A very nice blog post by Maggie Appleton on "Tools for Thought". Plenty of meaty stuff to get your teeth into!

22111 should enjoy, too – she agrees with you about quite a lot of things!

Cheers!
Bill

Oh dear, forget my own head next. Here's the link: https://maggieappleton.com/tools-for-thought

Hi Bill.

First, I am disappointed Appleton's timeline with regard to quantitative thinking excludes the use of the abacus which is associated with the Chinese and Japanese, as well as the knot system attributed to the Inca, who apparently had a decimal (base 10) system, and the use of stick bundles by the Anishinabe and other North American Indigenous people. Some of these systems predate the examples Appleton gives by hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

I have read the article a couple of times, and have a mixed reaction. While I agree with the notion that "tools for thought" may be an over-used term, Appleton's approach seems a bit glib. A technique, the technology, and culture can together or separately be thought of as a tool/ tools, as would be the case of one working on research /thinking/writing with their laptop at a coffee bar.

Interestingly, for someone whose blog (in other posts) demonstrate her ability to illustrate notes in a creative, memorable manner, the circle with three smaller circles in it would probably better reflect the essence of the point I think she's trying to make if the three smaller circles were presented as a Venn diagram within the larger circle. Tool/technique/culture/technology are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and are inter-connected in ways creating a dynamic process or reality.

Also, Appleton seems, at least on the surface, to be cynical about the idea of note programs such as Obsidian enhancing thinking as a process. Of course whether enhancements occur depends on the user as well as the app being used. YMMV.

I want to again read ber blog post, as well as other related posts.

Daly




MadaboutDana wrote:

A very nice blog post by Maggie Appleton on "Tools for Thought". Plenty
of meaty stuff to get your teeth into!

22111 should enjoy, too – she agrees with you about quite a
lot of things!

Cheers!
Bill

I enjoyed reading that. I'd be crippled if I had to stop using computers.

However, I've found that I like to think with a fountain pen. It's both primitive and elegant, fragile and self-sustaining.

It's likely that more of what we consider the modern world came about because of people simply sitting with a piece of paper and a pencil and thinking.

Would Einstein have been better off using Muse :-)

Agreed! Fountain pens are great! It helps if you have a good shop, and I am fortunate to have found Wonder Pens in Toronto. For me, there is a place for both fountain pens and computers - both are tools for thinking, and at the same time they are tools for externalizing the product of our thought process.

Besides our thoughts, a fountain pen needs ink and paper, and a computer requires software and the ability to save and/or a means to externalize our thoughts by means of a printer on paper. The recent emphasis on note-taking software which has bi-directional linking capabilities may lead ideally to a more conscious awareness of how to gain greater benefit from our notetaking.

Amontillado wrote:

I enjoyed reading that. I'd be crippled if I had to stop using
computers.

However, I've found that I like to think with a fountain pen. It's both
primitive and elegant, fragile and self-sustaining.

It seems to me that extremely intelligent people might not need computers that much to generate innovative ideas; and to connect concepts that they read a year ago with the concepts that they are thinking about right now.

If you are very brilliant, and have a powerful memory, your brain does most of the connection and remembering: you don't need an external assistance. From interviews and other peoples comments, that is exactly how Noam Chomsky works, for example. He doesn't use technology for thinking. He uses paper and pen. Computers are used only for typing. Still, he produces the most mind boggling ideas; and connects the present events with the event that happened in the 60's and 70' with ease.

I cannot do that. I would be paralyzed if I don't have the data (notes) and stuff on my computer, because I have weaker brain--cannot remember details, and cannot connect complex ideas once they reach a certain level of complexity.

Yes, Einstein might not have benefited from computers. But, for the regular Joh, they are the tools which help us as close as possible to the thinking capacities of these powerful brains.

Heh, I love this thought!

Paul Korm wrote:

It's likely that more of what we consider the modern world came about
because of people simply sitting with a piece of paper and a pencil and
thinking.

Would Einstein have been better off using Muse :-)

Thanks for your two replies, Dellu – both very sensible.

I was amazed and impressed to hear that Neal Stephenson deliberately eschewed his usual digital knowledge bases when putting together his plans/references etc. for the amazing Baroque Cycle trilogy of novels about the 17-18 centuries. The books (all around 1000 pages) are crammed with erudite knowledge, as well as amazingly complex, interrelated references plus, of course, a vast cast of characters, all with their little foibles and obsessions – again, all interlinked and wittily leveraged at appropriate moments.

The thought of putting something like that together without some kind of digital support brings me out in a cold sweat! But it certainly makes one think.

And yes, Neal Stephenson is extremely intelligent!

