Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c1038IR // #c1038Synthesis

"I took some of the papers, and, making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without looking at the book, try'd to compleat the papers again… Then I compared my Spectator with the original, discovered some of my faults, and corrected them."

— In our words · Source: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Benjamin Franklin)

[Use when]

You want to learn a craft from a master's work and reading it again isn't teaching you anything.

[Why it matters]

He had no teacher, so the original essay served as the answer key. Rebuilding from hints and comparing showed him exactly where his version fell short. He also jumbled the hints to practice arrangement as a separate skill.

More from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

#c1039"I was charm'd with it, adopted it, dropt my abrupt contradiction and positive argumentation, and put on the humble inquirer and doubter."…Your questions keep winning arguments and people have started refusing to answer them. #c1040"I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive assertion of my own." "in answering I…You are right on the substance and still losing the room. #c1041"I took care not only to be in reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid all appearances to the contrary. I drest plainly; I was seen at…Your work is solid but the people who decide on credit or business never see it.