10,000 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2023
    1. It Took Decades To Create This Chess Puzzle Database (30 Thousand), 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9craX0M_2A.

      A chess School named after Genrikh Kasparyan (alternately Henrik Kasparian) houses his card index of chess puzzles with over 30,000 cards.

      The cards are stored in stacked wooden trays in a two door cabinet with 4 shelves.

      There are at least 23 small wooden trays of cards pictured in the video, though there are possibly many more. (Possibly as many as about 35 based on the layout of the cabinet and those easily visible.)

      Kasparyan's son Sergei donated the card index to the chess school.

      Each index card in the collection, filed in portrait orientation, begins with the name of the puzzle composer, lists its first publication, has a chess board diagram with the pieces arranges, and beneath that the solution of the puzzle. The cards are arranged alphabetically by the name of the puzzle composer.

      The individual puzzle diagrams appear to have been done with a stamp of the board done in light blue ink with darker blue (or purple?) and red inked stamped pieces arranged on top of it.


      u/ManuelRodriguez331 in r/Zettelkasten - Chess players are memorizing games with index cards

    1. https://www.ebay.com/itm/145513677777

      2023-12-23 sectional (top and 6x3 section of drawers) 18 drawer card catalog offered for sale with local pick up only in Taunton, MA for $450.00.

      In very rough shape with scratches, finish missing, some warping, peeling, no base, no rods (but also no hardware for rods). Few staples in wood. In good enough shape for easy refinishing without restoration work however.

      Cost per drawer: $25.00

    1. Matt GrossMatt Gross (He/Him) • 1st (He/Him) • 1st Vice President, Digital Initiatives at Archetype MediaVice President, Digital Initiatives at Archetype Media 4d • 4d • So, here's an interesting project I launched two weeks ago: The HistoryNet Podcast, a mostly automated transformation of HistoryNet's archive of 25,000+ stories into an AI-driven daily podcast, powered by Instaread and Zapier. The voices are pretty good! The stories are better than pretty good! The implications are... maybe terrifying? Curious to hear what you think. Listen at https://lnkd.in/emUTduyC or, as they always say, "wherever you get your podcasts."

      https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7142905086325780480/

      One can now relatively easily use various tools in combination with artificial intelligence-based voices and reading to convert large corpuses of text into audiobooks, podcasts or other spoken media.

    1. When the Keynesian settlement was nally put into eect, afterWorld War II, it was oered only to a relatively small slice of theworld’s population. As time went on, more and more people wantedin on the deal. Almost all of the popular movements of the periodfrom 1945 to 1975, even perhaps revolutionary movements, couldbe seen as demands for inclusion: demands for political equality thatassumed equality was meaningless without some level of economicsecurity. This was true not only of movements by minority groups inNorth Atlantic countries who had rst been left out of the deal—such as those for whom Dr. King spoke—but what were then called“national liberation” movements from Algeria to Chile, whichrepresented certain class fragments in what we now call the GlobalSouth, or, nally, and perhaps most dramatically, in the late 1960sand 1970s, feminism. At some point in the ’70s, things reached abreaking point. It would appear that capitalism, as a system, simplycannot extend such a deal to everyone

      How might this equate to the time at which Rome extended its citizen franchise to larger swaths of people and the attendant results which came about? particularly the shift towards an empire versus a republic?

      These seem to have been happening in the case of America with Donald Trump attempting to become a modern day Julius Caesar. To whom is Trump indebted?

    1. https://www.ebay.com/itm/276234367177

      Industrial metal card catalog with 9 drawers containing 36 sections for 3x5" index cards. A tenth bottom drawer contains extra non-card space. Offered in late December 2023 for 450.00. Heavily used, stickers in label areas, some exterior hardware missing, some rust visible. Local pick up only in Rosamond, CA. Apparently there is no marking or manufacturing name plate; seller believes it to be Remington from 1940's, but without any evidence.

