What a wonderful opportunity to look through these diary entries. Thank you for sharing them. I have been researching British folklore for a few years for a novel and related newsletter I'm working on, but perhaps Samuel More's travel diaries will inspire me with daily life and industry. I was curious how you manage/keep track of all of the research you perform (from a paperwork standpoint)? Do you use a tool like Mendeley Reference Manager, or do you have your own system?
Thanks. There are a great many diaries I’ve taken notes from, but this one stands out for technical detail. What period is your novel set in?
I use Zotero for referencing, but take notes in Scrivener. Lately I’ve started using Obsidian, which may end up supplanting Scrivener as it has quite a few extra features and flexibility.
Thanks for the Zotero tip; I'll have to check it out. I have quite a few PDFs that I'd like to be able to search through simultaneously, and I'm trying to determine the best way to do so. I use Scrivener, as well. I write (my novel) and keep related research notes in the same file. The novel is set in a familiar, fictional world using the 1800s (UK/US) as my starting point for folklore and everyday life. Some of the folklore collections I have include quotes/letters from primary sources, but I haven't come across any diary entries.
On top of the transparency, notes are so idiosyncratic, and we’re not taught how to take them, so I’m all for sharing what they look like at the very least so we can learn from others’ approaches.
Relatedly, I see you’re using Obsidian. It’s very tempting! Would love to read something about how it works for you to organize information.
I only started using Obsidian a few months ago, after watching a few how-to videos about it. Still learning the ropes, but it is helping for linking up common themes. I had before used Scrivener (and still do - haven’t quite made the switch fully)
I use Scrivener for writing, very happily, and Devonthink and Zotero to keep track of research and notes. But DT is almost too powerful, and Obsidian’s text-based simplicity is appealing. In any case, when historians talk about historical “methods” we usually mean “social history” or “cultural history”, ie methods of analysis, but not the crucial earthy stuff like “how to take and organize your notes”. If you get around to writing about your practices, will look forward to reading them.
Hi! Sorry to let this drop. It’s a Mac-only information organizing program.
I’ve used it for over a decade but only recently did I start figuring out some of its actual powers. It can store almost any file type you can think of; you can tag them, link them to other files, annotate them. It also will show you which of your files are related to others, based on its own analysis of the text and contents. (This has made connections for me I wouldn’t have seen myself.) And there is a really helpful forum on the company’s site where the developers weigh in a lot.
It has all the tagging and internal linking functions of Obsidian as far as I know. But maybe not the graphical representations. Although on the aforementioned forum, people talk about using both.
I know people who do their writing in devonthink, built for research, and I know people who organize their research in scrivener, built for writing...there really are infinite ways to do it.
Interesting. Really. I feel a little unnerved that I’ve not heard of any of these tools. Old I am these days, but at least I thought I knew what people were using to keep notes. Since it’s Christmas, the end of the year, how about a tale (or two)? These begin in the analogue world.
I used to use cards. Have a mountain of them. Careful notes, often in English and other languages (mostly Chinese and Japanese). And indexes to these cards. That’s what I did for my PhD at ANU and MA at HKU. I also used ProCite, a precursor to EndNote. I was introduced to it in the second half of the 1980s when I was an editor on the Far Eastern Economic Review. Our librarian used it to organize the FEER’s output. I wrote a bit of code that enabled we editors to call it from our primitive consoles (Swords - ran a global correspondent network on a system with a 16kb memory!). And continued to use it until late 1990s.
I also kept notebooks, many notebooks, that have been a lifesaver when stuck for something - a quick flick through some of these from the early 1980s can generate a year or more of fruitful research, some of which was not possible back then.
What do I do these days? A throw back to the dark ages. That’s for sure. I write notes with headings Note author-name year. In Word. I tell myself there has to be a more efficient way. And I’m sure there is, even without reading Anton’s post and your responses. But it’s a bit like statistics software. I was trained on SSPS before it was on a microcomputer (read PC) and though I like the graphics on Stata and the power of R I have so many syntax scripts (DO files for Stata people) that as long as the data set is set up the way I specify I can code Chinese provinces, periods, occupations, etc, in a few minutes however big the file is. When I use Stata I’ll waste a week getting it to square! Path dependency, uh?
