10,000 Matching Annotations
  1. May 2023
    1. As an English professor at a public community college, I teach 3-4 extra courses a year—in addition to 6 -7 contractual courses—to supplement my salary and to make living in NYC more affordable. As I prepare to go back to teaching a full load, I need to be honest with myself about what I can actually accomplish. I spend 20-30 hours on each Noted post—while I love the work, it is a lot of work. And, it’s not sustainable for me to keep up my current pace of writing if I am also juggling around 10 courses. So, I’m asking you, dear reader, to consider upgrading your subscription. Right now only 1% of you are paid subscribers. If 5-10% of you upgraded, it would mean that I wouldn’t need to teach extra classes and could devote all of that time to Noted.

      6-7 contractual courses at a public community college in New York is roughly equivalent to 5-10% of Hess' Substack subscribing at $50/year.

      Rough estimates of the variables could fill in the holes here to get a current estimate of subscribers.

    1. Cleaning out a building and found this typewriter. Not in the best shape, the keys push but kind of get stuck on each other sometimes. Don’t know if or how I can fix it or what I can do with it. Looked it up; here’s one that looks like the same on eBay that looks about the same. Thoughts???? Wondering if this is a good find.

      It's got some serious Austin Powers 60s/70s swagger, but obviously will need some TLC and a new ribbon. Is it worth hundreds, even in good shape? Probably not, but I'll bet it could be cleaned up/repaired and bring someone lots of joy (either fixing it or using it regularly). YouTube has lots of starter videos of people cleaning/fixing older machines that will give you some ideas. If it's not your sort of hobby, pass it along to someone who might enjoy it, or sell it to your local repair shop or maybe on eBay for a few dollars. Someone could bring it back to life.

    1. 6N070 Smith Corona Clipper Typewriter Ribbon This is the ribbon you need for your Smith Corona Clipper typewriter.  1/2" nylon ribbon with eyelets on 2" diameter spools.  Available in vibrant colors and can be made in nylon, cotton, or silk.

      The replacement typewriter ribbon for my Smith-Corona Clipper is 1/2" nylon ribbon with eyelets on 2" diameter spools.

      https://www.ribbonsunlimited.com/category-s/5415.htm

    1. I buy exclusively from Ribbons Unlimited since their products and service are superb. I have purchased from Amazon suppliers if I need a ribbon "pronto", but the biggest problem that I run into with their supplier's ribbons is the fact that they normally don't have reversing grommets installed at the end of the ribbons, and unless your machine can sense ribbon tension and reverse the ribbon, you have to reverse the ribbon direction manually. I purchased a grommet installation tool to try and capitalize on the cheap price of Amazon ribbons, but found that it's not really worth the effort (plus my hands got really "inky") - I always come back to Ribbons Unlimited.

      Some cheap typewriter ribbon spools don't have grommets on them to force auto-reverse of the spool. Without grommets, some machines may sense ribbon tension for reversal, otherwise one needs to switch direction manually.

      There are grommet installation tools that one can use, but this often requires getting one's hands dirty to install them.

      Ribbons Unlimited has a good reputation in the r/typewriters community for providing good sales and service.

    1. I don't have any affiliation with the book (other than ordering a copy for myself), but thought I'd share the pre-order details for the forthcoming book Shift Happens: A book about keyboards by Marcin Wichary: https://shifthappens.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders The book, shipping in October 2023, was originally funded on Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwichary/shift-happens. Even more details available at https://shifthappens.site/. The author Marcin Wichary compiled a huge list of typewriter/keyboard resources, books, and manuals at https://archive.org/details/wicharytypewriter which the hard core historians and type enthusiasts many may also appreciate. (h/t u/amidfallenleaves @ r/typewriters/#)

    1. Perhaps you're conflating too many things? Ask first, what value do I add to the world? (Arguably loads.) Then ask: How do I (best) distribute this value? To this perhaps one of your answers is Substack, which may or may not be one of many tools you use for this purpose. Then the follow on question is what value do you get back from it?

