He had a very thorough system to follow up on many various topics of interest. He used field notebooks that he kept apparently always with him to capture what he observed and thought. Then, he collected his findings, ideas and thoughts, per topic, in specific notebooks: this is where he elaborated his theories.
So he used a two-tiers approach from note taking to thought forming.
I couldn't help but make the connection with a comment that Maria Andersen made on our tendencies to be exposed to information only once. I guess he probably used his field notebooks as reminder but he then, it seems elaborated his thought in some form of order.
Another thing that he did was to establish experiments to test out that the theory that he had. From an hypothesis, developing a way to check it out in observation and / or prediction. Making sense in one's mind, through categorization and connection has to be verified externally too...
In relation to our world of learning, well perhaps at least mine, I have the impression that I gained a lot of potential material and more tools (or perhaps functionalities), that is for sure. But this part of the learning process may be taking to much space & time in comparison with what I am left with for elaborating on my own thoughts and checking them out.
#PLENK2010