      Cost per drawer: $12.50

    1. How Should OneRead a Book

      Woolf, Virginia. “How Should One Read a Book?” In Gateway to the Great Books: 5 Critical Essays, edited by Robert M. Hutchins, Mortimer J. Adler, and Clifton Fadiman, 2nd ed., 5–14. Gateway to the Great Books 5. 1932. Reprint, Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1990.

      Originally:<br /> “How Should One Read a Book?” from The Second Common Reader by Virginia Woolf. Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1932.

    1. The 3x5'' sized drawers are good, but the 4x6'' sized drawers are a tad too narrow. Not enough dividers too. A really good value for money though, if you want an actual drawer instead of a shoebox the other alternatives can get really pricey.

      reply to u/Apprehensive_Net5630 at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/18kpv0y/comment/kdymaeq/

      Some of the alternatives look pricey, but often can be negotiated down or found at more reasonable rates if you look around for a bit. I've got some advice and ideas at: https://boffosocko.com/research/zettelkasten-commonplace-books-and-note-taking-collection/#Boxes

      As an example, I picked up a 20 drawer 3x5" oak card index this year for $250 making it cheaper per drawer (and with more linear space per drawer) than a brand new cardboard box version. Incidentally, even buying index cards in bulk to lower cost, it'll run me more than twice what I paid for the entire card catalog to fill it with index cards (\~$550).

      Directly comparing the storage space, I'd need almost 13 Vaultz 2-drawer boxes at about $75 each or $980 to equal it. I could have bought my Gaylord card index and filled it with cards and still saved money over buying a set of just the Vaultz boxes.

      Having the beautiful and useful piece of furniture in the mix definitely makes the process a lot more fun and enjoyable too.

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGGQNqBaFDA<br /> Homekeeping Schedule by FindingKellyAnn<br /> posted Jul 25, 2013

      Example of a user's Sidetracked Home Executives card index.

      Includes a section of notes she took on a book at one time. She used it for a while and reported that it was successful, but she no longer uses it and has a binder method instead.

    1. the hormone deficiency has been renamed Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause (GSM)

      Previously called vaginal atrophy, the deficiency of estrogen during perimenopause is now called Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause (GSM). It presents primarily as vaginal dryness, but also makes one more susceptible to both genital and urinary symptoms including UTIs, pain with sex, decreased orgasm, and decreased arousal.

    1. Wish You Were Here - The “Great Lakes” Edition from Field Notes Brand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFemm4LjJbY

      The Newberry Library in Chicago, IL, maintains a collection of the Curt Teich & Co.'s Art-Colortone postcards from 1898 onward. It's stored in tab divided boxes using an alpha-numeric system generally comprising a series of three letters followed by three numbers. The company sold over a billion of these postcards.

    1. If I had a dollar for every organizational system I have tried, I could treat myself to a steak dinner in a fancy restaurant. (Hey! That’s not a bad ideal!) I’ve tried notebook organizers, card files, flip charts, a stop watch, and numerous labeling gadgets. I’ve tried refrigerator magnets, the buddy system, lots of books, and a bunch of classes and seminars. All of these were good tools and some of them had great ideas, but none of them worked for me. (p27)

    2. I accomplished a couple of other things on that first day back into reality. First, with an evil Grinch-like smile | uprooted every household management system | had ever tried, and tore up every single 3x5 card in them. Then one by one, | roasted and toasted them in the fireplace until they were gone, gone, gone. Next, with equally fiendish delight, | speared my $35 namebrand notebook organizer with a marshmallow fork, and | roasted it too. It melted into oblivion, all but it’s ugly metal spine. Next, | prayed for my attitude and for help. And finally, | marched myself into Wal-mart and bought my first clear plastic bin, a two pound sack of M&M's, and a loaf of white bread. For better or worse, we have been pretty happy campers at my house ever since. (p6)

    1. Saw listing in early 2023-12 for $650 with local pick up only in Lenoir City, TN. 21 people watching it, so it's probably been up for a while.

