Middle Season #27 - 2026

 

3x10 Report #27 2026

 

while the season's old blossoms dry, two new blossoms!

Garden. Still raspberries waning, but not gone -- 5-8 every couple days; no sign of hummingbirds this past week.  I had a couple salads this week with greens from boxes.  The lettuces seem to be fading in color.

Guitar.  I have memorized the Weiss.  I got through the study I've been working on (name:   ).  I tried playing the Weiss along with a video and crashed.   I have no fluidity.  

Projects: in 10 days (9/20-9/30), I only did 4 30-minute chunks:

Project 1: Fretboard Mastery.  I only recorded 2 days of practice so far.  I did a few 10-minute (not 30 minute) practices.  I have the 5th fret middle pretty solidly now (G - A, C - D). I have G and A pretty well down.  I noticed this relationship between 6th and 4th string: on the same fret, the note on the fourth string is one note before (on 3rd fret - G on 6th, F on 4th.  

P2-Cookbook. just 1 item: "add 10 recipes" (though I don't know to what!)

P3-CSU! just 1 item : office paper sort; 

26 in 2026

 

Come hike with us! In January, Jeff and I began our “26 in 2026” adventures—visiting 26 different county’s natural areas new to us this year. We finished on September 6. We eventually hope to visit natural areas in all 102 Illinois counties. Counties on the map below in purple are 2026 visits; counties in green are ones we visited for our “25 in 2025” adventures last year. Counties in blue are still anticipated. In 2026, we visited: #1 -Morrison-Rockwood State Park (Morrison, Whiteside County, IL); #2-Mississippi Palisades State Park (Savanna, Carroll County, IL); #3 Rall Woods State Natural Area (Hanover, Jo Daviess County, IL), #4 Greenlee CemeteryPrairie Nature Preserve, near Cambridge, IL (Henry County); #5 Black Hawk Forest Nature Preserve, Rock Island, IL (Rock Island County); #6 Sue and Wes Dixon Waterfowl Refuge, Hennepin, IL (Putnam County); #7 Doris L. Westfall Nature Preserve, Forest Glen Preserve, near Westville, IL (Vermilion County); #8 Shortline Railroad Prairie, Gifford, IL (Champaign County); #9 Banner Marsh Fish & Wildlife Area, Canton, IL (Fulton County); #10 Rock Island Railroad Trail Prairie Preserve, near Princeton, IL (Peoria County); #11 Rock Island Railroad Trail (near Princeton, Stark County); #12 Upper Embarras Woods Nature Preserve, Walnut State Park, Oakland, IL (Douglas County); #13 Warbler Ridge, Charleston, IL (Coles County); #14 Baber Woods Nature Preserve Kansas, IL (Edgar County); #15 American Beech Woods Nature Preserve, Lincoln Trail State Park, Marshall, IL (Clark County); #16 Crawford County Forest Preserve, Robinson, IL (Crawford County); #17 Prairie Ridge State Natural Area, Newton, IL (Jasper County) (with bonus Robert Ridgway Natural Area); #18 Shepard Prairie, Knox College Green Acres Research Station, Victoria, IL (Knox County); #19 Brownlee Cemetery Prairie, Alexia, IL (Mercer County); #20 Spring Grove Cemetery Prairie, Monmouth, IL (Warren County); #21 Harry N. Patterson Savanna, Oquawka, IL (Henderson County); #22 Argyle Hollow Barrens, near Colchester, IL (McDonough County); #23 Geissler Savanna/Samuel Barnum Mead Savanna, near West Point, IL (Hancock County); #24 Weinberg King State Park, Augusta, IL (Schulyer County); #25 Siloam Springs State Park, Clayton, IL (Brown County) Thank you for following our hikes this year! We’re looking forward to more fun as we continue to hike!

Wu Wei= Effortless action

 The Way is ever without action, yet nothing is ever left undone. By Lao Tzu

Here’s more context

In the pursuit of learning one knows more every day;
In the pursuit of the way one does less every day.
One does less and less until one does nothing at all,
And when one does nothing at all there is nothing that is undone.

I ask Clausde: 

That line points to wu wei — usually translated "non-action," though "effortless action" gets closer to the meaning. It's not about passivity or doing nothing. It's about acting in a way that doesn't force things against their nature.

