothes.is/users/chrisaldrich?q=urn%3Ax-pdf%3A1e4821a1d889703f671b666411312026
Ancient Empires before Alexander. DVD. Vol. 3150 The Great Courses: History. Chantilly, VA: The Teaching Company, 2013.https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/ancient-empires-before-alexander.
This correspondence was first proposed in 1924 by Emil Forrer, who also suggested that the name Ahhiyawa corresponds to the Homeric term for the Greeks, Achaeans. Forrer's work was primarily motivated by linguistic similarities, since "Wilusa" and the associated placename "Taruisa" show striking parallels to the Greek names "Wilios" and "Troia" respectively.
Wilusa (Hittite: 𒌷𒃾𒇻𒊭 URUwi5-lu-ša) or Wilusiya was a Late Bronze Age city in western Anatolia known from references in fragmentary Hittite records. The city is notable for its identification with the archaeological site of Troy, and thus its potential connection to the legendary Trojan War.
Wilusa is a city in western Anatolia in the Late Bronze Age which we identify as a Hittite word for the city of Troy.
Mentioned briefly in lecture 10 of Ancient Empires before Alexander.
Resources and inspiration for math instruction and learning
Welcome to AMS Open Math Notes, a repository of freely downloadable mathematical works hosted by the American Mathematical Society as a service to researchers, faculty and students. Open Math Notes includes: - Draft works including course notes, textbooks, and research expositions. These have not been published elsewhere and are subject to revision. - Items previously published in the Journal of Inquiry-Based Learning in Mathematics, a refereed journal - Refereed publications at the AMS
Visitors are encouraged to download and use any of these materials as teaching and research aids, and to send constructive comments and suggestions to the authors.
What tensor products taught me about living my life<br /> by Cathy O'Neil aka mathbabe
Impromptu: Amplifying Our Humanity Through AI by Reid Hoffman
via Friends of the Link
A Graduated English-Welsh Spelling Book by John Lewis
Some of the words may have shifted a bit since 1857, but there's something delightfully subversive about considering using this book to learn/practice Welsh in 2023.
https://archive.org/details/apracticalgramm00adlegoog/page/n2/mode/2up
An interesting find! This Latin Grammar appears to be that of Francis James Childs, the eminent folklorist and Harvard's first Professor of English.
Ollendorff's name is used as an epithet in H.G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau:[10] "Yesterday he bled and wept," said the Satyr. "You never bleed nor weep. The Master does not bleed or weep." "Ollendorffian beggar!" said Montgomery, "you'll bleed and weep if you don't look out!"
The Ollendorff method likely influenced the development of other well-known 19th century foreign language learning methods, for example, the Method Gaspey-Otto-Sauer[7][8] which was widely used until the 1950s.[9]
The Method Gaspey-Otto-Sauer of teaching languages was popular until the 1950s and was influenced by la méthode Ollendorff from the 1830s.
Ollendorff was heavily indebted to an early "modern method" teacher, Jean (John) Manesca, who appears to have written the first fully developed modern method language course in the early 1820s.
he developed "la méthode Ollendorff" (the Ollendorff method), a new way of learning foreign languages based on oral communication rather than on textual comprehension as used in the traditional "grammar translation" method.
A “Collaboration Artist” knows how to bring people together,enroll them in a common mission, create idea flow, and translateideas into new solutions to solve problems and drive achievement ofimportant goals.
compare this with tummeling
What is the overlap? How do they differ?
hosting Jeffersonian dinners
Sounds fascinating<br /> - https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/jeffersonian-dinners/ - https://jeffersondinner.org/jefferson-dinner/
Adler, David, James Cornehlsen, and Andrew Frothingham. Harnessing Serendipity: Collaboration Artists, Conveners and Connectors. Advanced Reader Copy. 2023. Reprint, David Adler, 2023.
Despite attempts such as the HistoryWorkshop movement in Great Britain, Scandinavia, and Germany to break out ofthe narrow confines of the historical discipline and to encourage the writing ofhistories of and by common people, new fields of history, such as women’s andgender studies, are centered mostly at universities and follow established careerlines.
