Your "infinite notebook" idea is great. Love your description of it. Sounds like a commonplace book on steroids. My own decades-long journal often served a similar purpose.
Are you familiar with the idea of a "spark file," as laid out by Steven Johnson in a semi-classic 2012 essay? (You can find it at https://medium.com/the-writers-room/the-spark-file-8d6e7df7ae58.). It's essentially the same thing, except Johnson describes his spark file not exactly as a place where he records all the quotes and ideas that resonate powerfully with him as he comes across them, but as a place where he records his own ideas or hunches: "[F]or the past eight years or so I've been maintaining a single document where I keep all my hunches: ideas for articles, speeches, software features, startups, ways of framing a chapter I know I'm going to write, even whole books. I now keep it as a Google document so I can update it from wherever I happen to be. There's no organizing principle to it, no taxonomy--just a chronological list of semi-random ideas that I've managed to capture before I forgot them. I call it the spark file."
Your description of an infinite notebook overlaps strongly with Johnson's description of how he uses his spark file. Just like you describe the magic of finding new connections suggest themselves among your recorded ideas and quotations upon subsequent revisits to the notebook, Johnson says of his spark file, "the key habit that I've tried to cultivate is this: every three or four months, I go back and re-read the entire spark file. And it's not an inconsequential document: it's almost fifty pages of hunches at this point, the length of several book chapters. But what happens when I re-read the document that I end up seeing new connections that hadn't occurred to me the first (or fifth) time around." He says the most interesting part of this practice "is the feeling of reading through your own words describing new ideas as they are occurring to you for the first time. In a funny way, it feels a bit like you are brainstorming with past versions of yourself. You see your past self groping for an idea that now seems completely obvious five years later. Or, even better, you're reminded of an idea that seems suddenly relevant to a new project you've just started thinking about."
Hi Matt, you're right, it is essentially a common book. For a long time I called it my Swipe Book before landing on Infinite Notebook. I am familiar with the spark file idea and love it. I do the same thing Johnson mentions. I regularly go back and look for connections between the various ideas, both others quotes and my own thoughts. It's such a good process for internalizing and applying what I learn. That's the key for me: I write down what resonates, why, what the lesson is and (most importantly) how I can apply it.
I hope to write something soon about this. I'm still feeling out how both infinite and finite games play out in (and as) my life. So much of it comes back to our perception of life itself, and how we live is a natural byproduct of that seeing. More to come soon...
This is reminding me a bit of an ancient document in my google drive titled "SwipeBook" which I also learned from you ☺️ but I think I like "Infinite Notebook" better. Looking forward to snippets and raw materials because sometimes the unfinished stuff is my favorite.. sketches instead of a paintings final form or unorganized thoughts that haven't been polished into Something yet.. I like the messy I guess, feels like it gives me permission to not have it all together.
Also love the Rick Rubin quote, I have his book and am really excited to dig into it.
Ah yes... ye olde Swipe Book. It makes me smile that you remember that. : ) Hope you get to give into the Rubin book. The audiobook is great, too. His voice is like butter.
Beautiful, Kevin! Creativity, Plotkin, death, and tomorrow. That’s one hell of a story. Gives me goosebumps. Meet you in those spaces between the words as we collide with our soul to become the best versions of ourselves. That’s the only thing we can give away. Bless you. 🙏❤️
And now you are in MY infinite notebook of thoughts with "No one can see what I see. I have a unique view only I have." I've been tossing around the idea of starting my own Substack but haven't yet. I mean... what would I even share?! I'm just... I've not nothing special to say! Myself and I are still arguing about this, and your post today was encouraging on the side of sharing my thoughts with the world regardless of who reads along.
