Commonplace Book

What is a commonplace book?

A commonplace book is a central repo for your ideas, quotes, anecdotes, observations and information you come across during your life and pursuits of learning.

The book is there to record and organise those gems for later use in any area of your life.

Having a Second Brain was fashionable even back in ancient Rome.

Who used commonplace books?

Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, just to name a few.

John Locke is a famous example of someone who used a commonplace book for knowledge management and learning. He had a lot of philosophising to do and an organised commonplace book helped with that.

Note: In the modern day, there is a blurred definition between a commonplace book and a Zibaldone. A commonplace book is often structured by subject or theme ("common place" like friendship or politics).