342 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2024
    1. In the Buddhist world we even in, in a way you can say you're always dying. You're already dying. So just thinking about it in those terms: what's the cultural impact of thinking about life as death, actually—as a process that maybe never ends?

      for - adjacency - thinking of life as death - we are always dying - Deep Humanity - living is dying - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    2. I'll talk about some cases in a moment— there's very sudden decomposition when the "tukdam" ends. You can have people who have been in tukdam for 27 days and then on the— as one of the cases that we're gonna be publishing on soon— and on the 28th day there's like very dramatic decomposition. Just boom! It seems to happen.

      for - Buddhism - Tibetan - Thukdam - can end suddenly and dramatically - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    3. And this is one of the big problems right now— [pointing at the slide] tukdam regularly occurs in non-experts, right? You find, you know, people who are not great trained tantric practitioners who know all the commentaries and, you know, who aren't even monks or nuns— who are just ordinary lay people—and they go into "tukdam."

      for - Buddhism - Tibetan - Tukdam - ordinary people with no training also go into Tukdam - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    4. I've encountered several people in the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions who say, "Oh, we, you know 'tukdam,' yeah, people go in 'tukdam,' "but it's like, you know, not that big a deal. It's, we don't care that much." Part of the reason they don't care that much is that the idea that you need to go into this completely, kind of, a state where there's no phenomenal content— that's just a pure clear light mind— actually is something that many of the contemporary practitioners and teachers in those lineages don't agree with.

      for - Buddhism - Tibetan - Kagyu and Nyingma schools don't make a big deal out of Tukdam - nondual awareness can emerge with other techniques - key insight - Buddhism - Tibetan - Clear light meditation at time of death - Tukdam - a physiological technique - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    5. it's said that you can get there by doing like philosophical analysis, but this is using basically physiological techniques to get to the same place phenomenologically. So that's what "tukdam" is theoretically

      for - key insight - Buddhism - Tibetan - Clear light meditation at time of death - Tukdam - a physiological technique to get to the same place as philosophical analysis - recognizing nondual, ultimate nature of reality - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    6. So the concept here is that you're actually no longer even capable of thinking, you're no longer capable of seeing, you're no longer capable of hearing, and so on. All that's left is just this kind of sheer consciousness itself, which doesn't even have a subject-object structure. So for the Gelugpas that lack of subject-object structure is not really relevant. For the other traditions it's extremely relevant, because it's said that if you're going to understand the nature of the mind, the fundamental distortion in the mind is precisely that subject-object structure. So you have to cultivate a non-dual awareness,

      for - key insight - Buddhism - TIbetan - Clear light meditation - Tukdam at time of death - no longer capable of thinking, seeing, hearing, etc - all that's left is naked consciousness without even subject-object from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    7. in the Perfection Stage— what's called the Perfection Stage— one is going to actually begin to bring the winds into the central channel. And when one is able to do so and bring them into the heart cakra.

      for - Buddhism - Tibetan - meditation - Perfection stage - bring the winds into the central channel to the heart chakra - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    8. he made this three-dimensional, so this is the maṇḍala.

      for - Buddhism - Tibetan - Mandala - is a 2 dimensional representation that the practitioner must imagine as a 3 dimensional object - This is the generation stage practice - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    9. And how one is gonna do that, one is gonna become not you. You're gonna become somebody else—specifically, you're gonna become a fully enlightened tantric deity, right? And you, with a sense of what's called dignity or pride, right, the, the... "lha’i nga rgyal," the "pride of being the deity."

      for - Buddhism - TIbetan - Clear light meditation - purpose of - deity visualization - become the deity to practice giving up your ordinary thoughts and feelings - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    10. Unexcelled Yoga Tantra

      for - definition - unexcelled yoga tantra - the ultimate practice of simulating clear light meditation while still alive, in the Gelupa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    11. So what's the first thing to do? It's to stop being ordinary. So they say, "tha mal gyi rtog shes spang ba," "abandon ordinary thoughts and ordinary attitudes," ordinary experience.

      for - Buddhism - TIbetan - clear light meditation - practice - how to practice simulation of Tukdam while still alive? - Stop ordinary thoughts and feelings - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    12. these winds, right— these energies—are already flowing, of course, and they flow in very deep patterns that basically constitute one's own ordinary identity. And so quite literally one's own ordinary identity is, is the patterning of these winds.

      for - key insight - one's ordinary identity IS the pattern of the flow of the winds - this makes practice of Tukdam very difficult - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne - a tendency towards lust, aversion, etc is accompanied by a flow of wind. - to practice this during life, we have to get out of the deep patterns we identify with in life

    13. There are different forms of energy, five primary forms and five secondary forms of energy, and they flow in channels in the body. And at the time of death, there, there's a certain kind of configuration of those energies that occur and you can actually, you can, in a sense, force those energies— maybe that's not the right term, but some people would agree with that metaphor— you can force those energies to enter into that configuration through various forms of yogic practices.

      for - Buddhism - Tibetan - clear light meditation practice - 5 primary and 5 secondary flows of energy in channels in the body - meditators practice a desired flow configuration at time of death - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    14. The simulation, however, requires a high degree of control over the winds— "rlung" in Tibetan or "vāyuḥ" in Sanskrit, not "prāṇa," but "vāyuḥ" in Sanskrit—that are involved in the death process.

      for - Buddhism - Tibetan - clear light meditation at time of death - can practice while alive a simulated version meditation - requires mastery of the internal "winds" - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    15. To rehearse that moment, essentially what one does, is you induce a simulated version of this clear light mind.

      for - Buddhism - Tibetan - clear light meditation at time of death - can practice while alive a simulated version meditation - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    16. We wanna get down in a sense to the foundational state of mind, a most fundamental form of mind, and that occurs at death.

      for - meditation - clear light meditation at time of death - Tukdam - why? The most fundamental state of mind occurs at the time of our death - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    17. if we're gonna really understand the ultimate nature of reality, it means to understand the ultimate nature of the mind

      for - Buddhism - relationship between - ultimate nature of reality - ultimate nature of mind - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    18. Gelugpa tradition eventually rejects, really, almost everything about Yogācāra. But tantra itself really emerges out of that perspective, which is essentially that the only thing we have access to is our own experience.

      for\ - Buddhism - relationship - Gelupa and Yogacara - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    19. The only way you can become a buddha is to see the nature of ultimate reality with the motivation of relieving the suffering of sentient beings. And in order to do that, you have to cultivate this wisdom.

      for - Buddhism - Tantric logic - Become a buddha - to experience the ultimate nature of reality - to relieve suffering of others - cultivate wisdom - experience ultimate nature of mind - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    20. avidyā in Sanskrit or "ma rig pa" in Tibetan,

      for - definition - avidya (Sanskrit) or Ma Ri Pa (Tibetan) - Fundamental misunderstanding (both intellectual and affective) about the (ultimate) nature of reality itself - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    21. from the standpoint of Mahāyāna theory that a buddha is special because a buddha can teach in this incredibly effective way.

      for - Mahayana Buddhism - Lay description - Helping others to help themselves - Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

    22. for - Tibetan Buddhism - Tukdam - John Dunne - Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne

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  2. Nov 2024
    1. Carl Jung considered this ease-of-answering test a way of understanding what matters most. “The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble,” he wrote in 1931.

      quoted from The Secret Of The Golden Flower by Richard Wilhelm And Carl Jung

    1. the problem on the planet it's a lack of understanding the Art and Science of friendship like sacred friendship sacred humanism

      for - problem with humanity - lack of understanding of sacred friendship and sacred humanism - John Church

  3. Oct 2024
    1. Levels of understanding genres: - 0) No understanding Like the song, never heard anything like it before, but no idea about anything. - 1) Basic Understanding Knowing a bit about the name of the genre and subgenres, but you can be wrong. - 2) Immersion Really dive into subgenres and flavors of the main genre... Also a bit of history about the genre. Research. - 3) Structure Breaking down the structure of the tracks in the genre. For example through DAW. Basically first-principles thinking.

