This is the last post I wrote.
This is the first one you may be reading.
One of us has it backwards.
I said this is is the last post I wrote
But others may be written after this one.
Timestamps are relative.
§1. The Last One First
§2. Why *About Method*
The project **About Method** is about method: decisions made while realizing the project, examples to overcome difficulties in getting things done, notes on ways of doing.
The project contains less documentary or methodology than fragments to explore how ideas materialize. Hopefully one will find in it more artful concepts than conceptual art.
[2021-02-05]
§3. Closure at 222
About Method started as an indefinite project. It looked infinite at first, then as if it never really started. This collection will contain exactly 222 posts, come what may.
Perenity can be sustained for a few endeavours only. Most projects must die. Right from the start, programming for the penultimate post
The project does not end as soon as it hits number 222. Posts need to be edited, dots to be connected dots, links to be tightened. The project still needs to be embalmed for the eternity of the Internet.
Perenity can be sustained for a few endeavours only. Most projects must die. Right from the start, programming for the penultimate post
The project does not end as soon as it hits number 222. Posts need to be edited, dots to be connected dots, links to be tightened. The project still needs to be embalmed for the eternity of the Internet.
§4. Read Write eXecute Archive
Read your notes, your field, your surrounding, into your heart. Write about, on, over, and through it because you like it. Execute what you avowed, noted, edited, written, and much everything else. Archive elsewhere, anyhow, anywhere that brings you closer to peace.
§5. Take 5
Stop it. Look around. See for
Let it be. Face the facts. Let it all go
What goes around. Around and around and
Feel the heat. Let it simmer. Build pressure. Then
Get your feet moving. One thing at a time. With
All your heart. Just do it. Face it. Enjoy
when all slows down, forget idle steps, look ahead, do one last thing.
What obtains, what you do matters
Planning is not even a dream.
Let it be. Face the facts. Let it all go
What goes around. Around and around and
Feel the heat. Let it simmer. Build pressure. Then
Get your feet moving. One thing at a time. With
All your heart. Just do it. Face it. Enjoy
when all slows down, forget idle steps, look ahead, do one last thing.
What obtains, what you do matters
Planning is not even a dream.
§6. Reading Tip
When facing an infinite text,
mathematicians suggest
to read it in diagonal.
Some say this might apply to streams
Of rivers of online text.
Do we really want content?
§7. Only Once
I wanna click only
For the stuff I want
I don't wanna click
For the stuff I dont
I wanna click only
Once and get stuff
I want, only once
To get what I want
To click and get
And want what I get
Something I want
Something I get
Let's go Burrhus
Let me click once
And then some more
Only once
And then some more
[Infinite bridge.]
NB. A punk song inspired by social media and pigeons.
§8. Getting Nothing Done
The point of getting things done is to empty your mind and lower stress by overcoming your inner tyrant. To find peace and empower your self, to have nothing to do. The point of getting things done is to finally get nothing done.
To procrastinate helps you taste that state of mind. Only as some kind of thought experiment, as it lets image what it would be like to have nothing to do. But is this true, is there really a final state of freedom that distinguishes it from procrastination?
To have a method based on the idea of getting nothing done would sound more fitting to my life style.
To procrastinate helps you taste that state of mind. Only as some kind of thought experiment, as it lets image what it would be like to have nothing to do. But is this true, is there really a final state of freedom that distinguishes it from procrastination?
To have a method based on the idea of getting nothing done would sound more fitting to my life style.
§9. Doing Nothing
Origami with executed notes.
Give time, love, gifts.
Pray, read the Bible
Think about your day.
Open the e-reader.
Take care.
Forward-looking focus.
Learn your language.
Focus on persons,
then on objects
under your responsibility.
Invest in resources.
Give time, love, gifts.
Pray, read the Bible
Think about your day.
Open the e-reader.
Take care.
Forward-looking focus.
Learn your language.
Focus on persons,
then on objects
under your responsibility.
Invest in resources.
§11. Deming on Method
Automating a process that produces junk just allows you to produce more junk faster [W. Edwards Deming].
§12. Don't File, Delete
The email interface helps search for archived stuff
but also for every bit of junk sent or received.
The simplest way to make sure that only good stuff
is archived and junk deleted from the get go.
But nothing prevents from deleting junk as it's being searched.
And noting keywords for junk can help filter them later automagically.
but also for every bit of junk sent or received.
The simplest way to make sure that only good stuff
is archived and junk deleted from the get go.
But nothing prevents from deleting junk as it's being searched.
And noting keywords for junk can help filter them later automagically.
§13. Schopenhauer on Method
The advice here given is on a par with a rule recommended by Pythagoras,—to review, every night before going to sleep, what we have done during the day. To live at random, in the hurly-burly of business or pleasure, without ever reflecting upon the past,—to go on, as it were, pulling cotton off the reel of life,—is to have no clear idea of what we are about; and a man who lives in this state will have chaos in his emotions and certain confusion in his thoughts; as is soon manifest by the abrupt and fragmentary character of his conversation, which becomes a kind of mincemeat. A man will be all the more exposed to this fate in proportion as he lives a restless life in the world, amid a crowd of various impressions and with a correspondingly small amount of activity on the part of his own mind.
gutenberg.org
§14. 5x3 Essay on 3x5s
Take a plain index card. Turn it to make its vertical 5" long. Start to write:
Identify your topic on the title. Write three sentences. Space the paragraph, rewrite three sentences.
