bnuungus
call me bun
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This thread is about the Zettelkasten Method of note taking. It was designed by a German Social Scientist by the name of Niklas Luhmann as a system that would act as a second brain so that at any moment if you had a little idea, you could write it down on a little notecard (a zettel) and link it to other thoughts that you had that are relevant. Apparently he published 50 books as well as around 600 articles in his lifetime along with having around 150 unfinished manuscripts at the time of his death. I will be pulling heavily from this website to write this post.
In essence, a Zettelkasten is
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6ySG7xYgjY
At the end of the day though, there's only so much that internet guides can help you create one. Everyone's brain is different and therefore ever Zettelkasten is different but that's part of the fun. It's a system that not only helps you remember what's been going on in your head, but also helps you to understand how your brain thinks about things.
A zettelkasten can be done using only notecards and a filing system but that will end up taking up a lot of space as well as quite a bit of time doing menial "office work" organization. There are plenty of pieces of software that support making a zettelkasten but there are two that I've looked into that seem pretty good. The one that I use for mine is done online at https://zenkit.com/en/hypernotes/. The main benefit to this one is that it's cloud based which allows me to access it from both my work computer and my home computer without having to use Github to make sure that the files are the same. Another good one to look into is the one that is featured in the video above https://obsidian.md/. Obsidian is nice because because it's stored locally, it's open source, and it has a thriving community that makes different plugins that allow you to fully customize you experience. Functionally, both hypernotes and obsidian operate fairly similarly so choosing one over the other is mainly about whether you prefer customization or the ability to easily access your Zettelkasten across multiple devices. Working with a Zettelkasten is a fun endeavor and I think it's worth it to give it a shot
In essence, a Zettelkasten is
The important part of what makes a zettelkasten work is the connections between concepts and ideas that you create. Each zettel is supposed to be only one single thought. You then tag that zettel with a unique identifier and then hyperlink it to other zettels that relate to other concepts along the same line of thought. Pulling from the website, this has numerous benefits to it:a personal tool for thinking and writing. It has hypertextual features to make a web of thought possible. The difference to other systems is that you create a web of thoughts instead of notes of arbitrary size and form, and emphasize connection, not a collection.
- We can improve the connectivity of our thoughts. The hyper-textual nature of the Zettelkasten enables us to connect ideas. These connections make new insights possible. Insights don't happen in a vacuum. They are the result of making new (unexpected) connections.
- We can be more productive. The Zettelkasten Method streamlines our workflow by giving clear guidelines on what to do. This, in turn, decreases friction. It is quite common to enter a stage of flow which further increases productivity. I even allocate two days per week to make Zettelkasten work my priority and allow Zettelkasten flow to happen.
- We stop wasting our efforts. Even if you don't use any of your notes for a project you're working on at the moment, you prepare the knowledge for future projects. At the very least, you improve the depth of processing information from that topic.
- We can tackle more complex problems. It is very difficult to keep all the balls in the air if you juggle complex problems. The Zettelkasten Method allows you to concentrate on a small part of the problem and after that take a step back and look at it with a panorama vision.
- Normal note-taking will create a bloated mess over time. The Zettelkasten on the other hand will scale itself automatically to the size of the problem you are tackling. This is what Luhmann talked about when he wrote about "internal growth" (I translated it into "organic growth") in his manual.
- The Zettelkasten Method will make your writing easier, more coherent, smoother and more convincing. One of the main problems in writing and thinking is our limited capacity to follow one line of thought for a long period of time. Just think of meditation. It is even difficult to focus on a simple thing like breathing for a couple of minutes. Imagine how difficult it is to think about one issue for weeks and months to write a thesis. The Zettelkasten will hold your thoughts alive and help you to hold onto them.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6ySG7xYgjY
At the end of the day though, there's only so much that internet guides can help you create one. Everyone's brain is different and therefore ever Zettelkasten is different but that's part of the fun. It's a system that not only helps you remember what's been going on in your head, but also helps you to understand how your brain thinks about things.
A zettelkasten can be done using only notecards and a filing system but that will end up taking up a lot of space as well as quite a bit of time doing menial "office work" organization. There are plenty of pieces of software that support making a zettelkasten but there are two that I've looked into that seem pretty good. The one that I use for mine is done online at https://zenkit.com/en/hypernotes/. The main benefit to this one is that it's cloud based which allows me to access it from both my work computer and my home computer without having to use Github to make sure that the files are the same. Another good one to look into is the one that is featured in the video above https://obsidian.md/. Obsidian is nice because because it's stored locally, it's open source, and it has a thriving community that makes different plugins that allow you to fully customize you experience. Functionally, both hypernotes and obsidian operate fairly similarly so choosing one over the other is mainly about whether you prefer customization or the ability to easily access your Zettelkasten across multiple devices. Working with a Zettelkasten is a fun endeavor and I think it's worth it to give it a shot
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