EMAIL NUMBER 39
TITLE:
'That Is The Sexiest Thing I've Ever Heard You Say'
FROM:
Scott P. Scheper
Downtown San Diego, CA
TO:
You*
START TIME:
Friday 3:29 p.m.
"Can you show me how to create a Bibcard so I can take notes? I want to build my own Antinet."
This was the question posed by my beautiful, tolerant, hazel-eyed fiancé last night while we were reading in bed.
"That is the sexiest thing I've ever heard you say," I responded.
She was reading No-Drama Discipline, a book we hope will help us not go crazy while raising our two-year-old daughter.
I showed her how to create Bib Notes while reading, and then use that card as a bookmark. Soon after that, she was off to the races. Scribbling and jotting down knowledge while she read.
Admittedly, I think she wrote a bit too many Bib Notes (in my experience, it's best to write a brief observation note every 10-20 pages of the most important ideas; otherwise you get bogged down in material, as Niklas Luhmann would say). But what can I say, in the beginning when you learn the method of reading "the Antinet way," it's exciting. It's difficult to put the pen down!
This trend happens a lot, and I think it's a good thing. In fact, I've seen the same exact pattern with several of my Neo-Intellectuals that I'm actively coaching.
Initially, you take a lot of Bib Notes because everything seems relevant and worth remembering. Over time, I've found that you take fewer Bib Notes because you train your mind to select and extract only the most critical pieces of knowledge that you wish to elaborate on (in the form of Main Notes).
I'm not sure what the moral of the story is here, other than it's pretty damn cool to see the emergence of more and more people adopting the Niklas Luhmann way of extracting knowledge from texts! The Analog Knowledge Revolution is a real thing! It's growing.
Speaking of "Revolution," this week, I had a logo concept designed for the Antinet.
I ended up posting the design in the Antinet Reddit Community and it received mixed reviews. I'd say about 60-80% of the people didn't like it.
Here's a picture of the logo concept:
Some people thought it was awesome and badass. I think it communicates a powerful (and funny) stance that we're bringing analog notetaking back.
However, others thought it communicated a "communist" type of feel (as the raised fist in the air is a communist symbol, I learned).
I'm going to go back to the drawing board and get some other logo concepts designed.
I'm thinking a concept that contains notecards, a tree of knowledge, a mind, a pen (and perhaps even the badass feel of the raised fist revolution would be cool, too).
If you have any strong feelings either way (i.e., if you like the logo or you want to see a different concept), then feel free to reply and let me know your thoughts!
The logo will be used in a variety of places relating to the Antinet: On the wooden boxes that will (hopefully) be made, likely on the book cover, on the Antinet website, etc.
Speaking of wooden boxes, I enlisted the help of one local woodworker, and I'll be contacting more soon! It's not the highest priority on my list, but it's on the list.
I'll share updates on this as they come up.
The bottom line: it would be awesome to make available some wooden Antinet Zettelkasten boxes (instead of having to pay a fortune for old antique boxes).
Since I'm now officially into the land of updates, here's another update:
I just released a beautiful UPDATED guide for building your own Antinet Zettelkasten!
I had my previous Getting Started Guide professionally designed and laid out. I also reorganized some of the sections.
You can pick up the guide here:
https://www.antinet.org/getting-started
Once you subscribe you'll be enrolled in a 5-day email sequence wherein I share my origin story, and my background of how I discovered the Antinet Zettelkasten.
If you already know my origin story, and you don't want to receive the five daily emails you can opt-out of the sequence (there's opt-out links in the email).
Otherwise, feel free to check out the beautiful newly designed guide.
There's a lot of good stuff going on behind the scenes.
My beast of a book (The Antinet Zettelkasten) is being actively worked on by my typesetter.
After she finishes that, it's on to getting the Cover Designed, and then the printing press!
Concurrently, I'm working on a lot of things in preparation for the book launch.
I'd like to not only launch the book, but would also like to make available a number of other helpful products to go along with the book launch.
For instance, I'd like to make available (potentially) several courses that act as a companion to the book.
For instance: an Antinet Fundamentals Course (that goes deep into the fundamentals of creating knowledge using the system), a course on The Elements of Knowledge Development, and a course on the Advanced Nature of The Antinet (creating a second mind, embracing randomness, the human memory aspect of the Antinet), plus more.
There's also two major chapters that didn't make it into the book. One chapter is titled Zettelkasten Myths, and the other chapter is titled, The Great Folgezettel Denial. I'd like to make this into a special eBook titled Zettelkasten Myths & Denials (only if there's people out there actually interested in this stuff). If you're reading this, and you're interested in this book, reply and say, "Hell yeah, I'm interested in Zettelkasten Myths & Denials."
In my dream world, I'd also love to have available wooden boxes by the time the book launches, so that you can pick up a badass Antinet-branded wooden box as you build out your Antinet.
I'm actively working towards all of this, while at the same time, my other massive priority is serving my Neo-Intellectuals.
My first Neo-Intellectual Institute cohort of one-on-one coaching is going great. The group of Neo-Intellectuals in this class are amazing. They've embarked upon a thirty-day challenge which I will keep secret. It's freaking awesome to see the commitment and growth of these Neo-Intellectuals happen before my eyes.
If you haven't already heard, I run a program that only opens up a few times a year. The program is dedicated to helping people create a life wherein they spend their days doing what they love: reading, thinking, creating notes, and developing their minds—all while simultaneously building a tribe and community of people. It's called the Neo-Intellectual Institute. You can learn more here: https://www.neointellectual.institute/welcome/
Other than all of this, I must say, the one area of my life I'm not super happy about is this: my own knowledge development!
I've been so busy working on getting the book ready, and working on these other projects that I really haven't been consistent on doing my own knowledge development! In other words, lately I've been having deep work sessions creating main notes for only 1-3 times a week.
I plan to knock out a big session tomorrow (Saturday morning), and I'm really looking forward to it. So the lesson here is this: don't guilt trip yourself if it's been a week, or even a month, since you've had a good 1 hour reading session, and 1 hour of note creation. Even the man who practically lives off of notecards goes through spells where he's busy with other stuff.
The bottom line, however, is to create momentum. Start small. Start in the early mornings, and get back into growing the mind, developing knowledge and, most importantly, having fun!
That's really all I've got to say for now.
Lots of stuff going on behind the scenes.
Get ready, and let's continue to grow the practice of analog knowledge development.
Warm regards,
Scott P. Scheper
"A Man Who Is About to Drink a Crisp Glass of Chardonnay on This Humid Overcast San Diego Friday"
P.S. You kick ass. Thank you for being a part of this journey.
END TIME:
Friday 4:29 p.m.
AUTH TRUTH:
96
