Knowledge management is a systematic way to collect, organize, process, and retrieve information. Personal knowledge management turns note-taking into a repeatable system for preserving thoughts and generating new ideas. section 2.3.1
A useful system can involve:
- Recording observations, quotations, ideas, and sketches rather than trusting memory alone. section 2.3.1
- Adding personal remarks to copied material so that information becomes internalized. section 2.3.1
- Returning to notes periodically, allowing connections and new insights to emerge. section 2.3.1
The commonplace book
A commonplace book gathers sayings, poems, letters, recipes, and other material for later contemplation. Historical note-takers—from Cicero and Leonardo da Vinci to Charles Darwin and Alan Turing—used notebooks to organize thought. section 2.3.1
Figure 2.2 The commonplace book of British voyager and entrepreneur Henry Tiffin (1760). These pages were used to contemplate sailing methods. If you, like me, love peeking into both ancient and modern notebooks, Great Diaries: The World’s Most Remarkable Diaries, Journals, Notebooks, and Letters, published by DK, makes for a beautiful addition to the bookshelf. Photo courtesy of the Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum.
Inspect a 1760 commonplace book whose pages collected sailing methods for contemplation. section 2.3.1
