unfiled
Notes from xotes on commonplace books, memory, attention, and keeping the ideas worth returning to.
The planes that came back were the wrong data.
Survivorship bias and the WWII bomber study, why the data you can see is often the data that already survived.
You can ride a bike. You can't draw one.
A researcher asked people to draw a bicycle from memory, and the results exposed a gap between feeling like you understand something and being able to explain it.
The Digital Commonplace Book
Paper or screen? What each does well, and the one rule a commonplace book has to follow no matter where it lives.
What to Put in a Commonplace Book
The blank page is the hardest part. A fuller list of what belongs in a commonplace book, with examples to help you start filling it.
A Short History of the Commonplace Book
Older than the printing press, kept by Marcus Aurelius, Locke, Jefferson, and Auden. A short, sourced history of the commonplace book.
Commonplace Book vs Journal: What Is the Difference?
A journal records your days. A commonplace book collects the ideas worth keeping. How the two differ, and why you might want both.
How to Start a Commonplace Book
Most people who want a commonplace book never start one. A practical, no rules guide to beginning, and to keeping the habit once you have.
What Is a Commonplace Book?
A commonplace book is one place for the ideas, quotes, and passages worth remembering. What it is, where it came from, and why it is having a quiet revival.
Why I built unfiled
One idea per issue, the kind worth a second look. A bias, a paradox, a strange piece of history, a study that reframes something ordinary. The ideas worth keeping.