Writing is an atemporal act - contexts and meaning overlap in spite of the passing of time, each act of reading&writing forged with new meaning everytime
The text as a palimpsest of different snapshots of headspaces.
I have been thinking about this, and having a deeper appreciation of ideas and notes I have accrued over the years, over the few months. I (sub)consciously give my past writings and words the respect it should have, and to build atop it, forge new pieces from its components.
A new habit I'm trying to build up is doing "weekly roundups", which is essentially asynchronous notetaking. Zipping past multiple topics and overlapping contexts.
This is related to Andy Matuschak's point that knowledge work should accrete. For example, writing touching ephemera from different headspaces and time.
So instead of chiding myself (so close to doing this) for not finishing it, i revisit, i rethink, i co-opt those words into new contexts, new headspaces. And this might do a disservice to a past self who wrote the original piece - but perhaps this is the value of writing.
I tell myself that this is a gift, for I should embrace the inter-forging of selves and the chimeric creation of mental spaces gained from different timelines.
revisiting this thread by visa
https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1087430231227457536 - our relationship with our own writing changes overtime