Welcome to Verstreuen—meaning “to scatter”—where I unpack the ideas I’ve collected this week in my 🗃️ Zettelkasten, “note box,” personal knowledge management system. Here, I’ll share the highlights, insights, and stories I find interesting—and I think you will too!

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This Week’s Highlights

After capturing 46 notes this week, three ideas stood out—each offering a different way to think about progress, creativity, and decision-making.

• The difference between art and science

• A tool for thinking about decisions in your life

• Where innovation and change come from

Growing up, I was always drawn to science. The chemistry lab seemed like a wizards tower with fun glassware and chemical reactions that seemed like magic. However, as a college student, it turned out chemistry was less about fun tricks and more about keeping a notebook straight and counting the number of valence electrons.

The focus on recording every detail of an experiment completely stole the allure of the class from me. While I wasn’t having much fun noting every little thing down, I came to appreciate the purpose behind it. The goal was to create a reliable system of record, allowing others to verify our findings and reproduce our results. This process of collaborative truth-seeking was reassuring—it wasn’t just up to me to determine what was true; truth was something that could be tested, validated, and confirmed by others.

In World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction, Immanuel Wallerstein opens his book with a regaling of philosophy and the study of knowledge. By the 19th century, philosophy had split into two distinct academic faculties: the sciences and the humanities.

Scientists argued that truth could only be discovered through empirical observation and inductive reasoning. They maintained that their work was purely about uncovering what is true, not about exploring what is good or beautiful.

At first glance, science and art may seem like opposites, but they are actually two different ways of making sense of the world. Science seeks objective truths through observation, experimentation, and analysis. Art, by contrast, explores meaning, beauty, and emotional depth.

One is not superior to the other; rather, they complement each other. Some of the most powerful ideas emerge from blending both approaches—combining logical analysis with creative insight.

• Art is the pursuit of what is good.

• Science is the pursuit of what is true.

Both disciplines seek knowledge, but they do so through different lenses—one through logic and experimentation, the other through emotion and human experience.

**🗃️**

One lesson I keep revisiting is that the quality of our lives depends on the quality of the decisions we make.

This perspective, which Productive Peter calls Decision Stacking, isn’t just about making good choices—it’s about making choices that make future choices easier.

Consider these two approaches to decision-making:

• Without Decision Stacking: Making the quickest, easiest decision to get past a hurdle.

• With Decision Stacking: Making a decision that not only solves today’s problem but also opens up more possibilities down the road.

A common example from the tech world is technical debt. When teams take shortcuts in coding to meet a deadline, they often create problems that require even more work later. The same principle applies to life—short-term fixes can lead to long-term constraints.

Applying this principle in everyday life means asking yourself:

1. Will this decision make future decisions easier or harder?

2. Am I just solving an immediate problem, or am I also setting myself up for long-term success?

3. How can I design choices that keep me adaptable, not boxed in?

The best decisions aren’t just about fixing something today—they’re about engineering a better tomorrow.

**🗃️**

As a prolific planner the idea of making decisions without all the facts has been a constant struggle for me. Working in an industry where you’ll get thrown into a room with a half-baked demo, 20 minutes of KT, and a large iced coffee, I’ve become well acquainted with vulnerability and its role in driving solutions forward.

One of my biggest lessons in this came when I was asked to rework a feature I had developed. As I started pulling at loose threads—questioning assumptions, breaking apart the code—I quickly realized: whoever wrote it needed to be fired. Except… that “whoever” was me. 👀

The code was over-engineered, unnecessarily complex, and difficult for others to work with. What had once felt like a solid solution was, in reality, creating more problems than it solved. Admitting that was humbling, but it also pushed me to rethink everything.

Instead of defending the original design, I saw the feature enhancement request as an opportunity to simplify and streamline the solution. The result? A cleaner, more maintainable V2 that not only worked better but also made sense to others on the project.

Looking back, I could say I should have gotten it right the first time—but that would miss the point. The initial version wasn’t a failure; it was a necessary step in getting to something better. It’s easy to believe that great solutions come from having all the right answers upfront, but in reality, they emerge from the willingness to iterate, to challenge our own thinking, and to step into uncertainty.

The best work doesn’t come from certainty—it comes from experimentation, discomfort, and the courage to be wrong before we get it right.

**🗃️**

Closing Thoughts

At first glance, the three ideas explored this week—science vs. art, decision stacking, and the role of vulnerability—may seem unrelated. But together, they reveal a powerful truth: progress, whether personal or societal, is about balance.

Science and art remind us that knowledge isn’t just about facts; it’s also about meaning. Decision stacking teaches us that short-term thinking limits future possibilities, while long-term vision creates momentum. And finally, embracing vulnerability unlocks the very innovation and change we need to move forward.

Growth comes from integrating different perspectives, thinking beyond the immediate, and stepping out of our comfort zones. The best choices don’t just solve today’s problems—they also set the stage for a better, more creative, and more expansive future, just requiring the courage to take the first step.

Thanks for reading Verstreuen

Thanks for taking the time to explore and reflect on my notes with me. If any ideas particularly resonated or challenged you, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

👋 Until next week.

-GH

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