The institutionalization of scholarship led to the formation of disciplines that cre-ated artificial borders between fields of knowledge. Historians were now largelyseparated from scholars in other areas, such as philosophers and linguists, as wellas from fields of study that were historically oriented at that time, such as musi-cology, art, literature, and theology.
Iggers, Georg G. “Historiography in the Twentieth Century.” History and Theory 44, no. 3 (October 2005): 469–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2303.2005.00337.x.
Examples of momfluencers from the early 20th century onward.
ggstrader/obsidian-meta-vault at obsidian-iceberg
A repository for custom Obsidian.md dashboards, daily notes, etc.
Bookkeeping, Eisenhower Matrixes, & Pretty Canvas Cards by Eleanor Konik
Listened to on 2023-03-11
Much like Richard Feynman kept a list of his 12 favorite problems, Maurice Hilleman kept a running list of diseases for which he was working on developing vaccines to remedy.
Stationery vending machine in the headquarters on the university campus
Pens, highighters, index cards, and other small sundries available on a German university campus at the library.
1-click Beautiful Screenshots on Windows
Interesting workflow here for taking a screenshot quickly, saving it as a file, saving it to clipboard, and sharing it to various services.
Einblicke in das System der Zettel - Geheimnis um Niklas Luhmanns Zettelkasten, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4veq2i3teVk.
Watched 2023-03-13
Mentioned elsewhere, but there's a segment here that he used whatever paper he happened to have around including the receipts from a brewery, tax papers, and even his children's art papers.
Like Cuckoos, Capitalism Had to Push All Other Ways of Living Out of the Nest
Friends of the Link 2023-03-01
What Are Our Next Two "Stacks"?
Friends of the Link 2023-03-01
Friends of the Link 2023-03-01
Hans-Georg Moeller on Reading, Writing, Niklas Luhmann, Jordan Peterson, Carefree Wandering, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3Pkp5YUdHc.
German academic publishing in Niklas Luhmann's day was dramatically different from the late 20th/early 21st centuries. There was no peer-review and as a result Luhmann didn't have the level of gatekeeping that academics face today which only served to help increase his academic journal publication record. (28:30)
As ajournalist, historian, novelist, and autobiographer, Adams was con-stantly focused on the American experiment, testing a statementoffered by another figure in Democracy: ‘You Americans believe your-selves to be excepted from the operation of general laws. You care notfor experience’ (LA 37–8).
In Chapter 1: American Exceptionalism of Myth America (Basic Books, 2023) historian David A. Bell indicates that Jay Lovestone and Joseph Stalin originated the idea of American Exceptionalism in 1920, but in Democracy (1880, p.72) Henry Adams seems to capture an early precursor of the sentiment:
"Ah!" exclaimed the baron, with his wickedest leer, "what for is my conclusion good? You Americans believe yourselves to be excepted from the operation of general laws. You care not for experience. I have lived seventy-five years, and all that time in the midst of corruption. I am corrupt myself, only I do have courage to proclaim it, and you others have it not. Rome, Paris, Vienna, Petersburg, London, all are corrupt; only Washington is pure! Well, I declare to you that in all my experience I have found no society which has had elements of corruption like the United States. The children in the street are corrupt, and know how to cheat me. The cities are all corrupt, and also the towns and the counties and the States' legislatures and the judges. Every where men betray trusts both public and private, steal money, run away with public funds.
Had a flavor of American Exceptionalism been brewing for decades before Stalin's comment?
The Letters of Henry Adams
Perhaps it's already begun, but when will we begin seeing edited collections of peoples email correspondence or perhaps their early blogs?
The Emails of Bill Clinton, 7 volumes?
Adams, Henry. The Education of Henry Adams: An Autobiography. Edited by Ira B. Nadel. 1907. Reprint, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
annotation target: url: urn:x-pdf:36c954cb79cc117f8dbeff1351049bda
A (nearly) seamless integration of ChatGPT into Obsidian.
