Always accumulating
The practice of writing down thoughts and facts for the purpose of holding them fast and preventing their escape into the dim region of forgetfulness, has been much resorted to by thoughtful and studious men. Lord Bacon left behind him many manuscripts entitled “Sudden thoughts set down for use.” Erskine made great extracts from Burke; and Eldon copied Coke upon Littleton twice over with his own hand, so that the book became, as it were, part of his own mind. The late Dr. Pye Smith, when apprenticed to his father as a bookbinder, was accustomed to make copious memoranda of all the books he read, with extracts and criticisms. This indomitable industry in collecting materials distinguished him through life, his biographer describing him as “always at work, always in advance, always accumulating.” These note-books afterwards proved, like Richter’s “quarries,” the great storehouse from which he drew his illustrations.
source : Self Help, by Samuel Smiles, (1900?)
(digital text at Project Gutenberg)
November 1st, 2006 at 4:30 pm
There’s a term “commonplace book” that describes these notebooks of accumulation.
November 1st, 2006 at 5:40 pm
Thanks Edward,
I find it in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonplace
Wow, wow, this is exactly same as I’m doing with indexcarding system, isn’t it? :)
November 28th, 2006 at 6:57 am
I’ve always had a commonplace book, but index cards make so much more sense, because they allow you to move information around and group it in different ways.
November 28th, 2006 at 11:14 am
This is how Leonardo da Vinci made his notebooks; he wrote on separate pieces of paper, and then grouped them together (by subject, I think), and assembled them into books.
November 30th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
>>Michael
That’s makes sense for me. Da Vinci is a guy who had a lot of ideas. The ideas are non-linear and independent each other. The best way to keep them in piece-by-piece paper like a card.