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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Tiago Forte
Read between
August 24 - September 11, 2022
innovation and problem-solving depend on a routine that systematically brings interesting ideas to the surface of our awareness.
Divergence and Convergence: A Creative Balancing Act
A creative endeavor begins with an act of divergence. You open the space of possibilities and consider as many options as possible.
Convergence forces us to eliminate options, make trade-offs, and decide what is truly essential.
Writers diverge by collecting raw material for the story they want to tell, sketching out potential characters, and researching historical facts. They converge by making outlines, laying out plot points, and writing a first draft.
The first two steps of CODE, Capture and Organize, make up divergence. They are about gathering seeds of imagination
The final two steps, Distill and Express, are about convergence. They help us shut the door to new ideas and begin constructing something new
The more imaginative and curious you are, the more diverse your interests, and the higher your standards and commitment to perfection, the more difficult you will likely find it to switch from divergence mode into convergence mode.
1. The Archipelago of Ideas: Give Yourself Stepping-Stones
To create an Archipelago of Ideas, you divergently gather a group of ideas, sources, or points that will form the backbone of your essay, presentation, or deliverable. Once you have a critical mass of ideas to work with, you switch decisively into convergence mode and link them together in an order that makes sense.
A digital outline is far more malleable and flexible
The outline can link to more detailed content—instead of trying to cram every last point onto the same page, you can link to both your own private notes and public resources on the web,
The outline is interactive and multimedia
The outline is searchable
The outline can be accessed and edited from anywhere
2. The Hemingway Bridge: Use Yesterday’s Momentum Today
Instead of exhausting every last idea and bit of energy, he would stop when the next plot point became clear. This meant that the next time he sat down to work on his story, he knew exactly where to start.
Write down ideas for next steps:
Write down the current status:
Write down any details you have in mind that are likely to be forgotten once you step away:
Write out your intention for the next work session:
3. Dial Down the Scope: Ship Something Small and Concrete
When the full complexity of a project starts to reveal itself, most people choose to delay it.
we forget that we have control over the scope of the project. We can “dial it down” to a more manageable size, and we must if we ever want to see it finished.
One of the best uses for a Second Brain is to collect and save the scraps on the cutting-room floor in case they can be used elsewhere.
Whatever you are building, there is a smaller, simpler version of it that would deliver much of the value in a fraction of the time.
Dialing Down the Scope is a way of short-circuiting that paradox and testing the waters with something small and concrete, while still protecting the fragile and tentative edges of your work.
Start by picking one project you want to move forward on.
Make an outline with your goals, intentions, questions, and considerations for the project.
your only goal is to get all the potentially usable material in one place.
Set a timer for a fixed period of time, such as fifteen or twenty minutes, and in one sitting see if you can complete a first pass on your project using only the notes you’ve gathered in front of you.
If you find that you can’t complete the first iteration in one sitting, start by building a Hemingway Bridge to the next time
be sure to keep notes on anything you learn or discover, or any new Intermediate Packets you might want to seek out.
“Being organized” isn’t a personality trait you’re born with, nor is it merely a matter of finding the right apps or tools. Being organized is a habit—a
Project Checklists: Ensure you start and finish your projects in a consistent way, making use of past work.
Weekly and Monthly Reviews: Periodically review your work and life and decide if you want to change anything.
Noticing Habits: Notice small opportunities to edit, highlight, or move notes to make them more disco...
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The Project Checklist Habit: The Key to Starting Your Knowledge Flywheel
Checklist #1: Project Kickoff
1. Capture my current thinking on the project.
What do I already know about this project? What don’t I know that I need to find out? What is my goal or intention? Who can I talk to who might provide insights? What can I read or listen to for relevant ideas?
2. Review folders (or tags) that might contain relevant notes.
3. Search for related terms across all folders.
Sometimes there are valuable ideas buried in unexpected places, which I may not find through browsing alone.
4. Move (or tag) relevant notes to the project folder.
5. Create an outline of collected notes and plan the project.
you are making a plan for how to tackle the project, not executing the project itself.
Checklist #2: Project Completion
one of the best reasons to keep our projects small: so that we get to feel a fulfilling sense of completion as often as possible.
1. Mark project as complete in task manager or project management app.
