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."
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.
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.
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."
Thanks for this. Would love to read how you apply infinite games in your life.
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.
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.