      Given HCR's numbers (especially in comparison with Twitter) and her time on the platform, I suspect she may have (or at this point had) some sort of special platform deal with Substack which isn't publicly known beyond the basics of what the typical person could get. It's probably the modern digital equivalent of the sort of deal a highly visible academic might get from a magazine like The Atlantic. The pay scale may be different but we can obviously see that the daily output is wildly different too. If you're not aware, when Substack started they reached out to a wide variety of famous/semi-famous people and helped them to build a quick audience that would have taken them far more time and effort than they would otherwise have ever invested. Part of this was providing initial payment/seed money which was really their early investment for getting lots of quality content on the platform as a means of drawing the masses to come to the platform to both read and create as well. Unless you're a massive name working with them directly, you're unlikely to get this sort of deal today, and this means a tougher up hill slog for the "rest of us" as the platform doesn't need to pay for this sort of scaling/network effect now. If nothing else, knowing these early economies of Substack (and really lots of other social platforms, Medium certainly followed this script as an example) will help you to have a broader perspective and better compare your apples to others' oranges.

    1. Although Niklas Luhmann used zettelkasten on the basis of his academic works, I have seen very few sources on the academic use of zettelkasten, except for a few videos. Is there any source you can recommend on this subject?Another question I have is about the academic reuse of notes. After Luhmann used a note in one academic text, how did he use that note again in another work? Or in general, how can we avoid self-plagiarism in the academic use of zettelkasten?

      reply to u/edumanos at https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/13p0myn/academic_using_of_zettelkasten/

      The Luhmann's method was very specific to him, but the broader slip box method has been in wide use in academic settings for centuries, particularly in the humanities. I most often recommend Umberto Eco's book in conjunction with Adler/Van Doren's How to Read a Book, but below are a small selection of manuals on very closely related note taking methods. These can be found in a handful of languages and some even more specific to particular areas of study, though broadly they're all useful to almost any area. You'll note that some are available for free on archive.org as they're out of copyright, have been scanned, or are open educational resources. I've tried to link most of these for convenience.

      If this list isn't enough, or you're looking for something written for a specific subfield (sociology, for example), let me know as I'm sure there are a plethora of others, or even some fun short pieces like: - Thomas, Keith. “Diary: Working Methods.” London Review of Books, June 10, 2010. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v32/n11/keith-thomas/diary. - Mills, C. Wright. “On Intellectual Craftsmanship (1952).” Society 17, no. 2 (January 1, 1980): 63–70. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02700062.

      My favorite short/overview video is that of Victor Margolin's process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxyy0THLfuI.

      As for self-plagiarism, some have used a red pencil or other means to mark cards (notes) they've used in specific works as they write so that they know they've been used and can then self-cite their prior works to avoid self-plagiarism or to up their citation count.

      Good luck!

    1. Trakt DataRecoveryIMPORTANTOn December 11 at 7:30 pm PST our main database crashed and corrupted some of the data. We're deeply sorry for the extended downtime and we'll do better moving forward. Updates to our automated backups are already in place and they will be tested on an ongoing basis.Data prior to November 7 is fully restored.Watched history between November 7 and Decmber 11 has been recovered. There is a separate message on your dashboard allowing you to review and import any recovered data.All other data (besides watched history) after November 7 has already been restored and imported.Some data might be permanently lost due to data corruption.Trakt API is back online as of December 20.Active VIP members will get 2 free months added to their expiration date

      From late 2022

      https://trakt.tv/dashboard

    1. They are efficiency and effectiveness. For memory systems, an effective system is one that gets the right answer every time no matter how long it takes you. And the efficient system is one that uses the least amount of resources like time, associations, dependent systems, etc. but it may not be that good at providing the correct answers.

      Efficiency and effectiveness measures for specific mnemonic systems may vary from person to person, so one should consider them with respect to their own practices. There may not be a single "right" or "correct" practice universally, but there could be one for everyone individually based on their own choices or preferences.

    1. I've been using index cards for tracking reading notes (lit or bib notes now) and I want to change this topic of index cards over to the Z system. In the past, the main section was "writing" and two subsections, "nonfiction" and "fiction". They are all how-to. I have some main notes but most are from every writing book published which I've read in the last 10 years (yep, shelves full). Approx. 3000 index cards, maybe more, with lots of sub-subsection, etc. I've been teaching writing for the last 10+ years and would love to connect the dots easier now than I have in the past. On the list, I couldn't find the recommended category to place these under. Maybe productivity is in there somewhere. I'm working on a mind map structure now. Any thoughts or advice on this? Anyone else done this?