      To level 1: Song Analyzer tools (for example musicstax or AI). The author recommends everynoise.com too to gain a basic understanding of genres.

      To level 2: Find similar songs and artists for your playlists with that genre. Perhaps playlists. Important to understand the origin of the genre.

  4. Sep 2024
    1. "Yes," he says. "Poor girl." He means Cora

      She clarifies that he means Cora because she also pities the girl that came before her, which is a reflection of what Offred will eventually be. This is a lack of understanding on his side.

    1. The lower theTTL value associated with detection, the lower the upperlimit on topological distance to the monitor and typically, themore constrained the observer’s possible location.

      You should also see multiple nonces affected by eavesdropping. I.e. hop 8 is monitored, then all nonces with TTL>=8 should be affected, since hop 8 does not only care about TTL-expired nonces. Or is only that traffic subject to monitoring, whose source IP address is the router's own? (with which it sends ICMP errors)

      Edit: Sometimes, see Fig. 4

      Edit see later

      uniform packet sampling, irrespective of hop limit

    1. the problem here is that physicists am never worried about consciousness because that's the problem of neuroscientists. And neuroscientists don't know quantum physics. So what the hell then? You know, there is a hole in the middle right?

      for - consciousness - incomplete knowledge of science - hole in understanding - physics - neuroscience - quantum mechanics - Federico Faggin

  5. Aug 2024
    1. And my hope is that this form of cooking with empathy, if enough people adopt it, can lead to greater unity and understanding even beyond the kitchen.

      cooking with empathy - following a recipe closely without improvisation or substitutions to appreciate the original chef/author's point of view as a means of appreciating other cultures and backgrounds

    1. we know from Lab studies that children understand the meaning of stuff at first or second or third site you

      for - neuroscience - children's understanding - 3 examples is enough to consolidate new concept

    2. human beings are good at getting distracted at mentally drifting away doing something else and thereby thereby understanding the world and give meaning to stuff

      for - neuroscience - human understanding - what makes us excel? - forgetting and getting distracted!

  6. Jul 2024
    1. This also means that one cannot think without making allowances for differences.

      9/8g The card index technique is based on the experience that one cannot think without writing – at least not in demanding, selectively accessing memory-based contexts.

      This also means that one cannot think without making allowances for differences.

      I like this slightly more differentiated instantiation for thinking better than Ahren's assertion that one can't think without writing. Luhmann qualifies it over and above Ahrens who elides meaning if this was the source he may have been tangentially referencing. (Was it an explicit reference? check...)

  7. Jun 2024
    1. is one in which death isacknowledged, with no aversion or discomfort, to exist inherently in the defining nature of livingcreatures.

      Personal, nuanced interpretation

    2. Whilst Stephen’s early attitude to death denotes his submission to authority, Joana’s earliestattitudes declare her deviation from social normality.

      Big contrast sentence between the two characters

    3. Stephen’sattitude to death is consequently important in his early characterisation, for it both reflects theinfluence of Catholic doctrine upon him and, in his assimilation of Catholic principle into hisevery-day life and the suggested superficiality of his understanding, implies his dutifulness tosurrounding authority.

      Concluding sentence of main point

    4. s expressed by Héléne Cixous, young Stephen initially struggles “to be acceptableto the others™:

      Quote used as a bouncing pad to not need to construct the argument from scratch

    5. Tn both his alignment withCatholic principle and his anxious completion of duties, one perceives a desperation to avoid anyform of transgression, reflecting, perhaps, his state of vulnerability during his early days atClongowes.

      Connecting eagerness to another perspective: he wants to avoid transgression, and it reflects his state of vulnerability from his past. Indicating that this vulnerability has affected him long-term.

    6. y reflecthis eagerness to serve and abide to the Law'* that surrounds him.

      Builds off the argument about his character with another characteristic (that may either coexist or serve as an alternative explanation to Stephen's character)

    7. betray Stephen’s lack of any real, profound understanding of the weight and meaning of thismoral incentive.

      the MAIN character point that this essay is trying to demonstrate via. the implications of Stephen's attitudes towards death

    8. appearing to a reader as irrational and extreme

      Added bonus of effect on audience

    9. he simplicity and matter-of-factness with which Stephenassimilates the fear of spiritual death into his nightly routine, and his inherent belief that failureto complete his duties will condemn him to hell,

      Real examples from the story to back it up

    10. However,there is a discrepancy in severity between the every-day, straight-forward tasks listed and theconcluding reference to hell and death and, despite this, Stephen treats these elements incombination, indiscriminately.

      This becomes a logical argument of just meaning. Just meaning. Rational deduction of what Stephen is based on his actions and associations

    11. that Catholic doctrine has been ingrained within him:

      One kernel of truth/ answer to the RQ (characterization) pulled out. However, there is another main point!

    12. This fear of damnation is directly associated withStephen’s Catholic context, for, within the Catholic paradigm, physical death will be succeededby eternal punishment if one has committed severe transgressions.

      An explanation of the context needed to understand WHY he may fear these things

    13. Importantly, Stephen’s firstdirect reference to death is aligned with Catholic doctrine:

      This introduction sentence for the quote LINKS the concept of death to religion (Catholic Doctrine) which primes the reader to understand the implications he/she writes about of the quote.

  8. May 2024
    1. When you catch and idea, you see it in your mind's eye, and you feel it, and you can hear it. And then you write that idea down on a piece of paper, and you write it down in such a way that when you read it, the idea comes back in full.<br /> —David Lynch 3:05

    1. for - recombination of proteins in higher level proteins - from - youtube - Evolution 2 podcast interview - book - Understanding Living Systems - Denis Noble - Ray Noble

      from - youtube - Evolution 2 podcast interview - book - Understanding Living Systems - Denis Noble - Ray Noble - https://hyp.is/OttWABYFEe--gLNFyeNyTw/docdrop.org/video/oHZI1zZ_BhY/

    1. we also challenge in the book The Very concept of selfishness itself

      for - book - Understanding living systems - challenging selfishness - critique - of Richard Dawkins' Selfish Gene

      • Ray Noble points out a contradiction in Richard Dawkin's use of the word selfish in his "Selfish gene".
        • Unless there is purposefulness, choice and agency, there cannot be any concept of selfishness
    2. for - Denis Noble - Ready Noble - evolutionary biology - critique of Richard Dawkins Selfish Gene theory - critique of gene centrism - book - Understanding Living Systems - human agency

      summary - In this informative interview, brothers Denis and Ray Noble discuss their new book - Understanding Living Systems, and - dispel the 70 year old narrative of Gene centrism and the selfish gene as determining the high level behaviour of living organisms

