archival as lifestyle
Computer Science in the 1960s to 80s spent a lot of effort making languages which were as powerful as possible. Nowadays we have to appreciate the reasons for picking not the most powerful solution but the least powerful. The reason for this is that the less powerful the language, the more you can do with the data stored in that language . If you w... See more
leananki.com • Zettelkasten Method: How to Take Smart Notes
The simpler the idea, the more potential it has
This stems from the structure of the web — it’s a tangle of links, a jumble of interconnected ideas. It fractalizes our attention, nudging us to leave fragments of our mind trapped in open tabs like a thousand tiny horcruxes — open loops feeding off our attention until they wither away, replaced by our latest distraction.
There’s a bottleneck here:
... See morethesolarmonk.com • A Spacebar for the Web
How do you create context from a tangle of disparate ideas?
Instead of 'telescoping', how about 'kaleidoscope-ing' here, i.e. "To move in shifting (and often attractive or colourful) patterns." - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kaleidoscope
Adding shapes, spotting connections, meanings shifting as patterning and re-patterning continues through shapes being organised and connected in different ways. Like that ... See more
Adding shapes, spotting connections, meanings shifting as patterning and re-patterning continues through shapes being organised and connected in different ways. Like that ... See more
Kaleidoscoping vs telescoping | Are.na
Researchers & archivists build up a network of every-shifting ideas and meanings.
This process of exploring shifting patterns feels like looking through a kaleidoscope.
‘...she takes a stiff-bristled brush and loads it with a dark greenish-brown, the colour of first shade, and with sweeping movements, she covers the image with darkness, obliterating the lovers, sealing them inside a tomb of paint...it is all gone, hidden for ever, the only sign the scene was ever there the slight undulations in the paint’s surface... See more
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
From Maggie O’ Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait, describing Lucrezia painting over her paintings
“The concept of the sacred and the archival is being lost because of the novel environment of the internet.”
-Eric Weinstein
The inundation of information on the internet means meaningful ideas get lost.
In ‘Zettelkasten’ note-taking, each note/idea captured is organised in a non-hierarchical way.
This way, we are able to retain the purity/full potential of an idea, rather than file it under a large category which pre-determines and limits its usefulness
No memory is ever alone; it’s at the end of a trail of memories, a dozen trails that each have their own associations.
Kevin Horsley • Unlimited Memory: How to Use Advanced Learning Strategies to Learn Faster, Remember More and be More Productive
A memory is not a singular event, but a trail of associations.
Links are the “checkpoints” of your thinking process.
Remember that moment when you had a trail of thoughts and someone asked you a question? That train is good as gone, right?
Links allow you to store this “train” and continue it indefinitely later.
Also, the big benefit of these links is that your working memory becomes free to focus on developing ... See more
Remember that moment when you had a trail of thoughts and someone asked you a question? That train is good as gone, right?
Links allow you to store this “train” and continue it indefinitely later.
Also, the big benefit of these links is that your working memory becomes free to focus on developing ... See more
leananki.com • Zettelkasten Method: How to Take Smart Notes
Creating trains of thought / links allow you to focus on developing the thought trail