      Has your prior system not been working for you? What do you want to gain from making the change? What list are you looking at that you don't see a category? Isn't the category "writing", "fiction writing", "nonfiction writing", etc.?

    1. Obsidian for teachers .t3_13khuxs._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; }

      This is great. I'll put it into my collection along with Shawn Graham who has some prior work for teaching with Obsidian (https://shawngraham.github.io/hist1900/#the-big-idea) as does u/danallosso who has also used it quite bit for both classes as well as Open Education Resources. If you search for Dan's YouTube & Substack, you're likely to find some of his writing/resources there.

    1. Practice (Dash): Undone Action Item — Individual items (action items and ideas) are marked with a dash preceding them. All items, no matter what they are, are therefore treated as items to be processed. (Plus): Done Action Item — If the item is an action item (todo), when the item is complete, a vertical line is drawn through the “dash” thus making it resemble a “plus”. This makes the dashed items stand out quite well despite the fact that the same color pen or pencil may be used. (Right Arrow): Waiting – (i.e. for another action) — Drawing an arrow pointing to the the item denotes that it is something that is waiting on another action to happen or deliverable. (Left Arrow): Delegated — Drawing an arrow pointing to the left of the item denotes that it has been delegated (with a note to whom and the date) . (Triangle): Data Point — Turning the dash into a triangle denotes a data point (a fact or figure you wish to remember for instance). (Circle) — A circle around any of the above means that it has been carried forward, moved to another list or otherwise changed status — i.e. a “Waiting” item has now become an Action Item elsewhere (with a note about where that item has gone). The beauty of this system is that it is all built upon, and extensions of, the original dash. Therefore, it is easy to change items from one state to another (an undone action item to a done one, an undone action item to waiting or delegated) and in the case of an non-dashed item changing completely the item is circled to denote that.
    1. The Ivy Lee method dates back to 1918, when Lee, a productivity consultant, was hired by Charles M. Schwab, the president of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, to improve his company's efficiency. As the story goes, Lee offered his method to Schwab for free, and after three months, Schwab was so pleased with the results he wrote Lee a check for $25,000 — the equivalent of about $400,000 today.

      https://www.businessinsider.com/ivy-lee-method-productivity-2018-9

    1. Is the paper really that great? I've got my own self-printed stationery cards that I've used for ages, but lust after that lovely designed wood. Would standard index cards work in that base or would the rounded corners get in the way? I totally commiserate with the collecting productivity systems like Pokémon! I'm still looking for someone to recreate the original 1903 Memindex system...

    1. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=complexity+exonomics+textbook&crid=2SZP0E6DIIR6J&sprefix=complexity+exonomics+text%2Caps%2C630&ref=nb_sb_noss

      While I'm reading Doughnut Economics, it's interesting to contemplate the images on common economics textbooks as an indicator of how the authors/publishers think about the models of the information inside them.

      Some broad ideas represented here: - bustling people (consumers) walking over curvy 3D graph grids - greenish abstract cover (representing the green idea of money) - a compass rose (indicating finding one's direction; on a book about managerial economics and business strategy) - a globe of the world with a colorful infographic heat map - a bunch of blue and silver metal balls connected in a network-like configuration - a montage of images of numbers (credit card numbers, numbers on money, a ticker with stock prices, etc.) - a solar panel with blue sky and clouds in the background - blue sky with white fluffy clouds (indicating what, exactly?) - an ipad with an image of a busy street in the 1800s held up as if taking a photo of the same street today - puzzle pieces being put together with an image of people exchanging money at a farmer's market - abstract grid of a map outline of the Americas

    1. I would recommend ruling a line under the 6th point and having the rest as ‘if you get time’ tasks. Nothing else is allowed to get done until those first 6 tasks are complete: This is known as the Ivy Lee method.

