Sometimes the best thing you can do for an idea is to not touch it for a while, giving it a chance to simmer or ferment. When stuck, a solution might appear once you've given yourself enough distance and perhaps focused on other things—similar to 'shower thoughts', but in this context the timeframe can be over days, weeks, or months.

Practically speaking, this can be a useful strategy to allow something already clear to refine itself. For example, when publishing an announcement or sending correspondence, it's common to wait until the moment of publishing to both write and send. But scribbling scraps down before the idea is complete, way back at the moment of realizing it needs to be done (even if it's just random words or fragments), can trigger a capture mechanism to perceive related ideas; Capturing creates a space for 'the answer to go'. The earlier you jot down notes, the more opportunities you'll have to glance it over and notice improvements and ways to tie everything together. Counter to the stressful approach of an accelerated culture that does things as fast as possible: the longer it takes here, the more flavourful the result.

If you've published your idea, the rest of the world needs time to become aware that it exists. You can help the process by promoting it, but at a certain point it's in the hands of other people to try it out and share via word of mouth. While that's happening, a popular habit is to keep grinding away, but it can also be enough to leave the idea as it is and let time pass: you might avoid burning out while also returning with a fresh perspective that helps you work smarter instead of harder.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for an idea is to not touch it for a while, giving it a chance to simmer or ferment. When stuck, a solution might appear once you've given yourself enough distance and perhaps focused on other things—similar to 'shower thoughts', but in this context the timeframe can be over days, weeks, or months.

Practically speaking, this can be a useful strategy to allow something already clear to refine itself. For example, when publishing an announcement or sending correspondence, it's common to wait until the moment of publishing to both write and send. But scribbling scraps down before the idea is complete, way back at the moment of realizing it needs to be done (even if it's just random words or fragments), can trigger a capture mechanism to perceive related ideas; Capturing creates a space for 'the answer to go'. The earlier you jot down notes, the more opportunities you'll have to glance it over and notice improvements and ways to tie everything together. Counter to the stressful approach of an accelerated culture that does things as fast as possible: the longer it takes here, the more flavourful the result.

If you've published your idea, the rest of the world needs time to become aware that it exists. You can help the process by promoting it, but at a certain point it's in the hands of other people to try it out and share via word of mouth. While that's happening, a popular habit is to keep grinding away, but it can also be enough to leave the idea as it is and let time pass: you might avoid burning out while also returning with a fresh perspective that helps you work smarter instead of harder.

I have been satisfied with various versions of my productivity trinity since the late 2000s: developing reflexes to note things down as they occur, put them where I'm likely to encounter them again, and deal with them at the appropriate moment; this served me well for to-dos, writing, programming, and most of my personal projects. Since acquiring my first iPhone 3G in 2009, with the ability to record voice memos that can be synced to the computer, I hoped my system would naturally extend to music at some point—it didn't, until 2022.

The problem was that I captured musical ideas and then didn't do anything with it afterwards, lacking the 'organize' and 'purge' phases of the trinity. Part of this has to do with the tools (first, Apple's Voice Memos app, then, my own Quick Record) as they are not designed for much other than capture: you need to export and move ideas to another app in order to organize or expand them. Although there are plenty of apps for music production or developing musical ideas, I also got stuck on the (perhaps programmer-minded) idea of trying to turn each audio fragment I record into some kind of abstract 'module' that can be incorporated in various projects—musical Lego blocks, each with their own ID number, perfectly encapsulated from any specific context—and although this might be achievable, and perhaps even useful, it requires the labour of cataloguing and classifying, which makes the trinity complex: plausible with tens of ideas, less so with hundreds or thousands if you have other things to do. I ended up accumulating about three thousand recordings of singing, piano, guitar, ambience, noise, and nature, without 'turning them into something', and this is for lack of some way to let the ideas mingle together.

My ideal workflow would be something that lets you put groups of ideas together and lay them out in various ways. Although I generally avoid using spatial canvases to organize ideas, something like Muse would be super useful here, but then it would require switching apps to create something musical after organizing; wouldn't it be great to use that interface to organize the data of a different app? For now, I settled on the session view in Ableton Live, which I find spatially cramped (and unfortunately lacking any mobile or tablet interface), but it allows me to improvise and mash up musical ideas in a non-linear way and then easily move into a traditional linear timeline view afterwards; the interface enables a kind of serendipity which led me to create this jungle / drum and bass track after accidentally hearing two things that sounded nice together.

