This video, for me at least, was the missing puzzle piece. I started, some years ago, keeping notes on index cards thanks to a passing mention by A.G. Sertillanges. Only in the last week did I discover the concept of the Zettelkasten--and while I grasped the idea, I couldn't quite connect the dots between "taking notes on a work" and "producing rad ideas"; and this video got me to make that connection--by eating pizza no less, a favorite pastime of mine! So thank you very much for producing these videos!
Your analog videos are amazing. I really appreciate your concise summaries and humour - your videos are probably my favorite in describing the analog system and look forward to them each week. Thanks!
Great video. I think those of us who have learned about productivity reading Getting Things Done or similar books, became used to try to build a system as frictionless as possible. But, as you state in the video, this kind of friction is absolutely necessary since you don't what to copy all the ideas in a book to your Zettelkasten.
Thanks for the comment. Yes, when it comes to thinking, slow is fast. Just a few days ago I learned of the next book Cal Newport's working on, tentatively titled *Slow Productivity.* Perhaps he'll end up making points in it that resonate with you (and plenty of other people).
Thanks for the comment. In the future I hope to make some videos that are specifically targeted at people working on a dissertation, masters thesis, or even (at the undergraduate level) a senior thesis. That stuff will be focused on using digital tools (especially Obsidian) and a method different from the one I have been laying out in this series of videos.
Thanks for another great video! This is exactly what I’m struggling with at the moment… please make a video about the reminder to idea card! I’d love to see that process!
Thanks for the comment. I hadn't thought about making a video about moving from a "reminder" to producing an idea card, but that's a good idea. Thanks for the suggestion! Probably won't be the NEXT video in the series, but maybe the 10th one?
digitalist here - In the beginning I was like why should I limit myself, now I follow two rules when creating "source cards" 1st rule: No copy and paste 2nd rule: The first part (after the bibliography stuff) I add to my (digital) note is I add a max word count I don't want to get over. How large that word count is is a personal preference and in my case based on how many worlds I can easily write and write on my screen without scrolling (in a specific window configuration). My note taking app has a word count and I follow that almost intuitively.
Thank you for this informative and helpful video. I hope to share it with my senior seminar students to help them efficiently and effectively document important points from the articles and books they read for their research. Thank you, Jackie
Thank you for this video. I was not able to find the video from Jeffrey Weber ?sp Would it be possible to link? This was one of the things I am thinking wondering about... vertical or horizontal? I will be using a fully non-digital form. My index cards are 4x6 although I thought about 3x5. Enjoying your directness and dry sense of humour.
Thanks for your comment. I'm pretty sure the following video by Jeffrey Webber is what you'll want to take a look at: ruclips.net/video/IWjOq449iJA/видео.html It's titled "Upgrading my Analog Reference Notes."
Excellent. Thank you. I actually already "shipped" the first installment of the PDF-annotation guide to all my subscribers, but it's also posted on my website. Here's the link: www.fpnotes.io/pdf-annotation-for-those-who-are-old-school/
For years I took notes in a notebook figuring that if it felt “too hard” to take a note then it wasn’t worth taking. This is similar to the Bullet Journal method which assumes if a list/task is too much work to move, it’s not valuable.
Curtis! Great to get a comment from you. I've enjoyed watching your videos for the past maybe two years or so (and a couple of times dropping in during your online live recording sessions). Yes, what you say makes sense. And it reminds me of a period I went through where I thought I could get myself to stop collecting too many quotations if I forced myself to type them up rather than just highlight (in a digital book), copy, and paste them. But that didn't work for me (maybe because I'm a somewhat fast typer). It's only since adopting this approach of handwriting reminders on source cards that I feel I have finally struck upon a way of doing more in the way of thinking than merely collecting.
Should reading and work flows have friction ? Too less friction - highlight everything Too much frictional - dont use the system at all . So optimum friction a best middle path.
