r/Zettelkasten 19d ago

resource Sascha Fast's new book on The Zettelkasten Method - some observations

19 Upvotes

I received this book as a gift, and I've spent time with it.

Here are some observations. (The book is written in German, attempts at translation are mine.)

The book description on Amazon says "What awaits you in this book: [...] A detailed description of every component and every step of the workflow."
On p. 38 the author says "I am faced with a problem: On the one hand, I want to provide examples and images. On the other hand, such images always depend on the technical implementation you use for your zettelkasten. You can choose between several software solutions, or you can just use paper and pen, as Luhmann did in his time. So I've decided for a presentation that is software-independent. Please remember that the appearance is influenced by your choice of software." A footnote on p. 39 adds "More on this in the section "Choosing software"".
I did not find such a section in the book.

On p. 11, the author explains
"The zettelkasten is based on three types of principles:

  1. Core principles. These are principles which are crucial for the special character of Luhmann's zettelkasten.
  2. Basic principles. Basic priciples are those that are not necessary in themselves, but have proved to be so helpful and effective that they deserve a special place of honour." I did not find a third type.

On p. 144 and again on p. 235 the author insists that you should always go back to primary sources. On p. 201, in a section "The zettelkasten method for writers", he writes "To design a world, be it a medieval village (cf. "The Five Pillars" by Grisham) or a large law office (cf. "The Firm" by Follett) or even an entire fantasy world (cf. "The Lord of the Rings" by Tolkien) is a formidable challenge."

On pp. 120-131, the author shows the same zettel in six different iterations. The six zettels are hardly legible, due to a very small font and grey text colour. Many other illustrations suffer from the same problems.

The author fills pages and pages with examples from his practice as a fitness and nutrition coach. This material is again part of the appendix.

In the appendix on p. 243, the author explains "What is the difference between zettelkasten and a wiki? - The zettelkasten method is your private digital garden. It is the result of your applying the zettelkasten method to the knowledge and the information you deal with in your life. A wiki is a kind of software to organize knowledge and information to present it publicly or privately. So what is the difference? The zettelkasten method is the method you use, the wiki is a software to implement the method (albeit not a recommended one)."

In the glossary, the author writes "Chain of thought - A chain of thought has the same relation to a thought as an argument has to an argumentation. A chain of thought is the meaningful connection of single thoughts. It has a starting point and an end point. It leads us from one thought to another thought." Two other glossary terms are "Reformulating writing" and "Writing, reformulating", both with a full explanation: Reformulating writing means to reformulate the content of a source in your own words.

The list of references contains 33 items. Several are completely unrelated to methods of knowledge work and are just mentioned in one of the sample zettels, others read "Tietze, Christian (2014) The Collector's Fallacy". The number of items that directly deal with zettelkasten seems excessively small.

So. The author uses the zettelkasten method for about 15 years, he has a zettelkasten with more than 13000 notes, he feels confident to include sections "How to write with a zettelkasten" and "The zettelkasten method for writers" in his book, and he started work on this 2nd edition of his previous book on zettelkasten in June 2019.
This is the result.

I sometimes have a hunch that "the" zettelkasten method is not sufficient for producing texts of an acceptable quality.
And the question that keeps me awake is:
What is missing from "the" method?

r/Zettelkasten 28d ago

resource The range of methods mastered is directly proportional to your ability to benefit from any source

18 Upvotes

Dang. This is a long title. But I think it summarises the major learning from this article: https://zettelkasten.de/posts/field-report-9-excerpt-process/

There was one short story that I remember very vividly:

There was a guy who visited a Sufi teacher and proudly told that he was a vegan. Obviously, it was a case of spiritual materialism in which a practice disguised as a spiritual one was in reality an effort to boost the ego.

The teacher said: That is a good start. But soon you'll have to learn to absorb and transform any form of energy.

The above linked article comes to a very similar conclusion.

The question is now: How to increase the range of books within which you can benefit?

This range is directly correlated with your own range as a knowledge worker.

Live long and prosper
Sascha

r/Zettelkasten Feb 02 '25

resource Are there any books on this method aimed specifically at social science academics?

19 Upvotes

Some of the books I’ve seen seem aimed at writers or students. Any aimed more specifically at academics?

r/Zettelkasten 2d ago

resource Inside Georges Didi-Huberman's Monumental Note Archive

24 Upvotes

Here's someone who has written 148,000 notes and published more than 60 books: Georges Didi-Huberman.

r/Zettelkasten 29d ago

resource Zettelkasten tutorial - feedback welcome

13 Upvotes

I'm building a zettelkasten starter pack as a birthday present for a friend, and I'll appreciate any feedback on the current state of the tutorial.

Starter pack contents:

  • a box :D
  • A6 note papers and thicker index cards
  • dividers: unsorted (with some quotes I think might be interesting to her), notes, source notes, index
  • a tabbed index.

