I can't remember where I first saw this little meme/macro above; it was probably on are.na (which is hopelessly hip Pinterest). Despite being hopelessly hip, the artsy nerds on are.na have that,  je ne sais quoi, that creative spark that has been vacuumed up from a lot of the internet these days.

Anyway, this little image has been in my "communication resources" notes for about three years now, and it still gives me the fizz every time I read it. I work with complex systems every day, or even worse, integrating two or more complex systems to complete a task or objective. Rarely are answers simple. The best kinds of answers are always clear. Steps are provided, analysis is available if requested. Notes are taken and shared.

Where is this all leading?

One of my books for February is Sönke Ahrens' How to Take Smart Notes (2017), which already in the first 3 or 4 chapters has brought about a paradigm shift to the way I will approach reading, thinking, and writing in the future. The reading and the thinking are hard work, but by having a reliable note-taking process to reference your ideas generated by the reading and the thinking, you can then breeze into the writing (or so I've been lead to believe!). It all seems so simple when I write it out: my notes are not complex. They're clear. They always have been. I just haven't been trusting the process, my brain, or who knows what else.

The notes are the planning. The planning is in the notes. And... 

"The comfort comes from the plan, not the achievable outcomes."

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I'm Tyler Dickey, and this is my blog/newsletter thing that I think should have a proper title, but the only thing harder than actually sitting down regularly to write is coming up with a title for anything. In this, as yet unnamed space, I celebrate my never-ending love for unrestricted and interoperable services like RSS, Email, and telephony. And write about topics that interest me: art, making things, technology, among others.

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