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I like this. I'm diving into the zettlekasten thing after reading How to Take Smart Notes , and stopping to think about how I write so that it's as simple and clear as possible, while still being informative enough for my future self is what flexes my head muscle the most. This complements it nicely.
> * Clear writing leads to clear thinking.
> * You don’t know what you know until you try to express it.
> * If your writing is nonsense, maybe your thoughts are nonsense too
This is the main reason I've kept blogging over the years.
Something that's coming to mind while reading this is how much company communication these days happens almost exclusively on Slack, and how antithetical that format can be to writing and thinking clearly.
I supposes that's not "chat", but then again written is not oral.
(side note-- again, two paragraphs, plus self-commentary)
I miss the time when writers didn't follow these rules, it was so much more fun to read, and ideas expressed were more complex and interesting too.
I resonated with the "Why"s so much: > * Clear writing leads to clear thinking. > * You don’t know what you know until you try to express it. > * If your writing is nonsense, maybe your thoughts are nonsense too This is the main reason I've kept blogging over the years.
I like this. I'm diving into the zettlekasten thing after reading How to Take Smart Notes , and stopping to think about how I write so that it's as simple and clear as possible, while still being informative enough for my future self is what flexes my head muscle the most. This complements it nicely.
Mind describing the value you gained from How to Take Smart Notes ? Sounds interesting to me, as someone wanting to catalog all "information" i take in
Having read about zettlekasten online I thought they were one thing, but after having read this I feel that I have a deeper understanding of them, and how to approach using them. The goal isn't necessarily to archive all your knowledge, it's to facilitate insights and new ideas. In a way, having your knowledge and ideas cross referenced is just a nice side effect. Prior to reading this, I would have taken an approach that would have just been a database of things I learned, which takes a lot of time to create and doesn't do much for you in the end.
It's a short, easy read at around 150 (small) pages and the author keeps it pretty interesting. I plan on rereading it pretty soon.
edit: I forgot to add that a lot of the book goes over study methodsmost people are taught growing up, and why they don't really work that well. I thought this was pretty interesting as well.
I haven't read a 125-page deck completely for a while.
Something that's coming to mind while reading this is how much company communication these days happens almost exclusively on Slack, and how antithetical that format can be to writing and thinking clearly.
Yes, I'm still smarting from this default behavoir that pressing "return" sends the message instead of starting a new paragraph. My thoughts usually run to more than one paragraph, and I like to edit before I send. I supposes that's not "chat", but then again written is not oral. (side note-- again, two paragraphs, plus self-commentary)
I wonder why they decided that a different behavior was needed depending on you being in a code block (RETURN -> new line) than normal writing (RETURN -> submit). That’s bad UX!
I’m so old school that I want an e-mail so I can file it (as a file) in whatever folder I find logical - that’s not possible in Slack (which is good for non-worthy-of-being-saved chit-chat kind of communications)
I miss the time when writers didn't follow these rules, it was so much more fun to read, and ideas expressed were more complex and interesting too.
Yes there is an obvious advantage to fuzzyness in writing as it lets the readers make their own path in a story. But not everybody likes that, lots of readers enjoy being taken for a guided tour.