Mining for Gems

Capturing more of the gold from the world around you

The way that each of constructs our own Grand Synthesis¹ is by gathering gems from all the different inputs that you are bombarded with. The book you're reading, the podcast you're listening to, the video you're watching, the meeting you’re participating in, the email thread you're reading, and the conversation you're having … all of these have the potential for introducing new gems for you to collect, and then incorporate into your own worldview.

We're all collecting gems and folding them into our perspective. But we're not all aware of this. And that's the upleveling I want to talk about here: becoming more aware² of your gem collecting process so that you can encourage it, guide it, and organize the results. You want to intentionally mine for gems, from more and more sources³, and keep your gem collection tidy.

Read With a Pen

I have long described my reading style as "I read with a pen." I underline and I write notes in the margins. The original motivation for doing this was to help keep me engaged in the reading and prevent my mind from wandering (an ADHD coping skill). Later, as I got more interested in the long-term organization of my notes, I found that transcribing these highlights and notes made it all readily searchable, making it easy for me to recall thoughts and learnings.