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What’s the need? The key need is to be able to quickly export highlights from articles bookmarked in Instapaper at the command-line. What’s the approach? The approach is to leverage the Instapaper API to quickly extract the highlights from a bookmarked article into a text stream. What are the benefits? Leveraging Instapaper’s programmatic API makes exporting highlights effortless. Generating a text stream means this output can be piped to other tools or apps and manipulated in an infinite number of ways. ...

In chapter 5 of How to Take Smart Notes, 2 of my favorite ideas from Sönke Ahrens are: Truth results from the scientific exchange of written ideas. Do everything as if nothing counts other than writing. See also Judging truth Stop collecting, and start producing Elaborate by thinking, writing and connecting

To benefit from reading, make something out of what you read. Making something out of what you read could be something as simple as summarizing in your own words or something a bit more involved like a blog post or PowerPoint slides. Teaching someone is probably the ultimate form of actively making something out of what you read. The underlying principle remains the same: Break the collector’s fallacy. Unless you’re reading for pleasure, passively collecting information in your mind or in your notes is the exact opposite of making something out of what you read. ...

When you reinterpret ideas… You should be opinionated about what matters most. You should use them to share and collaborate with others. You should use them to get on the radar of readers, moderators and the original authors. You should see your reinterpretation as bridges for others to access these new ideas. See also Cognitive reappraisal techniques The ultimate guide to summarizing books Why blog?

The Ultimate Guide to Summarizing Books inspired my elaboration experiment. Tiago Forte’s most powerful ideas that resonated with me are: Read with the intent of making something out of what you read. Summarize what you read, but reinterpret the ideas through your own lens. Look for content that is on the fringe of topics you care about.