    1. for - Oded Rechavi - neurobiology - gene centrism - critique - from - youtube podcast interview - book - Understanding Living Systems - Ray Noble - Denis Noble

      summary - Rechavi performed experiments with C Elegan and demonstrated that it possesses a type of neuron that - produces RNA that in response to elevated temperature change is transmitted to reproductive cells so that the offsprings encode it in the genome, and it is better adapted to deal with elevated temperatures

      question - How many species do this? Is it generally found throughout nature?

      from - outube podcast interview - book - Understanding Living Systems - Ray Noble - Denis Noble - https://hyp.is/OUlGVBXrEe-iaBeZhH_4DQ/docdrop.org/video/oHZI1zZ_BhY/

    1. four 00:08:25 major common misunderstandings that have infected our understanding of what it is to be a living system

      for - molecular biology - paradigm shift - living system - 4 common misunderstandings - book - Understanding Living Systems - 4 common misunderstandings

      4 common misunderstandings of living systems - 1. The central dogma of molecular biology - one way causation - Genes (DNA) to - proteins to - organism - 2. The Weismann Barrier - 3. DNA as self-replicator - 4. Separation of Replicator (DNA) and Vehicle (Living cell) are completely separate

    2. biology Beyond The 00:00:19 genome

      for - book - Biology Beyond the Genome - author - scientist - biologist - Denis Noble - book - Understanding Living Systems

  9. Apr 2024
    1. the concept of expansive learningis an analytical rather than a descriptive or norma-tive one

      This smells like a strong warning on the scope of Holzkamps concept, but how exaclty - what does this really mean?

    1. We quote because we are afraid to-change words, lest there be a change in meaning.

      Quotations are easier to collect than writing things out in one's own words, not only because it requires no work, but we may be afraid of changing the original meaning by changing the original words or by collapsing the context and divorcing the words from their original environment.

      Perhaps some may be afraid that the words sound "right" and they have a sense of understanding of them, but they don't quite have a full grasp of the situation. Of course this may be remedied by the reader or listener not only by putting heard stories into their own words and providing additional concrete illustrative examples of the concepts. These exercises are meant to ensure that one has properly heard/read and understood a concept. Psychologists call this paraphrasing or repetition the "echo effect" (others might say parroting or mirroring) and have found that it can help to build understanding, connection, and likeability between people. Great leaders who do this will be sure to make sure that credit for the original ideas goes to the originator and not to themselves simply because they repeated it, especially in group settings where their words may have more primacy amidst their underlings.

      (I can't find it at the moment, but there's a name/tag for this in my notes? looping?)

      Beyond this, can one place the idea into a more clear language than the original? Add some poetry perhaps? Make the concept into a concrete meme to make it more memorable?

      Journalists like to quote because it gives primacy of voice to the speaker and provides the reader with the sense that they're getting the original from which they might make up their own minds. It also provides a veneer of vérité to their reportage.

      Link this back to Terrence's comedy: https://hypothes.is/a/xe15ZKPGEe6NJkeL77Ji4Q

    2. Description and illustration are^ comple-mentary, they give together a more complete picture than citherwithout the other.

      Kaiser says that "description and illustration are complementary, they give together a more complete picture than either without the other" and this sentiment is similar to Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren's pedagogy of restatement and providing concrete examples a means of testing understanding.

      See: - https://hypothes.is/a/RgUa-mOcEe6PChv_seYXZA - https://hypothes.is/a/B3sDhlm5Ee6wF0fRYO0OQg

  10. Feb 2024
    1. The IEEE RAC is not aware of any cases, but if MAC-48 is used asthe name for any 48-bit MAC address, then EUI-48 is not the appropriatereplacement term for MAC-48, as EUI-48 only refers to individual,universally/globally unique network addresses.

      Read this text with emphasis on "any". I.e. the term "MAC-48" also includes locally administered MAC addresses (U/L bit set to 1), EUI-48 doesn't.

      Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a term like "MAC-64" to refer to same for a EUI-64.

    1. a personal firewall at the target host would not be able to mitigate this probing technique

      Couldn't the personal firewall just respond with the same ICMP messagt to unsolicited packets? Although it would still decrease the hop count by one. But the sender (the personal firewall) can just increase the hop limit by that number.

  11. Jan 2024
    1. lifetime of an address should be further reduced when privacy-meaningful events (such as a host attaching to a different network, or the regeneration of a new randomized Media Access Control (MAC) address) take place

      Isn't the address deleted in an event of a network disconnect anyway? Hmm, Linux has keep_addr_on_down sysctl option.

    1. This is why choosing an external system that forces us todeliberate practice and confronts us as much as possible with ourlack of understanding or not-yet-learned information is such a smartmove.

      Choosing an external system for knowledge keeping and production forces the learner into a deliberate practice and confronts them with their lack of understanding. This is a large part of the underlying value not only of the zettelkasten, but of the use of a commonplace book which Benjamin Franklin was getting at when recommending that one "read with a pen in your hand". The external system also creates a modality shift from reading to writing by way of thinking which further underlines the value.

      What other building blocks are present in addition to: - modality shift - deliberate practice - confrontation of lack of understanding

      Are there other systems that do all of these as well as others simultaneously?


      link to Franklin quote: https://hypothes.is/a/HZeDKI3YEeyj9GcNWKX4iA

  12. Dec 2023
    1. “I do all my own research,” she said, “though reviewers have speculatedthat I must have a band of hirelings. I like to be led by a footnote ontosomething I never thought of. I rarely photocopy research materials because, for me, note-taking is learning, distilling. That’s the whole essence ofthe business. In taking notes, you have to discard what you don’t need. If you[photocopy] it, you haven’t chewed it.”

      Sounds similar to Umberto Eco's admonition about photocopying: https://hypothes.is/a/U3Sg_r0ZEe25T2tD3U-nmw

  13. Oct 2023
    1. Careful attention to Shank’s explanation of the value and role of stories is recognition that it is not the stories alone that are important, but the combination of indices and stories. The combination is important, but in addition, it is personalized through the imposition of an indexing approach that creates this productive system. Perhaps thinking about experiences searching for understanding can be translated as indexing.
    1. I'm not so much saying Adler and Van Doren were trying to prevent readers from coming to grips with the unresolved issues of American history illustrated in this example. But I am suggesting that the idea that there's a "message" in these foundational texts and they know what it is and our job is to find out, is flawed. Too deterministic, too hierarchical, too supportive of a master narrative that needs to be challenged so truth can be appreciated in its complexity.

      Amen!

    1. Youmust apprehend the unity with definiteness. There is only oneway to know that you have succeeded. You must be able totell yourself or anybody else what the unity is, and in a fewwords. ( If it requires too many words, you have not seen theunity but a multiplicity. ) Do not be satisfied with "feeling theunity" that you cannot express. The reader who says, "I knowwhat it is, but I just can't say it," probably does not even foolhimself.

      Adler/Van Doren use the statement of unity of a work as an example of testing one's understanding of a work and its contents.

