Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c1044IR // #c1044Synthesis

"I rul'd each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day. I cross'd these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, on which line, and in its proper column, I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that day."

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

[Use when]

You keep resolving to change a habit and have no record of how often you slip.

[Why it matters]

The book reproduces the thirteen precepts and a sample page. He defined each virtue narrowly enough to check daily, and the page kept the count instead of his memory. "I was surpris'd to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined" is his report of the results.

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