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Anne Lamott on index cards
Merlin Mann | Apr 4 2005
Lots of people had been suggesting I read Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird (subtitled “Some Instructions on Writing and Life”) becaues she mentions how much she loves and relies on index cards for more than just composition. In casting about for more information, I Googled across this wonderful quote, courtesy of Orange Crate Art:
That, for damn sure, got added to the wiki. I'll also be picking up a copy of Bird by Bird today. 25 Comments
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I so did not need...Submitted by JoshD (not verified) on April 4, 2005 - 5:09pm.
I so did not need another book to read. :) But I'm buying this one, along with The Myth of the Paperless Office. Thanks, Merlin! Index cards are all about collecting all the random scraps of thought and observation, and doing so on an atomic format, so that you can casually chuck them into the proper piles. It's the living embodiment of the principle that you should never have to do things twice; record it, and if there's a ready bucket, you've captured a tiny atom and put it in a place where it can do some good, later. I've been doing this for years, but it's only recently that I realized that I was capturing into dead storage; spiral bound notebooks that have so much useless information on them that it takes more effort to extract the good stuff than the good stuff is worth. Thus, the GTD collection bucket, and from there my vast army of tiny folders, manila tabs, magnets, magnetic whiteboards, etc. The C2 Wiki is an incredible resource on index cards. Were I not defying doctor's orders by typing even this much, I would add it to the 43f wiki. In Danny's Notcon04 lifehacks presentation, he talks about Kent Beck flinging index cards at the Xerox PARC group. "Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!" That image warms my heart. And now I retreat and pretend I didn't really touch a keyboard.... » POSTED IN:
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