11–20 of 21 posts
I'm only now realizing that many of the great minds of 18th and 19th centuries left massive amount of journals and personal correspondence, that are vast store of insight and ideas for anyone curious, besides being in the public domain. Presently I'm reading the letters of Henry James, and they are very engrossing, and dense with observation.
I'm only now realizing that many of the great minds of 18th and 19th centuries left massive amount of journals and personal correspondence, that are vast store of insight and ideas for anyone curious, besides being in the public domain. Presently I'm reading the letters of Henry James, and they are very engrossing, and dense with observation.
Could you help me by sharing links to your top favorites?
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/jonathan-keates-on-great-le...
Classy. This would probably be a tweet today, whoops.
Any people doing a diary today? How does it help you and do you refer back to it? Seems like you could amass quite a lot if you do it daily.
I think my iCloud photos library could be a bit of a substitute for literal things that happened, and twitter for some (non-private) thoughts.
Humans seem to have become quite dull.
Humans seem to have become quite dull.
If you’re not finding it, keep looking.
> Went to New York via Desbrosses Street ferry. Took [horse-drawn street] cars across town. Saw a woman get into car that [who] was so tall and frightfully thin as well as dried up that my mechanical mind at once conceived the idea that it would be the proper thing to run a lancet into her arm and knee joints and insert automatic self feeding oil cups to diminish the creaking when she walked. Classy. This would proba…
It can work different ways at different times in different circumstances. I've kept a diary for 40 years since I was a teenager, and tried a number of ways.
When I've wanted to change my own behaviour, for example, to be less critical of others, or less socially awkward, I'd document episodes of my own thoughts and behaviour that I didn't like, and read them back so I could see myself better, recognise patterns, and learn to avoid them.
That method works for some kinds of change better than others. For something like changing my diet, for example, by eating less sugar, I found documentation and review useful. I'd document episodes, then read them back, and write notes to myself about what to do next time. It's a good way to see the lead up to an unwanted behaviour e.g. didn't pack a lunch for the football game or a road trip, so ended up buying junk food.
It's important to record positive experiences. e.g. "ate a beautiful salad and loved the balsamic vinaigrette recipe from Tony." Or, "Alan said something unwise again, but I shut up this time and let it pass, which felt much better the next day." These make a big difference when reading back compared to self-criticism.
At times, reading the diary back has sort of backfired by entrenching behaviour. This for me was particularly true of social and romantic situations. I'd document episodes too self-critically, which made it painful to re-read, and the more I'd re-read these writings, the more I'd dislike myself and assume a negative self-image.
I switched to just writing positive versions of my own history. That was interesting. Writing affirmatively enabled me to develop a new inner voice. Once it was established, I could rely on it. I think that's a key thing about diaries - the opinions and meta observations become voices that you carry around in your head. If you treat it like a lucid dream, I think you can use those voices constructively by deliberately writing them in a persona you like.
Eventually, like after decades, I stopped re-reading my diaries, except on rare occasions when I needed to find out a fact such as where I was on a particular date. I deliberately stopped reading my reflections on myself, to spare myself from meta-dislike. That was a good move. I still get the benefit of writing things down, which bring them to my attention, but that's enough. I don't need to re-read what I've written to know what is in my diary. I just concentrate on making new episodes that will be more pleasurable to have in future pages.
As for facts such as names, dates, places and things - diaries are great. I still pause every now and then to just jot down key markers for each date in a text file, and store it away in a folder called journal. Just the key facts are extremely useful for recall of all kinds of associations.
> Went to New York via Desbrosses Street ferry. Took [horse-drawn street] cars across town. Saw a woman get into car that [who] was so tall and frightfully thin as well as dried up that my mechanical mind at once conceived the idea that it would be the proper thing to run a lancet into her arm and knee joints and insert automatic self feeding oil cups to diminish the creaking when she walked. Classy. This would proba…
For aspiring journalers, always write the full date, including year. Probably write the time of day and maybe day of week to help give context to future readers. Do not worry about backtracking if you skip a day or decades. Just write starting now, otherwise the backlog will paralyze you.
That reminds me I haven't written about today yet.
https://www.robnugen.com/journal/
https://www.robnugen.com/journal/2020/11/30/japanese-work-hn...
> Went to New York via Desbrosses Street ferry. Took [horse-drawn street] cars across town. Saw a woman get into car that [who] was so tall and frightfully thin as well as dried up that my mechanical mind at once conceived the idea that it would be the proper thing to run a lancet into her arm and knee joints and insert automatic self feeding oil cups to diminish the creaking when she walked. Classy. This would proba…
> Any people doing a diary today? How does it help you and do you refer back to it? It can work different ways at different times in different circumstances. I've kept a diary for 40 years since I was a teenager, and tried a number of ways. When I've wanted to change my own behaviour, for example, to be less critical of others, or less socially awkward, I'd document episodes of my own thoughts and behaviour that I di…
> A lawsuit is the suicide of time.
Edison had a winter home in Fort Myers Florida, shared with Henry Ford. Today it's a museum you can visit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_and_Ford_Winter_Estates He experimented with about 17,000 especies of trees looking for the one with the most optimal rubber output and you can see some of those species there.