Quotebook | Wisdom Lab

DIKW Ladder

How an assortment of characters can become wisdom

A single quote travels up the DIKW ladder:
the scrambled characters → the shuffled words → the quote itself → the extracted concepts.

DATA

The literal characters that make up the quote. A signal without any structure.

.ne’nforiesaseso!npvtreseheJscthlwba,h’aehmoters!ts.’as,h’gYoieethsmthoamooYtotmtirtetiehlfte.amenss!uytoo,esiitsyevAge,recosyyccifhsouotrnoeo.htsot.p’ghssuwyYyeisietoacrhhkwssnesl’aotgenseIsejanlydmsnoaesibreeideteyyeks

INFORMATION

Words arrive, but they're jumbled. Some meaning emerges.

enjoy photography ulysses yes yes yes ever yes works yes moment go even way because like say tremendous maybes enjoyment picture trash like maybes hate shooting yes one saying yes present last yes three yes yes something joyces instant respect yes tremendous words affirmation written

KNOWLEDGE

The words of the quote in the correct order. Understanding arrives with context, and a quick synopsis brings clarity.

“But as for me, I enjoy shooting a picture. Being present. It’s a way of saying, Yes! Yes! Yes! It’s like the last three words of Joyce’s Ulysses, which is one of the most tremendous works which have ever been written. It’s Yes, yes, yes. And photography is like that. It’s yes, yes, yes. And there are no maybes. All the maybes should go to the trash, because it’s an instant, it’s a moment, it’s there! And it’s respect of it and tremendous enjoyment to say, Yes! Even if it’s something you hate. Yes! It’s an affirmation.”

— Henri Cartier-Bresson

Synopsis

Taking photographs is like embracing a fleeting moment with enthusiasm, saying 'yes' to what's in front of you without reservation, as if capturing the essence of James Joyce's emphatic affirmation in his masterpiece.

WISDOM

A distillation of knowledge into wisdom with a mantra you can remember.

Mantra

Embrace instant yes

Themes emerging from this quote

Art Presence Inspiration Photography

Wisdom Cloud

What shows up the most?

Top words sized by frequency. Tap a word to search it inside the Quotebook.

life love one people never new dont know us like time man may things every way because make everything work world best day get right want go good live see think mind others person become happiness something york human always better need nothing youre great keep must without change city feel let rather self thing enough feeling give heart kind

Brevity Scale

Snackable vs deep read

Character-length buckets. Segments are proportional to the share of short, medium, and long quotes.

Short · 67% Medium · 26% Long · 7%

Theme Barcode

Scanlines of the stack

Each bar represents a theme—thickness reflects how frequently it appears across the corpus. Click any bar to explore that theme's quotes. Together, these weighted bars create a visual code of the entire collection.

Theme Bookshelf

Spines from the archive

Book spines for each theme—thickness scales with how many quotes mention it. Tap a spine to search that theme.

Book spines for each theme—thickness scales with how many quotes mention it.
Tap a book to search that theme.

Serendipity Machine

Generate a poster-style pull from the archive with a single tap.

Tap spin to surface a quote.