[Journal] Knowledge Work - Sascha
Entry: 2025-10-20 Experimenting with turning a private practice into a social practice.
When I was still active in various online forums for training, it was part of the routine for many athletes to keep an online diary. Interestingly, a lot of the most interesting discussions branched off from these diaries. So, I like to start this as an experiment.
Back then, it was part of the forum member's post training routine: Cool down, drink the protein shake and then check the diary for comments and submit your last session there.
Scholarly journaling is a practice that seems to become trendy occasionally, but seems not to stick. I wonder if it is because of the implementation problem: Whatever isn't self-reinforcing has to be implemented carefully by developing habits and maintaining them.
What if it becomes a social practice? Social practices are indeed self-reinforcing.
This is at the core of this experiment: If scholarly journaling becomes a social practice, will it become a more stable practice? And if yes, what are the effects of it?
I am a Zettler
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2025-10-20 The conventions of a public journal in a forum based on fitness journaling
This is just from my recollection:
I am a Zettler
2025-10-20 The Start of a Morning Practice
This week I am starting a morning practice, similar to Andy Matuschak's morning practice. I am more comfortable with lots of interrupted hours, sometimes pushing 8-10 hours with 8-10k words. This is no longer available to me. My day is fragmented and time is scarce.
That means I have to make sure that I hit lots of birds with one stone.
The current thread of my morning practice will be processing Edward de Bono's How to Have a Beautiful Mind.
My first concern is that I will have a hard time mixing reading and processing in the same time slot. I thrive with mono-mode working. Just reading or just processing. But I'll have to read on some days, when I process books that are less easy-structured than this book.
Chances are that I will be less thorough with my processing?
But the benefit is that I might get into the habit of journaling regularly after the session.
I am a Zettler
@Sascha I don't properly understand what you are suggesting here. Is it to take one theme that you are studying and entering into your Zettelkasten (zettel by zettel) and post it here, to see what feedback you get on your process from the forum members?
2025-10-21 Slowly building the structure notes on debate and discussion
This morning was the second morning thinking practice. As I expected: I have a hard time to get into deep thinking mode. But it is too early to tell if it is just a habit thing or if I have to add some techniques to the morning practice to make it work.
Today, I processed the section How to Agree in de Bonos How to Have a Beautiful Mind. Short, very clearly written, yet felt like a slog. My major criticism is the beauty framing. It feels like a shortcut, skipping a more careful justification.
But I got some material for the scaffolding of the structure note on debate and discussion.
Some of the key terms:
Empathetic Exploration: Exploring the other person's position for anything that you can agree with the goal of building rapport.
Coherence Exploration: Exploring the internal coherence (coherence is more than just consistency and I like it better than that term) of the other person's position
Later: Record a podcast on the hero's journey. There is an interesting overlap between self inquiry and knowledge work. There is good reason to say that self inquiry is nothing else than knowledge work, though I don't go that far.
Today, I will have to push myself to get this right. The problem I am facing is that possibility slips into orthodoxy quite easily. In the quest to live a good life, it seems to be easy to submit to an all-encompassing approach and mistake a useful tool as gospel.
The major struggle will be to make sure that I don't leave the concrete steps in the fog. I have the tendency to think that the practical implications are obvious, when they aren't.
@GeoEng51 The idea is even less structured.
This is a sample entry from a training diary:
Morning II: Easy run, 25 min
**Morning II:
A Boxpistols 8x3x15
B Ringdips 8x5x20
Noon:
A1 Lateralflexion, neck 3x10-20
A2 Cuban Rotation 3x10-20
A3 Torture Twist 3x10-20
A4 Leg Curls 3x10-20
A5 Calf Raise 3x10-20
A6 Sup-Pron, Hand 3x10-20
Comment: The easy run went as planned. The strength block was way harder than it should be because of muscle soreness from yesterday's workout. I think the next weeks will be better, since I won't deal with soreness any more. The stability block was very good and I felt strong. However, I might change the leg curls because I can't progress here more.
This is roughly the structure: A what you did and B what you think about that.
I don't think I can be as pure in structure as in fitness, but the idea is the same: I report what I did and what I think about that. And whatever interesting sparks based on that is welcomed. The dynamic kicks off when a couple of people start their journal.
I am a Zettler
2025-10-22 A slog
Today, everything feels like a slog. For some reason, I woke up at midnight and couldn't fall back asleep. Strangely, I had a tension headache, which is quite uncommon for me.
Monades and Holons. I made the grave mistake of not jumping right into the morning practice, but became distracted by Monades and Holons. Not the baddest distraction. However, it can become a problem in the long run. My morning practice needs to be aligned with the rest of my work.
This morning belongs to the translation of the book.
I created one entry for my party manifesto. I pretend to write one to alleviate the tension I feel when reading about politics and the urge to engage in political communication, which I detest.
I am a Zettler
Is this a private endeavor? Or something that you plan to explore publicly?
