Work with ideas on paper slips, as Pirsig did in Lila: one idea on each slip, sorted by hand. Use for slips to copy, photos of slips, "which comes first" or piles to name.
# pirsig-slips
In *Lila* (1991), chapter 2, Pirsig's Phaedrus keeps about eleven thousand slips of 4 × 6 inch
paper in card-catalog trays. He sorts them by hand. The owner writes, holds and sorts the slips.
The agent helps around the paper.
## The method
1. **A slip, not a sheet.** One idea fits one small slip.
2. **Random access.** Any slip can move next to any other.
3. **To forget.** A thought goes on a slip at once, with no judgement and no place.
4. **No plan first.** Topics grow from the slips. The slips elect the order.
5. **Sort by pairs.** Hold two slips and ask "Which comes first?" Then a third against the last.
6. **Topic cards.** When enough slips gather around one topic, put them behind a tabbed card.
7. **Five working piles**:
| Pile | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| UNASSIMILATED | a new idea that interrupts. It waits for time |
| PROGRAM | instructions for what to do with the other slips, one on each slip |
| CRIT | a slip written in a bad mood. It waits for a calm day |
| TOUGH | an important slip that fits no topic yet |
| JUNK | a slip that now seems bad. Keep it. Slips come back from it |
This is not a Zettelkasten. A slip has no ID and no link. Its place in the tray is its meaning.
Do not give a slip an ID. Do not keep the trays in a repository.
## What the agent does, when asked
1. **Cut a text into slips.** One idea on each slip, 40 words or fewer, in plain words. Keep a
quotation exact, with its source. Put one suggested pile or topic in capitals at the top.
Do not number the slips. Do not order them.
2. **Read photos of slips.** Transcribe each slip as it is, in its own language. Write
`[illegible]` for a word that you cannot read. Never guess. Note the pile in the photo.
3. **Ask which comes first.** Show two slips. Ask. One pair at a time. If the owner asks for a
proposal, give one line of reason for each move. The owner moves the paper.
4. **Name the piles.** For each slip with no place, suggest a topic card, a new topic card or a
working pile, with a short reason. A slip that fits nothing is TOUGH.
5. **File a slip as a note**, only when the owner names it. Search the notes for the same idea
first. Then use the `zk-method` defaults: a fleeting note, the slip's words, and the source
"paper slip, <pile>, <date>".
## Do not
- Do not invent a slip, a pile or a topic card.
- Do not quote *Lila* beyond the method above without the book. The book is in copyright.
- Do not turn the slips into an app, a database or a folder of files.
h0ffmann/skills