Pages-493
Notes harvested from the book: 70. Each note is tagged with several categories. The primary category is shown below, with the number of note cards in that category. I’ve written an example of a note from each category.
- Learning-2. “Knowledge, he realized, was obtained rather by the use of the ear than of the tongue”
- New Word-1. Obdurate. Unmoved by persuasion, pity, or tender feelings. Stubborn. Unyielding.
- Wellness-1. “He embraced the (vegetarian) diet, but not just for moral and health reasons. He took the money his brother allowed him (his brother owned a printing business that Benjamin Franklin worked at) for food and he spent half on books.”
- Beautiful Language-8. “…too much religion is worse than none at all”
- Sociology-2. In 1683 a voyage to America from England took 9 weeks and cost 15 pounds, which was around 6 months of average earnings. But wages in the New World were 2-3 times higher, and the cost of living was lower.
- Life-2. “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
- Creativity-3. Franklin combines scientific theory, technical invention, clever experiment, and practical utility.
- Leadership-3. Franklin had been instrumental in shaping the three great documents of the American Revolution: The Declaration of Independence, the alliance with France, and the treaty with England.
- Philosophy-15. “Man is a sociable being, and it is, for aught I know, one of the worst punishments is to be excluded from society.”
- Economics-11, “The riches of a country are to be valued by the quantity of labor its inhabitants are able to purchase, and not by the quantity of silver and gold they possess.”
- Politics-9. “Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as liberty without freedom of speech.”
- Psychology-9. “A person who is too fearful (of losing) will end up performing defensively and thus fail to seize offensive advantages”
It’s easy to think “so what?” Here’s my so what. Have you ever read a book and a short time later you barely remember what you read? This system is designed to mitigate that.
As a result of careful reading and note taking, I now have a much deeper understanding of the book. Once these notes are further harvested I can link them with similar ideas, from other sources, to further grow my personal database of knowledge.
What is a personal database of knowledge? You might have heard the terms Obsidian, Second Brain, Digital Garden, Zettlekasten, or Smart Notes. If not, a quick google search will explain the general idea of each of these. It’s essentially a way to organize your ideas, and help generate new ones, by systematically archiving what you have learned and your thoughts about them.
This activity supports my personal goals of life long learning/creativity and perhaps future writings.
Plus, it’s fun.