I Will Teach You to Be Smart
An Introduction to Smart Noting
I Will Teach You to Be Smart
Artwork: Roman Kuteynikov - https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8lwRNx Anything you can write about, you can change. I read Sonke Ahrens’ How to Take Smart Notes during the lockdown of 2020. At the time I was heavily into other productivity endeavors such as David Allen’s
Innocent as Doves
When I talk about getting “Smart,” I mean learning from the pioneer in analog thinking, Nicolaus Luhman, one of the most prolific men of the twentieth century. Sonke Ahrens did the world an enormous favor when he unearthed Luhman’s central methodology in the coined term Smart Noting. Ahrens conceived of the Luhman Method as a tool in the duty belt of serious students and scholars. But my hunch under his hint supposed in something even more. I believe Smart Noting is a gift of Almighty God, for such a time as this, to help you, right where you are, right now.
Get Smart
Judge not a man’s words, but their outcomes. Smart Noting is the deliberate practice of repeating the simple steps that make one smart. Thanks for reading The Mad Christian! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. But getting smart is a hard sell. The first step to getting smart is admitting that you are stupid. Despite the prevalence…
Get Smart
Anything You Can Write About, You Can Change Taking note, and by that I mean taking notice that you’ve noticed something in the disciplined action of writing it down, is the power to change the future. There is a story behind this natural philosophy, and I look forward to sharing it with you. But there are many moving pieces, an infinite number of possib…
How to Take Note - Part 1
Artwork First, remember:Thanks for reading The Mad Christian! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. The Gist Anything you can write about you can change. To revolutionize your life: 1. Write down (“take note of”) that which you “notice.”
How to Take Note Part 2
(If you are following this series but using a regular journal rather than notecards you can skip this installment.) If you choose to go the 6x4 route, rather than a bound paper journal, it won’t be long before you discover the Stack. Thanks for reading The Mad Christian! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
How to Take Note Part 3
If your life isn’t interesting, it won’t be worth noting. The problem most people have is information overload. Even a leisurely scroll through social media deposits in your psyche a panoply of disconnected, sometimes noteworthy, but more often dismissible information. It isn’t that there is nothing of value there. It is that it is always value without c…
How to Take Note Part 4
Time for T.E.A. In the upcoming sections we will explore the how and why of smart noting, and the power of refractal information theory. But there is no reason to wait until you understand how smart works in order to start putting smart to use for you. You are after the gist.