When was the last time you thought hard about something? When you actually set aside some time in the day to just sit and think, and note down what was on your mind?Posted on 07/02/2004 3:34:31 AM PDT by MadIvan
Armed with just pen and paper as no computer was up to the job, for three months Lion Kimbro wrote down every thought that came into his head. It left little time for much else. Now, was that necessary?
When was the last time you thought hard about something? When you actually set aside some time in the day to just sit and think, and note down what was on your mind?
No-one does that, do they? Time's too precious, life is too short. Not for Lion Kimbro, a 26-year-old geek and computer games tester from Seattle.
Last year he spent three solid months writing down everything that came into his head. He got so immersed in making notes that the rest of his life was put on hold while he sorted them and understood them.
And when he says he noted down everything, he means everything. So much that he warns in the introduction to the book he wrote about the experience: "If you do the things described in this book, you will be immobilised for the duration of your commitment."
Thinking so hard that you can't move? That's quite a radical concept.
Lion's system, painstakingly explained in his book (which can be downloaded for free from his website), makes enormous demands on a person's time.
The system breaks down into simple jottings made during the day - what he calls "speeds". These can be made on sheets of paper set aside for multiple subjects, or added directly to sheets dedicated to a specific subject. Speeds are made on the fly, as they happen, and it's up to the writer to transcribe these into another section of the notebook system later on.
Lion suggests using large binders full of loose sheets of paper so that individual sheets can be added, removed and moved from one place to another. Notes can be given subjects and context hints as they are made, to help the writer file them into larger, archived binders when the time comes to organise their thoughts.
Even so, the writer is expected to carry one binder around with them at all times, and add new notes as often as possible, augmented with diagrams, arrows and maps.
Eureka moment
Why would anyone in their right mind want to do this? "Because of the incredibly clarity that comes with it," Lion says. "It may feel that for the first time in your life, you really have a clear idea of what kinds of thoughts are going through your head.
"I wanted to see if I could make myself smarter, by strategically placing notes to myself. Intelligence, as I define it, is getting the right information at the right time at the right place, towards whatever end you are going for."
Lion emerged from his experiment a changed man. As a result of spending months thinking and writing down his thoughts with a pen, his brain had started to work in new ways.
"You can think about hidden subjects - things that are really important, but that people don't have the time to think about, such as: 'How do we communicate?' 'How is thinking structured?' 'What am I doing?'
"And you find answers. Basically, it feels like watching Atlantis come up."
Artificial intelligence
Lion advocates his system over using computers because the machines just aren't up to the job. Yes, they store and sort data very effectively, but it isn't as easy to scribble and scrawl and draw all over the notes taken. Computers can do this sort of note-storing, but paper can do it quicker.
He freely admits that the system is less than practical, and not intended to be used for a lifetime. And being immobilised while writing notes means the writer has no time for much of daily life.
"Yes, you do miss out on a lot of things. So I think it's best to get the best of both worlds: I would recommend doing the notebook system once or twice in your lifetime. I think I'll do it again, one day."
Lion predicts that computers will be able to take and manage notes like this, and do as good a job as paper and pen, within a few years.
In the meantime, he has taken to immersing himself in the closest existing equivalent - a type of website known as wiki that allows anyone to edit any page, instantly.
"Other popular communication systems like e-mail, chat and message boards are all message-based. Wiki is document-based; it's designed to exist across time. You can point wiki pages to each other. It's my notebook system all over again."
"Because of the incredibly clarity that comes with it," Lion says. "It may feel that for the first time in your life, you really have a clear idea of what kinds of thoughts are going through your head.
Many liberals experience this moment when they grasp the truth of conservatism.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
He either thinks more slowly than I do or writes more quickly. I cannot write at the speed of thought.
Kooky, but hardly cracked. This is a form of self-examination, of monitoring one's thoughts closely -- it is that introspective foce that pulls us all away from being purebred animal. It is NOT a particular good way of doing that -- two reasons -- one the load on time noted in the article, and two because one should frame one's introspections along frameworks established by honorable people before you. Otherwise -- well, for example, the Marquis de Sade is a example of the otherwise. He also meandered and sank in the muds of self-introspection.
Every now and then the guards would find his written materials and destroy them.
That was the first idea that popped into my head upon seeing this... I can't even speak fast enough to get even close.
I thought this was going to be a story about Bob "Doodles" Graham.
"Amateur."
Conveniently carried about in a borrowed grocery cart along with all one's other possessions.
If you write down everything you think, doesn't it go like this?:
"I'm thinking that I'm writing that I'm thinking that I'm writing that I'm thinking that I'm writing that I'm thinking that I'm writing that I'm thinking that I'm writing that I'm thinking that I'm writing that I'm thinking that I'm writing that I'm thinking that I'm writing that I'm thinking that I'm writing ..."
How would anything else get into the loop?
LOL -- my thoughts exactly, but that idiot wrote down every thing he did (not every thing he thought) didn't he?
I am writing that I am thinking and writing and eggs for breakfast no Cheerios less fat then I can have a drink at dinner and what about the drycleaning and I hope it rains and I am thinking ans writing is this working are my thoughts clearer...
Nope. Doesn't work for me and I don't think it worked for Bob Graham either.
I immediately thought of this passage between Worsel and Kinnison from E.E. Doc Smith's "The Gray Lensman":
"Sort of a thin time for you old man I'm afraid". Kinnison leaned unconcernedly against the towering pillar of his friend's tail, whereupon four or five grotesquely stalked eyes curled out at him speculatively. -snip- "Nothing like that". The Velantian flashed out a leather wing and flipped his tail aside in a playfully unsuccessful attempt to catch the Earthman off balance. "Some day, if you ever really learn to think, you will discover that a few weeks' solitary, undisturbed, and concentrated thought is a rare treat. To have such an opportunity in the line of duty makes it a pleasure unalloyed".
"I always did think you were slightly screwy at times and now I know it," Kinnison retorted, unconvinced. "Thought is-or should be-a means to an end, not an end in itself; but if that's your idea of a wonderful time I'm glad to be able to give it to you."
Kinda figured you would have thought of this passage as well. :-)
Thanks for the post. We are getting there.
It sounds like Kimbro was "a modest man, with much to be modest about".
LOL, Bob Graham did immediately come to mind.
THE HORROR, THE HORROR!
I was thinking how he managed going to the bathroom (if he literally became immobilized). And what about sleeping. Did he record his dreams too?
Well, if it's true that men are supposed to think about sex every few minutes, I think this guy just published a porn novel! *L*
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