In my ever present dissatisfaction with the way argument is set down on paper, I’ve been experimenting with coding the syntax of arguments in a superscript, symbolic form. This requires you to consider how each sentence fits into the argument. In this way, 100,000 words are ordered systematically in the most effective order. That is the theory. In practice, the exercise reveals yet again, the messiness of thinking.
It is so difficult to distinguish inference from observation. It is so difficult to delineate nested conclusions from reason. In the end, there is a pursuing of order that leads to absolute futility. I have spent thirty years trying to protect myself from the near insanity that comes with such pursuits. Still, I am soldiering on. If I can accept a working method, rather than a perfect method, I can still approximate an improvement. It reminds me of my earlier observation and the clause that I scroll across much of my work. All My Thinking Is Provisional (AMTIP).
