213 entries for 2020

[When the camera moves, non-literate audiences see trees moving and buildings changing size because they cannot make the literate assumption that space is continuous and uniform.]

[The orient watches Hollywood movies and sees that ordinary people have cars, electric stoves, and refrigerators, thus realizing that they have been deprived of the ordinary person's birthright. In this sense film for them is a mega advertisement for consumer goods, where as in the occident this message is merely subliminal.]

[Radio is a hot involving medium whereas TV is cool, rejecting hot people and issues. If TV had arrived before the radio, there would have been no Hitler.]

[The phonograph was initially considered by Edison to be a persistant storage for the telephone, hence the name gramophone.]

[Radio initially cut into record sales because of its superior sound quality, but then increased it after directing popular tastes towards the classics.]

[Electric technology extends the nervous system and enables direct immediate communication between neurons of everyone on the planet.]

[An 'increase innoroduction and sales' would be a disaster for existing management large corporations because it means making way for new management.]

[The telegraph compelled several major American newspapers to form a collective newsgathering organization that became known as the Associated Press.]

[The telegraph had a decentralizing force on newspapers in England, reducing dependancy on the metropolitan press and encouraging provincial competition.]

[The immediacy of telegraph, telephone, and airplane make it easier to avoid delegating authority and do it yourself.]

[The telegraph increased the volume of news, strengthening its role as the shaper of public attitudes and weakening the role of editorial opinions: news is no longer understood to be a 'view'.]

[A society without games is trapped in automation.]

[The difference between the static roles of baseball and the dynamic roles of football reflect the patterns of decentralized team play in the electric age.]

[In indigenous society there is no true art because everybody is engaged in making art.]

Non-artists always look at the present through yhe spectacles of the preceding age. General staffs are always magnificently prepared to fight the previous war

Creativity is answering "and then what".

Growing ideas with Andy Matuschak

[Present two random notes and prompt to write a third that connects the two.]

Resist thinking of the evergreen note as a static format (declarative phrase or noun as title, discussion as body). It can be a question, with a list as the body, and eventually this can be transformed into the standardized representation if desired. Allow fluidity in how the tool is used.

[Spaced repetition can be used to prompt practicing a process via a question that changes everytime.]

[Gutenberg created the assembly line that enables automobile production.]

[As the car levelled social differences by homogenizing access to physical distance, the television reduces distinctions within its audience, thereby making everyone common.]

[The goal of the advertising industry is to provoke a uniform reaction amongst those in the audience to achieve programmed harmony via the principles of automation.]

[Ads put into a new setting become funny by way of being perceived consciously; they are not mean for conscious consumption.]

[The hidden messaging in ads is not attacked by highly-literate critics because they lack the capacity to discuss nonverbal forms.]

Let's talk about a hard truth about voting and community networks....

[A community network is a group of people commited to making their community better, only this.]

[The ideal number of members is twelve.]

[Those involved should ideally not know each other too well because when they share friends it reduces the number of people the group can call upon. Think coworkers, religious group, community sports.]

[When it gets to eighteen people, the group naturally splits into two. When each of those splits into two, create a C group to direct activities and keep everyone on the same page.]

[via fort bragg ada odb odc.]

[If food insecurity is a specific issue, you'll want to recruit someone who is familiar with this and who also has a B group.]

[To recruit: look for people who post about problems on social media and want to fix them; look to other activist groups; people you have helped can become a resource to ask for help.]

[Just because someone needs help doesn't mean that they're helpless: they can have skills that complement your needs despite being in need of help.]

[Anti-authoritarian leftists and small-government conservatives can be good allies at the local level.]

[When you are going to do something, make a public request to the local politicians, knowing that they don'won't do anything. Then do it yourself and over time point out how you did ask, and that they repeatedly did nothing, and that your group did it.]

[Keep the mission simple, like 'to better the community'.]

Fools and their time metaphors

[Digital calendars misrepresent time as a blank slate asking to be filled in.]

Let's talk about keeping your community network going....

[Each person learns one part, then everyone teaches each other their part.]

[A community garden is a resource that the whole network can nurture and tap into.]

[A neighborhood library or food box can help create a positive public image of your community network and make it more likely that your will receive help when asking for it.]

[Vibe not bribe.]

Write when you have a clear intention. There is no need to force a process.

How To Take Smart Notes: 10 Principles to Revolutionize Your Note-Taking and Writing

[Everyone publishing incomplete thoughts may lead to the proliferation of half-baked opinions and wild theories, but it also opens the ideas to scrutiny, testing, and debate.]

[The unwritten thought does not count for anything, whereas the shared notes, homework, emails count as public knowledge.]

[Feedback received from publishing can become a motivation to publish more.]

What advantages of non-standardized capture does the "notes as a shipping container" analogy fail to value?

The physical organization of Zettelkasten prompts you to reflect on the relationship between ideas in the moment of filing. How would this imperative be simulated in software without resorting to spatial interfaces?

[When a topic is researched extensively, a 'bird's eye view' becomes necessary.]

To make notes on what is not written. (What does the author leave out? What does it imply? What is nobody saying? What does nobody see?)

Structured distraction: how to make the most of your breaks at work

[Think about the kind of break you take: a 'movement break' do do something physical with your body; a 'mental break' to meditate or let the mind wander; a 'social break' to connect with others; a 'nature break' to get some sun or be around trees; a creative break to be artful in a non-goal oriented way.]

Generosity and kindness, to yourself and everyone.

End-user programming

[The UNIX command line is a success story of software extensibility because it efficiently allows for infinite combinations of smaller programs to create a workflow.]

[The spreadsheet and scratch do not require mental abstractions because the workings of the program are made apparent through visual embodiment.]

[The spreadsheet and the developer tools console shorten the save/build/run loop until it no longer exists, thus allowing someone to interact with a living system that responds in real-time.]

[In-place tool-chains allow users to leverage familiar concepts from everyday use and extend their experience.]

Constantly seeking expansive experiences makes it less relevant to keep score or be petty.

The Importance Of Making Everything Easier

[Means testing ultimately creates bureaucracy that impedes those in need while the wealthy continue to pay their way ahead.]

A Meditation for Letting Thoughts Float By Like Bubbles

[To notice having been lost in a thought is more than okay, it's a moment of awakening.]