      A Remington Rand, oak card catalog with two 6 x 5 sections for a total of 60 drawers in a solid cabinet with a middle section including three writing drawers. Well used moving towards shabby. Missing all the rods and some drawers missing either exterior hardware and/or replaced drawers (wood doesn't quite match).

      Cost per drawer: $10.83

  2. mitpressonpubpub.mitpress.mit.edu mitpressonpubpub.mitpress.mit.edu
    1. Shannon, Claude E., Norbert Wiener, Frances A. Yates, Gregory Bateson, Michel Foucault, Friedrich. A. Hayek, Walter Benjamin, et al. Information: A Reader. Edited by Eric Hayot, Lea Pao, and Anatoly Detwyler. New York: Columbia University Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.7312/hayo18620.

      Annotation URL: urn:x-pdf:d987e346ec524f00d3c201c5055bf12e

      https://jonudell.info/h/facet/?user=chrisaldrich&max=100&exactTagSearch=true&expanded=true&url=urn%3Ax-pdf%3Ad987e346ec524f00d3c201c5055bf12e

      Noticing after starting to read that this chapter is an abridged excerpt of the original, so I'm switching to the original 1945 version.

      See: https://hypothes.is/a/dZRmapquEe66Ehf7Emie3Q

    2. Instead, he lauds the figure of themarket as a knowing entity, envisioning it as a kind of processor of socialinformation that, through the mechanism of price, continuously calcu-lates and communicates current economic conditions to individuals inthe market.

      Is it possible that in this paper we'll see the beginning of a shift from Adam Smith's "invisible hand" (of Divine Providence, or God) to a somewhat more scientifically based mechanism based on information theory?

      Could communication described here be similar to that of a fungal colony seeking out food across gradients? It's based in statistical mechanics of exploring a space, but looks like divine providence or even magic to those lacking the mechanism?

    3. This idealized vision would go on to rebrand economics asa form of information studies, eventually garnering Hayek a Nobel Prizein Economics in 1974.

      Note that Hayek writes this in 1945, 11 years before Shannon would write "The Bandwagon" (IEEE, 1956).

      It's also written at a time when economics as a field was still trying to legitimize itself, along with other humanities, as a "scientific" field.

      (@Shannon1956)

    4. FRIEDRICH HAYEK, FROM “THE USE OFKNOWLEDGE IN SOCIETY” (1945)

      Hayek, Friedrich A. “The Use of Knowledge in Society.” In Information: A Reader, edited by Eric Hayot, Lea Pao, and Anatoly Detwyler. 1945. Reprint, New York: Columbia University Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.7312/hayo18620.

      This paper was selected as one of the top 20 articles published in The American Economic Review during its first 100 years. In this paper Hayek poses the fundamental question of the nature of the economic system. He is especially concerned in its role in dealing with resource allocation when knowledge is distributed in small bits among a large population. —Fermats Library editors (email) https://fermatslibrary.com/s/the-use-of-knowledge-in-society

    1. https://docs.google.com/document/d/15gI7LozljTOvo_7oUwfnOIwfzD8O0VHVgWGr0oK3RI0/edit

      When comparing, one ought to take careful account of the variety of wikis and their uses (both public and private) and not fall into the availability heuristic of thinking that all wikis are used and managed like Wikipedia solely because it is one of the biggest and most popular ones.

      Some individual users slowly build their personal wikis a note at a time, but instead of linking one note to another, they place it onto a page near related ideas, which may tend to create articles over time. (Sounds a bit like folgezettel, no?) See Ward Cunningham’s (the creator of the idea of wiki) wiki for this: https://wiki.c2.com/

      Many public TiddlyWiki’s, in part because of design, are created as short note/card-based ideas which may slowly accumulate from notes to articles as well. See my own example: https://tw.boffosocko.com/

      It may take some digging in to find public versions, but many FedWiki sites have a very note (or card-based) root design rather than an article-based design: http://fed.wiki.org/view/federated-wiki

      Bill Seitz’s public wiki is broadly a melange of all these patterns as well: http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/BillSeitz

      For additional contrast and comparison, see also: - https://indieweb.org/Zettelk%C3%A4sten - https://indieweb.org/digital_garden - https://indieweb.org/commonplace_book

      Looking at a variety of specific examples in practice will tend to be far more fruitful than considering a tiny handful of theoretical (and potentially non-existent) examples, particularly in light of the massive bias which is created by the existence of Wikipedia.

