Writing Slowly

A child rides a bike without training wheels along a countryside path, while the removed training wheels lie discarded in the foreground with the caption TRAINING WHEELS: They have to come off sometime.

A dimly lit, endless row of open file cabinets filled with documents extends into darkness. ChatGPT made this image but it couldn't put the handles on the correct sides of the drawers.

Is there a Zettelkasten method?: https://writingslowly.com/2025/08/10/is-there-a-zettelkasten-method.html

The circle of the Shu Ha Ri developmental principle

A green book cover features the title Analysis of Shu Ha Ri in Karate-Do: When a Fighting Art Becomes a Fine Art by Hermann Bayer, Ph.D.

Mastering Any Skill, the Japanese Way: https://writingslowly.com/2025/08/10/mastering-any-skill-the-japanese.html

"“You get what the algorithm gives you. This is both a meagre blessing and a wicked curse.”
- writingslowly.com"

#indieweb #blogging

A rabbit dressed in a jacket is hastily running towards a burrow entrance in a detailed ink illustration by Arthur Rackham.

Open. free and poetic: https://writingslowly.com/2025/08/06/open-free-and-poetic.html

Plenty of ways to write online: https://writingslowly.com/2025/08/06/plenty-of-ways-to-write.html

A goat tower in a small room

A goat tower with two proud goats

The only thing that makes any sense in this context

A post about different ways of seeing and organizing, emphasizing the need for multiple perspectives in understanding vision and incorporating insights for adaptive decision-making.

Watch in awe as a fleeting thought becomes a lasting note: https://writingslowly.com/2025/08/04/watch-in-awe-as-a.html

a man with glasses is surrounded by a glowing circle and the website pmitf.com is displayed below him ALT: a man with glasses is surrounded by a glowing circle and the website pmitf.com is displayed below him

I somehow stumbled upon Obsidian and after struggling with how I should sort all my stuff into nested folders, etc., I was also introduced to the Zettelkasten style note system-

wew

Tough on spine and tough on the causes of spine.

I like it. If it gets wet, your blog will drain more easily.

The front and back cover of 'Shu Ha Ri: The Japanese Way of Learning, for Artists and Fighters', with a white and red design,. The back cover introduces the Japanese concept and its application to learning and teaching. It's authored by Richard Griffiths.

A rustic bamboo gate opens to a lush, tranquil Japanese-style garden path surrounded by trees and shrubs.

A book cover titled Shu Ha Ri: The Japanese Way of Learning, for Artists and Fighters by Richard Griffiths features Japanese kanji and a red circle design.

I've written a book and here are the details!: https://writingslowly.com/2025/08/03/ive-written-a-book-and.html

A data center server rack is filled with various cables and illuminated indicator lights.

Hot takes on our future with AI: https://writingslowly.com/2025/08/03/hot-takes-on-our-future.html

If there's more than one way of seeing, there's more than one way of organising: https://writingslowly.com/2025/07/24/if-theres-more-than-one.html

Two books labelled not for resale sit on a shelf with a plant and two sand timers, while below a cat walks past.

The cat is characteristically ecstatic to see that the proofs of the new book have arrived. Not long now before it’s published!

#amwriting #booklaunch #comingsoon #nonfiction

A stack of four notebooks is placed on a white surface next to a potted plant and an hourglass.

💬 On Notebooks and Thinking Better Thoughts

"Once we’ve let our thoughts mature for a while, we’ll want to produce something for other people to look at, an artifact."

Exactly so.

As Alan Jacobs says, reading more books and reading books more - they’re not the same thing.

A A collection of various colorful books and cards scattered on a wooden surface.

Book Machine's webpage features event details for Sydney, with a focus on the ArtSpace and Another Book Fair in 2015 and 2017, alongside images of a book cover and people working at tables.

I designed a book in three and a half hours: https://writingslowly.com/2025/07/20/i-designed-a-book-in.html

Thinking about Joanna Macy today. In memoriam. I was very influenced by her insistence on both the necessary grief and the vital hope.

Learning to make notes like Leonardo

I’m unqualified to diagnose the following writers with ADHD but I’ll do it anyway: https://writingslowly.com/2025/07/16/im-unqualified-to-diagnose-the.html

The Echoes Podcast Season 1 Episode 10

"💬 “The things that make us different, in the right context are superpowers. You know, Saul Steinberg said the thing that we respond to in any work of art is the struggle of the artist against his or her limitations.”

Austin Kleon... https://writingslowly.com/2025/07/10/the-things-that-make-us.html

Algorithms are prisons that control you: A surreal poster illustration depicts a person with their brain exposed, attached to a cage-like computer monitor with a keyboard.

Less than keen on having a ‘second brain’:

"“I only have one brain, and it’s internal, thankfully. But I’m still very happy with the idea of the ‘extended mind’. My brain remains firmly in my skull, but it nevertheless uses the e... https://writingslowly.com/2025/07/07/less-than-keen-on-having.html

Show at the Bing in #Spokane tonight at 8! My son, Lucas Brookbank Brown, is opening. #livemusic

"💬 Most attempts at providing computerised tools for writers have thrown out the affordances that previous analogue systems offered, almost without noticing their loss. - writingslowly.com on Ted Nelson’s evolutionary list file."

Why not publish all your notes online?

"“Sometimes it’s just nice to know there are other people out there quietly thinking things through.” - writingslowly.com"

A striped gray cat lies on a shelf next to a vibrant, circular abstract painting, a sculptural art piece, and a vintage lamp.

📷Photo challenge day 30: solitude.

"💬"I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me." - Rudyard Kipling."

And there’s more solitude.

#mbjune

Large stepping stones cross over a calm pond surrounded by greenery and fallen leaves.

Three colorful rainbow lorikeets perch on a railing with one in flight against a background of gum trees.

Don't let your note-making system infect you with Archive Fever: https://writingslowly.com/2025/06/30/dont-let-your-notemaking-system.html

A wooden pier extends over a rocky shoreline at sunset, with a calm body of water and a distant landmass in the background.

📷 Photo challenge day 26: bridge.

I’ve used this as a metaphor for writing, but it’s also a real bridge, of which #Sydney has many more than the famous one across the harbour. The image shows the causeway to Bare Island, at the mouth of Kamay, Botany Bay.

#mbjune

Several hoists with chains are hanging in a workshop setting, featuring a variety of metal components.

📷 Photo challenge day 28: winding.

It’s well worth taking a look inside White Bay Power Station in #Sydney - as previously seen on day 7 and day 5. Oh, and day 23 last year.

See the whole #mbjune photogrid.

A political campaign button features the text Nixon Agnew and Vote Republican along with black-and-white portraits of the two men.

📷 Photo challenge day 27: ephemeral. A reminder that our leaders don’t last forever, or even for as long as they’d like to. I spotted this election button on the very last day the Leura toy museum was open, in the Blue Mountains, just West of #Sydney.

#mbjune