Sorry for the delay on this post. It would have been my wedding day yesterday. But, instead of walking down the aisle, my fiancee and I commiserated with a 100-person strong zoom and sang L’Chaim to Life from Fiddler on the Roof.
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Last week we learned about progressive summarization. In my post, Playing in the Adjacent Space, I described it as:
A method of reducing, compressing, and summarizing a reference into the essential.
Expanding on that description—it’s a method of “liberating ideas from their original context by abstracting, and re-specifying them” (How to Take Smart Notes, Ahrens).
Abstracting is reducing, compressing and summarizing. Re-specifying is placing that information in a new context.
Abstracting and re-specifying shapes new combinations of existing ideas that are “right behind the current cutting edge, in the adjacent space” (So Good They Can’t Ignore You, Newport).
Ideas are abstracted into intermediate packets, the topic of this week’s Building A Second Brain course.
Intermediate packets might be a note, prototype or sketch—the definition isn’t as important (or precise) as the benefits they give.
Intellectual capital: small increments of knowledge are re-usable and pay dividends over time
Becoming interruption proof: no matter the amount of time you have available, you'll always be able to create something of value
Gathering frequent feedback: smaller increments can be shared more often, reducing the uncertainty and risk that the thing you're sharing is relevant and consumable
Intermediate packets can be related, compared, and combined. It’s the proto-material that makes re-specification and new shapes possible. As you add intermediate packets to your network of knowledge, you increase the likelihood of new insights and interesting connections.
The truth is, the only way we can navigate the complexity of reality is through some sort of abstraction. When we read the news, we’re consuming abstractions created by other people. The authors consumed vast amounts of information, reflected upon it, and drew some abstractions and conclusions that they share with us. - Great Mental Models, Parrish
Abstracting down to an intermediate packet (aka progressive summarization) is map-making. Maps are an abstraction of reality. Think about this:
The only truly accurate map of the world would be a map the size of the world. - Map Quests: Political, Physical and Digital, 99% Invisible
Of course the problem with a world-sized map is that it's too big. To make it usable you have to make choices about what information you're interested in and what you can throw out, grounded in the person and context (eg. goals, scenario, environment, etc). Maps are only as useful as they are accurate and only as usable as they are compressed.
Maps help us predict next actions. Pre-COVID I looked at Google Maps for directions to my future mother-in-law’s house. It helped me predict what turns I would have to take, and when to get over a lane for a freeway. It also helped me let her know how long the trip would take so that her lamb and potato roast wouldn’t be cold by the time my fiancee and I arrived.
This connection between map-making and progressive summarization left me with a question:
If maps help us make predictions, and progressive summarization is map-making, what kinds of predictions can it enable?
Would love to hear your responses on this question—or any other feedback you have on this series. Reply to this newsletter in your email or reach me on twitter: @iamrphy
Map-maker: Make Me A Map
Hi Raphael, fellow WoP Cohort 5 student...This article was brilliant in explaining what Intermediate Packets are. Answered my initial question in Andrews study group perfectly. It's now opened up more curiosity - So I will be exploring your articles that branch off from this topic!
The end of your article on abstraction reminds me of 1 of the 12 NLP Presuppositions 'The map is not the territory'...very interesting. Gary