Think of water. It doesn't strain or struggle, yet it carves canyons and always finds its way downhill. Or think of a skilled craftsman who works with the grain of the wood instead of against it — less effort, better result. Lao Tzu's point is that when you stop forcing outcomes, stop over-managing, stop pushing your will onto every situation, things tend to resolve themselves more naturally and completely than when you grasp at them.

The paradox ("nothing is left undone") is the payoff: forced action often creates resistance and unintended problems, while aligned, minimal action tends to accomplish more with less friction. It shows up in leadership too — a ruler (or manager, or parent) who governs by trusting people and removing obstacles, rather than micromanaging, often gets better results than one who controls everything.

We live in language

We live in language and it gives us the power to reach across the void between human beings. We live in sentence upon sentence. We speak and write millions of sentences in a year, crafting and refining what we think and know and believe and wonder about. Language is how we will most primarily offer ourselves to others, and that we will do mostly in sentences. Let them be sentences that are precise, that hold paradox and human complication and do not falsely resolve. Let them be sentences that always bear the truth.

Elizabeth Alexander — the fourth poet in history to read at a U.S. presidential inauguration when she welcomed Barack Obama to the White House with her eternal poem “Praise Song for the Day” — takes up the question of what it means and what it takes to be a poet in Signals Across Vast Distances: Essays and Tales (public library). She writes:

August 2026 journal and blog review

From August 2026 

Things to remember

• Garden - do fall raised box planting of arugula and Simpson lettuce; kale doesn't sprout in garden; little gem doesn's sprout; A volunteer cosmo is blooming in the front annual planting area --- I should plant more next year.  I get on the roof to trim maple tree sprouts on 8/10
• Remicade treatment begins 
• 8/5 - 11x on toilet
• 8/13- waiting for insurance to approve remicade (it takes awhile)
• 8/20 - reference and treatment;  6-7x in bathrrom per day consistently. Red or drops of blood or swirls of blood or clots - no real pattern but all of these things occassionally, lots of gas (explosive BMs). today is first scheduled remicade
• 8/22- no miracles ure - maybe just a tiny bit of blood; still massively gassy in evening and overnight
• 8/27 - day 7 after treatment - there are signs of improvement, no miracles - fewers signs of blood, clots, pink, changing consistency of BM, fewer number of BMs (yesterday none at school (though school BMs not done yet), improved concern about being near bathroms, very high amounts of afternoon ane evening gas
• 8/29- yesterday an authentic 3x on toilet (5-6 has been normal); tamer, almost no blood ever
• 8/30 - yesterday 4x on toilet, but with more "partially normal" aspects to it for 3 of them (floating more puffy bits)
• Donate camper to WDCB -- take a trip to Big Rock to take off tarp and prep it - sad about it 8/23
• JG IG at 69.2; she makes ~$20K... $1K per day for a while
• violent rains, mushrooms and mosquitos
• water coming into upstairs bathroom through fan - in big storms and sometims in little rains
• sign contract for roofing
• finish 300 haikus in a row (daily haikus)
• Dolly Parton dies; watch docs on her, Mary Oliver, watch Jack Reacher and Professor T
• Ideas: I should add "next steps" to my 3x10 reports

Blog:

• Booknotes & Commonplace
• Brecht (IOT) 17
• Little Alleuias 27
• Interesting ideas
• see what happens along the way (Humphries) 2
• Narrative psychology 4(and No problem! and Buddhist Philosophy 22)
• EM: how to accomplish anything 13, learning anything, setting up a commonplace book 26
• Thoreau's map of the Concord River 15
• Conversational handles 23
• 12 brand archetypes 24
• Dolly Philosophy 25
• My ideas
• 100 things on my 56th bday (not 100!)
• Don't leave (the school) year as I started it 12
• Teaching ideas
• New Thought Paragraphs & Shakespeare inviented words 3
• Naked Poetry 16
• Useful Ideas
• 4 habits* foot exercises* 23
• (med) - rest can feel irresponsible 29

Locking in 101* 20 Minute Slots*

 Locking in 101*

Erin M names 5 steps to lock in

1. clear your space - see only what you're working on
2. "read me" - a sheet of paper: tasks you want accomplished and what your overall goal
3. 2 minute yap - before you work - write down all the things you're thinking about (externalizing thoughts)
4. occupy your phone - put a timer on it; filming it/ timelapse (so you don't pick it up
5. start with everything you need (get all the apps, sheets up)

20 Minute Slots*

Erin M. provides this index card method: clear space to work. Set timer for 20 mins.  When done, on index card - make notes on card - what did you do/learn? key words, key definitions, diagrams. Now, flip the card and write the very next things/targets you're going to do in the next 20 minutes.  Display this right in front of you.

