Compilation After Affinitizing

I've discovered something useful about how I organize knowledge: I create lots of ephemeral working memory notes and let them build up naturally before compiling them into something worth keeping permanently.

This approach works because it removes the pressure of immediate organization. I'm not forcing structure onto raw thoughts. Instead, I capture ideas in my simple A5 spiral notebook as they come, let them accumulate, and then later see what natural groupings emerge. Only then do I compile the clusters that matter into something publishable.

"Compile" comes from the Latin compilare—to heap together. Programming borrowed it because compilers gather scattered source files into executables. I use the word exactly as it was intended: gathering raw material into a finished whole.

My day starts with a flicker of an idea. I write it down, then think through it. Over the day, that spark crystallizes into something coherent. When learning, I write notes as I go. One page per source, one note per thought. I let them accumulate without worrying about fit. Later, natural clusters reveal themselves and I compile what's publishable.

This is a cousin of affinitizing—letting natural groupings emerge before naming them. Affinitizing discovers patterns; compilation crystallizes them into artifacts. Both reject predetermined categories. Both trust that structure reveals itself over time. Affinitizing finds the clusters; compilation preserves them.

Most people try to enforce structure immediately. Every idea needs a category or tag. Atomic notes didn't work for me. Zettelkasten didn't work. Digital tools felt like friction. The problem is demanding organization at the point of capture. You decide where something belongs before knowing what it is. You create structure before seeing what emerges naturally. Separate capture from organization. Don't interrupt the flow with taxonomy. Keep the thinking clean. Let the structure build itself. Raw notes are cheap. Storage is infinite. Let ephemeral thoughts exist until they prove useful. The work is recognizing clusters and shaping them into something others can use. Thoughts need time to settle and bump against each other. Premature organization kills the process.

Let the pile grow. Let the patterns emerge. Then compile what matters.