      (Again, did this exist in the 1940 edition?)

      Who do McDaniel and Donnelly 1996 cite in their work as predecessors of their idea as certainly it existed?


      Examples in the literature of this same idea/method after this: - https://hypothes.is/a/TclhyMfqEeyTkQdZl43ZyA (Feynman Technique in ZK; relationship to Ahrens) - explain it to me like I'm a 5th grader - https://hypothes.is/a/BKhfvuIyEeyZj_v7eMiYcg ("People talk" in Algebra Project) - https://hypothes.is/a/m0KQSDlZEeyYFLulG9z0vw (Intellectual Life version) - https://hypothes.is/a/OyAAflm5Ee6GStMjUMCKbw (earlier version of statement in this same work) - https://hypothes.is/a/iV5MwjivEe23zyebtBagfw (Ahrens' version of elaboration citing McDaniel and Donnelly 1996, this uses both restatement and application to a situation as a means of testing understanding) - https://hypothes.is/a/B3sDhlm5Ee6wF0fRYO0OQg (Adler's version for testing understanding from his video) - https://hypothes.is/a/rh1M5vdEEeut4pOOF7OYNA (Manfred Kuenh and Luhmann's reformulating writing)

  14. Sep 2023
    1. 08:00 True mastery lies in flow, where action is not forced (Musashi on flow)

      09:00 harmonising mind, body, and universe, as way to reach flow & detachment

      • see zk on following natural interest, our following the quickening of the spirit, as a process of understanding and harmony
    1. There is one other test of whether you understand the proposition in a sentence you have read. Can you point to some experience you have had that the proposition describes or to which the proposition is in any way relevant?
    2. Many mnemonists often recommend that one should understand an idea fully before committing it to memory, usually because it is much easier to memorize if it's fully understood first.

      suggested by: https://hypothes.is/a/Jme3bFmlEe6_VYfaZGQf9Q

    3. "State in your own words!" That suggests the best test we know for telling whether you have understood the proposition or propositions in the sentence.

      Does this idea exist in the 1940 edition of the book?

      Very similar to the advice inherent in the Feynman technique or that suggested by the research summarized by Sonke Ahrens in How to Take Smart Notes.

      cross reference: - https://hypothes.is/a/iV5MwjivEe23zyebtBagfw - https://hypothes.is/a/B3sDhlm5Ee6wF0fRYO0OQg (Adler testing using statement in own words and a concrete example.)

    1. I should perhaps also note that I try, whenever possible, not to collect raw quotes or information simply copied from the Internet or from books, but to write excerpts or summaries in my own words on the basis of my reading. Luhmann called this "reformulating writing" and argued that such an approach is most important for one's own intellectual life.

      Quote for "reformulating writing"? Date? Does it predate the so-called Feynman technique?

    1. I used to give oral examinations at St John's in Chicago and one of the one of the reasons why an oral examination is so much better than the written examination is the professor can never in a written examination say to the student what did you mean by these words 00:47:05 but in oral examination a student often repeats words he's read in the book and you're saying now Mr Jones what you just said is exactly what Hobbs said or what Darwin or 00:47:18 lock said now tell me in your own words what Locke or Hobbes or Darwin meant and then the student has remembered the words perfectly can't tell you in his own words no and you know he has he has noticed of the sentence right he's just 00:47:30 memorized or sometimes he actually can do it and then you say that's very good Mr Jones but now give me a concrete example of it yeah and he failed to do that guy those are the two tests I've always used to be sure the student really grasps the meaning of the key 00:47:42 sentence

      Mortimer Adler gave oral examinations at St. Johns in which he would often ask a student to restate the ideas of writers in their own words and then ask for a concrete example of that idea. Being able to do these two things is a solid way of indicating that one fully understands an idea.

      Adler and Van Doren querying each other demonstrate this once or twice in the video.

      related: - https://hypothes.is/a/rh1M5vdEEeut4pOOF7OYNA - https://hypothes.is/a/iV5MwjivEe23zyebtBagfw

      Where does this method sit with respect to the Feynman Technique? Does this appear in the 1940 edition of Adler's book and thus predate it all?

    1. Recent work has revealed several new and significant aspects of the dynamics of theory change. First, statistical information, information about the probabilistic contingencies between events, plays a particularly important role in theory-formation both in science and in childhood. In the last fifteen years we’ve discovered the power of early statistical learning.

      The data of the past is congruent with the current psychological trends that face the education system of today. Developmentalists have charted how children construct and revise intuitive theories. In turn, a variety of theories have developed because of the greater use of statistical information that supports probabilistic contingencies that help to better inform us of causal models and their distinctive cognitive functions. These studies investigate the physical, psychological, and social domains. In the case of intuitive psychology, or "theory of mind," developmentalism has traced a progression from an early understanding of emotion and action to an understanding of intentions and simple aspects of perception, to an understanding of knowledge vs. ignorance, and finally to a representational and then an interpretive theory of mind.

      The mechanisms by which life evolved—from chemical beginnings to cognizing human beings—are central to understanding the psychological basis of learning. We are the product of an evolutionary process and it is the mechanisms inherent in this process that offer the most probable explanations to how we think and learn.

      Bada, & Olusegun, S. (2015). Constructivism Learning Theory : A Paradigm for Teaching and Learning.

  15. Aug 2023
    1. This set of books is offered not merely as an object uponwhich leisure may be expended, but also as a means to thehumanization of work through understanding.16

      Purpose of the Great Books of the Western World

    1. Upton Sinclair ran for Governor of California in the 1930s, and the coverage he received from newspapers was unsympathetic. Yet, in 1934 some California papers published installments from his forthcoming book about the ill-fated campaign titled “I, Candidate for Governor, and How I Got Licked”. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:[1] 1934 December 11, Oakland Tribune, I, Candidate for Governor and How I Got Licked by Upton Sinclair, Quote Page 19, Column 3, Oakland, California. (Newspapers_com) I used to say to our audiences: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!”

      via https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/11/30/salary/

      Some underlying tension for the question of identity/misinformation and personal politics vis-a-vis work and one's identity generated via work.

  16. Jun 2023
    1. We live in a society that emphasizes glamour and sex appeal. That is why most of us strive to achieve external beauty, but oftentimes we lose our uniqueness in the process.

      so this passage explicitly mentions "external beauty", BUT if we're to consider beauty in its truest essence, then i wonder if this statement is a bad thing. after all, beauty is essentially harmony and balance (which explains why individuals with symmetrical features are considered attractive). all of us strive for beauty, but in doing so, we may lose what makes us unique because beauty favors uniformity.

      this is fascinating to me because uniformity adheres to a standard, which is important for regulating randomness (opposite of this is pattern and we LOVE patterns because it is discernible which means it is safer), and fostering a shared understanding of the world. and this shared understanding of our world is really important to us as humanity. this is how we evolve together. this collective perception only happens through that concept of beauty (or form and structure, harmony and balance).

      nowadays, we shifted and value individualism more. this excessive individualism has promoted different perspectives on the world which contributes to conflicts. ultimately, extremes on both ends of the spectrum (uniformity or individualism) are detrimental, so striking this balance between them is crucial for progress and unity among people.

