Thinking by Writing
Conclusions from Thinking with Zettelkasten and Workshop vs Library:
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there's some kind of difference in using language for thinking and for communicating thoughts, be it written or spoken
- curious if this is related in any way to Linguistic Determinism
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thinking by writing is an example of Extended Mind notion, where thinking happens partially outside of the brain
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Andy Matuschak argues that most people don't take evergreen notes - ones that will be relevant in weeks, months, years, and for most people taking notes is just a way to close "open loops", instead of "accumulating insight"
Evergreen notes are written and organized to evolve, contribute, and accumulate over time, across projects
— Andy Matuschak - https://notes.andymatuschak.org/Evergreen_notes ↗ -
I think there should be some friction to adding new notes, which forces me to re-read and re-think through the material - there's a difference between quick inbox capture, and long-term storage, the friction of migrating from inbox to long-term storage might be a good thing; Tom MacWright has similar intuitions:
I think there's some notetaking/databasing ideology in which any "friction" between your brain and the notebook is viewed as bad. Which imho is a faulty idea: choosing words and structure in order to represent your thoughts is not a chore, it's part of forming the thoughts
— Tom MacWright - https://twitter.com/tmcw/status/1233893351981633536 ↗ -
thinking about this makes sense, if it improves some other thing - Notes Should Serve a Purpose after all
- coincidentally Thinking About Thinking Requires Something to Think About