Should exercise*

link

Simple Ways to make a difference

 

From Cindy Crosby "Tallgrass Tuesdays"

Simple ways to make a difference this week: Seed collection on the prairies is underway now! These seeds are often used to start or rejuvenate planted prairies in our communities. Join a volunteer group at a prairie near you on a seed collection day to help make a difference.

Simple ways to make a difference this week: Protect our public lands! Visit https://5calls.org/issue/public-lands-sale-drilling/ to learn how to voice your concerns.

Simple ways to make a difference this week: Protect Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments from development. Contact your congressional representatives— visit here to learn how.

Simple ways to make a difference this week: Our government is planning to sell land for an access road inside Yosemite National Park. Please help us protect our public lands! Contact your congressional representatives— visit here to learn how.

Simple ways to make a difference this week: Early voting in Illinois has begun, as well in other states. Check your voter registration status, and be sure to vote for candidates who care for the natural world and environment. Vote! You can make a difference.

Simple ways to make a difference this week: If you live in Illinois, you have the opportunity to volunteer at several cemetery remnant prairies! For more information, visit Friends of Illinois Nature preserves calendar of volunteer events by clicking here. Commit to a workday and help restore Illinois prairies.

Tree Sparrows by Mary Oliver

 Tree Sparrows

I thought I heard them

in some vines

swinging down

in a yard

across the road

so I went

this afternoon

across the white-sheeted fields,

slowly,

and listening hard,

until I found them

beside a creek

that was rattling 

icily along--

they were foraging

the frozen buckberreis

and calling out to each other

in delicate

wafers of sound.

The last time

I saw them

it was half the country away--

almost,

you might say,

in another world--

anyway, at a house

I no longer go to,

whose people

are all dead now,

whose graves, even,

I don't visit.

And the little birds

looked exactly the same!

Trim and bold,

and empty of any memory

that cold break the spell

of the moment,

they flew from branch to branch;

they sang

in the great, white cold.

Middle Season #26 - 2026

 

Friday Sept 12

1. Science teachers crouched over praying mantis. Folded up like praying mantises. 
2. 80/58. Overlapping cicadas in the hot September afternoon, sun.  Big blunt bird flaps low over overhead. Is it a hawk? Is it an owl?  Lots of low yellow flowers on plants with small cut leaves pink leaves almost
3. Wishing to see that big bird again. Then I see these little birds, a little bit bigger than hummingbirds, but petite beaks and they’re chattering in a buckeye tree. Across the prairie, you can see bird after Birch bird flying up into a tall tree and then flying others out again. grasshoppers and monarchs and lots of cicadas in the high trees.  The creek in the sun, sparkling with midges or some small bugs on the top of the water easiest to see so sparkling in the sun.
4. 10 days on retirement finances. 10 days on autoimmune disease diseases. something big and raptor making slow crunchy shrieks but then stops before I get underneath.  Shrike out breaths. no more cardinal flowers in the lowlands by the South Creek. Snowy egret, bent over intend watching the water. No herons today. 
5. Whole forest floor with black eyes Susa s. Lobelia puberula Common Name(s): Blue LobeliaDowny Lobelia
6. Pair of Canada geese, muttering to each other as they slowly make their way upstream meander upstream
7. What is nature like with nature seeing me?

Sat Sept 12

1. Oak leaf hydrangea petals are brown. I’ve missed the transition from red. 
2. Winter, "Hide-A-Lullaby," Adult Romantix, Winspear, 2025
3. Deafheaven, "Sunbather," Sunbather, Deathwish, 2013
4. Slow Crush, "Cherry," Thirst, Pure Noise, 2025

Sunday.  Emus. Bemis. 

