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 think you will too!

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This Week’s Highlights

This week’s notes come from a founding father, a book, and various thinkers across the internet...

🟨 Ritual and Ideas – How turning an idea into a ritual gives it the space to grow.

🟦 The Cost of Quality – Why investing in well-made things changes your experience over time.

🟥 Ideas as Objects – How making ideas tangible gives them staying power.

Research isn’t just about collecting knowledge—it’s a ceremony, a dedicated act of forming a deeper connection with an idea. In Comexmadivla, Allison Parrish suggests that rituals and ceremonies operate under a different set of rules than everyday activities.

This goes beyond routine. Ritual creates the conditions where ideas move from abstraction to reality—where thought takes form.

For me, writing this newsletter each week is a turned into its own ritual. It’s not just about sharing ideas but about fully inhabiting them—shaping scattered notes into something coherent, something that invites deeper reflection. The process itself becomes a sacred space where half-formed thoughts transform into something meaningful.

To ritualize an idea is to give it space to unfold, to take root, to bridge the gap between intention and creation. It’s not just about structuring effort—it’s about consecrating it.

This isn’t just philosophy—it’s process design at its best. A well-designed process doesn’t simply make work more efficient; it changes the way we think and act. In everyday life, work often feels fragmented and reactive. But a carefully structured process—a design sprint, a creative workshop—functions like a ritual, shifting people into a different mode of engagement. These aren’t just meetings; they are intentional spaces where ideas are nurtured into form.

This reframes taking action not as an obligation but as an invitation. Creativity isn’t about forcing ideas forward—it’s about creating the right conditions for them to emerge. Ritual and process are the scaffolding that make transformation possible—not by force, but by design.

**🗃️**

Since moving, I’ve been thinking a lot about what’s worth spending money on. Furnishing an apartment is one of those things where it’s easy to go cheap and just get something that works. But then you sit in a flimsy chair, or your new squatty potty starts wobbling after a few months, you realize—you didn’t really save anything.

There are certain things where quality isn’t just nice to have—it changes the way you experience your space and in turn your actions in that space.

• A solid wood desk makes sitting down to work feel intentional.

• A well-made couch doesn’t just exist in your living room—it invites you to relax.

• Even something as small as the weight of a good knife transforms the way you cook.

Your environment isn’t just decoration; it’s one of the key inputs that affects your output.

It’s not about spending more for the sake of it. It’s about thinking long-term—choosing things that don’t just function but enhance your daily life. Because whether it’s furniture, a relationship, or anything else, the best things aren’t just the ones that last. They’re the ones that make you grateful you chose them—every single day.

**🗃️**

Ideas can feel slippery—floating in our minds, loosely defined, and prone to misinterpretation. But when we ground them in something tangible, they gain weight. They become easier to grasp, communicate, and act on.

This is why specifics matters. Vague aspirations like “We need better teamwork” or “Our strategy should be more innovative” leave too much room for interpretation. But when we translate them into concrete actions—“Let’s schedule daily 10-minute stand-up meetings” or “We’ll test three new product features this quarter”—they shift from abstract to actionable.

Just like a well-crafted object, an idea that is clearly shaped and solidified holds its form over time. It can be built upon, refined, and passed along. And when ideas take shape, they stop being just thoughts—we can pick them up, examine them, and make them real.

**🗃️**

Closing Thoughts

Did you enjoy this shorter format, or would you prefer the deeper dives? Let me know—I’d love to hear what resonates most with you.

The common thread this week was intentionality—whether in rituals, quality, or how we anchor ideas. Ideas are easy to lose in abstraction, but when we give them space, invest in them, and embody them in real ways, they take root.

This week, I’m reminded that the things worth holding onto—ideas, objects, commitments—aren’t just the ones that endure, but the ones that shape us in return. And that the best investments aren’t just the ones that last, but the ones that make life better in ways we might not fully realize until much later.

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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