    1. I don't use private personal wikis, so my interpretation is: Zettelkasten is the private work space, personal wiki is a form of publication. Maybe not polished for publishing, but edited and redacted where needed, so I can trust that I can be stupid in my Zettelkasten without anyone noticing.

      reply to ctietze at https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/comment/15201/#Comment_15201

      I can be stupid in my [private] Zettelkasten without anyone noticing.

      I too have a private space exactly for this purpose. On the other hand, writing and publishing in public spaces forces me to do some additional thinking/polishing work that I might not otherwise, and that often provides some spectacular results as well as useful feedback for improvement over time.

    1. New member here, is Zettelkasten the right method for my need? .t3_18fjaya._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #edeeef; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #6f7071; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #6f7071; } questionI have difficulting remembering important facts and numbers at work. I work in a strategic role for a large logistics firm. There are so many KPIs, initiatives, savings, people plans, etc.My biggest opportunity is recall in meetings to answer questions and further conversations. I can feel it holding me back and I am desperate to address it. I stumbled upon Zettelkasten, is this the right tool for me?

      reply to u/chiefkeif at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/18fjaya/new_member_here_is_zettelkasten_the_right_method/

      Some of your root issues may be addressed directly by engaging with by spaced repetition systems (for improving memory recall: try Anki, Mnemosyne, et al.) as well as mnemonic systems (memory palaces, the major system, etc.). Given that a Zettelkasten can be an instantiation of both of these simultaneously, you may find benefits for using it in such a setting. This being said, you may be better off with either one or both of the more proximal solutions with a zettelkasten being somewhat more distal for your specific needs.

    1. What’s this about?

      Cursory overview of Roland Allen's book: The Notebook (reply to u/eggbunni at https://www.reddit.com/r/ilovestationery/comments/17lpbzb/comment/kcmicw5/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)

      Broadly, it's exactly about what the title indicates. I had to purchase a copy shipped from the UK, so mine has only just arrived in Los Angeles. As a result, I've not read it fully yet beyond a cursory glance.

      You can find a reasonable overview at Amazon, and there are a few reviews of it, primarily in UK-based papers (Telegraph, Guardian) where the book has been released. Personal communication with some friends who have journaling, note taking, and commonplace book practices say they've been enjoying it a lot, particularly on the history of the notebook and related forms of stationery and writing practices. It needn't be read linearly.

      It's got a reasonable section on the history of paper and papermaking. Sections on friendship books, waste books, travelers and their notebooks, diaries and journals, bullet journaling, artists and scientists and even police uses, and many others. It does have a full chapter on commonplace books, particularly since 1512 though it's not nearly as comprehensive as Earle Haven's book, for example. There are also examples of a variety of specific people's uses as well as photos of their notebooks/papers interspersed.

      For the stationery nerd, it may be one of the more interesting potential gifts one might give, especially if you don't know their particular desires for papers, notebooks, pens, pencils, etc. in advance. I can say the heft and paper quality of the book is particularly nice for a mass produced volume and it's got some reasonable margins for writing one's notes in the book. I've already ordered a handful of copies for friends who have the gentle madness for stationery.

      Having some academic background in the area of intellectual history and many of the areas that Allen is writing in, I will say that this looks like a very accessible, popular press overview of writing and notebooks that touches on almost all of the highpoints that I would expect it to have and even a few I wouldn't have expected.

    1. In 1929, Lucien Febvre, along with his colleague and close friend Marc Bloch, established a scholarly journal, Annales d'histoire économique et sociale (commonly known as the Annales), from which the name of their distinctive style of history was taken.

