Your archival work keeps revealing the same pattern. The infrastructure behind creative output. Grimms cataloging 700+ books with margin notes, Brontës' scribble mania on every scrap, now Franklin tracking virtues daily for decades. The romantic myth obscures the systematic labor. Writers resist this because it feels mechanical, but Franklin carried that little book his entire life. Tracked, erased, tracked again. That's how sustained work happens. Really compelling research. 🐦⬛
Love this! Franklin as the O.G. of American self-improvement and individualism. Also of "dot journaling" 😂 I just visited his grave in Philadelphia and was amazed by the veneration that people still bring to the site - a kind of civic pilgrimage still happening today.
I spent 30 years working just blocks away from Franklin's home in Philly. Walking those same streets, I often found myself imagining his mindset. Considering the sheer volume of his inventions and organizations, you realize that his note-taking wasn't just a habit—it was the engine behind his legacy. Great look into a brilliant mind!
Love this! He was so ahead of his time and we still have so much to learn from him. His descriptions of virtues are on point, but I think Silence and Frugality are my favourite. We need to work hard on them. A good friend of mine travels and moves a lot for work, but Franklin's Autobiography is the one book he always brings along.
Your archival work keeps revealing the same pattern. The infrastructure behind creative output. Grimms cataloging 700+ books with margin notes, Brontës' scribble mania on every scrap, now Franklin tracking virtues daily for decades. The romantic myth obscures the systematic labor. Writers resist this because it feels mechanical, but Franklin carried that little book his entire life. Tracked, erased, tracked again. That's how sustained work happens. Really compelling research. 🐦⬛
You put it so well Jennifer! Yes--great writers and artists make it look *so* easy. But their notes almost always reveal a different story.
Looking forward to what you uncover next. 🐦⬛
I'd never heard of the bread erasure -- or why paper didn't last. Fascinating!
I thought so too!
Love this! Franklin as the O.G. of American self-improvement and individualism. Also of "dot journaling" 😂 I just visited his grave in Philadelphia and was amazed by the veneration that people still bring to the site - a kind of civic pilgrimage still happening today.
Love all the evidence that people still care about history!
Did you throw a penny on his grave??
Of course! And right before they swept up the collection for the night.
This brings home for me the importance of notebooks - which seems insignificant at first - But it was “ technology “ that changed the world .
Yes! So true!
Beautiful and inspiring piece. ❤️
I spent 30 years working just blocks away from Franklin's home in Philly. Walking those same streets, I often found myself imagining his mindset. Considering the sheer volume of his inventions and organizations, you realize that his note-taking wasn't just a habit—it was the engine behind his legacy. Great look into a brilliant mind!
Love this! He was so ahead of his time and we still have so much to learn from him. His descriptions of virtues are on point, but I think Silence and Frugality are my favourite. We need to work hard on them. A good friend of mine travels and moves a lot for work, but Franklin's Autobiography is the one book he always brings along.
I have always been enchanted by him.
He was the living embodiment of the U.S. in his time, of all its flaws and virtues....
Absolutely, David.
If I remember correctly, he made a practice of sitting naked by an open window of a winter morning to stimulate his mind and begin a productive day.
He was so ahead of his time 😂
in this and in so many ways!