Subscribe to Love Mondays newsletter updates via email »
LM: #356: Niklas Luhmann: A very Raphael Leonardo
Day one of Niklas Luhmann’s professorship, he announced: “My project: theory of society. Duration: thirty years.”
The German sociologist went on to publish a gigantic, two-volume, 1,200-page book. Topic: theory of society. Time to complete: thirty years.
It seems you’d have to be a Raphael to state such a bold plan up-front, then follow it to a T.
WANT TO WRITE A BOOK?
Download your FREE copy of How to Write a Book »
(for a limited time)
But Luhmann actually had a very inductive, Leonardo, approach.
As he read, he took notes. He built those notes into articles. He built those articles into books. He built those books into his magnum opus.
By the time he was done he had published over 500 times, building up a database – aka Zettelkasten – of 90,000 paper notes.
We tend to think we’ll roll out of bed one day to dig into a well of untapped discipline and finish our masterpieces. But it often comes from creating a workflow that balances our curiosity to explore with a commitment to regularly shipping, so the small things build into big ones.
Aphorism: “The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people. But if he refrains from molesting others in what concerns them, and merely acts according to his own inclination and judgment in things which concern himself, the same reasons which show that opinion should be free, prove also that he should be allowed, without molestation, to carry his opinions into practice at his own cost.” —John Stuart Mill
Cool: The RØDE NT1 Signature Series (Amazon) is an inexpensive but very high quality condenser mic (for recording in quiet environments).
Best,
David
P.S. My approach to Zettelkasten.
