Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c1216IR // #c1216Synthesis

"…whenever a published fact, a new observation or thought came across me, which was opposed to my general results, to make a memorandum of it without fail and at once; for I had found by experience that such facts and thoughts were far more apt to escape from the memory than favorable ones."

— In our words · Source: How to Take Smart Notes (Sönke Ahrens)

[Use when]

You're building a case for a plan or a thesis and want the objections in hand before anyone else raises them.

[Why it matters]

Memory filters out what contradicts us. Darwin countered it by recording disconfirming facts immediately, and wrote that as a result very few objections were raised against his views that he hadn't already noticed and tried to answer.

Filed under situations:When your picture of things might be wrongWhen you must decide and the facts aren’t in

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Same situation, different book

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