    1. Early modern jokes can be bewildering. It’s been argued that finding a joke you don’t understand in the sources can be the first step to unlocking the ways in which a society is different to ours, though that’s also the kind of thing you might say after reading one too many jestbooks and wondering what the punchlines mean.
  17. May 2023
    1. 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

  18. Mar 2023
    1. 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.

    1. 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.
  19. Feb 2023
    1. When dealing withimperfect models and data, it is beneficial to integratethe Bayesian approach with physics-informed learningfor uncertainty quantification, such as Bayesian PINNs(B- PINNs) 107 .

    Tags

    Annotators

    1. Moran said the codes themselves may end up limiting the reach of misinformation. As they get more cryptic, they become harder to understand. If people are baffled by a unicorn emoji in a post about COVID-19, they might miss or dismiss the misinformation.
    1. What we ultimately should care about is being able to use our knowledge to produce something new, whatever that may be. To not merely reproduce you must understand the material. And understanding requires application, a hermeneutic principle that particularly Gadamer worked out extensively. If you really want to measure your level of understanding, you should try to apply or explain something to yourself or someone else.
    2. This points to perhaps the most dangerous pitfall of note-taking. It’s very tempting to convince yourself you are learning just because you are writing down - in the sense of passively recording - what someone else says or writes.
    1. Rookie question: Part of my knowledge database is based on the Zettelkasten method, i.e. I have concept-oriented, atomic notes that are linked to each other. I don't, however, however use IDs and neither the Folgezettel method.

      Example of someone (u/HerrRey) who defines zettelkasten as "concept oriented, atomic notes that are linked to each other", but who doesn't use or exclude "IDs or the folgezettel method". Interestingly they feel like they're not getting the "big picture" of their work.

      Is there an affordance in these missing pieces that prevents them from seeing the big picture because of what they're missing? Is it just neurodiversity? Are they not creating outputs which connect the small to the big, and thus missing it that way?

    1. This process has as much todo with taking ownership of ideas as it does with apps.

      Too many in the productivity porn space focus on the apps and the potential workflows without looking at the question "why" at all. It's rare that any focus on understanding or actual output.

  20. Jan 2023
    1. I'd recommend a Book-to-Maincard approach for this (instead of the 2-step Bibcard Method). And I'd recommend Reformulation notes (i.e., summarization notes) instead of Excerpts.

      reply to u/sscheper at https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/10o4jnl/comment/j6ii64d/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3


      Is this about as close as Scott Scheper comes to recommending taking Cornell Notes?!? 😂


      Let's be honest that this is roughly what this (and Bibcards) ultimately is. You take some general notes on a lecture (book or other material) as a sense making tool to help you better understand the material. You write down some bits you want to remember and use for some brief spaced repetition perhaps. You write down some pointed questions to help review for a test later. The subtle difference is that Cornell notes were designed to do the sense making, summary, and repetition portions well for students and learners, but didn't focus as much on the longer tail of knowledge creation using analysis, and synthesis. To fill in the last mile for your card index, take the best idea(s) (maybe one or two at most) and flesh it out to create a useful maincard.

      If it's useful try some 8 x 12" paper for your lecture notes, and take them Bibcard or Cornell Notes style. Once you've excerpted your main card notes, you can fold your sheet in half twice and file it with your Bibcards, naturally taking care to have the paper's spine face up to prevent other slips from becoming lost in between. (This obviously works best for those using 4 x 6" index cards though if you're in the 3 x 5" camp, then use 6" x 10" sheets for folding.) For those with middle grades or high school students, this may be a more profitable method for introducing these methods to their study, learning, and creation patterns.

      Summary: Cornell Notes can be an excellent method for capturing session-based fleeting notes and distilling them down into permanent notes. Cornell Notes focus on the lower levels of Bloom's Taxonomy rather than the broader spectrum that a zettelkasten method might.

    1. Now I understand the artists I love, no matter their medium, because I would write even if I never published a word. I have to write. It’s the only way I can figure anything out. So, maybe all those years of misery and dread were what I needed to overcome, and if so, totally worth it.
    1. Like any journal, Thoreau’s is repetitive, which suggests naturalplaces to shorten the text but these are precisely what need to be keptin order to preserve the feel of a journal, Thoreau’s in particular. Itrimmed many of Thoreau’s repetitions but kept them wheneverpossible, because they are important to Thoreau and because theyare beautiful. Sometimes he repeats himself because he is drafting,revising, constructing sentences solid enough to outlast the centuries.

      Henry David Thoreau repeated himself frequently in his journals. Damion Searls who edited an edition of his journals suggested that some of this repetition was for the beauty and pleasure of the act, but that in many examples his repetition was an act of drafting, revising, and constructing.


      Scott Scheper has recommended finding the place in one's zettelkasten where one wants to install a card before writing it out. I believe (check this) that he does this in part to prevent one from repeating themselves, but one could use the opportunity and the new context that brings them to an idea again to rewrite or rework and expand on their ideas while they're so inspired.


      Thoreau's repetition may have also served the idea of spaced repetition: reminding him of his thoughts as he also revised them. We'll need examples of this through his writing to support such a claim. As the editor of this volume indicates that he removed some of the repetition, it may be better to go back to original sources than to look for these examples here.

      (This last paragraph on repetition was inspired by attempting to type a tag for repetition and seeing "spaced repetition" pop up. This is an example in my own writing practice where the serendipity of a previously tagged word auto-populating/auto-completing in my interface helps to trigger new thoughts and ideas from a combinatorial creativity perspective.)

    1. Tobeuseful,thenotestakenatmedicallecturesshouldbeasummaryonly;noattempt shouldbemadetotakeaverbatimreport

      Verbatim notes are not the goal.

      The idea of note taking as a means of sensemaking and understanding is underlined in an 1892 article in a shorthand magazine whose general purpose was to encourage shorthand and increasing one's writing speed, often to create verbatim records:

      To be useful, the notes taken at medical lectures should be a summary only; no attempt should be made to take a verbatim report.

    2. This independent confirmation ofthe testimonythat Dr Gowers has personally borne to the helpfulness ofPhonography in his professional career, is peculiarlyvaluable, because there are still some able men in themedical world who discourage the practice of note- takingby students . Professor Struthers, for instance, is reportedto have said before the General Medical Council that" the student takes his notes, puts his book in his pocket,and walks out, knowing no more about the subject than amere reporter would do."

      There's an interesting parallel between this example and that of the character of Socrates in Plato with respect to writing and memory.

      Some take notes to increase understanding, while others might suggest that note taking decreases understanding. The answer to remedying the discrepancy is in using the proper process.

    1. But you should also be aware that current PKM theory has a hard-on for writing all your notes in your own words which, to me, seems like a limitation of "knowledge management" as compared to "information management". I'm fine excerpting and citing because some texts have better phrasing I could ever have.

      "current PKM theory"? There is such a thing beyond zeitgeist?!

    1. Success in handling the human element, like success inhandling the materials element, depends upon knowledge of theelement itself and knowledge as to how it can best be handled.
  21. Dec 2022
    1. In anthropology, Verstehen has come to mean a systematic interpretive process in which an outside observer of a culture attempts to relate to it and understand others.

      Verstehen seems to have a similar semantic meaning for an "outsider" making an attempt to understand different (indigenous) ways of knowing.

