@bbain I feel richer after reading this.
I immediately used this process to read an article about a difficult topic to understand. It was some article about gravity and why it’s so hard to define. So before reading, I stopped for just a minute or two and made a freewrite conjecture on gravity. It helped.
I really dig this approach. It plays nicely with my personal philosophy with learning something; but one I haven’t been able to describe as well as I should like. It is basically that you have to do both the practical and theoretical together. Work both “in” and “on” a thing. Doing just one limits your growth. Hmm, let me dig into the library… ah, here it is from several years ago:
“And sense impressions are a deeper soil for growing memories than the best systems and analytical methods.” - Hermann Hesse
Which made me think: “Tilling the ground is the best way to make the soil deeper, softer, and more fertile for any type of growing”.
Fundamentally, it’s something about roughing up a smooth surface, so that things can stick to it (like velcro, in a sense).
Anyways, that’s why I like this idea of a freewriting conjecture combined with your heuristic of “supporting”, “extending”, and “challenging”.
I’m arming myself with this concept as I venture back into the Stream of Online Stuff.