Read on Twitter
1/ "the mere copying of quotes almost always changes their meaning by stripping them out of context, even though the words aren’t changed."
From How To Take Smart Notes, which I'm reading in the @RoamBookClub with @beauhaan
I'm going to riff on how profound this is below.
From How To Take Smart Notes, which I'm reading in the @RoamBookClub with @beauhaan
I'm going to riff on how profound this is below.
2/ An idea sits within a wider context.
A sentence within a paragraph, a paragraph within a page, a page within a chapter, a chapter within a book, a book within a body of work, a body of work within a life of knowledge, experiences, memories and beliefs.
They are inseparable.
A sentence within a paragraph, a paragraph within a page, a page within a chapter, a chapter within a book, a book within a body of work, a body of work within a life of knowledge, experiences, memories and beliefs.
They are inseparable.
3/ What would it mean to separate them, to strip an idea of its context?
Such a thing cannot exist.
It would lose its 'suchness' and become something else.
Invoking Watts: a bird is not just the physical bird. The bird is really the whole bird-environment system.
As are we.
Such a thing cannot exist.
It would lose its 'suchness' and become something else.
Invoking Watts: a bird is not just the physical bird. The bird is really the whole bird-environment system.
As are we.
4/ We are not just people placed upon the Earth, separate of it.
We are the result of the Earth doing what it does — 'peopling'.
So back to ideas and their context.
Ideas need context in order to exist as ideas. When we copy them verbatim we strip them of that.
We are the result of the Earth doing what it does — 'peopling'.
So back to ideas and their context.
Ideas need context in order to exist as ideas. When we copy them verbatim we strip them of that.
5/ That means we have to give each idea a new context — ours.
This is what a 'literature note' is. It's not merely a summary, it's an "in our words" version of the original.
And "in our words" means bringing to bear all of our knowledge, experiences, memories and beliefs.
This is what a 'literature note' is. It's not merely a summary, it's an "in our words" version of the original.
And "in our words" means bringing to bear all of our knowledge, experiences, memories and beliefs.
6/ This process necessarily makes ideas our own, because they sit in our context.
Before, it was the 'idea + author context' system.
After, it becomes the 'idea + my context' system.
These two things are fundamentally not the same, in the same way two birds are not the same.
Before, it was the 'idea + author context' system.
After, it becomes the 'idea + my context' system.
These two things are fundamentally not the same, in the same way two birds are not the same.
7/ This is why it's vital not to just copy and paste, bold and highlight the original source text.
This is an act of conceptual violence akin to trying to forcing light to exist without dark.
If 'creativity is a remix' means anything, this is surely what it must mean.
This is an act of conceptual violence akin to trying to forcing light to exist without dark.
If 'creativity is a remix' means anything, this is surely what it must mean.
8/ By the way, this thread came from my fleeting notes while reading the book as part of @RoamBookClub Day 19
I think I'm getting what the Zettelkasten could be... and god damn this is one of the most intellectually trippy experiences I've had
I think I'm getting what the Zettelkasten could be... and god damn this is one of the most intellectually trippy experiences I've had
Gonna tag @soenke_ahrens to say thanks for writing the book that gave me this insight
This is what this looks like in Roam now it is a permanent note https://twitter.com/m_ashcroft/status/1391320405625954304?s=20