    2. Verstehen (German pronunciation: [fɛɐˈʃteːən], lit. transl. "to understand"), in the context of German philosophy and social sciences in general, has been used since the late 19th century – in English as in German – with the particular sense of the "interpretive or participatory" examination of social phenomena.[1] The term is closely associated with the work of the German sociologist Max Weber, whose antipositivism established an alternative to prior sociological positivism and economic determinism, rooted in the analysis of social action.[2] In anthropology, Verstehen has come to mean a systematic interpretive process in which an outside observer of a culture attempts to relate to it and understand others.
    1. But Thamus replied, " Most ingenious Theuth, oneman has the ability to beget arts, but the ability tojudge of their usefulness or harmfulness to their usersbelongs to another ; and now you, who are the fatherof letters, have been led by your affection to ascribeto them a power the opposite of that which theyreally possess. For this invention will produce for-getfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it,because they will not practise their memory. Theirtrust in writing, produced by external characterswhich are no part of themselves, will discourage theuse of their own memory within them. You haveinvented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding ;and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom,not true wisdom, for they will read many thingswithout instruction and will therefore seem to knowmany things, when they are for the most part ignorant

      and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise." pp 563-564

    1. Fact-based disciplines such as natural sciences have less potential for deeply linked, atomic zettel notes than arts and humanities. There is not much to discuss about or 'generate insight' on photosynthesis, algebra or network protocols if you are not a scientist.

      Again note taking is the wrong tool for fact-based acquisition. Apparently this is not advice given in most sources. Spaced repetition and mnemonic methods are far better suited for memorizing and remembering basic facts.

      Take notes on the surprising and unique. Take notes as writing you'll reuse later. Take notes to understand.

    1. Duolingo or whatever French and I had this idea well basically what it reminds me of is Stefan's Vig the Austrian

      https://youtu.be/r9idbh-U2kM?t=3544

      Stefan Zweig (reference? his memoir?) apparently suggested that students translate authors as a means of becoming more intimately acquainted with their work. This is similar to restating an author in one's own words as a means of improving one's understanding. It's a lower level of processing that osculates on the idea of having a conversation with a text.

      tk: track this reference down. appropriate context?

    1. you’ll spend the beginning phases learning by readingbooks in brand new fields and noting down brand new ideas. You’ll mostlybe writing reformulation notes in this phase.

      Yet another new name for a sub-type of notes, here he uses reformulation notes as a shorthand for the old advice to rewrite ideas you find in your own words. This advice is often suggested to accomplish two things: - avoid plagiarism - restatement of ideas in your own words is related to the Feynman Technique and assists one in learning and ensuring they understand the concepts

    2. the Antinet can serve both states. It can assist someone who’s in thegrowth state (without a clear end goal), and it can also assist someone who’sin the contribution state (with a clearly defined book or project).

      This could be clearer and "growth state" and "contribution state" feel like jargon which muddles:

      two of the broad benefits/affordances of having a zettelkasten: - learning and scaffolding knowledge (writing for understanding) - collecting and arranging material for general output

      see also: https://boffosocko.com/2022/04/01/the-zettelkasten-method-of-note-taking-mirrors-most-of-the-levels-of-blooms-taxonomy/

  22. Nov 2022
    1. Schemas are chunks of multiple individual units of memory that are linked into a system ofunderstanding

      How do Bransford, Brown, & Cocking (2000) define schemas? (Metiri Group, Cisco Sytems, 2008) As chunks of multiple individual units of memory that are linked into a system of understanding

      What term is defined by Bransford, Brown, & Cocking (2000) to be "chunks of multiple individual units of memory that are linked into a system of understanding"? (Metiri Group, Cisco Sytems, 2008) Schemas.

    1. “[T]here is always a short word for it,”Rogers said. “‘I love words but I don’tlike strange ones. You don’t under-stand them, and they don’t understandyou. Old words is like old friends– you know ‘em the minute you see‘em.”17

      17 betty roGerS, wiLL roGerS 294 (1941; new ed. 1979) (quoting Rogers).

    1. https://www.cold-takes.com/learning-by-writing/

      Meh... generic process. Nothing broadly new here. The extended example is flawed because it's a broad thesis by a top level aggregator who doesn't have their own expert level experience (seemingly). Better to start from there, but delving more deeply into the primary literature of people who may have that experience.

    1. the front endpapers are oftenthe most important. Some people reserve them for a fancybookplate.

      Adler and Van Doren indicate that outlining the arguments and structure of a book on its endpapers is a better and higher measurement of one's ownership of a text compared to a bookplate which only indicates the lower level of "financial" ownership.

    2. writing your reactions downhelps you to remember the thoughts of the author.
    3. Second, reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tendsto express itself in words, spoken or written. The person whosays he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually doesnot know what he thinks.

      Active reading is thinking, and thinking requires expression which can come in many forms including both spoken and written ones.


      I like that he acknowledges that expression (and thus thinking) can be done in both oral or written forms.

    4. 3. Is THE BOOK TRUE, IN WHOLE OR PART?
    5. The tremendous pleasure that can come from readingShakespeare, for instance, was spoiled for generations of highschool students who were forced to go through Julius Caesar,As You Like It, or Hamlet, scene by scene, looking up all thestrange words in a glossary and studying all the scholarly footnotes. As a result, they never really read a Shakespearean play.
    6. The answer lies in an important and helpful rule of reading that is generally overlooked.That rule is simply this: In tackling a difficult book for the firsttime, read it through without ever stopping to look up orponder the things you do not understand right away.
    1. Zettelkasten with the complicated digestive system of a ruminant. All arbitrary ideas, all coincidences of readings, can be brought in. The internal connectivity then decides.

      another in a long line of using analogizing thinking to food digestion.... I saw another just earlier today.

  23. Oct 2022
    1. None of these notes wasever used in his writing; probably they were taken with no thoughtof specific use, but out of absorption in the American scene.

      It's quite likely that one will take a large number of notes with no immediate goal or plan for use and this is completely acceptable. Often these notes go towards the more immediate goal of forming one's own understanding and setting of a broader tableau for material one will write in the future.

    2. the author must not merely articulate his sources; he mustdigest them. A long passage quoted or closely followed "remainsan undigested bit of foreign matter." "Over quotation may meanunder thought."
    1. Be ready, as soon as you have read or heard the thing, to repeat it exactly in as far as you want to fix it in your memory. If it is a book, do not leave it without being able to sum it up and to estimate its value. Ta

      Sounds much like the Feynman technique and is quite similar to the advice of Sonke Ahrens.

    1. Anybody who writes knows you don’t simply write what you believe. You write to find out what you believe, or what you can afford to believe. So when I write something and it sounds good, I leave it in, usually, to see what it sounds like to someone else. To somebody else it might sound awful or brash, but I want to be able to have the courage of my brashness. I don’t leave things in that I know to be terrible, or that I don’t, as it were, find interesting—I don’t do that—but if there’s a doubt about it and it sounds interesting, I’ll leave it in. And I want to be free to do that, because that’s why I write. When I write, things occur to me. It’s a way of thinking. But you can perform your thinking instead of just thinking it.
    1. . The goal a reader seeks-be itentertainment, information or understanding-determines theway he reads.