Notes Raft - How to Build a Habit of Writing Evergreen Notes<br /> by Haikal Kushahrin
Luhmann with focus on "Matuschak's evergreen notes".
Notes Rafting
Inspired by Shime's Word Raft, Haikal Kushahrin has created a note raft with several people as a means of keeping them all accountable for writing at least 15 notes per week.
The AdlerNet Guide, Part III<br /> by Amy Hunt
Scott Scheper has popularized a numbering scheme based on Wikipedia's Outline of Academic Disciplines.
It's not just me who's noticed this.
Interesting that for someone propounding Luhmann's zettelkasten system that Scheper has done this. Was it because he did it himself and then didn't want to change (likely) or because he spent time seeing others' problems with Luhmann's numbering system and designed a better way (less likely)?
Google Books .pdf document equivalence problem #7884
I've noticed on a couple of .pdf documents from Google books that their fingerprints, lack thereof, or some other glitch in creating document equivalency all seem to clash creating orphans.
Example, the downloadable .pdf of Geyer's Stationer 1904 found at https://www.google.com/books/edition/Geyer_s_Stationer/L507AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 currently has 109 orphaned annotations caused by this issue.
See also a specific annotation on this document: https://hypothes.is/a/vNmUHMB3Ee2VKgt4yhjofg
https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_o1suAAAAYAAJ/mode/2up Die deutsche Frau nach 1914
Page 9 has an advertisement for Mr. D. F. Urbahns' Memory Training method!
The Pelman School of Memory Training, 1635 Masonic Temple, Chicago.<br /> LONDON , 4 Bloomsbury St., W.C.; <br /> PARIS, Avenuede Nenilly, 109 ;<br /> MUNICH , Mozartstrasse, 9; <br /> MELBOURNE, G.P.O, Box 1635
p 89 There's a Dickson School of Memory selling a Dickson Method.
Seen in a Hoskins business equipment advertisement in Business magazine (1903) for card index:
YOUR BUSINESS AT YOUR FINGER ENDS
Close to the phrase "at your finger tips". Would it have appeared before or after this?
Business: The Magazine for Office, Store and Factory. Vol. 16. Business Man’s Publishing Company, 1903. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Business/QKaxezfHjL0C?hl=en&gbpv=0.
Trademark for Memindex
Ser. No. 511,916. WILSON MEMINDEX COMPANY, Rochester, N. Y. Filed Aug. 23, 1947.<br /> FOR LOOSE-LEAF DAILY MEMORANDUM CARD SYSTEM COMPRISING MEMORANDUM CARDS AND POCKET AND DESK CASES THEREFOR.<br /> Claims use since Aug. 1, 1903.
(p58, SEPTEMBER 7, 1948) (aside: interesting to note that Wurlitzer is on the same page!)
Memindex, Wilson Company, Rochester, N. Y. Loose - leaf daily memorandum card system . Serial No. 511,916, Sept. 7. Class 37.
Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office. Vol. 614. United States Patent Office, 1948.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Collier_s/IDwa6nqexo8C?hl=en&gbpv=0
Memindex advertised in Collier's (Volume 34) in 1904.
General instructions for using a Memindex
HOW IT IS USED <br /> Things to be done today, jot on face card. Things to be done tomorrow or next Friday, jot on card for that day. Things to keep before you until done, jot on opposite front card. A matter for January 10th jot on a short card put under the band till you return to your desk, then file next to card for January 10th when it will come out and refresh your memory.
Things to be done when in New York or Chicago jot on card "N" or "C." The new address of Mr. Jones, under "J." Ideas on advertising jot on card tabbed "adv." Things for your clerk to do, on his card , etc., etc. Retire today's card tonight, carrying forward things not completed and put next card in the file in has proved that almost back of pocket case. The alphabet enables one to index all jottings for instant reference. This system is very comprehensive yet perfectly simple. You soon the learn to depend on it every hour of every day.
Within the general instructions in a 1904 Memindex advertisement (next to an ad for "Genuine Edison Incandescent Lamps") we see the general ideas of indexing things into the future and carrying undone tasks forward, just as is done in the bullet journal method.
