How to process reading annotations into evergreen notes
It’s important to Write about what you read. While reading, you’ve marked passages that seem relevant, and you’ve scribbled notes with your thoughts (How to collect observations while reading). Now we’ll process all that into lasting notes.
First: what notes should even get written? We’ll write Evergreen notes should be concept-oriented, so what are the key concepts? You need to take a step back and form a picture of the overall structure of the ideas. Concretely, you might do that by clustering your scraps into piles and observing the structure that emerges. Or you might sketch a mind map or a visual outline. The structure you observe does not have to match the book’s structure: it’s whatever makes sense relative to your own personal ontology (Do your own thinking).
Once you have a picture of the concepts at play, you’ll begin an iterative process of note-writing. Here I’ve summarized Christian Tietze’s process, which I’m presently adopting / adapting:
- Write a broad note which captures the “big idea” of one of your clusters.
- Are there multiple big ideas? Write multiple broad notes to maintain Evergreen notes should be atomic.
- Write finer-grained notes: Look through the individual scraps in that cluster. Write notes which capture more nuanced atomic ideas within that cluster.
- Connect: Search for relevant past notes which relate to these new notes. Link, merge, and revise as necessary to represent your new, synthesized conception of those ideas.
- See Evergreen notes should be densely linked and Create speculative outlines while you write.
- Revise: Return to the broad note and improve your summary based on what you’ve learned writing the detailed notes and the details you’ve unpacked, if it’s possible to do so without muddying their focus. Remove detailed notes that are no longer necessary; update others based on what you learned writing your updated broad note if appropriate.
- Loop — uid: 202006021337 tags: #literature #zettelkasten
Great speeches
My notes on the speeches I’ve seen at https://jamesclear.com/great-speeches.
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “The Danger of a Single Story” 202006220003
- Jeff Bezos, “What Matters More Than Your Talents” 202006220004
- John C. Bogle, “Enough” 202006220005
- Brené Brown, “The Anatomy of Trust” 202006220007
- John Cleese, “Creativity in Management” 202006220008
- William Deresiewicz, “Solitude and Leadership” 202006220009
- Richard Feynman, “Seeking New Laws” 202006220010
- Neil Gaiman, “Make Good Art” 202006220011
- John W. Gardner, “Personal Renewal” 202006220012
- Elizabeth Gilbert, “Your Elusive Creative Genius” 202006220013
- Albert E. N. Gray, “The Common Denominator of Success 202006220014
- Bill Gurley, “Runnin Down a Dream” 202006220015
- Richard Hamming, “Learning to Learn” 202006220016
- Richard Hamming, “You and Your Research” 202006220017
- Steve Jobs, “2005 Stanford Commencement Address” 202006220018
- Peter Kaufman, “The Multidisciplinary Approach to Thinking” 202006220019
- Admiral William H. McRaven, “Make Your Bed” 202006221013
- Arno Rafael Minkkinen, “Finding Your Own Vision” 202006221015
- Charlie Munger, “2007 USC Law School Commencement Address” 202006221016
- Charlie Munger, “A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom” 202006221017
- Charlie Munger, “How to Guarantee a Life of Misery” 202006221018
- Nathan Myhrvold, “Roadkill on the Information Highway” 202006221020
- Randy Pausch, “Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” 202006221021
- Randy Pausch, “Time Management” 202006221022
- Anna Quindlen, “1999 Mount Holyoke Commencement Speech” 202006221023
- John Roberts, “I Wish You Bad Luck” 202006221024
- Sir Ken Robinson, “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” 202006221025
- J.K. Rowling, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure” 202006221026
- George Saunders, “Failures of Kindness” 202006221027
- Claude Shannon, “Creative Thinking” 202006221028
- Jim Valvano, “Don’t Give Up” 202006221029
- Bret Victor, “Inventing on Principle” 202006221030
- David Foster Wallace, “This is Water” 202006221031
- Art Williams, “Just Do It” 202006221032
- Evan Williams, “A Journey on the Information Highway” 202006221033
uuid: 202005071942 tags: #literature #speeches
We are not ready for the future of Chatbots. Even if Bing isn’t Sydney anymore, there is no doubt other AI bots will come along, and may already be deployed (I assume governments have, or soon will have, LLMs at the level of Bing but with less guardrails). People will absolutely be fooled by AIs into thinking they are talking to other people. They already fell for Bing’s illusion of sentience. Can people be manipulated by AIs? Can AIs run sophisticated scams? I think we are about to find out. And we need to consider what that means.