      See also Bloch's book on historiography:

      Bloch, Marc. The Historian’s Craft: Reflections on the Nature and Uses of History and the Techniques and Methods of Those Who Write It. Translated by Peter Putnam. Vintage, 1964.

    2. By describing Franche-Comté's rivers, salt mines, vineyards and other surroundings, Febvre created an accurate and true-to-life portrayal of the atmosphere and outlook of the time. With this approach, Febvre was also able to reveal a negative influence that the French Government of the time played in the life of this province. This approach to history is known as histoire totale, or histoire tout court. Later, Febvre's work would be a paradigm for the "Annales School" and would become a new way of historical thinking.
    1. https://www.ebay.com/itm/166417242257

      72 drawer library card catalog listed for sale on 2023-11-05 for $850.00 with local pick up only in Asheboro, NC. Mid century modern in Maple with plastic drawers. Heavily used and some damage visible, but functional shape. Two sections separated by 3 writing drawers. Likely from 70s.

      Cost per drawer: $11.80.

      2023-11-29 relisting: https://www.ebay.com/itm/126210967207

      2023-12-06 delisted https://www.ebay.com/itm/166481183026 Indicated that it was no longer available, so potentially sold for the $850 (or less)

    1. Getting over the fear of perfection .t3_188j2xt._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; } I have so many half-filled notebooks or ones that I abandoned because I disliked my penmanship or because I “ruined” pages. I am the type of person who will tear out a page if I make a mistake or if it looks bad.I really want to start a commonplace book but I feel like I must get over this fear of “messing up” in a notebook. Anyone else struggle with this?

      reply to u/FusRoDaahh at https://www.reddit.com/r/commonplacebook/comments/188j2xt/getting_over_the_fear_of_perfection/

      I had this problem too, but eventually switched to keeping my commonplace entirely on index cards, which also allows me to move them around and re-arrange them as necessary or when useful. (It also fixed some of my indexing problems.)

      The side benefit is that if I botch a single card, no sweat, just pull out a new one and start over! If you like the higher end stationery scene afforded in notebooks, then take a look at Clairfontaine's bristol cards from Exacompta which are lush and come in a variety of sizes, colors, and rulings. (They're roughly equivalent to the cost per square meter of paper you'll find in finer notebooks like Leuchtturm, Hobonichi, Moleskine, etc., though some of the less expensive index cards still do well with many writing instruments.) Most of their card sizes are just about perfect for capturing the sorts of entries that one might wish to commonplace.

      Once you've been at it a while, if you want to keep up with the luxe route that some notebook practices allow, then find yourself a classy looking box to store them all in to make your neighbors jealous. My card indexes bring me more joy than any notebook ever did.

      When penmanship becomes a problem, then you can fix it by printing your cards, or (even better in my opinion), typing them on your vintage Smith-Corona Clipper.

      And of course the first thing one could type out on their first card and file it at the front where you can see it every day:

      "Le mieux est le mortel ennemi du bien" (The better is the mortal enemy of the good).<br /> — Montesquieu, in Pensées, 1726

      aka "Don't let perfection be the enemy of the good."

    1. Best Organization/Index System? .t3_18aggj9._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; }

      reply to u/whiteo3 at https://www.reddit.com/r/commonplacebook/comments/18aggj9/best_organizationindex_system/

      One of the most common methods may be using John Locke's indexing system. https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/john-lockes-method-for-common-place-books-1685/ (And, yes, it's THAT John Locke...)

      You could have a single notebook you use as your index which indexes the rest. Not sure how you number pages (or not), but you could keep a running page number from one notebook to the next to make differentiating notebooks a bit easier.

