A lot of discussion in the Zettelkasten space has taken place on the debate between digital and analog with handwriting being the default analog option. Why not split some of the differences and opt for the mechanical typewriter option? Where’s the subreddit for that? It can’t just be me and Umberto Eco, right? 🗃️
@chrisaldrich interesting. I guess the typewriter is half analog and half digital.
@chrisaldrich I was considering a system based on index #cards with date-based ID labels (both QR codes and human-readable) from a label-printer.Periodical “stocktaking” of a #Zettelkasten would have meant to feed its card stack into a #document #scanner, and the output would have been a database that you could query for the box of any given card, plus a snapshot of the current card state. Did not sound robust enough for me, though.
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@chrisaldrich If you don’t choose handwriting, you can’t use your Zettelkasten to justify purchasing fountain pens and ink.
Neuro imprinting
I kinda miss typewriters tbh
That’s a beautiful typewriter. I’m still holding on to my typewriter that I bought in high school, albeit mine is electric. Would it qualify for that subreddit?
I think you’d get the worst of both worlds. (albeit with the bonus that mechanical typewriters make awesome noises)
Things handwriting instill that machines don’t:
Flexibility: larger smaller hand writing to suit volume of text.
More portable
Changes to pressure, and pace. Reminder of thinking process and circumstances. ( Good mood, bad mood, being in the flow, etc) Aids memory.
Quick, integrated diagrams, graph, sketch
Machines:
Improvement on messy hand writing
Sterile layout
@jasongreen Why not both?!?! Now I’ve got excuses to buy both #FountainPens AND #typewriters. #FTW!
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@chrisaldrich As much as I adore Eco, wouldn’t this literally be the worst of both worlds? You miss the tactile feedback of using a pen, but also miss all the plusses of a digital PKM.Of course Eco wrote In the name of the Rose the way he did so we would feel what it would be like to live in a convent, so he would be totally ok taking his time…
Pretty much what Eco did and describes in
Eco, Umberto. (1977) 2015. How to Write a Thesis. Translated by Caterina Mongiat Farina and Geoff Farina. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. ISBN: 978-0-262-52713-2.