1. Overcast at last A field of Canada geese. A field of robins. 
2. Big Osage orange things on the path that I turned my ankle on. Black walnuts probably. These are later on trail under big tree.  The sound of an acorn falling through the leaves, then exploding as it hits the asphalt.
3. A little bit of light rain has emptied the forest preserve. The last several times I’ve been here it’s been just packed and now just about nobody.
4. Single gray blue heron spooked by me as I crossed the bridge and he heads up to up the river
5. Lots of birds in this area, the forest with white butts buff colored tops may be a little gray. Bird identify air says that they’re red bellied woodpeckers or Downey woodpeckers.Sounds racheter cheep cheep. 
6. Squirrels racing around and a couple trees, like those little magnet cars, matchbox cars, chasing squeaking, perturbed, wagging their tails angrily
7. Beneath the Buroak dozens and dozens maybe hundreds of acorns almost completely covered in acorn Schell just a little brown peeking out of the bottom

Friday Fbw

1. There are some dry leaves in the gutter
2. The smell of fall in the air
3. Goldenrod is the predominant flower that are more Astors than last time very pretty purple Perwinkle color. Still lots of yellow flowers small black-eyed Susans saw a black swallowtail butterfly.  the prairie grasses turning brown each week.
4. More brown skeletons of tall flowers that are brown have little brown balls at the top
5. 70/58
6. Cormorant not black, but Gray back in his normal place overlooking the water. 
7. Drying echinacea drying Rudbeckia
8. Tiny last sprig of Cardinal flower
9. Little Lauren sized bird back where the damn used to be greenish yellowish small
10. Factory specs
11. High-end manufactured housing. Modular housing.
12. Beast mode T-shirt, long sleeved with the Nutter butter character on it who’s running
13. Was that.a hummingbird that flew by?

Saturday Sept 19

1. HB feeder is pretty full after a week. Have they been drinking? Are they gone?

Sunday

1. Birch dropping leaves. 
2. Sidewalks covered with water from sumps

3x10 Report #26 2026

 

daily salads

Say yes to this living world

 

asters in the garden at Honey Hill

"The Power of Yes" meditation by Tara Brach

When we develop the capacity to say yes, No matter what our experience, We discover the openness and freedom of awareness. Saying yes is not agreeing to unhealthy behavior or an affirmation of a belief. Rather, It's an honest and courageous willingness to be fully present with life as it is. The following guided meditation can shine a light on your habitual way of resisting or controlling experience, And help you to develop the capacity for unconditional presence, For saying yes to this living world. Take some moments to settle into a position, A sitting position that's comfortable, That allows you to be relaxed, And also alert. You might let the eyes gently close and take a few full breaths, Letting the breath help to bring you fully right here. Scanning your life, Sense if there's any situation that's asking for your attention, A situation that's difficult, That might be evoking a reaction of anger or fear, Of grief, Of sorrow. Let whatever situation might be here come into the foreground of your awareness and sense what's really challenging about it. Take some moments to let yourself go to the most difficult part of the situation. It might be a relationship with someone that's evoking a sense of irritation or hurt or insecurity. It might be the loss of a loved one, Power struggle with your child. Maybe it's a illness that you're struggling with or hurtful behavior that you now regret. Take some time to get in touch with the feelings that surround the situation. You might sense what is it that provokes the strongest feelings, What really feels wrong, What you're afraid of. You might sense what you're believing, What bad might happen, What this means about you or your future. So that as you sense into the situation, Really sense the feelings in your body that come up. Be aware of sensations in the stomach, The chest, The throat. In order to see firsthand what happens when you resist experience, When you try to avoid feeling what's difficult, You might experiment by saying no to what you're experiencing right here. Sensing the pain of the situation, Sensing what you don't like, Mentally direct a stream of the word no to the feelings. No to the unpleasantness of fear or anger, Shame or grief. Let the word carry the energy of no, Rejecting, Pushing away what you're experiencing. No communicates this is bad, This is wrong, I don't want this, I don't like this. What's it like to communicate no to an experience in your life? What does this resistance feel like in your body? Do you feel tightness, Pressure? What happens to the painful feelings, The anger or the fear, The grief or the fear of when you say no? What happens to your heart? You might imagine what it would be like in the days and weeks to come if whenever this situation arises you said no. You move through the world with the thoughts and feelings of no. What's your sense of yourself? Do you like yourself when you're saying no? And take a few moments to breathe, Perhaps shift your posture a bit, Maybe open your eyes. Now as you settle, Recall to mind the same painful situation, Even allowing yourself to go to the most difficult part of it, Sensing what you're afraid of, What feels wrong. This time, Let yourself be the Buddha under the Bodhi tree. Or perhaps a Bodhisattva of compassion, An awakened being. And sense what happens when you say yes to exactly what's arising inside you. Direct a stream of the word yes at your experience. Let the feelings float, Be held in an environment of yes. Or if not the word yes, Let the spirit of yes, The softness, The allowing, Be felt. You might imagine bowing to whatever is arising, To the sadness or the fear, Or perhaps communicating it's okay, It's okay, Or this too, This too can be included in my heart. Whatever's arising, Explore what happens if you meet it with the gentleness and the openness of yes. Even if there's waves of resistance in your body, Even if there's a sense of no, Explore what happens when you include that with yes. Include that in the larger field of yes. Yes to the fear. Yes to the hurt. Yes to the grief. Perhaps you're feeling numb or restless right now. Yes to that. What's it like to say yes? Is there softening and opening in your body? Is there more space and openness in your mind? What happens to the unpleasantness as you say yes? Does it get more intense? Does it become more diffuse? What happens to your heart as you say yes? Imagine in the days and weeks to come, Whenever this situation arises, If you could pause, Feel what's happening in the moment, And directly meet that experience with yes. Right in this moment, As you agree or aloud whatever is here, Say yes to this moment. What is your experience of who you are? Continue in silence, Releasing thoughts, And resting in an awake, Open awareness. Let your intention be to say yes to whatever experience arises. When acceptance is felt fully in the heart, It becomes surrender, Surrender into the truth of what we are. Notice what happens as your heart opens fully to the changing expressions of this sacred life.