      There are three goals of most reading: education, information, and understanding.


      Are there others we're missing here?

    1. Sincecopying is a chore and a bore, use of the cards, the smaller thebetter, forces one to extract the strictly relevant, to distill from thevery beginning, to pass the material through the grinder of one’s ownmind, so to speak.

      Barbara Tuchman recommended using the smallest sized index cards possible to force one only to "extract the strictly relevant" because copying by hand can be both "a chore and a bore".

      In the same address in 1963, she encourages "distill[ing] from the very beginning, to pass the material through the grinder of one's own mind, so to speak." This practice is similar to modern day pedagogues who encourage this practice, but with the benefit of psychology research to back up the practice.

      This advice is two-fold in terms of filtering out the useless material for an author, but the grinder metaphor indicates placing multiple types of material in to to a processor to see what new combinations of products come out the other end. This touches more subtly on the idea of combinatorial creativity encouraged by Raymond Llull, Matt Ridley, et al. or the serendipity described by Niklas Luhmann and others.


      When did the writing for understanding idea begin within the tradition? Was it through experience in part and then underlined with psychology research? Visit Ahrens' references on this for particular papers to read.

      Link to modality shift research.

    1. he taking o f anote is an additional mechanism for comprehension ofwhat one is reading.
    2. I had readBalzac off and on during the forties, and been much takenwith his self-appointed task of " c o v e r i n g " all the majorclasses and types in the society of the era he wished tomake his own.

      We write to understand, to learn, to make knowledge our own.

  24. Sep 2022
    1. This is not so different from when elaboration is recommended asa “learning method.” As a method, it has been proven to be moresuccessful than any other approach (McDaniel and Donnelly 1996).

      Elaboration has been shown to be the most successful learning approach. (See McDaniel and Donnelly 1996) It is a two step process of being able to write about it and to use it in alternate contexts.

      How is the Feynman Technique similar to/different from elaboration? It would seem to be missing the second portion.

      This is one of the first times I've come across another word for part of the Feynman technique I've been looking for.

    2. But Ebbinghaus laidthe foundation for a long-lasting and influential tradition of learningtheories that separates understanding from learning.

      Because Hermann Ebbinghaus' early studies on memory, retrieval, and spaced repetition focused on meaningless random letter combinations that ha no natural associations, he started a field of learning theories that separated the ideas of understanding and learning. Learning is creating connections between ideas we already know (contextualization).

  25. Aug 2022
    1. Mere paraphrasing the work of an-other is as offensive as direct copying. The discovery of ma-terials, the research, the oqanization of the material, theplan of treatment, and the literary composition should eachbe strictly the independent work of the student. H e shouldlearn not merely to collect facts on paper but also to as-similate them in his own mind 4then express them interms of his own thinking, while adhering to strict accuracyin the statement of facts.
    1. First, it taught me that there was a history to this stuff, and it also expanded the frontiers of what I understood I was doing

      'History of stuff' not being seen is a recurring pattern. e.g. wrt Luhmann vs commonplacing, in the Roam/Obsidian wave e.g. wrt open data around 2010 when there was little realisation of efforts by re-users to get to the PSI Directive, only the new wave of coders using the fact it existed.

      It's also a repeating pattern in generations. Open Space and unconferencing e.g. needs to be retaught with every new wave of people. The open web of two decades ago needs to be explained to those now starting their professional work using online tools.

      Spaced repetition for groups/society?

      In order to expand understanding what one is actually doing / building on.

      Doet me denken aan die '90s exchange student die me ooit vroeg of ik geschiedenis studeerde ipv elektro: ik legde bij alles ook het ontwikkelingspad uit.

    1. I also mentioned Zettelkasten many times in this post, but I don’t do that anymore—I just did a 1-month dry run and it felt tiring. Pen and paper just gives me the bare essentials. I can get straight to work and not worry if something is a literature note or a permanent note.

      What is it that was tiring about the practice? Did they do it properly, or was the focus placed on tremendous output driving the feeling of a need for commensurate tremendous input on a daily basis? Most lifetime productive users only made a few cards a day, but I get the feeling that many who start, think they should be creating 20 cards a day and that is definitely a road to burn out. This feeling is compounded by digital tools that make it easier to quickly capture ideas by quoting or cut and pasting, but which don't really facilitate the ownership of ideas (internalization) by the note taker. The work of writing helps to facilitate this. Apparently the framing of literature note vs. permanent note also was a hurdle in the collection of ideas moving toward the filtering down and refining of one's ideas. These naming ideas seem to be a general hurdle for many people, particularly if they're working without particular goals in mind.

      Only practicing zettelkasten for a month is certainly no way to build real insight or to truly begin developing anything useful. Even at two cards a day and a minimum of 500-1000 total cards to see some serendipity and creativity emerge, one would need to be practicing for just over a year to begin seeing interesting results.

  26. Jul 2022
    1. Finally, new notes should be connected with anexisting note when you add them to your system. I’lldescribe this in greater detail shortly; the point for now isthat linking a new thought to an existing train of thoughtseems to be a key to your note-making system workingfor you. Where does this new idea fit into your thoughtson an issue? Your questions about a topic? Your ideasabout a puzzle you’re working on understanding?Disciplining yourself to make this connection can be abit tough and time-consuming at first. It is worth theinvestment. Without understanding how these ideas thatinterest us fit together, all we have is a pile of unrelatedtrivia.

      Writing and refining one's note about an idea can be key to helping one's basic understanding of that idea, but this understanding is dramatically increased by linking it into the rest of one's framework of understanding of that idea. A useful side benefit of creating this basic understanding and extending it is that one can also reuse one's (better understood) ideas to create new papers for expanding other's reading and subsequent understanding.

    2. Far more important than what these notes are calledis what they do in helping you make the transition fromacquiring information from others to making it yourown.

      This welcome point is not often seen in the broader literature on this subject! Thanks Dan!

    1. Perhaps the best method would be to take notes—not excerpts, but condensed reformulations of what has been read.

      One of the best methods for technical reading is to create progressive summarizations of what one has read.

    1. At the same time, like Harold, I’ve realised that it is important to do things, to keep blogging and writing in this space. Not because of its sheer brilliance, but because most of it will be crap, and brilliance will only occur once in a while. You need to produce lots of stuff to increase the likelihood of hitting on something worthwile. Of course that very much feeds the imposter cycle, but it’s the only way. Getting back into a more intensive blogging habit 18 months ago, has helped me explore more and better. Because most of what I blog here isn’t very meaningful, but needs to be gotten out of the way, or helps build towards, scaffolding towards something with more meaning.

      Many people treat their blogging practice as an experimental thought space. They try out new ideas, explore a small space, attempt to come to understanding, connect new ideas to their existing ideas.


      Ton Zylstra coins/uses the phrase "metablogging" to think about his blogging practice as an evolving thought space.


      How can we better distill down these sorts of longer ideas and use them to create more collisions between ideas to create new an innovative ideas? What forms might this take?

      The personal zettelkasten is a more concentrated form of this and blogging is certainly within the space as are the somewhat more nascent digital gardens. What would some intermediary "idea crucible" between these forms look like in public that has a simple but compelling interface. How much storytelling and contextualization is needed or not needed to make such points?