Focusing on a 'song' as the context or shelf (to lay down good, bad, related, and unrelated ideas) strangely makes the fragments seem easier to reuse and repurpose than when I tried to 'abstract' them away into isolated blocks: there's meaning to each song, and that meaning is memorable, which makes the ideas findable; in contrast, making a folder or project for each fragment lacks personal significance, which makes them fade away, effectively designed to disappear.

I'm excited to have finally—after thirteen years—figured out an approach that synthesizes my tendencies towards note-taking and organizing information with creating music. So far, the result of making music for Strolling is a growing album of short sketches, each with a different vibe. Perhaps one day I might even create my own tool that makes this process even easier.

I have been satisfied with various versions of my productivity trinity since the late 2000s: developing reflexes to note things down as they occur, put them where I'm likely to encounter them again, and deal with them at the appropriate moment; this served me well for to-dos, writing, programming, and most of my personal projects. Since acquiring my first iPhone 3G in 2009, with the ability to record voice memos that can be synced to the computer, I hoped my system would naturally extend to music at some point—it didn't, until 2022.

The problem was that I captured musical ideas and then didn't do anything with it afterwards, lacking the 'organize' and 'purge' phases of the trinity. Part of this has to do with the tools (first, Apple's Voice Memos app, then, my own Quick Record) as they are not designed for much other than capture: you need to export and move ideas to another app in order to organize or expand them. Although there are plenty of apps for music production or developing musical ideas, I also got stuck on the (perhaps programmer-minded) idea of trying to turn each audio fragment I record into some kind of abstract 'module' that can be incorporated in various projects—musical Lego blocks, each with their own ID number, perfectly encapsulated from any specific context—and although this might be achievable, and perhaps even useful, it requires the labour of cataloguing and classifying, which makes the trinity complex: plausible with tens of ideas, less so with hundreds or thousands if you have other things to do. I ended up accumulating about three thousand recordings of singing, piano, guitar, ambience, noise, and nature, without 'turning them into something', and this is for lack of some way to let the ideas mingle together.

My ideal workflow would be something that lets you put groups of ideas together and lay them out in various ways. Although I generally avoid using spatial canvases to organize ideas, something like Muse would be super useful here, but then it would require switching apps to create something musical after organizing; wouldn't it be great to use that interface to organize the data of a different app? For now, I settled on the session view in Ableton Live, which I find spatially cramped (and unfortunately lacking any mobile or tablet interface), but it allows me to improvise and mash up musical ideas in a non-linear way and then easily move into a traditional linear timeline view afterwards; the interface enables a kind of serendipity which led me to create this jungle / drum and bass track after accidentally hearing two things that sounded nice together.

Focusing on a 'song' as the context or shelf (to lay down good, bad, related, and unrelated ideas) strangely makes the fragments seem easier to reuse and repurpose than when I tried to 'abstract' them away into isolated blocks: there's meaning to each song, and that meaning is memorable, which makes the ideas findable; in contrast, making a folder or project for each fragment lacks personal significance, which makes them fade away, effectively designed to disappear.

I'm excited to have finally—after thirteen years—figured out an approach that synthesizes my tendencies towards note-taking and organizing information with creating music. So far, the result of making music for Strolling is a growing album of short sketches, each with a different vibe. Perhaps one day I might even create my own tool that makes this process even easier.

I often say that formally studying music "broke my soul into a thousand pieces which I'm slowly putting back together again". It has been a process for me to make more music, feel comfortable with performing and improvising as well as thinking about composition.

This performance of some improvisation and a few songs from Joyce Moreno's album Revendo Amigos (1994) symbolizes for me an evolution to a more holistic relationship with music, less affected by my own dogmas and that of the institutions I participated in, more marked by a desire to share and an acknowledgement of my own abilities and how I relate to the world.

In preparation, I used some inner feedback loops that helped me developed a comfort with mistakes, with the sound of my voice, with my inchoate abilities on a new instrument. There is still a part of me that wants to professionalize everything, but it's more under control. I can enjoy this for what it is, I can own this, I can be proud of this. It's an expansive space: I have more to do here.

The music below is not completely refined and presented with imperfections, but it's a very strong message to myself that I hope to remember beyond the moment of its creation.

