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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   17480 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 6, 2025

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Edward Tufte, who's books are notoriously beautiful and specially printed, says that if you aren't marking up your books, you overpaid.

He is correct.

About 75% of my books come from the university libary unfortunately, so no marking up for me there. Sounds like I need to get cracking on that other 25% though.

In that case, you might want to get a small notepad (not a notebook!) and actually look into developing your own simplifed / modified Zettlekasten method.

Any suggestions on how to get started? I looked into Zettlekasten a little and it seems to be pretty impossible without some kind of digital note taking system which I don't want to do

  1. Shorthand title of the book at the top of the page. For instance "Smith - Wealth Nations" or even "Smith - Wealth.
  2. Simple page listing "p.213" "pp.213-215"
  3. FULL sentences in your OWN WORDS. "p.213 - Competitive advantage and free trade is good for everyone" be as insightful as you like. DO NOT transcribe the text and don't paraphrase and don't caveat "Smith states that ...." --- Write to yourself for yourself.
  4. Only one book per piece of note paper. (This is why I recommend like a 4 x 6 notepad ... or 5 x 8, whatever you can get cheap and is a good size for you). If you're reading a different book or article etc., get a new, clean sheet of paper out.
  5. Throw all of these slips into a shoebox or any kind of hard container (tupperware, an old storage case for land mines, whatever you have around the house).
  6. Weekly, no more frequently, no less frequently, organize this box of notes by title only.

Start with building that habit. There's a next level wherein you link different slips to one another, but it's too much to try at the outset.

Great will try this out!

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