      W. Ross Ashby was known to keep running page numbers across notebooks like this, however, instead of a notebook-based index, he actually used index cards to index them (the way libraries used to index books by subject, but instead of indexing books, he was obviously indexing quotes, ideas, and notes). So you could use a card with your index word on it with page numbers (and potentially brief notes). Then just file the category headings alphabetically to find them later. His collection has been digitized, so you can view it online to see what he was doing: http://www.rossashby.info/journal/index.html

      If you want to do hybrid paper/digital you could look at https://www.indxd.ink/, a digital, web-based index tool for your analog notebooks. Ostensibly allows one to digitally index their paper notebooks (page numbers optional). It emails you weekly text updates, so you've got a back up of your data if the site/service disappears.

      I've used Obsidian in combination with Hypothes.is and documented the way I created a subject index out of it: https://boffosocko.com/2022/05/20/creating-a-commonplace-book-or-zettelkasten-index-from-hypothes-is-tags/

      I've also used WordPress as a commonplace of sorts and documented what I did to make an index for that: https://boffosocko.com/2021/09/04/an-index-for-my-digital-commonplace-book/

      Searching the entire sub may also unearth other options to get your creative indexing juices flowing: https://www.reddit.com/r/commonplacebook/search/?q=index&restrict_sr=1

      Good luck!

    1. Das Bemerkenswerte an dieser Aussage ist, dass sie klar zum Ausdruck bringt, was wir in system-theoretischen Begriffen als Produktion von Komplexität durch Selektion bezeichnen könnten. DerGrundgedanke ist, dass der Zettelkasten, wenn er richtig eingerichtet ist, in der Lage sein muss, vielmehr Komplexität zu erzeugen, als in den Zettelkasten eingeführt worden ist. Das ist eben der Fall,wenn seine Innenstruktur, wie Luhmann (1992a, S. 66) es formuliert hat, „selbständige kombinatori-sche Leistungen“ ermöglicht, so dass das, was der Zettelkasten bei jeder Abfrage mitzuteilen hat, im-mer viel mehr ist, als der Benutzer selbst im Kopf hatte.

      machine translation:

      The remarkable thing about this statement is that it clearly expresses what we might call, in systems theory terms, the production of complexity by selection. The basic idea is that the Zettelkasten, when set up correctly, must be able to generate much more complexity than was introduced into the Zettelkasten. This is precisely the case if its internal structure, as Luhmann (1992a, p. 66) put it, enables “independent combinatorial performances”, so that what the Zettelkasten has to communicate with each query is always much more than that user himself had in mind.


      Perhaps a usable quote to support my own theory, but certainly nothing new to me.

      Perhaps some interesting overlap with Ashby's law of requisite variety here? Perhaps an inverse version for creating variety and complexity?

    2. Dieser Aspekt war den gebildeten Menschen der frühen Neuzeit nicht entgangen. Am Ende des 18.Jahrhunderts hatte Christoph Meiners (1791, S. 91) darauf hingewiesen, dass „selbst die Vereinigungvon so vielen Factis und Gedanken, als man in vollständigen Excerpten zusammengebracht hat, eineMenge von Combinationen und Aussichten [veranläßt], die man sonst niemals gemacht oder erhaltenhätte“.

      Machine translation:

      This aspect was not lost on the educated people of the early modern period. At the end of the 18th century, Christoph Meiners (1791, p. 91) had pointed out that “even the union of as many facts and ideas as have been brought together in complete excerpts [causes] a multitude of combinations and prospects that otherwise never made or received would have".

      Find the Meiners reference and look more closely at his version of combinatorial creativity with respect to excerpts.

      See: Meiners, Christoph. 1791. Anweisungen für Jünglinge zum eigenen Arbeiten besonders zum Lesen, Excerpiren, und Schreiben. Hannover: In der Helwingschen Hofbuchhandlung.

    3. In der Maschine hingegen ist die Ordnung des Wissens in alphabetisch geordneten Einträgen auf-gelöst. Das heißt, es gibt keine Hierarchie und keine besondere Struktur außer der der völlig konventi-onellen alphabetischen Ordnung. Der entscheidende Effekt dieser Auflösung besteht darin, dass diekombinatorischen Möglichkeiten dramatisch steigen und das Wissen auf unvorhersehbare Weise aufsich selbst reagieren kann.