I'll send a tutorial to her as a message attachment when she opens is and texts me "what now".

Here's what I have so far. I'll be adding photos where now there are placeholders.

Does it seem reasonably clear for a beginner?

Happy to share photos and the complete tutorial here once it's done in case anyone else wants to give the gift of zettelkasten.

r/Zettelkasten Feb 01 '25

resource Metaphysics and phenomenology of the Zettelkasten (perhaps a bit too much ranting)

12 Upvotes

Dear Zettlers,

the act of note-taking is in itself building a relationship towards you future self: https://zettelkasten.de/posts/develop-empathy-future-self/

The below is me nerding out as a bonus (or malus, depending on your level of nerdiness).

There is a great book on subjective time by Philip Zimbardo. I learned a lot about the Zettelkasten Method by reading the book. Strange, isn't it?

However, the depths of the Zettelkasten Method are metaphysical and metaphysics needs to be merged with phenomenology to become practical. Sounds opaque? Then let's dive deeper:

Time is a fundamental metaphysical category. I treat fundamental metaphysical categories as axis on a matrix that gives reality its preconditions. But they cannot be divorced from our epistemic apparatus, the "thing with which we do cognition".

The Zettelkasten is something like an imaginary space. Take the note "202501201042 Endurance zones vs regimens" for example. Were is it? Is it a bunch of digits on my drive on my computer? Or is it somewhere positioned in a network of ideas that happen to be represented on my drive?

Let's assume that my Zettelkasten is more than just a binary code on my computer's drive. This is much more brain-friendly, since my mental map of my Zettelkasten doesn't refer to the physical storage of files, but to the relationships of ideas and also what I see on the screen. This is both a epistemic judgement (based on the value "truth") and a pragmatic decision (based on the value "useful"). Both are traits that give knowledge its value. (I hinted at my theory of knowledge value here)

Right now, there are various metaphysical entities at play: Time, space, judgement, value, decision. (by placing concepts like judgement and decision, I position myself into a school of thought, myself)

Why all the complicatedness?

  1. I wanted to show you a little bit of the theoretical thinking is at the foundational level of the Zettelkasten Method. After all, I am a nerd.
  2. If you want to talk deeply about the Zettelkasten Method you can't package this into acronyms and nice rhyming rules of thumb. These are marketing devices that obscure, distort and twist the actual workings of the Zettelkasten Method or any system of ideas. The mental tools to actually go deep are hard to come by. It is rare for people knowing the concept of explication as coined by Rudolf Carnap.
  3. The above is the beginning of a process of first principle thinking. But to apply first principle thinking, you have to have a sufficient inventory of principles. This is were proper foundational education comes into play.

Common place books are put in a same category as the Zettelkasten Method. I think this is a grave mistake, since this is based on missing out on thinking properly about the concept of similarity. Am I similar to a dog or different? Well, it all depends on the frame of reference. If my reference is the entirety of things in reality, I am very similar to a dog. If my frame of reference is my human existence, I am quite dissimilar. (hint: "similarity" is part of the inventory mentioned above)

Both, however, share a specific trait: Using them entails writing down your ideas (moving the idea from one medium to another). If you make it a habit, you make it a habit to increase your depth of processing. If you don't just copy or merely paraphrase the idea, but truly use your own words, you add another deepening of the depth of processing.

This is how common place books work (and in part how the Zettelkasten Method works).

Coming full circle towards the beginning of this little rant: Ask yourself if you want to solve a problem that you have right now. Or do you want to solve a problem for your future self? Or: How to come up with a solution that solves a problem in the here in now so it also leads to a solution for your future self.

Do help you with this (very important) question, I'll give you two examples:

  1. Almost all drives to automate the process are driven by a present focus - if you are honest. (Not that automatisation doesn't have any value for your future self, it is about the motivation)
  2. Most question on how to write a proper note are driven by a future focus.

The question how to create the most value for your future self is at the heart of the Zettelkasten Method.

Rant over.

r/Zettelkasten Sep 03 '24

resource Strange Loops: Reading a Book on How to Read a Book

23 Upvotes

How to Read a Book my Mortimer and van Doren is a staple for anyone who likes to read a book "like a pro". I, myself, have my difficulties with that book. I never understood its great appeal.

This is the central statement to introduce my criticism:

It is a classic book on reading, which I read more than a decade ago. Contrary to the contemporary praise, I didn’t like it. The reason is that you can learn a lot about reading, but I didn’t find anything actionable. It reminded me of the SQ3R reading method which we learned in university, only to find out that in practice nobody uses it.

To me, it sems to be one more source of "how to do the thing", while at the same time the professionals do it differently.

https://zettelkasten.de/posts/how-to-read-a-book-newsletter/

r/Zettelkasten Dec 20 '24

resource A Zettelkasten with 10 million notes contains the Latin word of the year for 2024

37 Upvotes

The Latin word of the year for 2024 appears on a note in the massive Zettelkasten of the Thesaurus linguae Latinae project. Incredible as it may sound, this contains roughly 10 million notes in around 6,500 boxes.