The Harada Method

 

From Harvard Gazette

Ohtani followed a training program called the Harada Method that guided him from a promising high school player to MVP. Tell me about this method.

Takashi Harada, the person who created it, turned around underperforming high school teams at a pretty massive scale using this method and made them startlingly overperforming. So, this didn’t just work for Shohei, loads of people did it and got outsized success. That’s when I started to think it might also be for the rest of us. But then, honestly, it was in my teaching it to students and watching them get captivated by it and do it and start telling me stories of how it has helped them. They notice a before and after in how they’re spending their time and their intentionality on things.

How does it work?

You come up with a multiyear ambition; so really dare to dream. And then, the first step of the chart is, “What are the set of things that if I concentrated on this year, I’d make meaningful progress on my multiyear ambition?” You have one thing in the center: my multiyear ambition. For him, it was “be the No. 1 draft pick” four years later. And then, what are the eight things that if I did this year, I would make progress on my ambition? He had “physical conditioning” and “mental strength” and then four pitching things — “control,” “sharpness,” “speed,” and “trickery.” He had “character” and “karma” for No. 7 and No. 8.

To me, one of the most compelling parts of the method was the inclusion of karma. If karma wasn’t included, I don’t know that it would have captivated my attention.

Then the method asks you to do that one thing surrounded by eight, do it again, one more time. So, each of the eight yearly goals — physical conditioning, mental strength, character, karma, etc. — bring those out and surround them by the eight things I have to do on a daily basis to achieve that.

What’s amazing about the Harada Method is it breaks down your multiyear ambition. Students have found this so captivating because you either are thinking at the broad, multiyear ambition or you’re thinking at the micro — what do I have to do every day? This bridges them in a way that really provides forward momentum.

What did you find so intriguing about Ohtani’s process?

One is how he filled out the grids. There’s the No. 1 ambition, and then there are eight things surrounding it. Four of them having to do with pitching all the way down to the detailed behavior, the body, the mental. “Cool head, hot heart” was one of them. I have since learned it is common Japanese vernacular. I didn’t know it at the time, but that one really struck me. But it was “character” and “karma” that just weakened my knees. And indeed, I encourage everyone who uses this method to include character and karma regardless of if you want to be a pitcher or not. I’ve taught it now to 800 students — 100 percent used “character” and “karma” on theirs because they felt it.