Yup, "optimum friction" appears to be the sweet spot. Of course, what counts as "optimum friction" is going to differ for different people. I recall from maybe a year ago Mike Schmitz (posts material on The Sweet Setup website, co-host on a number of podcasts, including Bookworm and Focused, etc.) said that he won't write down or perhaps even highlight a quotation unless it REALLY jumps out to him as something he didn't know already. I tried doing that for a little while, only to find that it didn't work so well for me.
I consider myself lucky for getting well with processing while reading method, although it makes the reading experience really slow. Actually, I feel I put in effort
If you feel that works well for you, I'd say stick with it. I'd say that for most people their best bet is probably to stick with a method so long as it satisfies their needs 70-80%. If you go off in search of something that's supposedly better than that, searching will soon become the thing you do the most-or more so, at least, than the actual work you want to do. (I speak from my own experience, which is also the experience of plenty of others.)
For real. Actually, the stock footage I usually have access to could not be imported into the app I use for editing videos. But I was able to make a screen recording of a small window playing the stock footage in the preview (low quality) mode, so I posted that. As a rating of the quality of the resulting video, I’d give it two coprolites.
I really appreciate your content but, again I ask, why are you shown in less than optimal lighting? Normal lighting would make it easier to stay focused on the video.
I think what we have here is a divergence of aesthetic preferences. I like things to be a little bit dark. However, I plan on making some changes to how things are set up in the room I record my videos in, such that I might be able to bounce light off the wall so that there's some more light on the right side of my face (or, from the perspective of the viewer, the left side of my face). But for various reasons, I probably won't be able to make those changes for at least a month.
This video, for me at least, was the missing puzzle piece. I started, some years ago, keeping notes on index cards thanks to a passing mention by A.G. Sertillanges. Only in the last week did I discover the concept of the Zettelkasten--and while I grasped the idea, I couldn't quite connect the dots between "taking notes on a work" and "producing rad ideas"; and this video got me to make that connection--by eating pizza no less, a favorite pastime of mine!
So thank you very much for producing these videos!
Thanks for the remarks. Now I just need to get around to making a new video (it’s been over two months since my last one).
Your analog videos are amazing. I really appreciate your concise summaries and humour - your videos are probably my favorite in describing the analog system and look forward to them each week. Thanks!
Comments like these function as wind beneath my wings. Many thanks!
Great video. I think those of us who have learned about productivity reading Getting Things Done or similar books, became used to try to build a system as frictionless as possible. But, as you state in the video, this kind of friction is absolutely necessary since you don't what to copy all the ideas in a book to your Zettelkasten.
Thanks for the comment. Yes, when it comes to thinking, slow is fast. Just a few days ago I learned of the next book Cal Newport's working on, tentatively titled *Slow Productivity.* Perhaps he'll end up making points in it that resonate with you (and plenty of other people).
Thanks! Very, very helpful. I'm a Ph.d student (Dogmatic Theology) and I have the same problems and questions
Thanks for the comment. In the future I hope to make some videos that are specifically targeted at people working on a dissertation, masters thesis, or even (at the undergraduate level) a senior thesis. That stuff will be focused on using digital tools (especially Obsidian) and a method different from the one I have been laying out in this series of videos.
i love your sense of humor
Thanks! It's one of my redeeming qualities-though it's gotten me in trouble a few times in the past.
Thanks for another great video! This is exactly what I’m struggling with at the moment… please make a video about the reminder to idea card! I’d love to see that process!
Thanks for the comment. I hadn't thought about making a video about moving from a "reminder" to producing an idea card, but that's a good idea. Thanks for the suggestion! Probably won't be the NEXT video in the series, but maybe the 10th one?
digitalist here - In the beginning I was like why should I limit myself, now I follow two rules when creating "source cards"
1st rule: No copy and paste
2nd rule: The first part (after the bibliography stuff) I add to my (digital) note is I add a max word count I don't want to get over. How large that word count is is a personal preference and in my case based on how many worlds I can easily write and write on my screen without scrolling (in a specific window configuration). My note taking app has a word count and I follow that almost intuitively.
Thank you for this informative and helpful video. I hope to share it with my senior seminar students to help them efficiently and effectively document important points from the articles and books they read for their research. Thank you,
Jackie
Wow! This is great. Just make sure to tell them they have to "like" all my videos AND subscribe to my channel. Kidding (kind of).
