Reading in the Margins and Writing Between the Lines: Weird Ways of Reading & Writing to Keep You Focused, Productive, and Doing Your Best Work

?? This article is adapted from?The Creative Algorithm, my Substack newsletter about creativity, technology, and the human condition.?Go check it out. It's free!

???? Patiqued Reading

I used to treat my books like they were Fabergé eggs: precious, irreplaceable objects that needed a delicate hand and a light touch to read with care. That might have something to do with growing up in a struggling middle-class family, where purchasing a book, even a paperback, was considered a luxury. Luckily my mom indulged herself in this extravagance by taking holiday excursions to used bookstores in the big city of Winnipeg (where I was born).

I certainly don’t mean to turn this into a woeful biography, but suffice it to say I never enjoyed lending my books to friends or roommates. I would witness the horror of bent and crimped covers, dog-eared pages, and broken spines—all mostly due to the lackadaisical attitude that bookmarks were not worth the effort.

But mid-career, something changed.

After some Creative Direction for a luxury furniture brand, I discovered that sometimes ‘the rich’ have the right attitude. One could argue that they can?afford?to have this attitude, but it’s not quite as simple as that. Let me explain.

You see, all of this company’s furniture was made from?real?wood (not that compressed particle dust you get from IKEA). Many of the finer details of a cabinet top or chair leg were handcrafted. A small dining room table might cost you over ten thousand dollars. This was considered a modest investment because said table would stay in the family for generations.

And here’s where it finally gets interesting, dear reader. One of the selling features of this brand—after spending many thousands of dollars—was that it?banged up real good. I know that’s not proper grammar, yet it captures the feature perfectly. A furniture rep explained it to me like this: “Our furniture is meant to be used and appreciated. It can take a real beating.?Even?when your maid repeatedly bangs the vacuum cleaner against it, this only adds to its charm and authenticity.”

I learned three things from this conversation:

• The word?maid?makes me feel poor and uncomfortable.
• The portmanteau for?patinaed?(changing colour due to aging) and?antiqued?(scratched, dinged, bumped) is?patiqued. (If you’re poor, you call it a beat-up old table. If you’re rich, you call it a?patiqued?heirloom.)
• The best thing you can do with your worldly possessions is actually?use?them, enjoy them, let them get weathered and worn—and that includes books.

Today, when I read books (or use any of my creative tools, for that matter), I try not to think of them as precious objects. No more Fabergé eggs. I treat them like a medium designed to convey information. I underline and highlight things. I scribble notes in the margins. My books actually look like someone?reads?them. And more recently, I discovered the most comprehensive way to capture and catalogue the analog book-reading process—and it’s a page-turner! ???? ♂?

Enter Alex Wieckowski. He’s basically a professional reader (how cool is that) and teaches courses on how to squeeze the most out of books. (His latest course is called?The Art of Reading.) His method is astoundingly simple and effective, yet rarely implemented for one simple reason: people are afraid to mark up their own books. Once you get over that fact (or repurchase all of your books in Kindle format), you can revel in your own purposeful graffiti.

Here is Alex’s basic book-reading information retention and accessibility system:

• Record the Start Date: On the inside front cover,?write down the date you started reading the book.
• Mark Relevant Information: As you read,?highlight or underline important information?or insights that resonate with you. This could be anything from key points, interesting facts, or quotes that you find valuable.
• Create a Custom Table of Contents: Create your own table of contents on the book's inside front cover (under the date). For every piece of information you highlight,?write down the page number and a brief note on why you found it interesting. This creates a quick reference guide for you to revisit later.

• Use a Star System for Importance: In your custom table of contents,?put a star next to the information you find particularly important or impactful. This helps you quickly identify key points when skimming through your notes later.
• Distill the Information: After reading the book, it's time to distill the information. On the left side of the back inside cover,?write down the most important lessons you've learned in your own words. This helps to reinforce the information and makes it easier to remember.
• Record the Finish Date: On the back inside cover,?write down the date you finished the book. This gives you data around how long it took to read, as well as when this book entered (and perhaps impacted) your life.
• Express the Lessons as Actionable Advice: The final step in the note-taking process is to express the lessons you've learned. On the inside of the back cover,?write down how you're going to apply these lessons in your life. This turns theoretical knowledge into practical, actionable advice.

• Transition to Digital Notes: After a few days of finishing the book, revisit your notes. Aim to find three key lessons and three pieces of actionable advice.?Write a summary of these lessons and advice in a digital format, such as an email newsletter, blog post, or digital note.

Remember, the goal of this method is not just to take notes but to create a “second brain” that you can refer back to at any time. It's about turning the insights you gain from books into practical advice you can apply. And it’s about treating your books like the information-rich sources of wisdom they were meant to be.

??????? FlowWriter

~ one of the biggest challenges I have when writing content is getting into a flow state// i tend to write as though I’m already responsible for the final draft, instead of letting ideas (and sentences) pour onto the page for future refinement// this perfectionist attitude can make writing excruciatingly slow and stilted// the pressure to get it right the first time often means putting it off and not getting any writing done at all//

~ luckily I stumbled across Clive Thompson’s?One Weird Trick for Writing a First Draft?article on Medium// at first glance I was like, what? but after trying it out a few times, I understood the genius: write like nobody’s reading// that’s what the flow state is// it’s about not breaking the momentum of a thought// it’s about not turning into an editor mid-sentence and killing the throughput// it’s about trying not to snip the wires that bring electricity from your brain onto the page//

~ and how does this process work? well, it’s all done with a few very simple formatting rules that serve to let you write freely yet ensure that you’ll be back to finesse every single line//

• Begin each paragraph with a tilde: Start each new paragraph with a tilde (~) (or a hyphen (-) for applications that don’t automatically turn dashes into bullets). This creates a visual break and separates each idea or point you're making.

~ this is how you should begin every new paragraph: with a tilde// feel free to use a hyphen instead of a tilde, but it only with applications that don’t auto-convert it into a bullet point//

• Begin each sentence in lowercase: When starting a new sentence, do not capitalize the first letter as you would traditionally. Instead, keep it in lowercase.

this is how you should begin every sentence: in lowercase//

• End each sentence with two forward slashes: Instead of using a period (.) to end your sentences, use two forward slashes (//). The only exceptions are sentences ending in a question mark (?) or exclamation point (!).

this is how you should end every sentence//

This unique formatting style is designed to make your writing feel provisional and less ‘official’, which can help reduce the fear of getting started and make you less attached to your initial wording. It doesn’t take long to get the hang of, and there’s something strangely freeing and temporary in its practice.

Once you've completed your first draft, leave it in this format while you review and revise. This can help you see your writing as malleable, making it easier to make changes without feeling overly attached.

When you're ready to finalize your draft (such as the day before submission), focus on refining your word choice, tempo, and phrasing.?Then?start transforming each sentence into the correct format. This involves removing the tilde (or hyphen) at the start of each paragraph, capitalizing the first letter of sentences, and replacing the double forward slashes with periods.

While this technique is specific to Clive Thompson and might not work for everyone, it’s a great reminder that almost everything we do can be hacked to compensate for our foibles or optimize for strengths. As someone who loves experimenting with various creative and productivity methods, I found Thompson’s quirky flow-state writing technique fascinating.

?? This article is adapted from?The Creative Algorithm, my Substack newsletter about creativity, technology, and the human condition.?Go check it out. It's free!