Notes on https://writingcooperative.com/zettelkasten-how-one-german-scholar-was-so-freakishly-productive-997e4e0ca125

First off, the article, like so many others like it, is pretty self-absorbed in its own love of “productivity”. But let’s explore it nevertheless.

Zettelkasten is a knowledge organization system popularized by a sociology professor who was admittedly very productive. I’m using a variation of it for my Obsidian knowledge base (this vault), which is called Alexandria.

The core concepts of Zettelkasten are:

  • Capture ideas in notes
  • Add tag to notes

By itself, those are small. We then jump into a quick explanation of information density in conversation defined by some guy named Claude Shannon (not doing him a lot of justice here, looks like he did some good stuff, but let’s catch up on him later, which says that an information dense conversation maximizes surprise. That’s interesting.

To get actual value out of Zettelkasten, you need to be surprised by connections. This will usually be because you discover stuff from the past that you’ve forgotten. A “mature” Zettelkasten will have plenty of depth to surprise you, but needs building over years.

The author is pretty clear about “feeding the Zettelkasten” being their goal. While that feels fun, I’m not sure if that’s the same goal as “maximize knowledge”. Nevertheless, it is in the same general direction, so there’s that.

The rest of the article is the writer explaining why Zettelkasten is good and you should use it. Not too bad points tbh.

Zettelkasten principles, according to the article author

  1. The principle of atomicity: The term was coined by Christian Tietze. It means that each note should contain one idea and one idea only. This makes it possible to link ideas with a laser focus.
  2. The principle of autonomy: Each note should be autonomous, meaning it should be self-contained and comprehensible on its own. This allows notes to be moved, processed, separated, and concatenated independently of its neighbors. It also ensures that notes remain useful even if the original source of information disappears.
  3. Always link your notes: Whenever you add a note, make sure to link it to already existing notes. Avoid notes that are disconnected from other notes. As Luhmann himself put it, “each note is just an element that derives its quality from the network of links in the system. A note that is not connected to the network will be lost, will be forgotten by the Zettelkasten” (original in German).
  4. Explain why you’re linking notes: Whenever you are connecting two notes by a link, make sure to briefly explain why you are linking them. Otherwise, years down the road when you revisit your notes, you may have no idea why you connected them.
  5. Use your own words: Don’t copy and paste. If you come across an interesting idea and want to add it to your Zettelkasten, you must express that idea with your own words, in a way that you’ll be sure to understand years later. Don’t turn your Zettelkasten into a dump of copy-and-pasted information.

It is pretty ironic that I chose to copy/paste these as a way to retain their original wording and context, which I feel is important to represent this idea as described. Alas. There’s like, 6-7 more points, but they seemed less interesting. One thing I’d add:

  1. You’re in for the long haul. Zettelkasten is not a project-based organization system, it’s about optimizing your note taking and discovering over a lifetime.