So, my learned younger correspondents, any suggested go-to site for the good oil on Obsidian or Scrivener? Thank you for your patience. I really need to get my note taking better organized as these past few months trying to maintain in my head dozens of references in several languages on Southeast Asia, China and the maritime silk roads c.900-1800 has challenged me. And frustrated my usual confidence in handling such a brief.
Sorry for the delay Stephen! I just about caught the tail end of the pen and paper era, for my undergraduate days. I had then switched to using Excel, putting all my notes directly into my inventors database for my PhD, but then discovered Scrivener and used it for my book about the Royal Society of Arts - I'm not sure I could have completed it so quickly without it.
In terms of how to switch: for Obsidian I basically just went on Youtube and watched a few "how to use Obsidian" videos - managed to get the basics of how it works and what power it has in about 10 minutes. I have now found myself using Obsidian more and more instead of Scrivener, so I think I'd recommend just making the jump straight to Obsidian. I think it will be a game-changer for your productivity!
Hi Anton, have you done any research on liability insurance for professionals or craftspeople or their inventions? If so I'd be interested to know more as it relates to one aspect of my Phd thesis on early reinforced concrete systems, which I hope is nearing completion ...
On your page about unsung materials, you ask at the end "What else should I explore?" How do I reply to this? Can I use this comment window? There does not seem to be a way to do it on the online version of this article. https://www.ageofinvention.xyz/
I don't remember exactly what I put in my comment and this dialog doesn't permit me to review it. I wanted to reply to your question about what topics your readers would like you to investigate. My suggestion is the emergence of accurate machine tools. You would think that some kind of bootstrapping would be involved, inasmuch as it takes a machine tool to make a machine tool. The history of machine tools is well-studied but your habit is to re-look at things that appear to be well-studied, so that is my suggestion.
What a wonderful opportunity to look through these diary entries. Thank you for sharing them. I have been researching British folklore for a few years for a novel and related newsletter I'm working on, but perhaps Samuel More's travel diaries will inspire me with daily life and industry. I was curious how you manage/keep track of all of the research you perform (from a paperwork standpoint)? Do you use a tool like Mendeley Reference Manager, or do you have your own system?
Thanks. There are a great many diaries I’ve taken notes from, but this one stands out for technical detail. What period is your novel set in?
I use Zotero for referencing, but take notes in Scrivener. Lately I’ve started using Obsidian, which may end up supplanting Scrivener as it has quite a few extra features and flexibility.
Thanks for the Zotero tip; I'll have to check it out. I have quite a few PDFs that I'd like to be able to search through simultaneously, and I'm trying to determine the best way to do so. I use Scrivener, as well. I write (my novel) and keep related research notes in the same file. The novel is set in a familiar, fictional world using the 1800s (UK/US) as my starting point for folklore and everyday life. Some of the folklore collections I have include quotes/letters from primary sources, but I haven't come across any diary entries.
On top of the transparency, notes are so idiosyncratic, and we’re not taught how to take them, so I’m all for sharing what they look like at the very least so we can learn from others’ approaches.
Relatedly, I see you’re using Obsidian. It’s very tempting! Would love to read something about how it works for you to organize information.
I only started using Obsidian a few months ago, after watching a few how-to videos about it. Still learning the ropes, but it is helping for linking up common themes. I had before used Scrivener (and still do - haven’t quite made the switch fully)
I use Scrivener for writing, very happily, and Devonthink and Zotero to keep track of research and notes. But DT is almost too powerful, and Obsidian’s text-based simplicity is appealing. In any case, when historians talk about historical “methods” we usually mean “social history” or “cultural history”, ie methods of analysis, but not the crucial earthy stuff like “how to take and organize your notes”. If you get around to writing about your practices, will look forward to reading them.
Never heard of Devonthink! Tell me more. How do you use it?
Hi! Sorry to let this drop. It’s a Mac-only information organizing program.