Reaching the bottom of the card, there should be five paragraphs. Five paragraphs, three sentences. Memorize: 5x3 on 3x5.
One side of an 5x3 index card should be enough for an essay. If not, take two index cards. If that's not enough, think again.
This post fits on one 3x5. Some space is left. This last sentence is intentionally added to follow my own rule.
§15. Keyword as Title
What would be the word
That would be the key
to find back your text?
You have it? Good.
Now, make it your title.
That would be the key
to find back your text?
You have it? Good.
Now, make it your title.
§16. Concluding List
Open a document and type Conclusion. Under this title, deposit ideas. Let simmer.
Hopefully, an outline should appear. Reopen the document and read the list. Pick one idea from the outline and summarize it into an intelligible paragraph above the list.
Reiterate until a conclusion emerges. Its first part should be what has been done, the second part what's left for future work. Discard everything else.
Hopefully, an outline should appear. Reopen the document and read the list. Pick one idea from the outline and summarize it into an intelligible paragraph above the list.
Reiterate until a conclusion emerges. Its first part should be what has been done, the second part what's left for future work. Discard everything else.
§17. Out of the Inbox
Oftentimes, it's tough to decide where a thing should go.
To keep us from shuffling stuff around,
minimalists urge to rely on one and only one inbox.
They also advise to do, or else discard, delegate or defer.
While discarding and delegating get stuff out of the inbox,
how can deferring prevents their diminishing returns?
As long as a project is undone, some of its part will reappear.
Anything elsewhere it's supposed to be awaits in some inbox.
How to get out of the inbox, if it's anywhere we have stuff?
To keep us from shuffling stuff around,
minimalists urge to rely on one and only one inbox.
They also advise to do, or else discard, delegate or defer.
While discarding and delegating get stuff out of the inbox,
how can deferring prevents their diminishing returns?
As long as a project is undone, some of its part will reappear.
Anything elsewhere it's supposed to be awaits in some inbox.
How to get out of the inbox, if it's anywhere we have stuff?
§18. Many Boxes
Virtual inboxes:
Desktop, Documents, Downloads.
Buffer files to write elsewhere.
Notes for clients, old notes.
Anything anywhere to be processed.
All emails, incoming or archived.
Reader, pinboard, etc.
Real inboxes:
Desktop, paper tray, paper slips box.
Pocket briefcase, index cards box, pinboard.
Notebooks, a backpack full of them, closets.
The mailbox, other people, the answering machine.
We have many boxes.
Desktop, Documents, Downloads.
Buffer files to write elsewhere.
Notes for clients, old notes.
Anything anywhere to be processed.
All emails, incoming or archived.
Reader, pinboard, etc.
Real inboxes:
Desktop, paper tray, paper slips box.
Pocket briefcase, index cards box, pinboard.
Notebooks, a backpack full of them, closets.
The mailbox, other people, the answering machine.
We have many boxes.
§19. Project or Object
Methodologists may manage material with a dichotomy between items upon which we can act, and items upon which we can't, between action material that belongs to projects, and objects orbiting around the office: references, supplies, etc. Dichotomies can only be false outside the realms of logic. Mundane matters make its falsity manifest.
User manuals may belong to the project Caring for my Stuff. Dictionaries may belong to Writing Well on the Web. Tools may belong to Having Everything for Repairs. Notes may belong to Taking Note.
Let's posit instead of this dichotomy that everything from our own existence is a project. Every object near us comes to life when a project becomes active. No object stands on its own, aside any project, be it indefinite, virtual, or promised. An object may shift from one project to the next.
Multi-faceted objects can assist in many projects. Sooner or later, most objects become multi-faceted. Even invoices: they may belong to Taxes I Deadly Need to Pay, next to Meditate about Making Money Analysis, then to Taxes I Need to Keep.
This relationship between objects and projects might explain slogans like One and Only One Place and Once and Only Once. With their dichotomy, methodologists might be idealizing the relationship between objects and projects. There is no objective way to classify objects.
An object may only be what one projects to do with it.
User manuals may belong to the project Caring for my Stuff. Dictionaries may belong to Writing Well on the Web. Tools may belong to Having Everything for Repairs. Notes may belong to Taking Note.
Let's posit instead of this dichotomy that everything from our own existence is a project. Every object near us comes to life when a project becomes active. No object stands on its own, aside any project, be it indefinite, virtual, or promised. An object may shift from one project to the next.
Multi-faceted objects can assist in many projects. Sooner or later, most objects become multi-faceted. Even invoices: they may belong to Taxes I Deadly Need to Pay, next to Meditate about Making Money Analysis, then to Taxes I Need to Keep.
This relationship between objects and projects might explain slogans like One and Only One Place and Once and Only Once. With their dichotomy, methodologists might be idealizing the relationship between objects and projects. There is no objective way to classify objects.
An object may only be what one projects to do with it.
§20. Write First
So you want to become a writer. Why don't you start by writing, then? If you love to write, write and find the joy in writing. Never mind about what one must write. Consider this as an abstract task: just start to write. When the head empties itself, when preoccupations kick it, then get up and celebrate your freedom to rejoice over your life, by walking, singing, cooking, meditating. Or just go read something. And when on an idle, do the opposite: start by reading something. Sit back and let yourself spectate the world of works. You'll soon realize that when you start your day by reading, you're not really working.
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