Howard L. Wilson, Manufacturer, 45 State St., Rochester, N. Y.<br /> (next to an ad for "Genuine Edison Incandescent Lamps")(p.2 in a 2/3 page ad)
Carleton, Hubert, ed. St. Andrew’s Cross. Vol. 19. Brotherhood of St. Andrew., 1904.
Specific issue: Nov-Dec 1904 Vol. 19, No 2-3, Pittsburgh, PA
Howard L. Wilson, Mfr., 61 State St., Rochester, N.Y. (p.392)
Miller, Kempster B., William A. Colledge, Alfred S. Johnson, and Carl S. Dow, eds. Technical World Magazine. Chicago, IL: American School of Correspondence at Armour Institute of Technology, 1905. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Technical_World_Magazine/CgLOAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
Specific issue: The Technical World, Volume II, No. 3, November 1904 Chicago
Macey - Wernicke Cards and Supplies can be purchased throughresponsible Printers and Stationers
Apparently in addition to a Fred Macey Company and the Globe-Wernicke Co. there was a Macey-Wernicke Co. Ltd. which supplied card index supplies in 1904.
Geyer’s Stationer: Devoted to the Interests of the Stationery, Fancy Goods and Notion Trades, Volume 38, 1904. (p333)
Hudson & Hudson are also supplying business housesthe rubber, and gives many odd and curious shapes. How- with “ Memindex, " the vest pocket card index, which makesever, it is somewhat difficult for us to describe these cards it impossible for any business appointment or transaction
Hudson & Hudson of Toledo, OH were one of the early distributors of Howard L. Wilson's Memindex system.
Geyers Stationer. “The Revolving Desk Tray.” Geyer’s Stationer: Devoted to the Interests of the Stationery, Fancy Goods and Notion Trades, November 10, 1904. vol. 38, issue 940, p25. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Geyer_s_Stationer/L507AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0.
2 3-4 x 4 3-4 inches in size, made of seal grain , real sealor Russia leather, in a thoro
Memindex dimensions mentioned in a 1904 advertisement<br /> cards: 2 3/4 x 4 1/2 inches<br /> case: 2 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches
mindex.THIS is the name Howard L. Wilson, of Rochester, N.Y.,hasgivenhisvestpocket cardsystem.Itisa
Geyers Stationer. “Memindex Advertisement.” Geyer’s Stationer: Devoted to the Interests of the Stationery, Fancy Goods and Notion Trades, September 15, 1904. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Geyer_s_Stationer/L507AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
Howard L. Wilson of Rochester, NY named his vest pocket card index system the Memindex.
656,140 72/009,833 12/24/1957
https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/sol/og/1998/week46/pattmex.htm
This would appear to indicate that the Trademark of the Wilson Memindex expired in 1998.
Compare with listing at https://www.google.com/books/edition/Index_of_Trademarks_Issued_from_the_Unit/YhBWAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
H. W. ONSTEDMEMORANDUM FILE,APPLICATION FED MAR. 10, 1915,1,196,269. Patented Aug. 29, 1916,Y: NIIWax SavassasZ INVENTOR 7Zez-?ezz W. OZZzzsaeafuis ATTORNEYS
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/9c/1b/c4/42ee9bd28aae7d/US1196269.pdf
https://patents.google.com/patent/US1196269A/en?assignee=memindex&oq=memindex
Patent for Memex, but not for the original system.
https://www.garten-des-gedenkens.de/?page_id=118&lang=EN
Example of a zettelkasten as an Holocaust rememberance/momument installation in Marburg in 2012
http://tamaroszettelkasten.blogspot.com/
Example of a blog being kept as a zettelkasten....
Altfranzösisches etymologisches Wörterbuch : AGATE
I recall that the Oxford English Dictionary was also compiled using a slip box method of sorts, and more interestingly it was a group effort.
Similarly Wordnik is using Hypothes.is to recreate these sorts of patterns for collecting words in context on digital cards.
Many encyclopedias followed this pattern as did Adler's Syntopicon.