      Is there a better space for progressive summarization here so that an idea can be more fully laid out and explored? Then once the actual structure is built, the scaffolding can be pulled down and only the idea remains.

      Reminiscences of scaffolding can be helpful for creating context.

      Consider the pyramids of Giza and the need to reverse engineer how they were built. Once the scaffolding has been taken down and history forgets the methods, it's not always obvious what the original context for objects were, how they were made, what they were used for. Progressive summarization may potentially fall prey to these effects as well.

      How might we create a "contextual medium" which is more permanently attached to ideas or objects to help prevent context collapse?

      How would this be applied in reverse to better understand sites like Stonehenge or the hundreds of other stone circles, wood circles, and standing stones we see throughout history.

  27. Jun 2022
    1. If we overlay the four steps of CODE onto the model ofdivergence and convergence, we arrive at a powerful template forthe creative process in our time.

      The way that Tiago Forte overlaps the idea of C.O.D.E. (capture/collect, organize, distill, express) with the divergence/convergence model points out some primary differences of his system and that of some of the more refined methods of maintaining a zettelkasten.

      A flattened diamond shape which grows from a point on the left so as to indicate divergence from a point to the diamond's wide middle which then decreases to the right to indicate convergence  to the opposite point. Overlapping this on the right of the diamond are the words "capture" and "organize" while the converging right side is overlaid with "distill" and "express". <small>Overlapping ideas of C.O.D.E. and divergence/convergence from Tiago Forte's book Building a Second Brain (Atria Books, 2022) </small>

      Forte's focus on organizing is dedicated solely on to putting things into folders, which is a light touch way of indexing them. However it only indexes them on one axis—that of the folder into which they're being placed. This precludes them from being indexed on a variety of other axes from the start to other places where they might also be used in the future. His method requires more additional work and effort to revisit and re-arrange (move them into other folders) or index them later.

      Most historical commonplacing and zettelkasten techniques place a heavier emphasis on indexing pieces as they're collected.

      Commonplacing creates more work on the user between organizing and distilling because they're more dependent on their memory of the user or depending on the regular re-reading and revisiting of pieces one may have a memory of existence. Most commonplacing methods (particularly the older historic forms of collecting and excerpting sententiae) also doesn't focus or rely on one writing out their own ideas in larger form as one goes along, so generally here there is a larger amount of work at the expression stage.

      Zettelkasten techniques as imagined by Luhmann and Ahrens smooth the process between organization and distillation by creating tacit links between ideas. This additional piece of the process makes distillation far easier because the linking work has been done along the way, so one only need edit out ideas that don't add to the overall argument or piece. All that remains is light editing.

      Ahrens' instantiation of the method also focuses on writing out and summarizing other's ideas in one's own words for later convenient reuse. This idea is also seen in Bruce Ballenger's The Curious Researcher as a means of both sensemaking and reuse, though none of the organizational indexing or idea linking seem to be found there.


      This also fits into the diamond shape that Forte provides as the height along the vertical can stand in as a proxy for the equivalent amount of work that is required during the overall process.

      This shape could be reframed for a refined zettelkasten method as an indication of work


      Forte's diamond shape provided gives a visual representation of the overall process of the divergence and convergence.

      But what if we change that shape to indicate the amount of work that is required along the steps of the process?!

      Here, we might expect the diamond to relatively accurately reflect the amounts of work along the path.

      If this is the case, then what might the relative workload look like for a refined zettelkasten? First we'll need to move the express portion between capture and organize where it more naturally sits, at least in Ahren's instantiation of the method. While this does take a discrete small amount of work and time for the note taker, it pays off in the long run as one intends from the start to reuse this work. It also pays further dividends as it dramatically increases one's understanding of the material that is being collected, particularly when conjoined to the organization portion which actively links this knowledge into one's broader world view based on their notes. For the moment, we'll neglect the benefits of comparison of conjoined ideas which may reveal flaws in our thinking and reasoning or the benefits of new questions and ideas which may arise from this juxtaposition.

      Graphs of commonplace book method (collect, organize, distill, express) versus zettelkasten method (collect, express, organize (index/link), and distill (edit)) with work on the vertical axis and time/methods on the horizontal axis. While there is similar work in collection the graph for the zettelkasten is overall lower and flatter and eventually tails off, the commonplace slowly increases over time.

      This sketch could be refined a bit, but overall it shows that frontloading the work has the effect of dramatically increasing the efficiency and productivity for a particular piece of work.

      Note that when compounded over a lifetime's work, this diagram also neglects the productivity increase over being able to revisit old work and re-using it for multiple different types of work or projects where there is potential overlap, not to mention the combinatorial possibilities.

      --

      It could be useful to better and more carefully plot out the amounts of time, work/effort for these methods (based on practical experience) and then regraph the resulting power inputs against each other to come up with a better picture of the efficiency gains.

      Is some of the reason that people are against zettelkasten methods that they don't see the immediate gains in return for the upfront work, and thus abandon the process? Is this a form of misinterpreted-effort hypothesis at work? It can also be compounded at not being able to see the compounding effects of the upfront work.

      What does research indicate about how people are able to predict compounding effects over time in areas like money/finance? What might this indicate here? Humans definitely have issues seeing and reacting to probabilities in this same manner, so one might expect the same intellectual blindness based on system 1 vs. system 2.


      Given that indexing things, especially digitally, requires so little work and effort upfront, it should be done at the time of collection.


      I'll admit that it only took a moment to read this highlighted sentence and look at the related diagram, but the amount of material I was able to draw out of it by reframing it, thinking about it, having my own thoughts and ideas against it, and then innovating based upon it was incredibly fruitful in terms of better differentiating amongst a variety of note taking and sense making frameworks.

      For me, this is a great example of what reading with a pen in hand, rephrasing, extending, and linking to other ideas can accomplish.

    2. When a few of his friends became interested in thetopic, he took eight minutes to progressively summarize the bestexcerpts before sharing the summarized article with them. The timethat he had spent reading and understanding a complex subject paidoff in time savings for his friends, while also giving them a newinterest to connect over.

      To test one's own understanding of a topic one has read about and studied, it can be useful to discuss it or describe one's understanding to friends or colleagues in conversations. This will help you discover where the holes are based on the person's understanding and comprehension of what you've said. Can you fill in all the holes where they have questions? Are their questions your new questions which have exposed holes that need to be filled in your understanding or in the space itself.

      I do this regularly in conversations with people. It makes the topics of conversation more varied and interesting and helps out your thinking at the same time. In particular I've been doing this method in Dan Allosso's book club. It's almost like trying on a new idea the way one might try on a piece of clothing to see how it fits or how one likes it for potential purchase. If an idea "fits" then continue refining it and add it to your knowledge base. These conversations also help to better link ideas in my thought space to those of what we're reading. (I wonder if others are doing these same patterns, Dan seems to, but I don't have as good a grasp on this with other participants).

      Link to :<br /> - Ahren's idea of writing to expose understanding<br /> - Feynman technique<br /> - Socratic method (this is sort of side or tangential method to this) <- define this better/refine

    3. Verum ipsum factum (“We only know what we make”)—Giambattista Vico, Italian philosopher