I’ve used it for over a decade but only recently did I start figuring out some of its actual powers. It can store almost any file type you can think of; you can tag them, link them to other files, annotate them. It also will show you which of your files are related to others, based on its own analysis of the text and contents. (This has made connections for me I wouldn’t have seen myself.) And there is a really helpful forum on the company’s site where the developers weigh in a lot.
It has all the tagging and internal linking functions of Obsidian as far as I know. But maybe not the graphical representations. Although on the aforementioned forum, people talk about using both.
I know people who do their writing in devonthink, built for research, and I know people who organize their research in scrivener, built for writing...there really are infinite ways to do it.
This video interview with two historians who use it was helpful, especially the second conversation. https://youtu.be/-S5VGI_h3Gg?si=TmG0Nsxr8J4f1FIC
Interesting. Really. I feel a little unnerved that I’ve not heard of any of these tools. Old I am these days, but at least I thought I knew what people were using to keep notes. Since it’s Christmas, the end of the year, how about a tale (or two)? These begin in the analogue world.
I used to use cards. Have a mountain of them. Careful notes, often in English and other languages (mostly Chinese and Japanese). And indexes to these cards. That’s what I did for my PhD at ANU and MA at HKU. I also used ProCite, a precursor to EndNote. I was introduced to it in the second half of the 1980s when I was an editor on the Far Eastern Economic Review. Our librarian used it to organize the FEER’s output. I wrote a bit of code that enabled we editors to call it from our primitive consoles (Swords - ran a global correspondent network on a system with a 16kb memory!). And continued to use it until late 1990s.
I also kept notebooks, many notebooks, that have been a lifesaver when stuck for something - a quick flick through some of these from the early 1980s can generate a year or more of fruitful research, some of which was not possible back then.
What do I do these days? A throw back to the dark ages. That’s for sure. I write notes with headings Note author-name year. In Word. I tell myself there has to be a more efficient way. And I’m sure there is, even without reading Anton’s post and your responses. But it’s a bit like statistics software. I was trained on SSPS before it was on a microcomputer (read PC) and though I like the graphics on Stata and the power of R I have so many syntax scripts (DO files for Stata people) that as long as the data set is set up the way I specify I can code Chinese provinces, periods, occupations, etc, in a few minutes however big the file is. When I use Stata I’ll waste a week getting it to square! Path dependency, uh?
So, my learned younger correspondents, any suggested go-to site for the good oil on Obsidian or Scrivener? Thank you for your patience. I really need to get my note taking better organized as these past few months trying to maintain in my head dozens of references in several languages on Southeast Asia, China and the maritime silk roads c.900-1800 has challenged me. And frustrated my usual confidence in handling such a brief.
Sorry for the delay Stephen! I just about caught the tail end of the pen and paper era, for my undergraduate days. I had then switched to using Excel, putting all my notes directly into my inventors database for my PhD, but then discovered Scrivener and used it for my book about the Royal Society of Arts - I'm not sure I could have completed it so quickly without it.
In terms of how to switch: for Obsidian I basically just went on Youtube and watched a few "how to use Obsidian" videos - managed to get the basics of how it works and what power it has in about 10 minutes. I have now found myself using Obsidian more and more instead of Scrivener, so I think I'd recommend just making the jump straight to Obsidian. I think it will be a game-changer for your productivity!
Hi Anton, have you done any research on liability insurance for professionals or craftspeople or their inventions? If so I'd be interested to know more as it relates to one aspect of my Phd thesis on early reinforced concrete systems, which I hope is nearing completion ...
I don't think I've ever come across it in my period - and would be very interested to hear if you have!
On your page about unsung materials, you ask at the end "What else should I explore?" How do I reply to this? Can I use this comment window? There does not seem to be a way to do it on the online version of this article. https://www.ageofinvention.xyz/
Yes that’s worked - you’ve posted this as a comment.
I don't remember exactly what I put in my comment and this dialog doesn't permit me to review it. I wanted to reply to your question about what topics your readers would like you to investigate. My suggestion is the emergence of accurate machine tools. You would think that some kind of bootstrapping would be involved, inasmuch as it takes a machine tool to make a machine tool. The history of machine tools is well-studied but your habit is to re-look at things that appear to be well-studied, so that is my suggestion.