      Machine translation:

      In the machine, however, the order of knowledge is broken down into alphabetically ordered entries. That is, there is no hierarchy and no particular structure other than that of the completely conventional alphabetical order. The crucial effect of this dissolution is that combinatorial possibilities increase dramatically and knowledge can react on itself in unpredictable ways.

      Cevolini suggests that by removing knowledge from traditional rhetorical geographical commonplaces new combinations of knowledge were more likely to occur. There was no hierarchy other than conventional alphabetical order.

      I would suggest that he's on the wrong track as these combinations both then and now could certainly have been done by moving the excerpts around via slips or even looking things up while flipping pages. He also seems to be unaware of Llull's mnemonic techniques which specifically seemed to be designed to increase combinatorial creativity.

    4. Cevolini, Alberto. “Die Erfindung des Zettelkastens als Vergessensmaschine: Eine historische und wissenssoziologische Einführung.” Polarisierte Welten. Verhandlungen des 41. Kongresses der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie in Bielefeld 2022 41 (September 29, 2023). https://publikationen.soziologie.de/index.php/kongressband_2022/article/view/1564.

    1. You need structure. Index cards gave Nabokov a really powerful way to impose this structure because they created small, independent chunks of prose that he could bundle together into groups, like we saw in the box. This let him navigate his novel in progress quickly. He could just flip through those bundles, bundle by bundle, instead of card by card. He could also impose on and modify the structure of his novel just by shuffling those bundles around. So that's why Nabokov loved index cards for writing novels.

      While this supposition may be true, I don't believe that there's direct evidence from Nabokov to support the statement that this is why he "loved index cards for writing novels". It's possible that he may have hated it, but just couldn't come up with anything better.

    1. It's not that tree structures don't have to be hierarchical, it's that what you're describing is not a tree structure.This..."If we visualized all links in Luhmann's ZK, we would have a forest with many links between branches and trees."...is not a tree structure.Tree structures are by design hierarchical. They are meant to show "hereditary" (so to speak) relationships in a linear trajectory. This is accepted in more or less every discipline where they are employed. To equate Luhmann's ZK as having anything to do with that is just false. It's a mistake, and is, unfortunately, one that is regularly perpetuated.Even Schmidt (and by proxy Kieserling), who visually depict Luhmann's "analog" "branches" very much as a tree structure (aka a hierarchy) go out of their way to state on the Archive's website that having done so was an editorial decision done out of convenience and should not be taken literally or be read as representative of the structure of Luhmann's zettelkasten:"The hierarchization of the organizational structure carried out by the Niklas Luhmann archive is an editorial decision, the order of [Luhmann's zettelkasten] does not follow a strict hierarchy logic." (Schmidt)But, what about trees....?"A tree structure, tree diagram, or tree model is a way of representing the hierarchical nature of a structure in a graphical form." (guru wikipedia)For those in the back...."The zettelkasten is in no way a hierarchy." (Kieserling)And, in case there's any doubt (as many think the alphanumeric numbering schema is itself representative of a hierarchy), Schmidt couldn't be more clear:"[T]he number structure does not represent a hierarchical structure."What you're describing (see above) is more along the lines of a rhizome:"We will enter, then, by any point whatsoever; none matters more than another.... We will be trying only to discover what other points our entrance connects to, what crossroads and galleries one passes through to link two points, what is the map of the rhizome and how the map is modified if one enters by another point." (Deleuze and Guattari 1986: 3)Rhizomes are the antithesis of tree structures.“We’re tired of trees.... They’ve made us suffer too much.” (.ibid)

      Collection of Bob Doto's notes on tree structures with respect to N. Luhmann's zettelkasten

      (via https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/188das5/comment/kbni2ft/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)

    1. Also, our own experiences show that when one doesn't use easy-to-recognise IDs, one is less prone to assume stuff, making them better suited to cross-link files.

