Turn on the computer yourself. Turn it on from a complete shutdown, not a restart from standby or hibernation. It is important that you journey with the computer from an offline state. This allows for complete synchronization and determines your rhythm. It gives you ownership. Start a new session on your browser, do not restore. If you have saved tabs, close them. Your browser’s homepage should be the only thing you are welcomed with. Think of this as the trunk of a tree. Everything you do from now on will branch from here.
Observe each webpage in its entirety and do not read in an F-shaped pattern. If you must skim, do so in a figure of 8. Do not run an ad blocker. Ads are an important part of the page, they provide a context and are an important decoration. They tell you as much about the content as reading does. Investigate every link; hover over them and look to the bottom left of your screen for their destination. Remember the url’s. Absorb them. A naked url reveals more than its anchor text; it provides an abstract of the forthcoming page. Investigate every link, but don’t follow every link. Following every link is a distraction, it prevents you from building up momentum. Momentum is important. Surfing is about decision making, decisions are best made with momentum.
Do not repeat old or memorised searches. If you are stuck, take your time; reflect. Search within yourself first and the search engine second. Enjoy this moment. Have no destination in mind, only a place to start, you will soon forget your initial curiosity and be invigorated instead by its offspring. There is no destination, only a series of resting places. Record these.
Weight all results from a search engine equally. Ignore all rankings, imagine the results are displayed randomly. The results on the 17th page are just as important as those on the 1st. Search engines do not provide you with what you are looking for, at best they are springboards. As you progress through the pages so does the disconnect from your original search term; you are looking for the disconnect. The disconnect is where you are consumed by someone else’s interpretation of what you originally meant when you started your search. What you meant when you started your search is no longer important. Investigate image searches as thoroughly as web ones; the disconnect happens sooner. Links laid out in “hand crafted” pages however are immeasurably more valuable than those found in a search engine. Follow these with more vigour. Anyone who has laid out a links page or hyperlinked text from their article has done so lovingly and knowingly. These links come readily endorsed, researched and verified. Respect this. They will take you to places you couldn’t get to on your own. Enjoy broken links and embrace holding pages, examine these with the same intensity as you would any page. They are wonderfully lost souls that can’t be found through searching alone. There are no dead-ends on the web, but they are as close as you will come.
Ritual
Turn on the computer yourself. Turn it on from a complete shutdown, not a restart from standby or hibernation. It is important that you journey with the computer from an offline state. This allows for complete synchronization and determines your rhythm. It gives you ownership. Start a new session on your browser, do not restore. If you have saved tabs, close them. Your browser’s homepage should be the only thing you are welcomed with. Think of this as the trunk of a tree. Everything you do from now on will branch from here.
Observe each webpage in its entirety and do not read in an F-shaped pattern. If you must skim, do so in a figure of 8. Do not run an ad blocker. Ads are an important part of the page, they provide a context and are an important decoration. They tell you as much about the content as reading does. Investigate every link; hover over them and look to the bottom left of your screen for their destination. Remember the url’s. Absorb them. A naked url reveals more than its anchor text; it provides an abstract of the forthcoming page. Investigate every link, but don’t follow every link. Following every link is a distraction, it prevents you from building up momentum. Momentum is important. Surfing is about decision making, decisions are best made with momentum.
Do not repeat old or memorised searches. If you are stuck, take your time; reflect. Search within yourself first and the search engine second. Enjoy this moment. Have no destination in mind, only a place to start, you will soon forget your initial curiosity and be invigorated instead by its offspring. There is no destination, only a series of resting places. Record these.
Weight all results from a search engine equally. Ignore all rankings, imagine the results are displayed randomly. The results on the 17th page are just as important as those on the 1st. Search engines do not provide you with what you are looking for, at best they are springboards. As you progress through the pages so does the disconnect from your original search term; you are looking for the disconnect. The disconnect is where you are consumed by someone else’s interpretation of what you originally meant when you started your search. What you meant when you started your search is no longer important. Investigate image searches as thoroughly as web ones; the disconnect happens sooner. Links laid out in “hand crafted” pages however are immeasurably more valuable than those found in a search engine. Follow these with more vigour. Anyone who has laid out a links page or hyperlinked text from their article has done so lovingly and knowingly. These links come readily endorsed, researched and verified. Respect this. They will take you to places you couldn’t get to on your own. Enjoy broken links and embrace holding pages, examine these with the same intensity as you would any page. They are wonderfully lost souls that can’t be found through searching alone. There are no dead-ends on the web, but they are as close as you will come.