Sat, 26 Jun 2010

Ideas Come at Strange Times

I recently saw a blog about notepads. The idea was to have one available at all times. I'd like to extend that thought a bit. Ideas come to me at the oddest times -- most of them inconvenient to actually write them down. Then, of course, I can't remember that great idea I had in the shower or while driving to work. So I carry a number of notepads with me. Here are a couple of ideas.

Pocket Notebook: I have a simple notebook and pen in the car and one in my bag for quick notes. I also carry a compact pen to give me a writing implement where ever I can find a piece of paper (even my hand in a pinch!).

Smart Phone: I'm a bit behind the times, but I do carry a blackberry for work. It synchronizes with Exchange and I can enter a memo, task, or send an e-mail with the idea. Of course, this doesn't work if I'm in the shower or driving. The phone also has a camera which can be used to capture visual ideas and a voice recorder for capturing speach. Unfortunately, these are difficult to operate while driving, for example, even dangerous to use because of the distraction of getting them set up. I have even been known to call my work phone and leave a message with a good idea.

Digital Voice Recorder: I carry a small, simple voice recorder. It has one hand operation and is great in the car or other places for "jotting down" a quick note to myself. Playback is equally simple. If I'm going to be in the car for an extended period, I will sometimes fire it up and have it ready as long trips tend to be one of those places where something will stimulate an idea.

Microsoft OneNote: This is one of the greatest note taking and thinking programs I have found. It makes it very easy to jot down ideas, organize them, capture websites, and generally get thinking in order. I keep notebooks on a USB stick and can work on them. I have used the Microsoft Skydrive and the online OneNote to track things when the program is not available. Not as functional as the thick client, and I wouldn't trust more than the most mundane notes to the "cloud", but functional.

In short, the idea is to be able to capture your thoughts easily in a form which can later be retrieved and expanded upon.

posted 10:04 [/Thinking] permanent link

Tue, 29 Jul 2008

Time to Think

As you know, I have been thinking about thinking. I have given some thought to tools to help you capture, organize and express your thoughts. Today, I read an article from the BBC regarding "No Time to Think". It raises some points that I have considered for some time. First, is making some time to actually think. The article is against lunching al desko (at your desk). I am too. I find that if I eat at my desk, the day seems longer and things seem more chaotic. I need a bit of time to get away and decompress. I use this time to think about things -- maybe even things at work -- but I get away.

The article mentions choosing your location to think. Have you ever noticed that a majority of really good ideas don't come to you at work? They come when your in the shower, on the road, in the bathroom, . . . In other words, in places where you mind is free to think.

One really interesting point is giving yourself less to think about. That is, turning off the source of input with which we are constantly bombarded. It's the reason that cell phones, televisions, computers, radios have off switches. Use them to limit the amount of input that your brain has to process in order to let it work out something that is already there.

The last point is also a good one. You have to want to think. Thinking is what we do that differientiates us from other animals. You have to give yourself time when you are thinking and doing little else. For examle, walk with the intention of thinking about something or go to the gym or garden or something which is not related to thinking itself, but gives you the time to think.

I think, I'll stop now and take my own advise.

posted 12:15 [/Thinking] permanent link

Sat, 30 Jun 2007

Random Placement . . .

I find my placement of thoughts is about as random as the thoughts I have. I find things all over the place -- on the Wiki, in blogs, on the static pages, in various thinking programs, on a small voice recorder -- all over the place. As I wander through the web site (you know, piddling) I find all sorts of things, random thoughts generated by events, incomplete thoughts or thoughts which make me take pause and re-evaluate today, given the separation of time.

It interests me that I place things in so many differrent places. Some of this comes from the evolution of my tools and style. For example, the addition of this blog and the Wiki make placing random thoughts in them because of the ease of publishing. Some comes from the the evolution of web publishing to accept blogs and Wiki's as more permanent structures. I had originally intended to develop thoughts in these tools the migrate the more worthy ones to the web pages. But, blogs and Wikis are so accepted now, that many of the things I create in these tools stay there.

One interesting thing is the logo for the Gimodudah section (recreated here). I had originally intended it to represent the randomness of the topics in Gimodudah. But, it can also be viewed as the randomness of the placement of these throughts throughout my thinking environment.

posted 08:30 [/Thinking] permanent link

Sat, 23 Jun 2007

I got stuck . . .

. . . while writing a blog. It hasn't happened often and, in fact, this might be the first time in years of blogging where I actually started a blog and decided, what I had to say wasn't really worth it. It's an interesting experience. I actually got several paragraphs out -- seemed to be on a role -- and then I read again and thought, "what am I doing?" It seemed that the thought I started out with just wasn't coming together. What I had written seemed disjointed and didn't really express the original idea which sparked the thought.

I actually put the thing away and came back to it today. This is something I seldom do with a blog. Usually, I get the thought, let it percolate for a while and then sit and compose the blog in a single setting. But, in this case, I just couldn't publish the blog as it was.