Dellu wrote:

It seems to me that extremely intelligent people might not need
computers that much to generate innovative ideas; and to connect
concepts that they read a year ago with the concepts that they are
thinking about right now.

If you are very brilliant, and have a powerful memory, your brain does
most of the connection and remembering: you don't need an external
assistance. From interviews and other peoples comments, that is exactly
how Noam Chomsky works, for example. He doesn't use technology for
thinking. He uses paper and pen. Computers are used only for typing.
Still, he produces the most mind boggling ideas; and connects the
present events with the event that happened in the 60's and 70' with
ease.

I cannot do that. I would be paralyzed if I don't have the data (notes)
and stuff on my computer, because I have weaker brain--cannot remember
details, and cannot connect complex ideas once they reach a certain
level of complexity.

Yes, Einstein might not have benefited from computers. But, for the
regular Joh, they are the tools which help us as close as possible to
the thinking capacities of these powerful brains.

Daly de Gagne wrote:

Fountain pens are great! It helps if you have a good shop

I live in an area with a couple of specialist shops, as well as an active pen/ink group, but I've gotten nearly all my info and reviews via forums and YouTube, and I make all my purchases from retailers like Van Ness, Anderson Pens, Jetpens, and Goulet Pens. It's the only way to get variety of stock that's almost never available locally, not to mention good pricing.

For handling a wide range of pens nothing beats a good pen group, or a pen show.

Most of my writing is electronic, but fountain pens are superior for me to gels or ballpoints in ink choice and pen comfort (I use pens with thick sections). In extended writing sessions fountain pens also offer significantly less fatigue since ink is disbursed through capillary action so you don't need to press on paper to make marks.

For quick notes or extended travel I'll grab a couple of Pentel gel pens and easily make do, though.

Hi Satis - Those are good shops you named. If I was in the US I'd probably buy from Goulet Pens. I often watch his videos. Interesting similarity between Goulet Pens and Wonder Pens is both are husband/wife businesses, and both reflect the personality of their founders.

I don't use ball points much, but when I do it's usually a four-colour Bic. I will be in Toronto next month, and will probably buy a couple (or more!) of fountain pens, and stock up on inks.

Daly

satis wrote:

Daly de Gagne wrote:

> Fountain pens are great! It helps if you have a good shop

I live in an area with a couple of specialist shops, as well as an
active pen/ink group, but I've gotten nearly all my info and reviews via
forums and YouTube, and I make all my purchases from retailers like Van
Ness, Anderson Pens, Jetpens, and Goulet Pens. It's the only way to get
variety of stock that's almost never available locally, not to mention
good pricing.

For handling a wide range of pens nothing beats a good pen group, or a
pen show.

Most of my writing is electronic, but fountain pens are superior for me
to gels or ballpoints in ink choice and pen comfort (I use pens with
thick sections). In extended writing sessions fountain pens also offer
significantly less fatigue since ink is disbursed through capillary
action so you don't need to press on paper to make marks.

For quick notes or extended travel I'll grab a couple of Pentel gel pens
and easily make do, though.

For business, my dad has only used a pen & legal pad throughout both his successful careers as a lawyer and later, buying & selling radio and TV stations. He hates minutia.

He makes that legal pad approach look easy. Silent generation.

Our minds aren't weak. We'd figure it out without a computer, like he did. We think we're dependant but with obvious exceptions, like software development, I think we'd be fine.

Excellent pointer. I've been catching up on the 'Tools for Thought Rock' series and Maggie does a presentation on this idea, see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6uhvFGPUE0

While her examples are great, IMO they are all instances of a more fundamental concept - memes. Not (necessarily) in their current incarnation ala Reddit posts, but in the original self replicating gene-analogous mental constructs proposed by Dawkins and described in The Meme Machine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Meme_Machine With maps for example the meme is that we can represent physical topology with a scaled down 2 dimensional model and thus enhance our ability to reason about spaces. Maybe I need to do a write up on 'Memes - the original tools for thought'.

That said, I too love working with a nice pen on paper!

Daly de Gagne wrote:

> If I was in the US I'd probably buy from Goulet Pens.

I've heard good things about Wonderpens; I *think* a few years ago I ordered an inexpensive Platinum Carbon Desk Pen from them, but can't remember for sure.

When I started using fountain pens I used Goulet. Brian Goulet seems like a really nice guy, and his company offers excellent service. But he's friends and occasional business partners with Noodlers Inks owner Nathan Tardif, a person with some firm political opinions with which I disagree, and which leaked into his business. For example in order to mock political candidate Bernie Sanders he introduced Berning red “a red for lefties that dries fast" - a play on (a) "Bernie", (b) Red = communist & (c) left-handed writers needing a quicker-drying ink to prevent smudges, as well as Brexit Blue (a permanent ink favoring Britain's "independence" from oppression).

