In Praise of Aphorisms

TIL that “ hupomnemata” is the term for when you take personal notes on the important happenings in your life and periodically you review those notes. I’ve been noticing recently that folks in this community have been sharing software tools for this type of practice (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23101869) and I’m very much looking forward to this type of note taking method taking off.

I’ve had my own hupomnemata for 3 years now, ever since I started working remotely and myanager asked me to keep a log of my daily doings. It’s like having a 1 Second A Day app, but for your thoughts.

Also, this article was a good read but ended up fluffifying towards the end. For a good counter to the article’s thesis, give this a read: https://fs.blog/2012/08/aphorisms-and-the-commodification-of...

I greatly enjoyed this article. It was interesting and insightful, with many pertinent and eloquent quotes well and tastefully places.

I myself am more of a system-builder in my own philosophical work, and I tend to recognize, praise, and respect system builders such as Kant more than aphoristic writers such as Nietzsche (although that man is truly truly eloquent!), but nevertheless I appreciate a good aphorism highly. They're like gems, versus entire well crafted pieces of furniture.

In fact, in my own newest philosophical writing I've been attempting to write in a more dense and aphoristic style, as opposed to the wordy, turgid, and pedantically argued style which characterized the majority of my prior work. I do this simply because I think it allows for more pleasure in reading and more depth in certain kinds of understanding, and allows the reader to borrow idea of mine that they like even if they don't accept the system or the argument. As such, I am attempting to merge a highly systematic philosophy with a highly aphoristic writing style. It's developing, though, and I've not really caught on yet.