We are on a road trip so I have not really had the opportunity to generate a blog post. I was looking through my old posts and came across a connection to something I have been writing about recently. Recent comments on note taking to create a long-term, external record has involved a review of books written by Sonke Aherns (Smart Notes) and Tiago Forte (Second Brain) explained the origins of their work. Ahrens started with his study of the zettlekasten which was a box for keeping and linking notes taken on what might resemble traditional note cards. Forte started with the commonplace book which was a notebook writers would often use to copy comments from other books and record their own thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I found that I written about “commonplacing” in 2009 and decided to offer these comments again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have been reading Robert Darnton\u2019s \u201cThe case for books<\/a>\u201d on Cindy\u2019s Kindle (there is something quite ironic here, but now is not the time to explore). Tech types may immediately shy away, but Darnton has a very interesting history including working on the Google book digitization project and the commitment of Harvard to offer faculty publications in the public domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway, The case for books<\/em> is a wide ranging exploration of books, writing, authors, and reading. The historical perspective is cool. One concept I picked up is that of a Commonplace book<\/a>. As I understand the concept, readers attempting to educate themselves would copy passages from various things they read into a notebook and would organize this material into categories and would include personal insights, comments and interpretations. These commonplace books sometimes ended up being published or a least saved as historical artifacts. The commonplace books of Milton, Bacon, etc. are historical treasures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To me, this sounded very much like blogging \u2013\u00a0 a few personal insights, a few embellished posts focused on the works of others, etc., copied and rearranged (with tags). These activities representing a personal commitment to exploration and always the hope that the process will result in learning or a creative insight. I thought this association was likely new for educational bloggers and it may be, but the connection between blogging and commonplacing is far from original if one searches the web ( e.g,\u00a0commonplacing on the WWW<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ahrens, S. (2017).\u00a0How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking\u2013for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers<\/em>. S\u00f6nke Ahrens<\/p>\n\n\n\n Forte, T. (2022). Building a second brain: A proven method to organize your digital life and unlock your creative potential. Atria Books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n