Tell us what ideas you're grappling with this week. July 5, 2023

Will

Another installment of the What Are You Working On? thread.
Here's your chance to join the community and enlighten us about your knowledge path trajectory. It is especially helpful to share if you are a beginner. It helps clarify your goals.

I'm reading:

• Faulkner, Grant. The art of brevity: crafting the very short story, Prometheus Books. 2023. Scribd
• Velitchkov, Ivo and Anadiotis, George. Personal Knowledge Graphs: Connected thinking to boost productivity, creativity and discovery, C. Scribner's Sons. 2023. Scribd

What I am programming:

• Reworking zkdashboard.py, adding a historical review function. This has been spurred by @Sascha's post Building a Second Brain and the Zettelkasten Method • Zettelkasten Method were he outlines the importance of developing a habit that includes a review process.
• Learning to use Qt for Python using PySide6 to build desktop apps for Mac.
• I set up a personal ChatGPT that creates an LLM (really a small LM) out of only the data from my ZK—exciting to be able to chat explicitly with my ZK utilizing this technology.

I'm listening to:
Hermanos Gutiérrez
Bliss
Silver Linings
More Giorgio Moroder

I'm thinking about the following:
I've been sick. I've been spending time at the doctor's office. Thankfully we agree that I don't have a life-ending malady. I see the light at the end of the tunnel–but it's dim.

My stats tell me I have surpassed one million words in my ZK. Drip, drip, drip is how I did it. It has taken 1700 days to reach this level—1700 days for the next million.

My seven day zettel production

Sascha

I am reading

• The YouTube Formula by Derral Eves. A recommendation of a friend. I will up my YouTube Game.
• Knights of Dark Renown by David Gemmell (German Translation)
• A bunch of studies on the psychology of habit

I am Writing

• A book on habits
• Articles for this page... (I will have to be vague since "borrowing" ideas seems to be the norm in the internet)
• An article on Peter Sage's model of levels of consciousness

I am thinking about

At Christian's wedding, my wife and I were the only fresh parents, but there were many childless couples. When we were dancing (my daughter is 7 months, but she did her part by smiling and sometimes just coping), I observed the couples observing us. It was such a strange sight to me, to see the strange modern combination of anxiety and sadness condensed in this image.

I have a long-term writing project which is called "modernity as sickness" which is an empirically grounded philosophical work. So, I have to finish quite some projects before I can focus on this one. But the above image of sad eyes is forever connected to this book. The word I connect the most with the modern urban non-culture is: Undead.

I am listening to

Endless repetitions of the Skyrim OST..

zk_1000

@Will I'm sorry to hear you're sick. I hope you are getting well soon.

Congratulations on your millionth word in your Zettelkasten. These are some impressive statistics.

GeoEng51

@Sascha said:
At Christian's wedding, my wife and I were the only fresh parents, but there were many childless couples. When we were dancing (my daughter is 7 months, but she did her part by smiling and sometimes just coping), I observed the couples observing us. It was such a strange sight to me, to see the strange modern combination of anxiety and sadness condensed in this image.

I have observed and experienced the same thing on multiple occasions, particularly when my wife and I were first married and having children. I'm not sure how symptomatic it is of modern times; perhaps it is prevalent now, but there have been other times, such as post WW II. Having and raising kids isn't for everyone, but there are many who either wait too long and then regret missed opportunity, or just don't have the opportunity.

zk_1000

I've had the same thought. Some may simply regret not having children. This becomes particularly evident around small children. Additionally, a marriage always brings back memories and thoughts about how life was or has been since then.

Perhaps I'm misinterpreting the situation, though. I hope the wedding went well.

s41f

@Sascha said:
I have a long-term writing project which is called "modernity as sickness" which is an empirically grounded philosophical work. So, I have to finish quite some projects before I can focus on this one. But the above image of sad eyes is forever connected to this book. The word I connect the most with the modern urban non-culture is: Undead.

This sounds very interesting. I’m fond of the phrase “modern urban non-culture”. I look forward to the possibility of you sharing more details on this project in the future.

Sascha

@s41f said:

@Sascha said:
I have a long-term writing project which is called "modernity as sickness" which is an empirically grounded philosophical work. So, I have to finish quite some projects before I can focus on this one. But the above image of sad eyes is forever connected to this book. The word I connect the most with the modern urban non-culture is: Undead.

This sounds very interesting. I’m fond of the phrase “modern urban non-culture”. I look forward to the possibility of you sharing more details on this project in the future.

It is a depressing book.

TinkerToy

I took a step back from my zettelkästen practice in April and have only recently gotten back on track. Now I have a few irons in the fire, which is not unusual for me.

What I'm actively thinking about

• The potential death spiral of Reddit as a social media platform, what this means in the overall history of humanity on the Internet, and how this collapse marks an uncertain transition to 'Web 3' - whatever that is and will be. Federated platforms? Blockchain platforms? Reversion to personal blogs, sites, and forums a la Web 1?
• Project management and attaining goals.
• Reviewing a writing device I purchased a while back. What I like, what I don't, and so on and so forth. Odd implications in the company's terms of service. Nothing groundbreaking here.

What is on hold, or being considered passively

• The masculinities,
• Mid- to late-20th-century drug smuggling, and
• The socioeconomic factors at play in the American Deep South in the 1960s and 1970s and how it relates to the above.

The bibliography for all this is extensive, which is unfortunately my idiom.

Sascha

The potential death spiral of Reddit as a social media platform

Can you elaborate?

s41f

@TinkerToy said:
I took a step back from my zettelkästen practice in April and have only recently gotten back on track. Now I have a few irons in the fire, which is not unusual for me.

What I'm actively thinking about

• The potential death spiral of Reddit as a social media platform, what this means in the overall history of humanity on the Internet, and how this collapse marks an uncertain transition to 'Web 3' - whatever that is and will be. Federated platforms? Blockchain platforms? Reversion to personal blogs, sites, and forums a la Web 1?
• Project management and attaining goals.
• Reviewing a writing device I purchased a while back. What I like, what I don't, and so on and so forth. Odd implications in the company's terms of service. Nothing groundbreaking here.

What is on hold, or being considered passively

• The masculinities,
• Mid- to late-20th-century drug smuggling, and
• The socioeconomic factors at play in the American Deep South in the 1960s and 1970s and how it relates to the above.

The bibliography for all this is extensive, which is unfortunately my idiom.

This too is an intriguing mind stack.

@Sascha said:

@s41f said:

@Sascha said:
I have a long-term writing project which is called "modernity as sickness" which is an empirically grounded philosophical work. So, I have to finish quite some projects before I can focus on this one. But the above image of sad eyes is forever connected to this book. The word I connect the most with the modern urban non-culture is: Undead.

This sounds very interesting. I’m fond of the phrase “modern urban non-culture”. I look forward to the possibility of you sharing more details on this project in the future.

It is a depressing book.

I’m confident I have enough enthusiasm for the topic to balance anyone’s dejection.

ZettelDistraction

@Sascha said:

@s41f said:

@Sascha said:

...

It is a depressing book.

I can hardly wait!

henrikenggaard

Getting back into Zettelkasten after a long hiatus. At my new job (which I’ve had for 1.5 year now) my work requires a lot “external” knowledge and thus I had a difficulty getting something useful out of my ZK. But now I feel that it is time to refocus on my personal notes :-)