Not sure why Manfred Kuehn removed this website from Blogger, but it's sure to be chock full of interesting discussions and details on his note taking process and practice. Definitely worth delving back several years and mining his repository of articles here.
http://takingnotenow.blogspot.com/<br /> archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20230000000000*/http://takingnotenow.blogspot.com/
When I looked it up in the OED (the Oxford English Dictionary), I discovered to my surprise that it wasn't even in the main volumes but had been added in the Supplement, because the first known written reference in English ("non-fictional wares") occurred in a library journal in 1903. That is to say, "nonfiction" was evidently a term coined by a librarian trying to decide how to label all the works of narrative prose in her collection that weren't fiction, and rather than call them, say, "fact," had thoughtlessly exiled them into the Slough of Non.
According to the Oxford English dictionary, 'non-fiction' was coined in 1903 in a library journal by a librarian attempting to define the opposite of fiction.
Why "Verity"?<br /> by Richard Rhodes
Richard Rhodes uses the word verity rather than non-fiction as a means of defining his writing work in a more positive framing rather than defining it as the opposite of fiction (i.e. non-fiction).
http://www.greaterbooks.com/verity.html
This is a spectacular looking list of verity works over the last century. So many I've already read or which are already on my ever-growing list.
Those verity works already noted by the 47 listmakers are included here too, to allow for easier comparison; they are the italicized items.
Italicized works on this verity list are already noted on one or more of the 47 other lists.
In 1886, during a lecture on the "pleasure of reading," the British scientist, politician, and man of letters John Lubbock spoke of his wish for "a list of a hundred good books"; in the absence of such, he offered his own selection.
Lubbock's List: http://www.greaterbooks.com/lubbock.html
University of Adelaide digital collection of the Great Books of the Western World using public domain sources within their collection.
https://www.logos.com/product/55052/great-books-of-the-western-world
A digital (app?) version of The Great Books of the Western World with cross references.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ebooks/comments/eao9c8/great_books_of_the_western_world_ebook_collection/
Someone's collected digital copies of most of the Great Books of the Western World collection here.
Lisa Jacobs, the founder and chief executive of Imagine It Done, a home organization service in New York City, said that out of hundreds of projects in the past few years, she can recall only three requests to organize books. In one of those examples, the arranged books were treated as a backdrop — to be admired, but not read. “The clientele that has collected books through the years are not as numerous for us,” she said.
Any book collector worth their salt will already have in mind the way they want their collection arranged. Only someone who wants to use it as wallpaper would have a service arrange it.
I wonder what the other two cases were?
In a postwar world in which educational self-improvement seemed within everyone’s reach, the Great Books could be presented as an item of intellectual furniture, rather like their prototype, the Encyclopedia Britannica (which also backed the project).
the phrase "intellectual furniture" is sort of painful here...
The Very First Bible 144 A.D. by Marcion of Sinope, A. W. Mitchell.
Randomly ran across the bible from Marcion of Sinope...
odd title if it's meant not as curiosity but as a bible for Marcionites...
It's not a ZK furniture though. Index cards were not used to store atomic notes, or have alphanumeric indexes. :)
Oh, but it is ZK furniture in every sense! The narrow definition of zettelkasten in common use (in this subreddit and in many other locations on the internet) to describe only card indexes/digital software which have the numbering scheme and form of Niklas Luhmann's only works for his and a number of imitators from roughly 2007/2013 to the present. Prior to this it is a much more generic term in Germany and elsewhere known in English as a card index or card file, but academics and others have been using practices broadly similar to Luhmann's for centuries in a variety of forms.
You're likely right that this particular piece of furniture had a business-specific market use case for the majority of its users, but I'm sure there was a subset of customers, particularly those in academia, which may have used it primarily as a note storage or personal knowledge management tool in a way highly similar to Luhmann's. Because it was in America, it was unlikely to have been called by the German name zettelkasten, though there were many German-Americans (Gotthard Deutsch and S. D. Goitein come to mind) who had this practice and may have done so, though I've seen no direct evidence of this at present in their writings. Not all card indexes were used for business or library purposes. In addition to academic researchers, we know a variety of mid-century comedians used their card indexes for collation and storage of jokes over their careers.