Hi Michelle! I often wrestle with the idea that what I have to say doesn't matter. Sometimes I see my writing like adding a drop or two of water to the ocean. What difference does it make? When I trace that feeling all the way back to the belief behind it, I discover that (if I'm brutally honest) I only want to use my voice if it pays off in some way whether that's recognition or money. But that's not ultimately satisfying. What IS satisfying is expressing myself. Playing. I'd encourage you to just try it. Put some words down. Don't censor yourself. Write something that you would be delighted to read. Make it weird, make it fun or sad... but make it yours.
A Turing machine is a mathematical model of computation describing an abstract machine that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite the model's simplicity, it is capable of implementing any computer algorithm, it is an idealized model of a central processing unit (CPU) that controls all data manipulation done by a computer, with the canonical machine using sequential memory to store data. Typically, the sequential memory is represented as a tape of infinite length on which the machine can perform read and write operations . . .
If you have ever noticed when shopping, at the grocer, the gym, the restaurant, or in the common areas of the workplace etc., there is a universal presence of music or television . . . This is because most people are terrified to be alone with their own thoughts and actually afraid of some greater enlightenment and actually desire their memory being programmed as with the aforementioned Turing Machine.
My mathematical theorem that history NEVER repeats itself is contrary to the popular delusions and clichéd commentaries about our reality and often provokes rather fanatical, illogical and esoteric responses resulting from the constant exposure to the sonic radiation we call the media, or more properly, neurolinguistic programming.
History never repeats itself . . . Time is linear, a circle is a line, we use a circular clock to measure time, we used a circular sundial that measures the rotation of the earth before we had the learned machinations of springs and gears, because the earth is not flat . . .
-
. . . If you draw a circle (like a clock) with x=cos(t) and y=sin(t) and pull it evenly in z-direction, you get a spatial spiral called a cylindrical spiral or helix.
-
The idea that history repeats is in itself wholly illogical, but it serves a propaganda purpose to its users . . . meaning . . . you can’t go back to older cultural ways of doing things because that makes you a sinner, a nazi, or some kind of pagan devil.
Your "infinite notebook" idea is great. Love your description of it. Sounds like a commonplace book on steroids. My own decades-long journal often served a similar purpose.
Are you familiar with the idea of a "spark file," as laid out by Steven Johnson in a semi-classic 2012 essay? (You can find it at https://medium.com/the-writers-room/the-spark-file-8d6e7df7ae58.). It's essentially the same thing, except Johnson describes his spark file not exactly as a place where he records all the quotes and ideas that resonate powerfully with him as he comes across them, but as a place where he records his own ideas or hunches: "[F]or the past eight years or so I've been maintaining a single document where I keep all my hunches: ideas for articles, speeches, software features, startups, ways of framing a chapter I know I'm going to write, even whole books. I now keep it as a Google document so I can update it from wherever I happen to be. There's no organizing principle to it, no taxonomy--just a chronological list of semi-random ideas that I've managed to capture before I forgot them. I call it the spark file."
Your description of an infinite notebook overlaps strongly with Johnson's description of how he uses his spark file. Just like you describe the magic of finding new connections suggest themselves among your recorded ideas and quotations upon subsequent revisits to the notebook, Johnson says of his spark file, "the key habit that I've tried to cultivate is this: every three or four months, I go back and re-read the entire spark file. And it's not an inconsequential document: it's almost fifty pages of hunches at this point, the length of several book chapters. But what happens when I re-read the document that I end up seeing new connections that hadn't occurred to me the first (or fifth) time around." He says the most interesting part of this practice "is the feeling of reading through your own words describing new ideas as they are occurring to you for the first time. In a funny way, it feels a bit like you are brainstorming with past versions of yourself. You see your past self groping for an idea that now seems completely obvious five years later. Or, even better, you're reminded of an idea that seems suddenly relevant to a new project you've just started thinking about."
Hi Matt, you're right, it is essentially a common book. For a long time I called it my Swipe Book before landing on Infinite Notebook. I am familiar with the spark file idea and love it. I do the same thing Johnson mentions. I regularly go back and look for connections between the various ideas, both others quotes and my own thoughts. It's such a good process for internalizing and applying what I learn. That's the key for me: I write down what resonates, why, what the lesson is and (most importantly) how I can apply it.