      The "Ivy Lee method" for productivity involves making a to do list with a line underneath the first six most important tasks and doing nothing else until the top six items are finished.

      Jason Chatfield credits http://katiefarnan.com/blogs/the-form/lauren-layne for the idea.

    1. The Analog system has a thin metal divider that separates two sections in the base. The broad suggestion is to use this space as storage and the divider for separating the blank stock of cards from used cards. One could also separate the next/someday cards from the today cards (new and finished).

      The divider serves as a tabbed divider in many systems, but here there are only a total of three slots for differentiation: one slot for one card with today's list, and two other spaces for other cards that the user can determine their uses for. This definitely makes the system incredibly simple and minimal.

      It's only slightly different from the old common Park Sherman Co. desk note pad systems which sometimes had a universal calendar and one tray space for notes.

    2. Throughout the day, mark each task as completed, in-progress, or delegated. Feel free to create your own symbols.

      Similar to the sorts of to do list task key in many bullet journals, the Analog system has "task signals" : - black filled circle means "complete task" - half filled circle means task is in progress - a right arrow in the circle means the task was delegated - a cross in the circle means that the task is an appointment, potentially with the appointment time added to the to do item

      The system suggests that you can "create your own" task signals, though in true minimalist fashion, it doesn't give other suggestions. Presumably one could do other pattern fills of the circle or symbols within it to mean other things (example: bullet journal key symbols).

      Interestingly, the to do circles start out not blank, but with a single thin line splitting the circle in half vertically. This is apparently a design choice, perhaps to make it easier to fill in half of the circle?

    1. Use the 3 dots in the upper right hand corner to link cards together. Another way to link cards is by adding a title on the line in the upper right hand corner.

      In addition to using the three dots on the Analog system's cards to indicate how much one accomplished (modest value), Jeff Sheldon suggests using them to "link cards together", though he doesn't suggest how one could or should do this. Presumably he means to use the possible dot patterns as a code, but then one only has 2^3 or 8 ways of doing this, so the number of possible links is incredibly low. Some of this seems related to edge notched cards, though here, there's no suggestion of punching holes in these cards, so sorting or finding these cards isn't necessarily easy unless one otherwise indexes them, a functionality which falls outside of the minimalist scope of the product.

      To expand on this method he also, more profitably, suggests adding titles to cards in the blank line at the top which is also frequently used for dating cards.

    1. the Carthusian monks decided in 2019 to limit Chartreuse production to 1.6 million bottles per year, citing the environmental impacts of production, and the monks' desire to focus on solitude and prayer.[10] The combination of fixed production and increased demand has resulted in shortages of Chartreuse across the world.

      In 2019, Carthusian monks went back to their values and decided to scale back their production of Chartreuse.

    1. Introducing BOOX Tab Ultra C: Let the Colors Help You Work Better

      They're primarily touting one of the few e-ink tablets that does color (beginning in 2023), but it's fascinating to see the Boox marketing department using this video to sell the idea of color on a screen as a tool for thought this way.

      It's subtle and something we take for granted, so they have a point, but somehow odd none the less, perhaps because of its ubiquity.

      Let the colors help you think, organize, and work better.

      Let the colors help you work better.

      Colors inspire

    1. An analysis of the modern capitalist state that distinguishes between political society, which dominates directly and coercively, and civil society, where leadership is constituted through consent

      What is the current separation of political and civil society in America in 2023? Do the differences in these two (particularly with respect to Antonio Gramsci's framing) still have distinguishing features?

    2. the Prison Notebooks, contain Gramsci's tracing of Italian history and nationalism, as well as some ideas in Marxist theory, critical theory and educational theory associated with his name, such as: Cultural hegemony as a means of maintaining and legitimising the capitalist state The need for popular workers' education to encourage development of intellectuals from the working-class An analysis of the modern capitalist state that distinguishes between political society, which dominates directly and coercively, and civil society, where leadership is constituted through consent Absolute historicism A critique of economic determinism that opposes fatalistic interpretations of Marxism A critique of philosophical materialism
    3. During his imprisonment, Gramsci wrote more than 30 notebooks and 3,000 pages of history and analysis. His Prison Notebooks are considered a highly original contribution to 20th-century political theory.

