Author: Chris Aldrich

I'm a biomedical and electrical engineer with interests in information theory, complexity, evolution, genetics, signal processing, IndieWeb, theoretical mathematics, and big history. I'm also a talent manager-producer-publisher in the entertainment industry with expertise in representation, distribution, finance, production, content delivery, and new media.
Could one go as far as to say that the ten commandments (numbered notes) presumably etched onto stone tablets (slips) and placed into the ark of the covenant (a box) and which coherently formed the basis of knowledge and living a good life for the twelve tribes was a zettelkasten?

Why not?

Lower register (second of two) of an Illuminated manuscript page in rich colors. Two men are carrying the ark of the covenant in the center surrounded by men playing ram's horns. Above the ark is a blue circular wall representing Jericho inside of which is a jumble of buildings and heads.

On the seventh day of the siege of Jericho, the Ark of the Covenant is carried around the city, horns are blown and the walls collapse (Josh 6:20-25).
Extract from Latin Psalter from England – BSB Hss Clm 835, fol. 21r. Oxford, 1st quarter of the 13th century
Source: München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Replied to a post by PratikPratik (microblog.pratikmhatre.com)
One more use for ChatGPT - enter all ingredients, including the type of alcohol you currently have, and ask it to suggest cocktails. Reply by email Also on Micro.blog Reply on Mastodon
🗃️ 🍸🥃 I have a section in my card index for that functionality: 

Column of index cards displaying tabs for cocktails and cocktail ingredients and sample cards showing for various ingredients (aperol, bourbon, brandy, vermouth) and related drinks one could make with them (dry martini, old fashioned).

Chris Rock’s zettelkasten output process

In the documentary Kevin Hart & Chris Rock: Headliners Only (Netflix, 2023) while preparing for a portion of their tour, Kevin Hart admires a portion of Chris Rock’s stand up comedy method and calls it “a science”. Chris Rock writes headlines for his jokes on slips of paper and then arranges them on either tables or small bulletin boards to outline his set list for presenting jokes for his performances.

A small bulletin board with about 50 slips of colored paper pinned up on it.

Low level coffee table covered in a grid of about 40 colored slips of paper.

If there are interesting contemporaneous news items which appear, he’ll include a newspaper or other material to represent the related joke for inclusion into his set. This makes a fascinating means of outlining his material and seems to fall within the realm of my search for zettelkasten output processes. Even if Rock doesn’t use index cards to write or store his jokes like comedians in the past have, he’s using a slip-based method for outlining and arranging them as part of his output process.

Chris Rock and Kevin Hart standing up in a green room. Behind them is a small board covered with rainbow colored slips of paper.

Kevin Hart: Chris, I’m so… I’m so, uh blown away by what I’m discovering that is your process.

Chris Rock: My process.

Kevin Hart: This all your shit?

A grid of slips of colored paper with various notes written in black sharpie. Some of the headlines read: Repubs lie/Dems, Fake-Selective Outrage, Black Lives Matter, Biden, Fruit Loops, Addicted to Attention, Neighborhoods.

A grid of slips of colored paper with various notes written in black sharpie. Some of the headlines read: Shortest in Class, Daughter Supreme Court, Hillary, Cops Deliver Babies.

Chris Rock: Well, this here would be, uh, bullet points for tonight. Every card represents a joke or a reference that I choose. I don’t wanna forget. You know what I mean? Like, you can remember all your jokes, but some nights, I’m like, ‘ehhh, I’m not gonna close with this one. I’m gonna close with that one’.

Kevin Hart: You have it down to a science where you can bullet point the time.

Chris Rock: You can. And by the way, sometimes, something happens in the news.

Kevin Hart: You got jokes on the bench.

Chris Rock: I have jokes on the bench.

View of a coffee table covered with slips of paper. Next to them is a broadsheet copy of the New York Post with a big photo of Elon Musk overlaid with the headline "Musk Rat".

Kevin Hart: I’m going to tell you I’m not only impressed by that, but I’m disappointed in myself. Because, uh, whatever I got, got to to fly.

@GMJuditPolgar, I’m doing some research for a book on note taking traditions, commonplace books, and zettelkasten/card indexes. In watching an interview of you with Christiane Amanpour from 2020 I noticed a photo of you next to a card index while playing chess. Do you have 15-20 minute for a short interview to talk about it and how you compiled and used it?

 

Handwriting and Typecasting PASTA

Typewritten index card that reads: Handwriting and Typecasting PASTA I'm slowly coming to realize that handwriting or typecasting to my website means that I am left with a permanent, physical copy of my post which I can archive into a physical card file. I can file them by date to create a version of a diary, and/or I can file them by taxonomy so that I might reuse the ideas at a later date zettelkasten-style. The IndieWeb has a pattern for this: Publish Anywhere, Save To (private) Archive (P.A.S.T.A.) #typecasts #BlogInABox #MaterialCulture DEC 22 2023

Two drawer index card file with tabs for Essays, Writing, and Typecasts behind which is the index card with the title Handwriting and Typecasting PASTA

Transcription: 

I’m slowly coming to realize that handwriting or typecasting to my website means that I am left with a permanent, physical copy of my post which I can archive into a physical card file. I can file them by date to create a version of a diary, and/or I can file them by taxonomy so that I might reuse the ideas at a later date zettelkasten-style.

The IndieWeb has a pattern for this: Publish Anywhere, Save To (private) Archive (P.A.S.T.A.)