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I climbed back out of bed just to upvote this. It's going in my little file of quotes that give me "the tingles". Thanks.

Finally! Looking forward to sending this to my parents after it develops a bit more. They've struggled with communication for years (decades?) now because they can't type using phonetics.

Thank you for the tip on speeches! I suspect that will help my writing sound more natural too.

As for (2c), I've come up with a similar idea for doing multiple edits. I try to focus on a different writing "axiom" for each iteration. For example, I can cut out adverbs on the first run-through, add metaphor next, etc.

StackExchange has a nice collection of writing rules here: http://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/761/the-rules-of-...

I don't think the main takeaway is about writing by hand. A word processor is fine too. What's important here is the act of "active writing" vs "passive writing".

Franklin's method forces you to create writing (instead of just ingesting it) and then gives you specific feedback on whether you succeeded or failed (through comparison to the original).

The dissect-chunking-integrate-feedback model works everywhere, and what fascinates me is that Franklin figured it out through his own experiments.

Yup. Basic idea is hormesis: you WANT the bacteria on your skin, and you are doing yourself a disservice by washing it off. Same deal with gut bacteria. Hell, they even have soap with bacteria IN it now...

Haha, it's amazing how new you can make your stuff look when you add a filter to it! Just to give you a snapshot, I wore my last dress shirt until my bare elbow was hanging out of a tear in the sleeve.

But yea, as others have mentioned, I am not 'minimalist' in the sense of reducing consumption. I am minimalist in the sense of reducing choices.

The small toiletries I just buy on arrival. As a (fragrant) side note, I've haven't used soap or shampoo for two years.

Thanks for reading! I don't climb much anymore; the chalk is for ring work and barbell lifts.