      Antonio Gramsci, an Italian Marxist philosopher, journalist, writer, politician, and linguist, was imprisoned from 1926 until his death in 1937 as a vocal critic of Benito Mussolini. While in prison he wrote more than 3,000 pages in more than 30 notebooks. His Prison Notebooks comprise a fascinating contribution to political theory.

    1. In the Pandoc Plugin settings, add — citeproc to the ‘Extra Pandoc arguments’ setting. This will be what takes the markdown citations and converts them to in-text citations in the conversion process. It also inserts a full reference list on the end of your document automatically, all completely formatted. To get this to work, you have to specify the location of the .bib file on your system by adding the path, in quotations, to a ‘bibliography’ YAML property.
    1. I went to that website and he mentions the Dewey Decimal Classification System. I have look around and only found examples/files that goes a few levels deep. He gives an example: 516.375 Finsler geometry BUT I can not find any DDC files that goes to that level of classification. The DDC is finer grain than the what the AOoD system goes so for me I am going with the DDC for possible keywords list.Any ideas where I can find a complete DDC listing I can download?

      reply to drogers8 at https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/13eyg8p/comment/jkaksn4/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

      You can find some basic top level or second level DDC listings online, but to get the full set of listings, you've got to subscribe to the system which is updated every few years, something only library systems and large publishers typically do. To give yourself an idea of how deep this rabbit hole goes the DDC 23 is four volumes long and each volume is in the 1,000 page range. The DDC 23 self-identifies as 0.25.4'31-dc22. For most categories DDC generally only goes as deep as the thousands place (like Finsler geometry) though others will go slightly deeper usually to designate locations/cities. Most libraries only categorize to the tenths place, and sometimes these numbers can be found on the copyright page of books, often with the DDC volume number. I mentioned the UDC in that piece, but didn't give any links, but you could try:<br /> - https://udcsummary.info/php/index.php?lang=en - https://udcc.org/index.php/site/page?view=subject_coverage - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Decimal_Classification

      Honestly, you're wasting time and making way more work for yourself to adopt one of these numbering methods for a Luhmann-esque zettelkasten. Try asking yourself this question: What benefits/affordances will I get in the long run for having my numbering system mirror the DDC or UDC? (Unless you can come up with a really fantastic answer, you're just making more work to look up headings/numbers on a regular basis.)

      In practice the numbers are simply addresses so you can quickly find things again using your index. If you're doing threads of cards (folgezettel), you're going to very quickly have tangentially related ideas of things mixed together anyway. (As an example, I've got lots of science and even some anthropology mixed into my math section, so having DDC numbers on those would be generally useless at the end of the day.) If it helps, Nicolas Gatien has a pretty reasonable and short video which makes this apparent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdHH3YjOnZE.

    2. Extended numbering and why use Outline of Disciplines at all? .t3_13eyg8p._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; } Several things:Why are there different listings for the Academic Outline of Disciplines? Some starts the top level with Humanities and other start with Arts which changes the numbering?I am createing an Antinet for all things. Some of the levels of the AOOD has more then 9 items so Scott's 4 digit system would not work. For some levels I would have to use two digits. Thoughts?Why even use said system? Why is it a bad reason to just start with #1 that indicates the first subject sequence, #2 for a different subject etc..?

      reply to u/drogers8 at https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/13eyg8p/extended_numbering_and_why_use_outline_of/

      Based on my research, Scott Scheper was the one of the original source for people adopting the Academic Outline of Disciplines. I've heard him say before that he recommends it only as a potential starting place for people who are new to the space and need it as a crutch to get going. It's an odd suggestion as almost all of the rest of his system is so Luhmann-based. I suspect it's a quirk of how he personally started and once moving it was easier than starting over. He also used his own ZK for showing others, and it's hard to say one thing in a teaching video when showing people something else. Ultimately it's hard to mess up on numbering choices unless you're insistent on using only whole numbers or natural numbers. I generally wouldn't suggest complex numbers either, but you might find some interesting things within your system if you did. More detail: https://boffosocko.com/2022/10/27/thoughts-on-zettelkasten-numbering-systems/ The only reason to have any standardized base or standardized numbers would be if you were attempting to have a large shared ZK with others. If this is your intent, then perhaps look at the Universal Decimal Classification, though a variety of things might also work including Dewey Decimal.