We are not ready for the future of Analytic Engines. I think every organization that has a substantial analysis or writing component to their work will need to figure out how to incorporate these new tools fast, because the competitive advantage gain is potentially enormous. If highly-skilled writers and analysts can save 30-80% of their time by using AI to assist with basic writing and analysis, what does that mean? How do we adopt these technologies into our work and lives? What happens when the web is flooded with convincing but wrong content from these tools? Again, I don’t think anyone has a clear idea. Maybe the productivity gains will be illusory, but, based on my experience and conversations with other users, I don’t think so.
218 #journal 82 #literature 80 #edinburgh 65 #amazon 61 #insights 55 #writeup 52 #productivity 52 #meetings 51 #airtable 41 #programming 39 #living-well 37 #speeches 36 #software-engineering 34 #inbox 28 #notetaking 25 #blog-ideas 24 #knowledge 23 #teaching 23 #politics 21 #algorithms 19 #relationships 19 #recruiting 19 #raise 19 #incomplete 18 #theorem 17 #writing 14 #javascript 13 #self-reflection 12 #zettelkasten 12 #python 12 #howto 12 #drafts 11 #ee16b 11 #archived 11 #advice 10 #selfgrowth 10 #quotes 10 #distributed-systems 9 #update 9 #talks 9 #favorites 9 #2020recruiting 8 #recipes 8 #index 7 #travel 7 #tools-for-thought 7 #projects 7 #interviews 7 #applications 6 #thoughts 6 #hytradboi 6 #finance 6 #cs285 5 #outline 5 #games 5 #ML 4 #tricks 4 #task-management 4 #sanfrancisco 4 #relational-thinking 4 #mcb55 4 #history 4 #goalsetting 4 #books 3 #presentation 3 #logs 3 #links 3 #hobbies 3 #fullstack 3 #exploring 3 #communication 3 #bayarea 3 #aggregator 2 #utilities 2 #society 2 #snowboarding 2 #rust 2 #movies 2 #instapot 2 #inspiration 2 #covid 2 #career 2 #bookkeeping 1 #workout 1 #values 1 #tech 1 #stubs 1 #startup-routines 1 #startup-ideas 1 #starred 1 #socializing 1 #review 1 #resume 1 #random 1 #philanthropy 1 #people-that-intimidate-me 1 #parenting 1 #northstar 1 #my-advice 1 #math 1 #japan 1 #habits 1 #gtd 1 #geography 1 #fitness 1 #dreams 1 #definitions 1 #culture 1 #cooking 1 #completed 1 #blogging 1 #benkuhn 1 #ai
# 22 Lessons Learned in 2022
source: https://ift.tt/DA6eUWN tags: #literature #living-well uid: 202302202050 —
If you think something nice about someone, always tell them right then.
Never think twice about investments in yourself. Make a rule to never think twice about investments in yourself.
This includes:
Books Quality food Fitness Mental health Personal development Enriching experiences
This goes deeper than that: Stop caring about what others think about you, because they probably aren’t even thinking about you.
Attach your definition of success to things that are within your control. A meta-analysis of 105 studies and 70,000 people around the world just concluded that valuing extrinsic over intrinsic goals predicts lower overall well-being.
Focusing on process over prize leads to more and better prizes.
#20: If you want to improve at anything, do it for 30 minutes per day for 30 straight days.
#8: Regret is way more painful than failure. One of my favorite pieces of advice I’ve ever received.
It led to my decision to leave the comfort of a safe path to try something different. It reminded me that the worst case of failure meant going back to the safe path—but that the worst case of regret meant missing the time sensitive opportunity forever.
A few things I never regret:
Creative sprints Talking to smart friends Journaling for 5 min Time with my family Walks with my wife and son Pushing myself physically
# Japan was the future but it’s stuck in the past
source: https://ift.tt/UpPW5gY tags: #literature #geography #culture #japan uid: 202302201753 —
Think of Japan’s sleek bullet trains, or Toyota’s “just-in-time” marvel of assembly-line manufacturing system - and you could be forgiven for thinking Japan is a poster child for efficiency. It is not.
Rather the bureaucracy can be terrifying, while huge amounts of public money are spent on activities of dubious utility.
The geeks and oddballs love it for its wonderful weirdness. But it also has alt-right admirers for refusing immigration and maintaining the patriarchy. It is often described as a country that has successfully become modern without abandoning the ancient. There is some truth to this, but I’d argue the modern is more a veneer.
Thesis
When Covid struck Japan closed its borders. Even permanent foreign residents were excluded from returning. I called up the foreign ministry to ask why foreigners who’d spent decades in Japan, had homes and businesses here, were being treated like tourists. The response was blunt: “they are all foreigners.”
A hundred and fifty years after it was forced to open its doors, Japan is still sceptical, even fearful of the outside world.
pork-barrel politics
#definitions 202301222018