Thanks for this. Would love to read how you apply infinite games in your life.
I hope to write something soon about this. I'm still feeling out how both infinite and finite games play out in (and as) my life. So much of it comes back to our perception of life itself, and how we live is a natural byproduct of that seeing. More to come soon...
This is reminding me a bit of an ancient document in my google drive titled "SwipeBook" which I also learned from you ☺️ but I think I like "Infinite Notebook" better. Looking forward to snippets and raw materials because sometimes the unfinished stuff is my favorite.. sketches instead of a paintings final form or unorganized thoughts that haven't been polished into Something yet.. I like the messy I guess, feels like it gives me permission to not have it all together.
Also love the Rick Rubin quote, I have his book and am really excited to dig into it.
Ah yes... ye olde Swipe Book. It makes me smile that you remember that. : ) Hope you get to give into the Rubin book. The audiobook is great, too. His voice is like butter.
Beautiful, Kevin! Creativity, Plotkin, death, and tomorrow. That’s one hell of a story. Gives me goosebumps. Meet you in those spaces between the words as we collide with our soul to become the best versions of ourselves. That’s the only thing we can give away. Bless you. 🙏❤️
🙏
And now you are in MY infinite notebook of thoughts with "No one can see what I see. I have a unique view only I have." I've been tossing around the idea of starting my own Substack but haven't yet. I mean... what would I even share?! I'm just... I've not nothing special to say! Myself and I are still arguing about this, and your post today was encouraging on the side of sharing my thoughts with the world regardless of who reads along.
Hi Michelle! I often wrestle with the idea that what I have to say doesn't matter. Sometimes I see my writing like adding a drop or two of water to the ocean. What difference does it make? When I trace that feeling all the way back to the belief behind it, I discover that (if I'm brutally honest) I only want to use my voice if it pays off in some way whether that's recognition or money. But that's not ultimately satisfying. What IS satisfying is expressing myself. Playing. I'd encourage you to just try it. Put some words down. Don't censor yourself. Write something that you would be delighted to read. Make it weird, make it fun or sad... but make it yours.
A Turing machine is a mathematical model of computation describing an abstract machine that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite the model's simplicity, it is capable of implementing any computer algorithm, it is an idealized model of a central processing unit (CPU) that controls all data manipulation done by a computer, with the canonical machine using sequential memory to store data. Typically, the sequential memory is represented as a tape of infinite length on which the machine can perform read and write operations . . .
If you have ever noticed when shopping, at the grocer, the gym, the restaurant, or in the common areas of the workplace etc., there is a universal presence of music or television . . . This is because most people are terrified to be alone with their own thoughts and actually afraid of some greater enlightenment and actually desire their memory being programmed as with the aforementioned Turing Machine.
My mathematical theorem that history NEVER repeats itself is contrary to the popular delusions and clichéd commentaries about our reality and often provokes rather fanatical, illogical and esoteric responses resulting from the constant exposure to the sonic radiation we call the media, or more properly, neurolinguistic programming.
History never repeats itself . . . Time is linear, a circle is a line, we use a circular clock to measure time, we used a circular sundial that measures the rotation of the earth before we had the learned machinations of springs and gears, because the earth is not flat . . .
-
. . . If you draw a circle (like a clock) with x=cos(t) and y=sin(t) and pull it evenly in z-direction, you get a spatial spiral called a cylindrical spiral or helix.
-
The idea that history repeats is in itself wholly illogical, but it serves a propaganda purpose to its users . . . meaning . . . you can’t go back to older cultural ways of doing things because that makes you a sinner, a nazi, or some kind of pagan devil.
https://cwspangle.substack.com/i/138320669/if-you-draw-a-circle-with-xcost-and-ysint-and-pull-it-evenly-in-z-direction-you-get-a-spatial-spiral-called-a-cylindrical-spiral-or-helix