The quality of the advertisement is hard to make out, but on close examination it appears to have four drawers and the scale leads me to think that this would likely have accommodated 3 x 5" index cards. Some upcoming research work may uncover the manufacturing specifics and I'll share them as I find them.
As for Harrison and Placcius they're definitely there and people talk about them occasionally, though few seem as interested in the historical aspects despite the fact that they have a lot to demonstrate about the pros/cons of various practices. I remember adding them both to the English wikipedia page in July 2021. Certainly they could stand to be more widely known for their work, as could Leibniz. More on both can be found mentioned in the following: - Cevolini, Alberto. “Where Does Niklas Luhmann’s Card Index Come From?” Erudition and the Republic of Letters 3, no. 4 (October 24, 2018): 390–420. https://doi.org/10.1163/24055069-00304002. - Blair, Ann M. Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information before the Modern Age. Yale University Press, 2010. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300165395/too-much-know. - Blei, Daniela. “How the Index Card Cataloged the World.” The Atlantic, December 1, 2017. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/12/how-the-index-card-catalogued-the-world/547271/. - Vincentius Placcius. De arte excerpendi. Vom Gelahrten Buchhalten Liber singularis, quo genera et praecepta excerpendi... Gottfried Liebezeit, 1689. http://archive.org/details/bub_gb_IgMVAAAAQAAJ.
There's also a bit on Placcius in: - Krajewski, Markus. Paper Machines: About Cards & Catalogs, 1548-1929. Translated by Peter Krapp. History and Foundations of Information Science. MIT Press, 2011. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/paper-machines.
The bigger hero, in my opinion, is Konrad Gessner and his work from 1548 which outlined much of the common "rules" note takers, practitioners of ars excerpendi, zettelers, and card indexers have been using ever since, including an early idea which many would now call "atomic notes". Much of his work, however was transferring ideas of commonplace book practices of his day into the form of paper slips which were heavily used until mass manufacture of index cards in the 20th century made them cheap and plentiful. Within the note taking space online the community also broadly ignores influential figures like Agricola, Erasmus, and Melanchthon who make some big strides in popularizing a variety of methods in the 1400-1500s.
Standard business cards are 3.5″x 2″
Poem from the inside back cover of a 1913 Memindex Catalog:
JUST JOT IT DOWN.
If you’re going to meet a man<br /> Jot it down<br /> If you’ve got a little plan<br /> Jot it down<br /> If you never can remember<br /> Your requirements for September<br /> ’Till October or November<br /> Jot ’em down.
If you’ve got a note to pay<br /> Jot it down<br /> If its due the first of May<br /> Jot it down<br /> If collections are so slow<br /> That to meet the note you know<br /> You must dun old Richard Roe<br /> Jot it down
If you have a happy thought<br /> Jot it down<br /> If there’s something to be bought<br /> Jot it down<br /> Whether duty calls or pleasure<br /> If you’re busy or at leisure<br /> It will help you beyond measure<br /> Jot it down
If there’re facts that you’d retain<br /> Jot ’em down<br /> If you’ve got to meet a train<br /> Jot it down<br /> If at work or only play<br /> If at home or far away<br /> In the night or in the day<br /> Jot it down
Plan Your Work and Work your Plan An Infallible Rule for Success
was there a prior source for this aphorism?
c.1913 Wilson Memindex Desk Organzier Catalog Price List Booklet Rolodex Prequel
In a 1913 catalog for the Wilson Memindex, the company suggested putting to do items and one's schedule on one side of the card and potentially keeping one's accounts or a diary on the reverse side.
TheGlobeWernicke Vertical FilingCabinets aremadeformosteverysizeofcommercialpapermanufacturedandin-cludeBill,Letter,Cap,Report,Document,and Card Indexfiles.
Noticing that while other filing companies have smaller half or quarter page ads in System, Globe-Wernicke Co. has a full page add for their filing cabinets.
