Cato led optimates

Indices are certainly an old construct. One of the oldest structured examples in the note taking space is that of John Locke who detailed it in Méthode nouvelle de dresser des recueils (1685), later translated into English as A New Method of Organizing Common Place Books (1706).

Previously commonplace books had been structured with headwords done alphabetically. This meant starting with a preconceived structure and leaving blank or empty space ahead of time without prior knowledge of what would fill it or how long that might take. By turning that system on its head, one could fill a notebook from front to back with a specific index of the headwords at the end. Then one didn't need to do the same amount of pre-planning or gymnastics over time with respect to where to put their notes.

This idea combined with that of Konrad Gessner's design for being able to re-arrange slips of paper (which later became index cards based on an idea by Carl Linnaeus), gives us an awful lot of freedom and flexibility in almost any note taking system.

Building blocks of the note taking system

• atomic ideas
• written on (re-arrangeable) slips, cards, or hypertext spaces
• cross linked with each other
• cross linked with an index
• cross linked with references

are there others? should they be broken up differently?

Godfathers of Notetaking

• Aristotle, Cicero (commonplaces)
• Seneca the Younger (collecting and reusing)
• Raymond Llull (combinatorial rearrangements)
• Konrad Gessner (storage for re-arrangeable slips)
• John Locke (indices)
• Carl Linnaeus (index cards)

Macroforms are the literary constructions which we might consider anthologies composed of smaller building blocks of lemmata and microforms. These smaller forms are rhetorically built up into larger forms to make "new" literary works or commentaries on prior works.

These can be compared to Western rhetorical traditions going back to Seneca the Younger in Epistulae morales

"We should follow, men say, the example of the bees, who flit about and cull the flowers that are suitable for producing honey, and then arrange and assort in their cells all that they have brought in; these bees, as our Vergil says, 'pack close the flowering honey | And swell their cells with nectar sweet.' "

He's essentially saying, read the best, take their thoughts and ideas, consume them, make them your own."

Generations later in ~430 CE, Macrobius in his Saturnalia repeated the same idea and even analogy (he assuredly read Seneca, though he obviously didn't acknowledge him):

"You should not count it a fault if I shall set out the borrowings from a miscellaneous reading in the authors' own words... sometimes set out plainly in my own words and sometimes faithfully recorded in the actual words of the old writers... We ought in some sort to imitate bees; and just as they, in their wandering to and fro, sip the flowers, then arrange their spoil and distribute it among the honeycombs, and transform the various juices to a single flavor by some mixing with them a property of their own being, so I too shall put into writing all that I have acquired in the varied course of my reading... For not only does arrangement help the memory, but the actual process of arrangement, accompanied by a kind of mental fermentation which serves to season the whole, blends the diverse extracts to make a single flavor; with the result that, even if the sources are evident, what we get in the end is still something clearly different from those known sources."

(cross reference: https://hyp.is/mCsl9voQEeuP3t8jNOyAvw/maggieappleton.com/echo-narcissus)

Reuters. (2021, October 6). Sweden, Denmark pause Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for younger age groups. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/sweden-pauses-use-moderna-covid-vaccine-cites-rare-side-effects-2021-10-06/

Covid cases in England are 26 times higher than a year ago. (2021, August 28). The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/28/covid-cases-in-england-are-26-times-higher-than-a-year-ago

Morgan, L., Schwartz, J. L., & Sisti, D. A. (2021). COVID-19 Vaccination of Minors Without Parental Consent: Respecting Emerging Autonomy and Advancing Public Health. JAMA Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.1855

This general thought goes back to antiquity (and possibly earlier). In writing about classic rhetoric Seneca the Younger wrote in Epistulae morales

"We should follow, men say, the example of the bees, who flit about and cull the flowers that are suitable for producing honey, and then arrange and assort in their cells all that they have brought in; these bees, as our Vergil says, 'pack close the flowering honey | And swell their cells with nectar sweet.' "

(Sound a bit like he's one of the original digital gardeners, but in an analog world?)

He's essentially saying, read the best, take their thoughts and ideas, consume them, make them your own."

Generations later in ~430 CE, Macrobius in his Saturnalia repeated the same idea and even analogy (he assuredly read Seneca, though he obviously didn't acknowledge him):

"You should not count it a fault if I shall set out the borrowings from a miscellaneous reading in the authors' own words... sometimes set out plainly in my own words and sometimes faithfully recorded in the actual words of the old writers... We ought in some sort to imitate bees; and just as they, in their wandering to and fro, sip the flowers, then arrange their spoil and distribute it among the honeycombs, and transform the various juices to a single flavor by some mixing with them a property of their own being, so I too shall put into writing all that I have acquired in the varied course of my reading... For not only does arrangement help the memory, but the actual process of arrangement, accompanied by a kind of mental fermentation which serves to season the whole, blends the diverse extracts to make a single flavor; with the result that, even if the sources are evident, what we get in the end is still something clearly different from those known sources."

This is also related to the ideas of invention as well as the analogy of the bee in relation to commonplaces. Link this to the bee analogy of Seneca the Younger and Macrobius in Saturnalia.

Céline Gounder, MD, ScM, FIDSA. (2021, May 7). 6/ Many young Americans want to ‘wait & see.’ But they also want to do what their friends are doing. If you’re a teen or 20-something (or really anyone), be a role model! Take that selfie pic/video when you get vaccinated and post it online. Https://t.co/rB2zPmm4aK [Tweet]. @celinegounder. https://twitter.com/celinegounder/status/1390786119374184452

Ledford, H. (2021). Should children get COVID vaccines? What the science says. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01898-9

Iacobucci, G. (2021). Covid-19: Local councils initiate surge vaccination to tackle B.1.617.2 variant. BMJ, 373, n1361. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1361

Duckworth, A., Kautz, T., Defnet, A., Satlof-Bedrick, E., Talamas, S. N., Luttges, B. L., & Steinberg, L. (2021). Students Attending School Remotely Suffer Socially, Emotionally, and Academically. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/rpz7h

This article, published in the Journals of Gerontology, discusses a study that focused on teaching older adults to use technology. This is often discussed in a practical sense, with many how-to's. This article, however, discusses the theory behind gerontological learning. Older adults don't generally learn the same way younger adults do. Therefore, it is important to provide them with practice that shows tasks have continuity, to ensure the important task components are focused on strongly, and to consider whether the learning goals are appropriate for the learner. Representative design is addressed here. This is the first time I've heard of representative design. I teach many people over the age of 60 to use technology, so it is important for me to know the theory that will help them learn best. Interestingly,this article mentioned that performance should be assessed based on a comparison of the older adult's environment. I wish I could use that more in my work, but it's a young person's world now. 9/10

This study focused on the difference in visuo-spatial relations between younger adults and older adults. The purpose was tol determine the effect of aging on visuo-spatial relations.<br> Both groups performed the same tasks using a simplified map for orientation, pointing out locations, and recreating the map. The results indicated that older adults successfully completed the tasks at a lower rate and that males successfully completed tasks more that women. The researches highly recommended other duplicate the study to determine if the results can be generalized and consistent. This study is a valuable indication of the changing needs of adult learners due to aging. Rating: 8/10

Snapchat reaches around 30 million 18-24 year old users; important ages that are more recently able to vote and take political action. Instagram and snapchat are most popular amongst younger users.