
How to Get More From Your Commonplace Book by Collecting Less
What a snow globe (and a jazz guitarist) taught me about sitting with one idea.
How to think deeply and find patterns in your own mind — through the practice of keeping a digital commonplace book.
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What a snow globe (and a jazz guitarist) taught me about sitting with one idea.

Every intellectual endeavor starts with a note.

Saving quotes isn't the practice. Here's the missing force that turns a book of quotes into a thinking engine.

One clears a muddy mind. The other collects borrowed light. Together, they unlock doors that have been shut for years.

What a sleepless Persian king taught me about rereading what I've recorded

There's no other place in the world that resonates so completely with my mind, heart, and soul.

Finding wisdom in the wild

Findability and discovery are two different goals. Only one of them requires a filing system.

Collecting ideas is easy. Here's the practice that turns them into revelations — plus 3 ways to stoke a thinking session.

Emerson gave us the whole method in 33 words. Let's take it apart.