There are other examples.

I purchase a lot of ink sample vials and to replace Goulet I've switched to vanness1938.com - essentially the same stock and customer service. And if you like Brian's excellent YouTube videos be sure to check out the ones from Anderson Pens. Anderson is located in the American Midwest, and they have a strong online presence in addition to brick-and-mortar stores.

Satis, I'm aware of Nathan Tardif's politics, about which you and I would agree. However, I confess that I use Noodler's inks, primarily the ones which are waterproof/eternal. Much as I love fountain pens, I am paranoid about damaging/losing notes due to water damage, so Noodler's has an appeal to me. As well, I like the colours.

However, it seems some other inks are have some water resistant offerings - so I will be trying some of them..

I have recently watched a few of the Anderson videos where staff are asked to present their five favourite pens, and talk about them. It's kind of laid back and enjoyable.

Daly

satis wrote:

Daly de Gagne wrote:
> If I was in the US I'd probably buy from Goulet Pens.

I've heard good things about Wonderpens; I *think* a few years ago I
ordered an inexpensive Platinum Carbon Desk Pen from them, but can't
remember for sure.

When I started using fountain pens I used Goulet. Brian Goulet seems
like a really nice guy, and his company offers excellent service. But
he's friends and occasional business partners with Noodlers Inks owner
Nathan Tardif, a person with some firm political opinions with which I
disagree, and which leaked into his business. For example in order to
mock political candidate Bernie Sanders he introduced Berning red
“a red for lefties that dries fast" - a play on (a) "Bernie", (b)
Red = communist & (c) left-handed writers needing a quicker-drying ink
to prevent smudges, as well as Brexit Blue (a permanent ink favoring
Britain's "independence" from oppression).

There are other examples.

I purchase a lot of ink sample vials and to replace Goulet I've switched
to vanness1938.com - essentially the same stock and customer service.
And if you like Brian's excellent YouTube videos be sure to check out
the ones from Anderson Pens. Anderson is located in the American
Midwest, and they have a strong online presence in addition to
brick-and-mortar stores.

Daly de Gagne wrote:

Satis, I'm aware of Nathan Tardif's politics, about which you and I
would agree. However, I confess that I use Noodler's inks, primarily the
ones which are waterproof/eternal. Much as I love fountain pens, I am
paranoid about damaging/losing notes due to water damage

I don't know what colors you tend to use but for permanent black ink I enthusiastically recommend Platinum Carbon Black. It's my primary black ink, permanent, and is not hard to clean out of my pens. At $25 for 60ml it's not cheap but to me it's about the best permanent black out there. YouTube's AnInkGuy just reviewed it recently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh9Bm_JpMU4

For a permanent dark-grey/black consider Monteverde Documental Black (they also make a Documental Blue). For other colors you might want to look at Platinum's fairly recent line of Iron Gall inks, which are water resistant but not as permanent as the Carbon or Documental inks. I recently tried Platinum Cassis Black, which is actually a nice unsaturated Burgundy (which I successfully used for margin notes), and it worked well with the steel nib pen I put it in, and with my usual Rhodia and Kokuyo notepads. Nice overview here:

https://mountainofink.com/blog/platinum-cassis-black

FYI I just visited Reddit's fountain pen forum and was shocked to learn that Tardif just put his foot in it again, this time raising such a row among our little community that he had to apologize for ink labels which put horns on Jewish people on his in bottles, like this one for Bernake Red!

https://i.redd.it/rkz509kffjy81.jpg

Seems he'd also made another ink whose label featured former Federal Reserve Chairs Volcker, Bernanke, and Greenspan, placing a halo over Volcker’s Christian head and horns on the other two Jewish men.

If anyone is unfamiliar with the antisemitic nature of the 'horns of Moses':

https://www.commentary.org/articles/norman-cohn/the-horns-of-mosesold-symbols-and-new-meanings/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/42944790

I'd long ago given up on considering purchasing Noodlers so I hadn't paid any attention to this until today. But apparently community displeasure had been brewing for months and Tardif made a public apology only after Brian Goulet announced earlier today that he's "halted" sales of the 100+ Noodlers products he sells. (Given their personal and professional dealings I lamentably expect sales to resume once all ink bottles get relabeled.)

satis wrote:

FYI I just visited Reddit's fountain pen forum and was shocked to learn
that Tardif just put his foot in it again

What a shame. Did you know Isaac Newton's personal recipe for iron gall ink survives in his notes, written in his hand with his homegrown ink? He changed science with quill, ink of his own concoction, and genius.

