The Commonplace Book, or: Using the Tools I've Got

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  • Опубліковано 9 вер 2024
  • A brief discussion of commonplace books as a tool in developing wisdom, as well as an excuse to use some of this obscene stockpile of pencils.
    #commonplacebook #wisdom #graphite

КОМЕНТАРІ • 19

  • @windbag1980
    @windbag1980 Місяць тому +1

    Lovely! I really appreciate the use of common place books. I have been doing something like it my whole life, but the added structure and unique purpose of the common book place trend. Thank you for the video. That kindle showed up very well.

    • @ma-mo
      @ma-mo  Місяць тому

      @@windbag1980 thank you again, friend.

  • @DinnerForkTongue
    @DinnerForkTongue Місяць тому +1

    One mental exercise I enjoy is to transcribe in my own words the narrative of a work I've watched, read or played. For that I do not quite use a commonplace book, but a dedicated "plot and worldbuilding" notebook. It's a good pastime, if nothing else.
    For work I keep a sort of commonplace book, where I jot down given tasks and observations I deem important, such as changes in the hierarchy (it shifts a lot, bosses come and go) or in schedules and task protocols, and the corresponding dates (and hours if needed). I don't usually read it, just writing the tidbits down is enough to pin the info in my memory.

    • @ma-mo
      @ma-mo  Місяць тому +1

      @@DinnerForkTongue I believe you're right: the magic is in the writing rather than in the re-reading.

  • @dalecaldwell
    @dalecaldwell Місяць тому +3

    Ah, good neighbor, another modestly superb video. It may please you to know that this very day the Great South American River is bringing me not one but twelve pencils! However, over the years I have had many commonplace books and journals, and I always seem to lose them. Or, if I don't lose them, a hurricane or tornado or fire will do them in. So, lately, I have been journaling and commonplacing with a Kindle Scribe, which is not always next to my coffe on my desk, but whose (anthopomophising an inanimate object?) entries are available to me on my phone or tablet anywhere. That doesn;t make any entries I have made any wiser, in fact, I find that keeping a journal has reminded me of what a slow learner I am, despite how my beard greys and grows, but of how slow I am in dealing with the same annoiyance. The Kindle, however, because it is a fairly pricely little plastic slab, keeeps me, as you say, using the tools I've got. So now I guess I will make a note about how delightfully the morning's reading from Wisdom and the Office Hymn for Sundays fit together. Thanks for the reflection.

    • @ma-mo
      @ma-mo  Місяць тому

      @@dalecaldwell My Kindle is so old it will run almost no apps, which is a definite positive for me. Unfortunately, the Amazon app itself is unsupported (?!) so to acquire content for the reader I have to access Amazon through the Silk browser.
      I've been tempted to send you a small selection of pencils, but have been concerned about violating your OSC vows. Perhaps if I kept it to just a few of the most perfect pencils it'd turn out okay.

    • @dalecaldwell
      @dalecaldwell Місяць тому +1

      @@ma-mo Thanks. I am addicted to ink. It makes me tend to think a bit more before I write. I do sometimes miss my old Kindle Fires.

    • @dalecaldwell
      @dalecaldwell Місяць тому +1

      I should add that the pencils are colouring pencils for age 3 and up.

    • @ma-mo
      @ma-mo  Місяць тому +1

      @@dalecaldwell As long as they don't card you, you might be okay.

    • @DrGero15
      @DrGero15 Місяць тому

      @@ma-mo OSC vows? What are those?

  • @ColinV03
    @ColinV03 Місяць тому +2

    I have randomly jotted down things for a while, trying now to be more organized and using certain books for certain topics.
    On a random note, thanks to a used bookstore I now have a copy of Henry Petroski's book on the pencil. My eagerness over a book about pencils has me thoroughly wondering what indeed has happened to my mind.

    • @ma-mo
      @ma-mo  Місяць тому

      @@ColinV03 I can only say, "I'm sorry," my friend.
      But you are in for a riveting read.

    • @ColinV03
      @ColinV03 Місяць тому +1

      @@ma-mo it's not a bad kind of wondering, more like an amused pondering. Sort of like that internet meme of the dog in the fiery house saying "this is fine".

  • @ThriftStoreBibles
    @ThriftStoreBibles Місяць тому +1

    Never heard of the concept, but certainly something I've done at times in limited ways. Certainly there must be some wisdom deep beneath your graying beard!

    • @ma-mo
      @ma-mo  Місяць тому +1

      Maybe a shave is in order?