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Learning is a creative, artistic endeavor that cannot be planned in advance. The process must allow for thinking, doing, failing, reflecting and a whole host of other activities that are nonlinear in nature.

Niklas Luhmann, the son of a brewer in Germany, graduated from law school in the late 1940s and became a public administrator. Not much for socializing, he read after his typical 9-5 shift on a wide array of topics like sociology, philosophy, politics and social systems theory. Like many people, Luhmann wrote notes in the margins, placed slips of paper with handwritten notes between pages and even organized notes by topics of interest in folders. Unlike many people, Luhmann noticed the meager fruits of his labor. The notes he collected did not amount to much.

Smart Notes is a fun read, packed with an amazing amount of useful information that is not limited to effective note-taking. You will find forays into what distinguishes creative people, how to avoid staring at a blank page, how to avoid distractions in your work, how to keep an open mind, how to avoid the need for willpower, how memory works in the brain and much more!

This particular sketch is inspired by Sönke Ahrens and his fabulous book "How to Take Smart Notes." One of my key takeaways is the transformational idea that writing is the medium of understanding.