Thank you for this video. I was not able to find the video from Jeffrey Weber ?sp Would it be possible to link?
This was one of the things I am thinking wondering about... vertical or horizontal? I will be using a fully non-digital form. My index cards are 4x6 although I thought about 3x5. Enjoying your directness and dry sense of humour.
Thanks for your comment. I'm pretty sure the following video by Jeffrey Webber is what you'll want to take a look at: ruclips.net/video/IWjOq449iJA/видео.html It's titled "Upgrading my Analog Reference Notes."
love the digestion analogy. gross lol but it works really well
this is a great video, and an effective strategy for research. nice job dr. perry. great job!
Thanks for the comment!
Great video, thank you for your presentation and information within. I have subscribed and loo forward to the info on the pdf hilighter apps.
Excellent. Thank you. I actually already "shipped" the first installment of the PDF-annotation guide to all my subscribers, but it's also posted on my website. Here's the link: www.fpnotes.io/pdf-annotation-for-those-who-are-old-school/
For years I took notes in a notebook figuring that if it felt “too hard” to take a note then it wasn’t worth taking. This is similar to the Bullet Journal method which assumes if a list/task is too much work to move, it’s not valuable.
Curtis! Great to get a comment from you. I've enjoyed watching your videos for the past maybe two years or so (and a couple of times dropping in during your online live recording sessions).
Yes, what you say makes sense. And it reminds me of a period I went through where I thought I could get myself to stop collecting too many quotations if I forced myself to type them up rather than just highlight (in a digital book), copy, and paste them.
But that didn't work for me (maybe because I'm a somewhat fast typer). It's only since adopting this approach of handwriting reminders on source cards that I feel I have finally struck upon a way of doing more in the way of thinking than merely collecting.
Should reading and work flows have friction ?
Too less friction - highlight everything
Too much frictional - dont use the system at all .
So optimum friction a best middle path.
Yup, "optimum friction" appears to be the sweet spot. Of course, what counts as "optimum friction" is going to differ for different people.
I recall from maybe a year ago Mike Schmitz (posts material on The Sweet Setup website, co-host on a number of podcasts, including Bookworm and Focused, etc.) said that he won't write down or perhaps even highlight a quotation unless it REALLY jumps out to him as something he didn't know already. I tried doing that for a little while, only to find that it didn't work so well for me.
Do the idea cards go in your main box? (or somewhere else)?
Yes, what I call “idea cards” (what Scott Scheper and Bob Doto call “main notes) would go in your main box.
Gracias por la informacion
De nada.
I consider myself lucky for getting well with processing while reading method, although it makes the reading experience really slow. Actually, I feel I put in effort
If you feel that works well for you, I'd say stick with it.
I'd say that for most people their best bet is probably to stick with a method so long as it satisfies their needs 70-80%.
If you go off in search of something that's supposedly better than that, searching will soon become the thing you do the most-or more so, at least, than the actual work you want to do. (I speak from my own experience, which is also the experience of plenty of others.)
I don't know if you paid for the stock video at 1:06 but, if so, you probably paid too much.
For real. Actually, the stock footage I usually have access to could not be imported into the app I use for editing videos. But I was able to make a screen recording of a small window playing the stock footage in the preview (low quality) mode, so I posted that. As a rating of the quality of the resulting video, I’d give it two coprolites.
2:58
I really appreciate your content but, again I ask, why are you shown in less than optimal lighting? Normal lighting would make it easier to stay focused on the video.
I think what we have here is a divergence of aesthetic preferences. I like things to be a little bit dark. However, I plan on making some changes to how things are set up in the room I record my videos in, such that I might be able to bounce light off the wall so that there's some more light on the right side of my face (or, from the perspective of the viewer, the left side of my face). But for various reasons, I probably won't be able to make those changes for at least a month.
So you collect crap? Is that metaphor for certain note-taking practices?
Nope, no metaphor at work here. But I have certainly tried out a lot of crappy note-taking practices the past three years or so.