Ideas We're Grappling With March 23, 2023

Will

It's Thursday, and here we go again. I'm telling you what I'm working on to inspire you to tell me what you worked on. Consider the bar set low for participation. Pop in and say hi.

This week I've been distracted by schoolwork. The second paper in my ENGL501 class was due. I feel good about it, but we'll see. I spent too much time programming, according to my sweetie. She is probably right, but getting lost in programming problems felt so good.

Thoughts about construal level theory have surfaced again in my ZK, leading me to Robin Hanson, Associate Professor at George Mason University, and his paper on the sacred. We See The Sacred From Afar, To See It The Same. I quickly looked at the paper, and while I don't agree with everything, Robin's look at the construal-level theory and how it relates to our concept of sacred is fascinating and well-referenced.

A week filled with productive distractions. Next week I'm afraid other people's expectations of me will creep up the priority list.

What's happening in your ZK?

My seven day zettel production

Massimo_Curatella

Hi Will,
I am thinking about designing a tutorial on how to create your user profile to get the best out of participating to online communities.
I need to set specific boundaries to my exploration and that was the smallest unit of value I could think of.
I started to talk about that idea to friends and, surprisingly, they found it useful.
So, following a Design Thinking approach, I want to refine the idea and testing with real people to come up with something I can package and share.
Have a great day.

prometheanhindsight

Only a couple new notes this week. I've been reading quite a bit, and there are definitely notes that I want to take based on that reading, but ZK hasn't quite been integrated into my regular routine strongly enough for me to casually take notes throughout the day. I need to start setting aside some time in the morning and/or evening to process the info I've encountered recently.

Topics I've been reading about:

• The resonant interactions between dielectric materials and light (same as last few weeks)
• Materials which have a different refractive depending on the direction that light is traveling through them (birefringence), and how to model their optical properties
• Non-uniform distributions of charges within materials and how that impacts their interactions with light

I need to get through my (pretty small) backlog of notes from this week because we have our research group retreat on Sunday, and I'm expecting a lot of notes based on that event. It tends to be a really fun day of brainstorming future research aims.

@Will How are you generating your seven day zettel production summary? I'm assuming you're automating it using Keyboard Maestro?

Will

It's great to hear about your zk experience. I have found reading leads to note-taking, of course, But I have experienced reading that weakens my note-taking. Some reading stimulates ideas that plead to be captured, while others are less engaging. Reading quality is a spectrum from an air-to-air missile to the mind to a minefield of confusion. I'm often surprised by where on the spectrum a particular reading lies.

Reading in varied areas seems to help. Dabbling in reading poetry a little helps me concentrate and see connections I might miss when reading Literary Criticism. Maybe reading old notes helps corral ideas that are not in my usual 'wheelhouse.'

@prometheanhindsight said:
Only a couple new notes this week. I've been reading quite a bit, and there are definitely notes that I want to take based on that reading, but ZK hasn't quite been integrated into my regular routine strongly enough for me to casually take notes throughout the day. I need to start setting aside some time in the morning and/or evening to process the info I've encountered recently.

A morning or evening writing/note-curating practice is a superpower. This keystone behavior will lead to fruitful reading and knowledge growth.

I need to get through my (pretty small) backlog of notes from this week because we have our research group retreat on Sunday, and I'm expecting a lot of notes based on that event. It tends to be a really fun day of brainstorming future research aims.

This sounds so fun. I'm a bit jealous, I'm retired and have to go looking for the kind of interaction you are enjoying.

@Will How are you generating your seven day zettel production summary? I'm assuming you're automating it using Keyboard Maestro?

My seven-day zettel production summary, which I call my "Thought Lab Dashboard." is part of my daily writing/journaling practice template. I use a python script to produce it, then Keyboard Maestro to add it to the day's template.

The python script is in rough shape. I hacked it quickly from an older script, but it works. My priorities have shifted, so I've not cleaned it up. This might be the opportunity. I'll work on it and post it if you want to try it out.

Will

@prometheanhindsight, here is the python script for creating my seven-day zettel production summary.

It should find your Archive zettelkasten directory. There are a couple of modules you'll likely have to install. There is a variable group that I should briefly explain. The variables are:

# Get counts for various date parameters.
tencount = 0
tencountfiles = []
hundredcount = 0
tengap = 7
hundredgap = 100

They are called 'ten…' and 'hundred…', but you can place any integer as the value. It's that I originally coded it thinking I'd use 10 and 100, but that didn't last.

Will

@prometheanhindsight, I just remembered that I should have included one function in the python code mentioned above for you to capture my seven-day zettel production summary. It has to do with randomization. It is called from an external file. The two scripts want to live together in the file tree. These files could be combined if you wish to, but having the functions separate fosters reusability.

Random Function

prometheanhindsight

@Will said:
@prometheanhindsight, here is the python script for creating my seven-day zettel production summary.

Thanks for posting this! This is really cool. I semi-regularly use one of the KBM macros you posted a while back to generate a list of my ZK stats as well as any notes I've edited in the last 24 hours. It will be nice to add this into the rotation so I can review what I've done on longer time scales.

I need to get through my (pretty small) backlog of notes from this week because we have our research group retreat on Sunday, and I'm expecting a lot of notes based on that event. It tends to be a really fun day of brainstorming future research aims.

This sounds so fun. I'm a bit jealous, I'm retired and have to go looking for the kind of interaction you are enjoying.

I didn't manage to get through my notes backlog, but the retreat did end up being a lot of fun!