Commonplace Book
Warning
A commonplace book is a personal notebook where you jot down quotes, thoughts, and anything else you find interesting. People have kept them since the Renaissance to collect what they learn and come back to it over time. You can use one for quotes, reflections, memorizing, creative sparks, or sorting and indexing what you know. Locke and Newton kept one too. Today the same habit lives on in digital tools, the kind of thing a second brain tries to be.
Why keep a diary...
One of my few prized possessions is this 70-page autobiographical book by my great-grandfather who was born in 1902 and was a farmer in France. Only a few copies were printed.
His chapter titles are truly amazing, each is about 1-2 pages:
- I saw the beginning of electrification
- I saw the first cars
- I saw the first airplanes
- I smoked my first cigarette at 7 years old
- I saw a total solar eclipse
- The telephone
- 1914: The war
- I had the Spanish flu etc
-- kepano (@kepano) August 17, 2023