I came back to the blog this morning and read through it. My thought was to revise it to make my point. But, as I completed it, I realized that I had lost the thought. Not really lost more misplaced. That is, I couldn't revise the piece to express the thought in the way that I wanted to . . . so I deleted it.

What happened? I'm not sure. Perhaps the original thought just wasn't jelled enough to give me the words to express it.

My thinking process which results in blogs starts with something which triggers a thought. I am usually some place incovenient for writing like the shower, car, work, so I record the basic thought for later consideration. I regularly drop thoughts at the point where I return to them. I look at my notes and find that the spark at the moment that I had the though just isn't there any more. This may be a good thing. If I can't sustain the thought for that amount of time, it probably isn't worth writing about.

With this piece, I got stuck much further in the process. Perhaps I came back to the thought too soon or perhaps I just couldn't make the evaluation of the thought until I had put down words which tried to express my view.

Whatever, I think it was a good thing. Too much is written which probably should never be published. I probably have some here and other places I have written.

posted 08:01 [/Thinking] permanent link

Fri, 15 Jun 2007

Noise in the Environment . . .

Recently, I have been struck by the amount of noise in the environment. I was sitting in a Starbucks recently when I noted the level of the background music. It was definitely not in the background. In fact, I left the place rather than having to put up with the noise. Earlier in the month, I went to a new deli near work and was struck by the level of the music in the place. There, it was so loud that it interfered with conversation. I have even thought as I walked by the place that I don't want to go back because of the level of the noise.

But we, as a society, live in a very noisy world. But the noise isn't just sound. It's visual also. The younger people in our society seem to need a constant barage of noise in their environment. If they can't get it through some external source, they create their own personal noise in the form of mp3 players, cellphones, car stereos. They wrap themselves in constant noise even in areas where the environment is relatively quiet.

I'm not sure what the reason is for this need for constant stimulation of our senses. Sitting quietly seems to be a lost art -- or at least one which people are consciously ignoring. Stress is up. I heard a report recently where teenagers said they took up smoking to relieve stress. I wonder if this stress is not, at least in part, a result of the constant chaos in which we live and the noise to which we are exposed?

Whatever the cause of all the electronic noise, I think we all need periods of quiet. We need to walk in the forest where there are only the sounds and sights are natural, not generated by some electronic gizmo. We need to take the time to sit quietly and listen to nothing other than our breathing. We need to eliminate the electronic chatter from our lives for periods through which we can really relax.

posted 13:01 [/Thinking] permanent link

Sun, 03 Jun 2007

Time Spent Writing . . .

I have been reading some interviews with writers and it struck me the amount of time writers of novels spend on their projects -- 1 year, 4 years, 10 years. Now it's true that they don't spend all that time developing the single project. But I got to thinking about this process in relation to the process of writing for the web.

If something happens, it better appear in your blog within a very short time or it's not relevant on the web. News is faster, opinion is faster, everything is right now, or not at all. Things also seem to die down more quickly in the on-line world, but that's another discussion.

The process for these two writing forms are radically different. In the development of a novel, the choice or words can take a very long time. in the online world, writers seem to put down things almost in a stream-of-consciousness format. That is, they have a need to get something down and don't spend a great deal of time on the refinement of their thoughts. Some bloggers will serialize their thoughts That is, they might post a series of articles exploring the same subject -- much like I'm doing with this set on Thinking. Of course, some blogs are dedicated to a single topic and corporate blogs are very directed toward the product of service being sold. But all blogs seem to compress the period from initial idea to publication into, perhaps, a single very short period.

Novelists, on the other hand will start with an idea and then take a much longer period to craft it into its final form. Of course, that form is generally much longer, richer, and more detailed than the typical internet posting. It's more like the entire site than a single blog. The difference is that a site is put up and then refined right in front of the audience. Very few novels are developed this way. Novelists will vary in their collaboration on their novel. Some will not let anyone see it until it is done, or the first draft at least. Others put out bits and pieces for evaluation by readers. But, whatever the technique, the final product is not made available until it is ready for publication. This is usually after several rewrites by the author and perhaps other changes by their editor/publisher.

The ability to focus on a single idea for the length of time it take to develop it into a novel is astounding to me. I just don't have that type of dedication. Some of the authors interviewed said that they write six days a week. If this is on the same work, for a period of a year or more, my hat is off to them. I don't believe I could do it. But, from what I have read so far, that seems to be what it takes to be successful.

Me? I think I will have to stay with blogging and writing brief things which expand upon the thought of the moment. Perhaps one day I will get a thought so big that it can be expanded into a novel . . . but I doubt it.

posted 11:46 [/Thinking] permanent link

Sat, 02 Jun 2007

A Short Break . . .

I'm sitting here on a Saturday between household chores, sort of cooling down after one which took far longer than it needed to. I have my PowerBook and have looked at my e-mail, checked out the website, bounced around some Google ads, and am generally just piddling. In my mind is the nagging feeling that I want to blog about something, but I just don't have anything interesting on my list of things. I have checked an nothing really jumped out at me. But I do feel like writing, so you get some random thoughts.

