Shopping lists as poetics
Borges built a whole encyclopedia out of an entry that described nothing. Your grocery list can hardly do worse.
Marginalia is a note-taking studio for readers, writers, and slow thinkers. Underline boldly, review gently every Sunday, and let essays grow out of your own margins.
Borges built a whole encyclopedia out of an entry that described nothing. Your grocery list can hardly do worse.
A second read isn't repetition — it's a conversation with the reader you used to be.
Every tab you leave open leaves a thin film on the next task. Cleaning it is a writing practice.
Three quiet habits, one notebook. No systems to maintain, no plugin garage — just the oldest writing technology there is: notes on notes.
One review, every Sunday · Twelve minutes
Clip passages from articles, books, and podcasts as you meet them. They arrive already wearing their citations like bookmarks.
clippingsauto-citationsA twelve-minute walk through what you saved. Most of it gets discarded, deliberately. What survives is actually yours.
weekly reviewdeliberate forgettingClusters of notes surface as drafts. The index writes itself; you write the part only you can write.
draftsself-writing index“I stopped storing thoughts in shoeboxes. Marginalia is the first app that reads back to me.”
Two letters a season — one on a method, one on a book. Nothing else, ever.