      Zettlr's maintainer's experience suggests that using complex zettelkasten IDs makes one less likely to assume something about what they mean and thereby making them better suited for cross-linking notes.

      Part of this can be read as a means of disassociating the idea of specific topics from the notes on the cards.

    1. https://www.ebay.com/itm/314945102079

      It's been listed a while, but first saw 2023-12-02 for $3,699.00. Local pick up from Green Bay, WI and flat rate shipping for $399.00

      35 drawer modular Gaylord Bros. card catalog. 2 sections of 15 and one section of 5 along with a sectional two writing drawers and a table base with thin legs.

      Modest wear, some minor water damage on one section, has all the rods, some sticker damage to finish in label areas.

      cost per drawer: 105.68

    1. https://www.ebay.com/itm/155791697888

      Offered for $1,292.00 for auction on 2023-09-24 with free local pick up from Bayonne, NJ. Modular, unlabeled Card catalog with standalone (non-interlocking) 5x3 set of drawers and a section with two pull out writing drawers.

      Cost per drawer: $86.13

      This has been listed separately in the past year, but taken off eBay for several months before this relisting. (versus being continually relisted...)

      2023-10-11: Relisted at https://www.ebay.com/itm/155822159839 for $1292.00

      2023-12-02: Relisted at https://www.ebay.com/itm/155923155812 for 1292.00

    1. https://www.ebay.com/itm/386335942459

      Yawman & Erbe metal filing cabinet for 3x5" index cards with 10 drawers, each with two sections (equivalently 20 drawers). Approximate capacity 27" / 0.0072"/card = 75,000 cards.

      Listed on 2023-12-02 for 800.00 with local pick up only from Putney, VT.

      Looks like some heavy wear; enough that I'd likely refinish it for office use.

      Marking as I don't think I've ever seen a Y&E cabinet made in metal before.

      Cost per drawer: $40.00

    1. How to fold and cut a Christmas star<br /> Christian Lawson-Perfect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S90WPkgxvas

      What a great simple example with some interesting complexity.

      For teachers trying this with students, when one is done making some five pointed stars, the next questions a curious mathematician might ask are: how might I generalize this new knowledge to make a 6 pointed star? A 7 pointed star? a 1,729 pointed star? Is there a maximum number of points possible? Is there a minimum? Can any star be made without a cut? What happens if we make more than one cut? Are there certain numbers for which a star can't be made? Is there a relationship between the number of folds made and the number of points? What does all this have to do with our basic definition of what a paper star might look like? What other questions might we ask to extend this little idea of cutting paper stars?

      Recalling some results from my third grade origami days, based on the thickness of most standard office paper, a typical sheet of paper can only be folded in half at most 7 times. This number can go up a bit if the thickness of the paper is reduced, but having a maximum number of potential folds suggests there is an upper bound for how many points a star might have using this method of construction.

    1. https://werd.io/2023/doing-it-all

      Interesting to see what, in generations past, might have been a gendered (female) striving for "having it all" (entailing time with children, family and a career) has crossed over into the masculine space.

      Sounds like Ben's got some basic priorities set, which is really the only thing necessary. Beyond this, every parent, especially of new babies, in the W.E.I.R.D. culture is tired. By this measurement he's doing it "right". What is missing is an interpersonal culture around him of extended family and immediate community of daily interaction to help normalize his conditions. Missing this he's attempting to replace the lack of experience with this area by reaching out to his online community, which may provide a dramatically different and biased sample.

      Some of the "it takes a village" (to raise a child) still operates on many facets, but dramatically missing is the day-to-day direct care and help that many parents need.

      Our capitalistic culture has again, in this case of parenting in the W.E.I.R.D. world, managed to privatize the profits and socialize the losses. Here the losses in Ben's case are on his physical well-being (tiredness) and his mental state wondering if his case is "normal". A further loss is the erosion of his desire for a family unit and cohesion of community which the system is attempting to sever by playing on his desire to "have it all". Giving in to the pull of work at the expense of family only drives the system closer to collapse.

  3. Nov 2023