Teens and Smoking . . .

Earlier in the week, I heard a piece on NPR which was interesting enough for me to get out the digital voice recorder and make a note about. It was about teens and smoking -- about how advertising campaigns which don't work. In fact, the piece seemed to indicate that the campaigns might even promote teen smoking! One of the interesting things that the teens interviewed in the piece said was that they smoke to reduce their stress. This set off bells in my mind, and is the major reason I recorded a thought about this.

It we want to reduce teen smoking, it seems logical that we would want to attack the reasons for teen smoking. These teens seemed to say it was stress. The teenage years can be very stressful. Things are going crazy in your body and you have this overwhelming need to fit in, to succeed. As parents of teens, we need to work to reduce this stress in hopes of keeping teens from smoking.

Overtime . . .

I have to spend some weekend time working. I don't really mind all that much since the family is in Europe. I spent about 3 hours this morning and probably need to put in about that many more hours in the remainder of the weekend. Not much to say here, just want to say it because it's on my mind.

Man with TB . . .

This brings to mind that we might not worry about whether it's our time to go, but whether it's someone else's time -- like the bus driver or airline pilot. It also brings to mind a thought about the chance meeting which could change your life. Through no fault of your own, you could be exposed to a disease, hit by a stray bullet, or involved in other life-changing events because of something happening in someone else's life.

Moving on . . .

I think I have just about used up my break time. If I sit for too long, I'll loose what little ambition I have and probably remain here piddling for much too long. I might be back. Something is still nagging at the back of my mind urging me to write -- maybe not on the blog, but it's there.

posted 11:37 [/Thinking] permanent link

Sat, 26 May 2007

Stream of Consciousness . . .

As I was writing a blog about Star Wars and I went back to edit a portion, I got to thinking about how people create their blogs. I wonder how many of them ever go back to edit their work and how many simply create the blog as stream of consciousness writing?

I am always editing my work. It may not seem so, but I do re-read everything that I write for this site or others -- even these blogs. Sure, some of them are inspired by a spur-of-the-moment thought. Something which I hear or read will strike my fancy and I will create a blog about it. Take this one for example. It was inspired while writing the previous blog about an event that I read about in a news link from the BBC. I hadn't been thinking about the previous blog until I read that news event and wasn't inspired to write this one until I edited the previous one.

(You know, that's another interesting subject. What inspires me to get up from whatever I am doing and record a thought or even create a blog on the spot like this one. Take a look at the Wiki on Thinking for more of my thoughts about this.)

So how do you compose your blog? My bet is that many personal blogs are stream-of-consciousness with very little editing. Most are probably much like personal diary entries, reflecting the thoughts of the author at that moment in time. Corporate blogs or blogs on specific topics are probably more planned and edited -- at least you would hope so. I suspect that many of these are scripted to appeal to the blogosphere, but are really just portions of the corporate communications plan.

Another interesting blog is one which is created to be the actual web page for something. Take for example, Blog of the Nation from Talk of the Nation by NPR. This one is designed to operate along with the radio program and I think in this case that the blog is used more for its comments (talk back) feature that the actual blogging feature of the software.

In any event, the blog is an interesting writing form. Rather than being a chapter in a larger work, or a short story, or article, it is more of a fragment. People seem to, for the most part, write until the idea is exhausted at that point in time. Even in corporate blogs, a theme may be fragmented into separate blogs. Each individual blog entry may not carry a single idea to its conclusion. I suspect that these types of blogs are driven by a corporate communcations type of mentality toward a specific goal, but often, the individual blog is not complete in itself.

I know I am guilty of this. I often create blog entries which don't carry through thoughts to their logical conclusions -- and this may not be a bad thing in all cases. I suppose that a random thought -- read by another -- might spark additional thoughts on their part. They might expand on that idea and, perhaps through a series of such occurrances, something meaningful can arise. I usually compose and publish a blog in a single setting. I very seldom work on a blog over number of sessions to refine the ideas. Don't get me wrong, I have done this, but not often. I think that the blog is a single session, more immediate entry which captures the thoughts at the time. If I rethink a subject, I will sometimes create another blog with my thoughts. I have even been known to remove a blog if, upon further reflection, I decide that my thinking was faulty, but that blog was out there for all to read. (Yeah, I know, who reads this but me . . . but that's another issue.)

But, I ramble . . . back to editing. Yes, I do it. I think others should. The creation, refinement, and editing of the blog tends to occur in a single sitting, so I'm not so sure how effective my editing is, but I do it. I tend to read things like this blog aloud to myself. This can be embarrasing when sitting in a public space, but I try to sub-vocalize in those cases. I find that reading back through my material aloud helps me to get the kinks out of it and make it more understandable to others. When I read aloud, I tend to say all the words. If I read to myself I find that I read what I thought I should have written rather than what I atually wrote.

I think that everyone should take the time to edit their material, especially with the glut of stuff on the web. We need to make sure that what we put out here is the best we can so that others can benefit from our work.

posted 08:39 [/Thinking] permanent link