Thriving with fibromyalgia by becoming a pain expert.
panaousis.com
Oct 22
My existential crisis spilled to my Zettelkasten work too. I am questioning why I gather information at the beginning. Now, reading a Turkish sociology of science book named "Looking at the Social World from the Perspective of Biological Science" when translated which starts with an overview of Comte & Herbert Simon's work and how they structured sociology with respect to a biological grounding. One point struck my attention that the authors claim that sociological phenomena should give meaning to all other phenomena, and we have to understand the nature of nature to improve human condition and transform their inhumane environment to their advantage.
I've always struggled with internalizing new information, something rooted in my DID. As it gets better, I feel like something is missing in my knowledge work. I am waiting for a shift & reconfiguration in my understanding about why to engage in Zettelkasten work at all.
I can't help thinking about level 4 understanding and the LessWrong sequence about how to make your beliefs pay rent. Probably still thinking in a top-down-y way since I try to find an umbrella principle too early.
Selen. Psychology freak.
“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin
2025-10-23 How to disagree
Initially, I wanted to process the section "How to disagree" in de Bono's Book. However, I got sidetracked by an idea that occurred to me when I discussed different training plans with a client.
In a nutshell, some plans offer various "lanes" that you can drive on with different fuels. Some plans use volume as fuel, others use intensity, willpower or consistency. From the bird's eye view it doesn't look actionable. However, I could deduce a lot of guidelines that either help you to build different plans based on their archetype or evaluate if the plan even follows the basic guidelines.
I wonder if I get repulsed by de Bono's book because of the repeated mentioning of the beautiful/ugly dichotomy. It is a completely unnecessary moralisation. Or, at least, feels like it to me. I'd be much less antagonistic if the category of charisma or likeability were at the base of the judgment.
@nikpanaousis I don't know. Perhaps, I will do it just for the lolz. But, true to my apolitical mentality, I write more about the underlying technicalities like "Inflation introduces a zero-sum game between the state and the people" or how to remove unnecessary fluff from the criminal law (often inspired by my wife who is a judge). So, it would be quite unspectacular. Not sensationalistic enough for a bigger audience and I lack the credibility for the expert audience to be interesting for them. The only reason right now that I can muster is to increase my portfolio to elevate my personal brand.
@c4lvorias I think the dichotomy of bottom-up and top-down is solved by just shifting. Example: When I pick books to be processed I invest plenty of time to build a plan on how it helps me for specific goals or areas of my life. But after all the preparing, I put my head down and just process the book as if it is an end in itself. The choice and preparation is doing the job of aligning my future actions with my purpose. Then I trust the alignment and just go.
The same is true for training: I am very meticulous when I plan my training. But then I put my head down and just focus on one session at a time, either executing reps and sets as planned, or just aim for the specific feel that tells me that I got the intensity right.
I am a Zettler
If we want to publish our journal as well, should we make a different post or write it here?
@Mauro, please open your own journal.
I am a Zettler
2025-10-23 What about my favourite phrases
As I am editing the manuscript (last round, finally getting the hang of it), I am wondering why many of my favourite phrasings seem to be inefficient. Typically, my writing in German is described as relatively accessible. Even when I write about abstract philosophical concepts, you can still read them without needing any expert knowledge. However, AI translation of my German texts is very bad. My explanation is that I use many words in a particular way that is "not average". As a German, you can perfectly contextualize these slight deviations; it might even be the reason why my writing style is somewhat unique (minus the typos and grammar errors...)
It might also be why I struggle to express myself in English.
One of the next books to be processed is Zinsser On Writing Well. Perhaps, it might be a nice experiment to then process two of the most iconic German style books and see how they compare.
I don't like learning languages, but I am tempted to learn a language based on the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.
I am a Zettler
2025-10-24 Getting impatient
Still working my way through de Bono's How to Have a Beautiful Mind. I demoted the book. I read it quickly (a bit more carefully than skimming it) and just let myself be inspired.
There is a section about "shooting questions" and "fishing questions", which are terms for closed and open questions. If I am steelmanning, I think de Bono wants to provide a feel by offering a metaphoric perspective. However, this is a stretch. The section would work for me better if he'd just explore the epistemic differences between those question types.
Perhaps, I take next morning and try to rewrite the section as an exercise?
To support my morning practice, I am developing a template for a self-education controller. It is basically a document that helps you to develop your self-learning strategy and update it. I don't know yet if I am onto something.
I am a Zettler
2025-10-24 Split Screen > 2nd Screen
This is my final conclusion, for now. I don't know if I failed or the setup failed me. However, I prefer a split screen over a 2nd screen by a big margin. I originally thought that the physical separateness would benefit me. This turned out to be wrong.
So, if I wanted to improve my work place, a bigger screen would be the way to go (currently 24 inch)
I am a Zettler
2025-10-24 Does Being Mediterranean Make You More Confident?
Reading de Bono, I caught myself thinking that he was French. This repeated error made me think: It is a particular assertive style of writing that leaves out a lot of background reasoning and is completely unapologetically making ethical claims.
I have written one article as far as I can remember with a similar mindset (on the concept unconditional responsibility) and a couple philosophical ones in which I felt that I even bumped my chest during writing.
But whenever I read french philosophers, de Bono or Nassim Taleb, I get the feeling that this is the default mindset for them.
I am a Zettler