“Pick up the trash” — that one really spoke to me; “clean room” because that’s private. Nobody else is going to see that. “Respect towards umpires.” He is known as the most respectful player. He does a greeting to the umpires at every single at bat. The one that I really wish I had learned a lot earlier was “be a person that people root for.” That one really hit me between the eyes because when I was that age, and for a lot longer, I thought “be a person who was right.” 

If he only had the four pitching things, I don’t think he would be as successful. I think it takes all of us, every ounce of us, to give ourselves the best position to achieve greatness. I don’t want to call it an insurance policy, but it’s not a bad word for it.

You’ve tried the Harada Method. What did you learn from that exercise?

Yes, my wife and I did it. We’re pretty ambitious people, and it helped us to clarify and articulate to each other, so we knew how to be helpful to one another: What am I going to do today that’s going to help make progress? It separates the signal from the noise of progress and really channels it. The articulation of it really helps you know what to do and stimulates progress.

My mission in the world is to add a zero for me and others. I’m very ambitious. I’m recovering from cancer and I have a new lease on life. And I’m a woman of a certain age. Jane Fonda taught me you’ve got three acts and I’m in my third act.

“Add a zero” is, instead of selling 100 books, how are you going to sell 1,000 books? Instead of having 1,000 customers, how are you going to get 10,000 customers? My philosophy now is how do we add a zero, and I’m trying to teach that to everyone. I’m trying to unleash ambition in people. I’ve never had such a great technique.

My wife, Anne Morriss, and I are writing our fourth book, which we want to retitle “Add A Zero.” That’s how much this has captivated us. We have our podcast called “Fixable.” I now do weekly office hours that are open to anyone where I teach a lot of these things. I call it Office Hours Live — we usually get about 1,000 people a week to come from all over the world. I taught this method on the goal-setting one.

So even those who aren’t aspiring athletes can benefit from Ohtani’s approach?

I’ve done it with hundreds and hundreds of people who are not athletes who either have ambition or I’m trying to encourage to have more ambition. Because what we know is that if you have a stretch goal, you achieve more than if you don’t.

The individual aspect of this, to me, is the compelling unit of analysis. This is a personal thing, and I think it’s for all ages. Lots of people are reading the case with their family and then decide who in the family wants to do the Harada Method. And then they start talking about the grids and then they talk about how their relationship shifts, how it just opens up pathways in doing it.

Cognitive Surrender

 Recent MIT report on teaching and AI here.

Getting the right answer from a chatbot can create the illusion of learning – but it can also trigger “cognitive surrender”4, where students fall back on AI at the first hint of struggle. 

here's a direct link to the study footnoted ("Thinking Fast, Slow, and Artificial")

The MIT report:

In the same spirit, collectively, we need to shape MIT’s use of AI in education to be “pro-learner” – not to replace the “hard fun” of thinking, learning, creating, and problem solving, but to expand what’s possible for students to think about, learn, and solve. In short, AI should be used to augment and enhance curiosity, creativity, and learning, not automate them.

Here are 9 thinking skills where the "friction" of doing it yourself is exactly what tempts students to hand it over to an LLM instead:

1. Generating ideas from a blank page (brainstorming) — sitting with the discomfort of nothing yet existing.
2. Structuring an argument — deciding what goes first, what supports what, without a template.
3. Synthesizing across sources — holding multiple readings in mind and finding where they agree, conflict, or build on each other.
4. Formulating a research question — narrowing a vague interest into something answerable.
5. Working through ambiguity — tolerating a problem that doesn't have a clean, single right answer yet.
6. Self-explanation — articulating why an answer is correct, not just what it is.
7. Editing your own reasoning — noticing a flaw in your own logic and having to rework it, rather than starting fresh.
8. Estimating and sanity-checking — coming up with a rough answer to judge whether a "real" answer is plausible.
9. Persisting through a stuck point — the specific moment mid-problem where confusion feels aversive and quitting (or delegating) is easiest.

