I loved this piece about Bruce Lee over on the ever-excellent Brain Pickings website. Did you know that Bruce Lee carried a notebook everywhere? Obviously, he’s exactly like me… just way more athletic and accomplished… and probably better at note-taking… but we both CARRY notebooks everywhere.
When you repeatedly see that successful people are the ones who curate what they think and how they think about it, you start to see why putting pen to paper can be so important. Check out this bit from the post:
When [the studio] tried to cut all the philosophy out of Enter the Dragon because they wanted a vacantly entertaining action movie, Lee refused to go on set for two weeks, insisting that the kung-fu and the philosophy were inextricably entwined, each the vehicle for the other. Hollywood eventually had to relent and it was precisely the philosophical dimension that rendered the movie — just before the release of which Lee met his untimely death — a cultural icon and a beacon of racial empowerment associated with the Black Power movement, later acquired by the Library of Congress as a “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” artifact.
Bruce Lee’s Never-Before-Seen Writings on Willpower, Emotion, Reason, Memory, Imagination, and Confidence
Lee was comfortable enough with his own values to take a stand for it. A martial artist trying to break into Hollywood who had the presence of mind to say “I want success but on my terms.” This sort of strength comes from a deep understanding of values and motives, something which is frequently uncovered through exploratory writing.
Another element of the post that I found fascinating, is how Bruce seemed to filter his ideas over time, strengthening those that provided the most value, and turning many of them into daily meditations and personal commitments. He captured tons of small details but clearly also took the time to revisit and refine things that he saw as important. This is key element of note-taking systems.
Beyond capture is curation and ultimately creation. Bruce Lee embodied this process in many areas of his life. I strongly recommend clicking on over to the actual post to see exclusive photos the notebooks and letters from the Bruce Lee archive.
Eric Frankl.in 