    1. Requesting advice for where to put a related idea to a note I'm currently writing .t3_13gcbj1._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; } Hi! I am new to building a physical ZK. Would appreciate some help.Pictures here: https://imgur.com/a/WvyNVXfI have a section in my ZK about the concept of "knowledge transmission" (4170/7). The below notes are within that section.I am currently writing a note about how you have to earn your understanding... when receiving knowledge / learning from others. (Picture #1)Whilst writing this note, I had an idea that I'm not quite sure belongs on that note itself - and I'm not sure where it belongs. About how you also have to "earn" the sharing of knowledge. (Picture #2)Here are what I think my options are for writing about the idea "you have to earn your sharing of knowledge":Write this idea on my current card. 4170/7/1Write this idea on a new note - as a variant idea of my current note. 4170/7/1aWrite this idea on a new note - as a continuation of my current note. 4170/7/1/1Write this idea on a new note - as a new idea within my "knowledge transmission" branch. 4170/7/2What would you do here?

      reply to u/throwthis_throwthat at https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/13gcbj1/requesting_advice_for_where_to_put_a_related_idea/

      I don't accept the premise of your question. This doesn't get said often enough to people new to zettelkasten practice: Trust your gut! What does it say? You'll learn through practice that there are no "right" answers to these. Put a number on it, file it, and move on. Practice, practice, practice. You'll be doing this in your sleep soon enough. As long as it's close enough, you'll find it. Save your mental cycles for deeper thoughts than this.

      Asking others for their advice is fine, but it's akin to asking a well-practiced mnemonist what visual image they would use to remember something. Everyone is different and has different experiences and different things that make their memories sticky for them. What works incredibly well for how someone else thinks and the level of importance they give an idea is never as useful or as "true" as how you think about it. Going with your gut is going to help you remember it better and is far likelier to make it easier to find in the future.

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wTt8VGyBdk

      Starting yeast from scratch

      • Use a approx. 1 qt "breathable" jar
        • need breathability to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide
      • equal parts water and flour (by weight)
        • (~2 tbsp water and 3 tbsp flour)
        • alternately use unsweetened pineapple juice in stead of water (lowers ph and provides additional natural sugar for yeast)
        • (for water, used distilled or highly filtered as tap water can have chlorine and other chemicals which make it more difficult for yeast to get started)
      • stir and set aside
        • stir three times per day
      • every day add 2 tbsp water and 3 tbsp flour
      • bubbling should begin after 3-5 days

      Ongoing feeding and maintenance

      • can keep in fridge to slow down reaction and feed only once a week for small batch baking
      • if doing baking more frequently, feed it every day
      • When using, use up half of the overall quantity and then continue feeding as before
    1. I wanted to try something very different. So, I use another writing system to write my original thoughts. I use the Wakandan writing system to write my thoughts because I already know how to write in it and I virtually know almost no one else who knows how to.

      An example of someone (u/Nervous-Deal7560) using the Wakandan writing system to distinguish their ideas from those of sources!

      see also: - https://omniglot.com/conscripts/wakandan.htm - https://www.fandom.com/articles/how-the-black-panther-writing-system-subverts-our-expectations-of-africa

    1. Fortschritt GmbH: Karteien kö nnen alles! (“ Card indexes can do anything!” , Zeitschriftfü r Organisation und moderne Betriebsfü hrung 3 (23):6 (1929))

      The 1929 desk in this image isn't too far from a physical instantiation of Vannevar Bush's Memex which didn't appear until 1939 (1945 published).