1. Generating

• Generate ideas

• Generate questions

• Formulate problems/research questions

• Retrieve relevant knowledge

2. Reasoning

• Structure an argument

• Synthesize across sources

• Work through ambiguity

• Make judgments

• Estimate/sanity-check

3. Monitoring

• Diagnose your own thinking

• Self-explain

• Edit/revise your reasoning

• Evaluate the quality of an answer

4. Persisting

• Sit with uncertainty

• Recover from being stuck

• Revise after failure

• Develop an internal standard of quality

1. Generating ideas from a blank page

• Coming up with possibilities before someone else supplies them

• Moving past the first obvious idea toward something more interesting

• Making connections between things that don't initially seem connected

• Exploring an idea that is incomplete, awkward, or uncertain

• Developing an idea rather than simply selecting one from a list

2. Structuring an argument

• Deciding what the central claim should be

• Determining which ideas need to come first and which should follow

• Deciding what evidence belongs with which claim

• Figuring out how individual pieces of reasoning build toward a larger conclusion

• Recognizing when an argument has a gap, redundancy, or weak connection

3. Synthesizing across sources

• Identifying meaningful similarities and differences among sources

• Noticing when two sources complicate or contradict one another

• Deciding which connections among sources actually matter

• Combining information to produce an idea that isn't simply present in any one source

• Moving from “Source A says…” and “Source B says…” to “Taken together, these suggest…”

4. Formulating a research question

• Moving from a broad topic to something genuinely worth investigating

• Identifying what is puzzling, unresolved, or interesting about a topic

• Narrowing a question enough to make it answerable

• Recognizing when a question is merely factual rather than intellectually productive

• Revising a question as understanding of the subject develops

5. Working through ambiguity

• Remaining comfortable when there isn't an obvious answer

• Considering multiple plausible interpretations

• Holding competing ideas in mind without immediately choosing one

• Asking what evidence might support or challenge each interpretation

• Recognizing that uncertainty can be a productive part of thinking

6. Self-explanation

• Explaining why an answer makes sense rather than simply stating it

• Putting reasoning into one's own words

• Identifying the evidence or assumptions behind a conclusion

• Explaining the steps taken to arrive at an answer

• Discovering gaps in understanding by trying to explain something clearly

7. Editing your own reasoning

• Looking back at your thinking rather than assuming your first attempt is sound

• Finding a claim that isn't adequately supported

• Recognizing when evidence doesn't actually prove what you think it proves

• Revising a line of reasoning rather than simply replacing it with someone else's

• Learning from the weaknesses of an unsuccessful attempt

8. Estimating and sanity-checking

• Predicting roughly what an answer should look like before calculating or researching

• Using prior knowledge to establish a reasonable expectation

• Asking, “Does this answer make sense?”

• Detecting answers that are technically plausible but intuitively wrong

• Comparing an external answer against your own independent estimate

9. Recovering from a stuck point

• Recognizing exactly where you are stuck

• Trying a different strategy when the first one doesn't work

• Rereading, reconsidering, or breaking a problem into smaller pieces

• Using a resource or asking for a hint without handing over the entire problem

• Experiencing difficulty as something to work through rather than something to immediately escape

10. Making judgments

• Deciding which idea is worth pursuing

• Deciding which evidence is strongest or most relevant

• Determining which interpretation is most convincing

• Distinguishing between something that is merely plausible and something that is genuinely insightful

• Choosing among competing possibilities and being able to explain why

11. Diagnosing your own thinking

• Identifying what you actually understand versus what you only recognize

• Locating the specific point where your reasoning breaks down

• Recognizing an assumption you may have made

• Identifying what information or knowledge you're missing

• Deciding what kind of help would actually move your thinking forward

12. Retrieving and recalling knowledge

• Trying to remember something before looking it up

• Bringing relevant knowledge to mind when confronting a new problem

• Strengthening memory through repeated retrieval

• Using what you already know to make sense of something unfamiliar

• Developing a body of internal knowledge rather than relying entirely on external retrieval

13. Generating questions

• Noticing something confusing, surprising, contradictory, or interesting

• Asking “why?” or “how?” rather than stopping at “what?”

• Turning curiosity into a question worth pursuing

• Generating follow-up questions as new information emerges

• Questioning an assumption rather than simply accepting the premise

14. Developing an internal standard of quality

• Developing a sense of what makes an argument strong or weak

• Learning to recognize effective versus ineffective writing

• Comparing your own work against examples and identifying differences

• Developing an instinct for when something is incomplete, superficial, awkward, or unconvincing

• Producing enough work yourself to develop the judgment that lets you recognize quality in someone else's work

One thing I particularly like about this list

There is a progression hidden inside it:

Generate → Reason → Monitor → Persist → Judge