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I often say that formally studying music "broke my soul into a thousand pieces which I'm slowly putting back together again". It has been a process for me to make more music, feel comfortable with performing and improvising as well as thinking about composition.

This performance of some improvisation and a few songs from Joyce Moreno's album Revendo Amigos (1994) symbolizes for me an evolution to a more holistic relationship with music, less affected by my own dogmas and that of the institutions I participated in, more marked by a desire to share and an acknowledgement of my own abilities and how I relate to the world.

In preparation, I used some inner feedback loops that helped me developed a comfort with mistakes, with the sound of my voice, with my inchoate abilities on a new instrument. There is still a part of me that wants to professionalize everything, but it's more under control. I can enjoy this for what it is, I can own this, I can be proud of this. It's an expansive space: I have more to do here.

The music below is not completely refined and presented with imperfections, but it's a very strong message to myself that I hope to remember beyond the moment of its creation.

---

This is a term describing the high proliferation of music schools that train students to become professionals in a field with few opportunities for work, which leads to the proposed solution of higher education for these students so that they can teach the next generation to begin the cycle anew.

The music scene becomes flooded with these graduates to the point the genre itself becomes dominated by professionals. This 'professionalization' causes the music to suffer by prioritizing representation for output that is deemed 'good music' thus reducing representation for the community aspect of music-making as well as the perception of music as an informal activity for people to connect with one another.

The genre of jazz was founded by musicians without recognition and degrees but is mostly represented today by people who studied in these schools. It would be strange to imagine other genres like pop, country, hip-hop, electronic, rock represented by 'graduates' of their respective institutions, and what would that mean for range of creative output available to experience?

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Reply with a comment.

This is a term describing the high proliferation of music schools that train students to become professionals in a field with few opportunities for work, which leads to the proposed solution of higher education for these students so that they can teach the next generation to begin the cycle anew.

The music scene becomes flooded with these graduates to the point the genre itself becomes dominated by professionals. This 'professionalization' causes the music to suffer by prioritizing representation for output that is deemed 'good music' thus reducing representation for the community aspect of music-making as well as the perception of music as an informal activity for people to connect with one another.

The genre of jazz was founded by musicians without recognition and degrees but is mostly represented today by people who studied in these schools. It would be strange to imagine other genres like pop, country, hip-hop, electronic, rock represented by 'graduates' of their respective institutions, and what would that mean for range of creative output available to experience?

---

Reply with a comment.

Communities all over the world are being divided according to their polital ideologies. Despite intentions that 'technology will bring us closer together', the echo chambers fueled by social networks, mainstream media, and divisive politicians, are not helping us collectively advance on impactful and existential issues like inequality, injustice, and climate change.

A counteraction is talking to people outside your bubble. This is easier said than done, but it might be less intimidating when pursued with one or more deliberate motivations (intentions), for example:

• 'to further your political objectives' – if you 'succeed' it puts more force behind your movement, if you 'fail' it was feedback for the next attempt. Nothing was lost.
• 'to embody the alternative' – you might be the only person someone encounters who thinks a certain way, and they might not ever be exposed to certain ideas or perspectives otherwise.
• 'to discover common language, shared values' – with practice you develop trust and a larger space in which to connect and exchange.

These approaches treat interactions as a process, not about specific outcomes. Each interaction makes you better for the next one, similar to fire mindset.

[[Cancelling breaks social fabric, call in over call out.]]

Examples

• Beau of the Fifth Column speaking simultaneously to american progressives and conservatives
• Contrapoints addressing contentious topics on the Internet and speaking (indirectly) to trolls
• Anthony Bourdain breaking bread and having fun with people whose beliefs strongly differ from his
• More extreme example that I forget the specific details of: 'A politician inviting herself to have dinner at the home of her haters as a means to build trust and foster dialogue'

Communities all over the world are being divided according to their polital ideologies. Despite intentions that 'technology will bring us closer together', the echo chambers fueled by social networks, mainstream media, and divisive politicians, are not helping us collectively advance on impactful and existential issues like inequality, injustice, and climate change.