    1. IngredientsMakes one 8″-diameter loafNonstick vegetable oil spray2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting5 Tbsp. sugar, divided1½ tsp. baking powder1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt¾ tsp. baking soda3 Tbsp. chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces1 cup buttermilk⅔ cup raisinsStep 1Place a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 375°. Coat an 8″-diameter cake pan or cast-iron skillet with nonstick vegetable oil spray. Whisk 2 cups all-purpose flour, 4 Tbsp. sugar, 1½ tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt, and ¾ tsp. baking soda in a large bowl to combine. Add 3 Tbsp. chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces, to dry ingredients and rub in with your fingers until mixture resembles coarse meal. Make a well in the center and pour in 1 cup buttermilk. Gradually mix dry ingredients into buttermilk just until incorporated and a shaggy dough comes together. Mix in ⅔ cup raisins.Step 2Using lightly floured hands, form dough into a ball and transfer to prepared pan. Gently press dough to flatten slightly (dough will not reach edges of pan). Sprinkle with remaining 1 Tbsp. sugar.Step 3Bake bread until golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 40–45 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let bread cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn bread out onto rack. Serve warm or let cool completely.

      Irish Soda Bread With Raisins

    1. Red Fife Soda Bread with Seeds & Fruit Ingredients 4 C Red Fife flour (or Renan, Hard Red, Marquis) – or Spelt! Yum! 1 3/4 tsp baking soda 1 ½ tsp kosher salt ¼ C sugar ¾ C currants 3 Tbsp Sunflower seeds 3 Tbsp Pumpkin seeds 3 Tbsp Flax seeds 4 Tbsp butter, melted and slightly cooled 2 C Buttermilk, plus additional for brushing *optional 2 Tbsp additional mixed seeds for sprinkling Method Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a sheet pan with parchment. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, currants and seeds. Combine melted butter and buttermilk. Pour buttermilk mixture over dry ingredients and stir just until everything comes together. Turn out onto a floured work surface. Lightly knead to bring dough together. Form a slightly flattened ball, about 8 inches wide. Place on prepared sheet pan. Brush top and sides with buttermilk. Sprinkle with mixed seeds if desired. Using a sharp knife, cut a deep X into the top of the bread. Bake until nicely browned and bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, approximately 40–50 minutes. Enjoy with good salted butter!
    2. Edison-Rye Soda Bread Ingredients 1 ½ C Edison flour (or Sonora, Hard White, Wit Wolkoring, Chiddam Blanc de Mars) 2 ½ C Rye flour 1 ¾ tsp baking soda 1 ½ tsp kosher salt 2 C + 2 tbsp Buttermilk Method Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line sheet pan with parchment. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda and salt. Pour buttermilk over dry ingredients and stir just until everything comes together. Turn out onto a floured work surface. Lightly knead to bring dough together. Form a slightly flattened ball, about 8 inches wide. Place on prepared sheet pan. Brush top and sides with buttermilk. Sprinkle with mixed seeds if desired. Using a sharp knife, cut a deep X into the top of the bread. Bake until nicely browned and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, approximately 40–50 minutes.
    1. Hi Chris, I remember seeing your writing elsewhere. That's... a lot of index cards. Also, the cost per card is higher than I expected but then again if I ever pay $0.01 per card I should expect lower quality...

      reply to Mark Dykeman at https://howaboutthis.substack.com/p/rethinking-the-notebook-snob-meets/comment/15885993

      Given our overlap of topics, you most likely saw something via https://boffosocko.com/research/zettelkasten-commonplace-books-and-note-taking-collection/. I may have been responsible for you trying out the digital annotation tool Hypothes.is once upon a time?

      The price I quoted was for the ubiquitous and inexpensive Oxford index cards and not for the much higher quality Exacompta/Bristol cards which can run up to 10¢ a card or more—they're closer to the fountain pen quality papers you'd find in the higher end notebooks and are manufactured by the a subsidiary of the corporate parent that makes Rhodia/Clairefontaine.

    1. “From that time, now the native citizens and now the enemyhave triumphed ... up to the year of the siege of Mount Badon,when the last but certainly not the least slaughter of these lowlyscoundrels occurred, which, I know, makes 44 years and onemonth, and which was also the time of my birth.”

      —Gildas, Chapter 26 of De excidio et conquestu Britanniae (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain)

      We don't have a specific date or exact location for the siege of Mount Badon, roughly in the 5th century, but Gildas writes about the battle within the timeframe of his own life, and thus places a timeframe on the original Arthur.