Others, of course, have employed pen and ink for less noble pursuits.

Heh, I mention Neal Stephenson's "Baroque Cycle" once again simply because Newton is one of the major characters in it – as are a number of leading 17th century geniuses, including the astonishing (but much underrated) Robert Hooke, as well as Gottfried (von) Leibniz.

Stephenson does an amazing job of conveying their brilliance – and specifically mentions the fact that Newton mixes and uses his own inks (just like Leonardo da Vinci, who had, however, rather less success, judging by the fading of his most famous paintings). He also does a great job of showing the overlaps between alchemy, natural science and philosophy (or rather, how in those days they were all much the same thing, but gradually drifted apart).

He also does a great job of reminding us how multilingual these people all were (Latin, English, French, German, Italian, all more or less as a matter of course, certainly among the aristocracy, but even amongst the middle-class).

Cheers!
Bill

By chance, I found in Anne-Laure Le Cunff's Maker Mind email post today this reference to Maggie Appelton writing on the importance of the daily note.

https://maggieappleton.com/daily-notes

Daily notes in written form have been with us for a long time long time, but in programs such as Obsidian and Logseq take on a new life. Appelton's post is worth a read.

Daly

Satis, thanks for the information. I did not realize the antisemitic aspects of Tardif's politics and labeling.

When today did Brian Goulet announce he was stopping Noodler's sales? I checked his site after reading your post, but could find no reference to it.

The horns are shocking! I have no tolerance for antisemitism and other forms of ethnic/racial prejudice.

I will be buying other brands of ink when I visit Wonder Pens next month. I appreciate your giving examples of water resistant inks. I need to find substitutes for Baystate Blue, Lexington Grey, Legal Lapis, and Hunter's Green, so suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Daly



satis wrote:

Daly de Gagne wrote:
> Satis, I'm aware of Nathan Tardif's politics, about which you and I
>would agree. However, I confess that I use Noodler's inks, primarily
the
>ones which are waterproof/eternal. Much as I love fountain pens, I am
>paranoid about damaging/losing notes due to water damage

I don't know what colors you tend to use but for permanent black ink I
enthusiastically recommend Platinum Carbon Black. It's my primary black
ink, permanent, and is not hard to clean out of my pens. At $25 for 60ml
it's not cheap but to me it's about the best permanent black out there.
YouTube's AnInkGuy just reviewed it recently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh9Bm_JpMU4

For a permanent dark-grey/black consider Monteverde Documental Black
(they also make a Documental Blue). For other colors you might want to
look at Platinum's fairly recent line of Iron Gall inks, which are water
resistant but not as permanent as the Carbon or Documental inks. I
recently tried Platinum Cassis Black, which is actually a nice
unsaturated Burgundy (which I successfully used for margin notes), and
it worked well with the steel nib pen I put it in, and with my usual
Rhodia and Kokuyo notepads. Nice overview here:

https://mountainofink.com/blog/platinum-cassis-black

FYI I just visited Reddit's fountain pen forum and was shocked to learn
that Tardif just put his foot in it again, this time raising such a row
among our little community that he had to apologize for ink labels which
put horns on Jewish people on his in bottles, like this one for Bernake
Red!

https://i.redd.it/rkz509kffjy81.jpg

Seems he'd also made another ink whose label featured former Federal
Reserve Chairs Volcker, Bernanke, and Greenspan, placing a halo over
Volcker’s Christian head and horns on the other two Jewish men.

If anyone is unfamiliar with the antisemitic nature of the 'horns of
Moses':

https://www.commentary.org/articles/norman-cohn/the-horns-of-mosesold-symbols-and-new-meanings/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/42944790

I'd long ago given up on considering purchasing Noodlers so I hadn't
paid any attention to this until today. But apparently community
displeasure had been brewing for months and Tardif made a public apology
only after Brian Goulet announced earlier today that he's "halted" sales
of the 100+ Noodlers products he sells. (Given their personal and
professional dealings I lamentably expect sales to resume once all ink
bottles get relabeled.)

Satis, I just checked Brian Goulet's site again, and went to the actual listing of Noodler's Inks. Each individual ink is showing "out of stock". Brian is putting his money where his mouth is because, as far as I can see over the years, Noodler's is a big seller for him.

Daly

Yes, I noted he said he was suspending sales, which corresponded with Tardif’s apology. My point is that given his personal and business relations with him, I anticipate resumption of sales at some point

Daly, Brian Goulet made the announcement that he was “halting” sales on his instagram page

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cdbd8nluxI6/

Thanks m b!

Satis, not sure how I got the m b, when what I was intendinvy to write was "Thanks, Satis!"

Daly de Gagne wrote:

Thanks m b!