A counteraction is talking to people outside your bubble. This is easier said than done, but it might be less intimidating when pursued with one or more deliberate motivations (intentions), for example:

• 'to further your political objectives' – if you 'succeed' it puts more force behind your movement, if you 'fail' it was feedback for the next attempt. Nothing was lost.
• 'to embody the alternative' – you might be the only person someone encounters who thinks a certain way, and they might not ever be exposed to certain ideas or perspectives otherwise.
• 'to discover common language, shared values' – with practice you develop trust and a larger space in which to connect and exchange.

These approaches treat interactions as a process, not about specific outcomes. Each interaction makes you better for the next one, similar to fire mindset.

[[Cancelling breaks social fabric, call in over call out.]]

Examples

• Beau of the Fifth Column speaking simultaneously to american progressives and conservatives
• Contrapoints addressing contentious topics on the Internet and speaking (indirectly) to trolls
• Anthony Bourdain breaking bread and having fun with people whose beliefs strongly differ from his
• More extreme example that I forget the specific details of: 'A politician inviting herself to have dinner at the home of her haters as a means to build trust and foster dialogue'

Divide social activity in digital spaces into two categories: discussion and reference.

Most activity is discussion: news or blog updates, shared links, forum discussions, microblogging hot takes, comments, private or group messages, livestreaming, newsletters. They speak to a particular moment in time.

Examples of reference can include: wikis, git repositories, project documentation, question/answer sites or FAQs, indexes. These resources are not directly concerned with specific moments in time — they attempt to be organized according to context and relevance.

Discussion begins to fade the moment it is published. It can be temporarily revived (bumped) by some kind of activity or update, but this itself is a form of discussion that begins to fade on arrival.

The effect of this 'fading' is that whatever was gained through discourse becomes more difficult to find with time, as newer content takes precedence — the reverse-chronological organization of most technology makes things designed to disappear, and digital systems generally do not remind us that there is a cost to keeping things forever. Technology is inconsiderate.

Combat this ephemerality by

• capturing ideas into reference as often as possible
• deliberately making older content less accessible
• warning about any false sense of findability

Something needs to be lost, there must be some cost to keep things around. As an example, an engineer at Stripe talks about how

they automatically delete chat messages older than a few weeks to discourage relying on it for long-term archival. In retrospectives, team members often reflect on whether they chose the right medium (email, chat, or forum) for various conversations.

Discussion is necessary for exploring possibilities without friction. Reference gives longevity to the results.

Compare the possibilities enabled by these scenarios

discussion	reference
send a quote of an article to a friend or post it on your timeline	compile similar resources and build a larger idea from small disparate pieces
search for an idea by scrolling through a reverse-chronological archive	browse by context and stumble upon something related but unexpected

The Wikum project is a web-based platform that integrates discussion and collaborative summarization.

Divide social activity in digital spaces into two categories: discussion and reference.

Most activity is discussion: news or blog updates, shared links, forum discussions, microblogging hot takes, comments, private or group messages, livestreaming, newsletters. They speak to a particular moment in time.

Examples of reference can include: wikis, git repositories, project documentation, question/answer sites or FAQs, indexes. These resources are not directly concerned with specific moments in time — they attempt to be organized according to context and relevance.

Discussion begins to fade the moment it is published. It can be temporarily revived (bumped) by some kind of activity or update, but this itself is a form of discussion that begins to fade on arrival.

The effect of this 'fading' is that whatever was gained through discourse becomes more difficult to find with time, as newer content takes precedence — the reverse-chronological organization of most technology makes things designed to disappear, and digital systems generally do not remind us that there is a cost to keeping things forever. Technology is inconsiderate.

Combat this ephemerality by

• capturing ideas into reference as often as possible
• deliberately making older content less accessible
• warning about any false sense of findability

Something needs to be lost, there must be some cost to keep things around. As an example, an engineer at Stripe talks about how

they automatically delete chat messages older than a few weeks to discourage relying on it for long-term archival. In retrospectives, team members often reflect on whether they chose the right medium (email, chat, or forum) for various conversations.

Discussion is necessary for exploring possibilities without friction. Reference gives longevity to the results.

Compare the possibilities enabled by these scenarios

discussion	reference
send a quote of an article to a friend or post it on your timeline	compile similar resources and build a larger idea from small disparate pieces
search for an idea by scrolling through a reverse-chronological archive	browse by context and stumble upon something related but unexpected

The Wikum project is a web-based platform that integrates discussion and collaborative summarization.