      Gildas also writes about Ambrosius Aurelianus, who he identifies as having Roman heritage. Some scholars believe that this is another name for King Arthur.


      Is there any relation to the Mountbatten family from Battenberg in Hesse, Germany? (Unlikely due to distance, though Saxon invaders may have renamed a place location in Britain after a local Batten or Battenberg related name from their homeland.)

      Or the location Mount Batten? Likely not, as the previously known How Stert in Plymouth Sound, Devon, England was renamed after Sir William Batten (c.1600-1667), MP and Surveyor of the Navy.

    1. https://analogoffice.net/2023/05/03/too-much-information.html

      Your title made me think it was about a different, but related book...

      I too bought Hess' book at Kimberly's recommendation, but I'm still plowing through the end of Ann M. Blair's Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information before the Modern Age. Yale University Press, 2010. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300165395/too-much-know. You might find it interesting, but hopefully not overwhelming.

      syndication link

    1. Enter the venerable composition notebook. For $1.507, I get 180 pages at that composition book size (larger than A5) with a reasonably durable hard cover. The paper is quite acceptable for writing and I really don’t care if I make a huge mess within because it’s relatively inexpensive8.

      At Mark Dykeman's rate, to convert to cheap composition books, he's looking at $26/year for the equivalent paper consumption. On a per day basis, it's $0.071 per day in paper.

      This can be compared with my per day cost of $0.421 per day for index cards, which is more expensive, though not $1-2 per day for more expensive notebooks.

    2. I take a lot of notes during my day job. More like a huge amount of notes. On paper. As an experiment I started using several Dingbats* notebooks during the day job to see how they would work4 for me. After about 9 weeks of trials, I learned that I could fill up a 180 page notebook in about 3 weeks, plus or minus a few days. Unfortunately, when you factor in the cost of these notebooks, that’s like spending $1 - $2 per day on notebooks. Dingbats* are lovely, durable notebooks. But my work notes are not going to be enshrined in a museum for the ages5 and until I finally get that sponsorship from Dingbats* or Leuchtuurm19176, I probably need a different solution.

      Mark Dykeman indicates that at regular work, he fills up a 180 page notebook and at the relatively steep cost of notebooks, he's paying $1-2 a day for paper.


      This naturally brings up the idea of what it might cost per day in index cards for some zettlers' practices. I've already got some notes on price of storage...

      As a rough calculation, despite most of my note taking being done digitally, I'm going through a pack of 500 Oxford cards at $12.87 every 5 months at my current pace. This is $0.02574 per card and 5 months is roughly 150 days. My current card cost per day is: $0.02574/card * 500 cards / (150 days) = $12.78/150 days = $0.0858 per day which is far better than $2/day.

      Though if I had an all-physical card habit, I would be using quite a bit more.

      On July 3, 2022 I was at 10,099 annotations and today May 11, 2023 I'm at 15,259 annotations. At one annotation per card that's 5,160 cards in the span of 312 days giving me a cost of $0.02574/card * 5,160 cards / 312 days = $0.421 per day or an average of $153.75 per year averaging 6,036 cards per year.

      (Note that this doesn't also include the average of three physical cards a day I'm using in addition, so the total would be slightly higher.)

      Index cards are thus, quite a bit cheaper a habit than fine stationery notebooks.

    1. ’ve been studying notebooks for over a decade and I still haven’t landed on a perfect organization method. I have, however, found the perfect pen: uni-ball signo, .38mm. I discovered them while teaching in Korea in 2008 and haven’t looked back.

      It can't be a good sign that an academic who has spent over a decade studying notebooks and note taking still hasn't found the "perfect" organization method.

    1. July 7, 1942I want to take all my notebooks and read through them for important phrases — use them. It would be wonderful to do it on a weekend. Alone, in the quiet.

      from Patricia Highsmith's diaries

      this seems similar to Ralph Waldo Emmerson's journals/commonplaces where he collected interesting phrases for use in his writing. Here she's explicitly stating her desire to do this for her writing work.

      The "Alone, in the quite." quote seems to mirror her appreciation and stated desire to be alone at home in the 1978 Good Afternoon interview.