Navigating a Year of Uncertainty and Insight

The past year, marked by the pandemic’s challenges, has been a period of profound introspection for many, including myself. Amidst the rollercoaster of emotions and experiences, I found solace and direction by integrating a common-place book into my daily life. Though initially demanding some commitment, it has immensely heightened my creativity and efficiency.

Understanding ‘Idea Capital’

Simply put, idea capital is your reservoir of ideas accumulated over time. It’s an evolving bank of thoughts, growing and interlinking much like neural networks. This might sound like it’s straight out of a sci-fi novel, but it’s straightforward.

The Time-Honored Tradition of the Common-Place Book

A common-place book is more than just a diary or a journal; it’s a curated collection of ideas, insights, and knowledge. This tradition stretches back centuries, capturing the wisdom of ages, irrespective of whether it was sourced from reading, listening, observing, or other forms of learning.

Historically, many of the world’s thinkers, writers, and philosophers relied on common-place books. Seneca, the Roman Stoic philosopher, would write down and categorize beneficial ideas he came across. Marcus Aurelius’s famous “Meditations” could be seen as a sort of common-place book, where he noted down Stoic aphorisms and personal reflections. The Renaissance brought a revival of this practice, with many scholars maintaining these books to compile and classify knowledge.

Fast forward to the modern era, and the tradition continues with best-selling author Ryan Holiday. Drawing inspiration from the Stoics and other great minds, Holiday has adopted a method of using note cards, a system he often attributes to his mentor, Robert Greene. For every significant insight or piece of knowledge he stumbles upon in books, he writes it down on a note card, categorizes it, and stores it for future reference.

This system, which he fondly calls the “Notecard System,” aids him in his research, writing, and personal growth. Over time, these note cards become a tangible representation of his common-place book, offering a readily available and organized trove of wisdom.

Active reading: reading with intention

In a similar vein, Tim Ferriss champions the concept of active reading. Instead of passively absorbing content, Ferriss advises readers to engage with the material, annotating key points and jotting down reflections in the margins. By doing so, readers create a personalized version of a common-place book within the pages of the very books they read.

In essence, while the formats might differ – from ancient scrolls to note cards to annotated books – the principle remains unchanged. Common-place books serve as reservoirs of knowledge, personal growth, and continuous learning, ensuring that the wisdom of yesterday informs the thoughts and actions of today.

Evolution of Idea Capture: From Zettelkasten to Digital Tools

This isn’t a novel concept. The 20th-century German sociologist Niklas Luhmann introduced the zettelkasten or slip-box method, embraced by many academics. The essence lies in constructing a knowledge repository for revisits. It comprises two slip-boxes + an index: Reference box, Main box, and Index.

While the system may be slightly complicated, the central idea is to create a knowledge system where you can store ideas and come back to them time and time again. The notes here need to be “atomic level” notes. This means each note should contain only one idea.

Arranging them in such a way helps to link ideas and allow them to cross-pollinate. Thoughts from an entirely different discipline or topic could be linked to a separate idea in this way. While using paper notes is still an option, there are many digital note-taking apps (e.g., Notion, Evernote, etc.) today that could help make this process easier.

Tiago Forte runs a popular cohort-based course called “Building a Second Brain“, where he teaches an optimal way to store information that resonates with you in a digital manner. While the one-to-one course itself is expensive and may not be for everyone, the site offers many free resources and videos on YouTube that could give one a fairly good idea of the concept. Tiago Forte has written, Luhmann’s hopscotch linking methods look a lot like pages on the web :

There is no hierarchy in the Zettelkasten, no privileged place, which means it can grow internally without any preconceived scheme. By creating notes as a decentralized network instead of a hierarchical tree, Luhmann anticipated hypertext and URLs.

Tiago Forte

Merging Ideas: A Gateway to Innovation

Steve Jobs famously said, “Innovation is about connecting ideas“. While at university, he had skipped the required courses to take calligraphy classes. This would later give him an idea of using these great fonts for the Apple computer. Similarly, his background in Zen Buddhism is clearly seen in the simplistic designs of Apple, which bears his print to date.

Similarly, Austin Kleon in his book “Steal Like an Artist” mentions that if you steal from one person, it is theft but if you steal from a hundred, you are an artist. “Steal” here doesn’t mean “plagiarize;” that doesn’t turn anyone into a great artist. It means making the idea your own. Merging different ideas from different people can produce something magnificent.

Good artists borrow, great artists steal

Pablo Picasso (There is some dispute as to whether he actually said this)

From startups to scientific pursuits, the recombination of ideas has been at the heart of many groundbreaking discoveries. The best startups mold ideas into novel configurations, much like combining Lego pieces to tap into unexplored niches. Similarly, significant scientific milestones have resulted from combining diverse knowledge areas.

Consider Kekulé, who merged the artistic representation of ouroboros with chemical insights to conceptualize benzene’s molecular structure. Or the revolutionary idea of mRNA, which sprang from Jacques Monod and Francois Jacob‘s informational perspective, only to be later unveiled at Caltech. This fusion of seemingly disparate knowledge spheres often provides the impetus for breaking barriers. 

How I use the common-place book in my scientific writing

I use Notion as my digital common-place book, however, there are many other note-taking apps that allow cross-linking, such as roamresearch, zettelkasten, and others. (Note: Most digital note-taking apps have a monthly paid plan.

Notion does have a free plan that offers basic features, and an education plan that can be set up with a .edu email offers most features except AI features which have a monthly fee). It is important, however, to not get caught up in learning these fancy softwares but rather use one that you find easy to use (and therefore will use long-term). I use only the basic features of Notion and intentionally don’t use the more advanced features.

One can even use the original method that Nicholas Luhmann used with drawers and sheets of paper. Using a computer just helps in referencing and also to insert the same sheet at multiple places. This might be a bit time-consuming while performing with just pen and paper. Otherwise, you still have to read, process, and write out the ideas. A computer or a large language model (e.g., ChatGPT) cannot effectively do this for you (at least as of now).

Creating a common place for your ideas or things that resonate with you can create an idea capital, which will invariably compound over time. The important thing is to keep your system as simple as possible and individualize it over time so that you actually use it and not just hoard ideas. With your own personal collection, you are starting from abundance, which can boost both your creativity and productivity.

What are some of the ways that you catalog your thoughts and ideas to ignite creativity?