STANDARD INDEX CARD CO.
Fascinating to see the 8 various types of hole punches different card index systems may have used on their index card filing cabinets.
Advertisement from System, December 1906:
CARD INDEX SYSTEM <br /> If you are using Card Systems, as manufacturers we are in a position to save money for you on these supplies. We make suggestions to anyone desiring to install labor-saving-money- making Card Systems.<br /> Cards supplied for all makes of cabinets.<br /> Write for prices and estimates.<br /> STANDARD INDEX CARD CO.,<br /> 707-09 Arch St., Phila., Pa.
he Automatic File & Index Co.
TheCalculagraph
Beyond having people make direct copies of cards by hand or using carbon paper, The Calculagraph Company manufactured a copying machine for duplicating data.
There is an accompanying picture (which I haven't copied here). Advertisement from 1906 System Magazine:
The Calculagraph<br /> Makes individual records of actual<br /> working time on separate cards<br /> which may be used interchangeably<br /> for Cost Accounting, for Pay-rolls and<br /> for a number of other purposes with-<br /> out copying or transcribing a single<br /> figure, by simply assorting the cards<br /> and adding the records directly from<br /> their faces.<br /> A card containing all the work<br /> records of one man for a week may<br /> be useful for pay-roll purposes, but it<br /> is utterly worthless for learning the<br /> cost of products, until all the items<br /> have been copied or transcribed for<br /> classification.<br /> The Calculagraph requires a large<br /> number of cards in a factory employ-<br /> ing several hundred persons, but it<br /> Saves Clerical Labor. (In one<br /> factory it saves $150.00 per week).<br /> Cards Are Cheaper Than Labor<br /> The Calculagraph Makes No<br /> Clerical Errors.<br /> Let us send you our printed matter.<br /> CALCULAGRAPH COMPANY<br /> 1414 JEWELERS BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY
OurNew "400"SeriesNo.400(likecut)hasdeepdrawerarrangedwithVERTICALFILINGEQUIPMENT,writingbednotbrokenbytypewriter,whichdisappearsindust-proofcompartment.GUNNDESKSaremadein250differentpatterns,inallwoodsandfinishes,fittedwith ourtimesavingDROP-FRONTPigeonholebox.Ifyoudesireanup-to-datedeskofanydescriptionandbestpossiblevalueforyourmoneygetaGunn.Ourreference-TheUser-TheManwiththeGunn."Soldbyallleadingdealersorshippeddirectfrom thefactory.Sendforcatalogueof desksandfilingdevices-mailedFREE."AwardedGoldMedal,World'sFair,St.Louis."GUNNFURNITURECO.,GrandRapids,Mich.MakersofGunnSec-tionalBookCases
Gunn Desks and filing cabinets
Example advertisement of a wooden office desk with pigeonholes and a small card index box on the desktop as well as a drawer pull with a typewriter sitting on it.
ARDS CAN BE USEDINSOMEBRANCH OF YOUR BUSINESS
INDEX CARDS CAN BE USED IN SOME BRANCH OF YOUR BUSINESS<br /> We have eight very useful forms. You can use one or more to good advantage and profit. Let us send you the Samples?<br /> UNITED STATES CARD INDEX CO.<br /> Office and Factory: 112 Liberty Street, NEW YORK<br /> Also send for our Priced Sample Set 'E' which includes all rulings, grades and weights of Index Cards and Guides.'
Federal Steel FixtureCompany
Federal Steel Fixture Company manufactured a variety of steel office furniture including desks, cabinets, lockers, filing cabinets, shelving, and card cabinets.
Antique Calculagraph Machine Time Clock Card Recorder Old Factory Punch Vintage
https://www.ebay.com/itm/293124175605
For advertisement from 1906, see: https://hypothes.is/a/OGREvL98Ee2mYVO2Fqim6Q
Witness the unapologetic swagger of "FORGET WITH IMPUNITY" vs. its wimpy cousin Evernote's "Remember Everything".
—u/spanchor