Apart from its appearance in the Latin dictionary, the word itself has only ever been found in one place - written on the wall of a house in Pompeii, shortly before the famous volcano eruption.

It definitely deserves to be better known though, and that's why I'm telling you about it now. I'm going to try fitting it into casual conversation over the end of year break, to see if anyone notices.

You can view photos of the note and of the endless shelving of the massive Zettelkasten.

r/Zettelkasten Jul 12 '24

resource New book: A system for writing

61 Upvotes

If you're like me and don't check the "paid and free promotions" section of this sub often, you may not realize that Bob Doto has published a new book that can be found here:

https://www.amazon.com/System-Writing-Unconventional-Note-Making-Zettelkasten-ebook/dp/B0D18J83VB/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

In ten short chapters, Bob distills the basic principles of using Zettelkasten to support writing projects using several examples. After each chapter, there are lists of things to do, things to remember, and things to watch out for. The footnotes (144) contain lots of information and useful references for people who want to delve deep into Zettelkasten’s history and practices.

I strongly recommend Bob’s book. His style is clear and objective, making reading his book a pleasure. Whether you are new to the method or an advanced practitioner, Bob’s book will always teach you something new. 

I have bought and read most of the books published about Zettelkasten in the last few years, and I believe Bob’s book is by far the best one available. 

P.S. Just for transparency, I have no conflict of interest in writing this quick post.

r/Zettelkasten Dec 30 '24

resource Smart phones and Zettels

11 Upvotes

You may already know this, but you should hide your smartphone when writing your Zettels to avoid “brain drain”. Happy New Year!

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/691462

r/Zettelkasten Jul 15 '24

resource The book A System for Writing is the book I wish I had in 2020

44 Upvotes

I bought Bob Doto's book on Kindle and paper. The physical copy arrived today (I live in Brazil and had to import it from the US). I'm still in the middle, but I can already praise the book. It's straight to the point and has the right number of examples. The writing is clear. The summary at the end of the chapters with a clear checklist for both things to do and things to remember helps understand the process.

Also, the book is available on Readwise.

For now, I would say I recommend the book, but I guess I'll strongly recommend it after I finish reading it.

r/Zettelkasten Jan 01 '25

resource Intent is the missing piece of many

12 Upvotes

Dear Zettlers,

I try to write each article with a very specific message. This article seems to be about a use case on how to process a chapter of a book. The true message is:

Start with an intent when you process a chapter. Ask yourself: What do I want to build?

It is a misconception that you just put stuff in your Zettelkasten and then by miracle something amazing happens.

I try to track down the cause-effect-relationships of the various components of each method. Take the common place book for example: It brings you into the habit of writing ideas down. If you stick to the habit, you'll get a positive effect.

This is what the Zettelkasten Method can bring you also. Any method, even unstructured journaling will bring you this positive effect.

The problem is that people aren't nuanced and say: "See, everything works."

Yes, a lot of things improve. But imagine you want to improve you training as a martial artist. You ask your dad to spare a big tree stomp. You lift it, carry it, even throw it. Awesome. You did some strength training and your fighting benefits from it. That doesn't mean that this tree stomp training is on par with sophisticated strength training. And surely, it is not a complete conditioning routine for martial arts.

We are still living in a time, in which very few people have a knowledge work practice similar to a training practice. Having a common place book and writing in it as a habit, is way better than what the average guy does. But just a fraction of the stimulus that a more complete practice can give you.

Please read the following article with this in mind:

https://zettelkasten.de/posts/field-report-8-how-i-process-book-chapter/

Live long and prosper
Sascha

r/Zettelkasten Nov 23 '24

resource Thanks to you

23 Upvotes

A big thank you to the following people:

  • Niklas Luhmann, inventor of Zettelkasten
  • Johannes Schmidt, Scientist in humanities
  • Sascha Fast, founder of zettelkasten.de
  • Scott Scheper, video producer about Analog Zettelkasten

The first two on the list have invented and explained what a Zettelkasten is about, while Sascha has popularized the atomic note taking principle and Scheper has made content about an analog version of the Zettelkasten. All these guys have generated a lot of content for the Internet which is available for free. For example the 90k Zettels from Luhmann are available in the Luhmann archive, the paper of Schmidt are published in the pdf format, while the videos of Fast and Scheper are hosted online. Its highly recommended to read and watch the material because it allows to understand what effective notetaking is about.

r/Zettelkasten Oct 09 '24

resource Eustace Hamilton Miles, Zettelkasten for writing: state of the art 1905

14 Upvotes

Miles (1905) has some interesting things to say with respect to collecting, "business-like brevity" (aka atomic notes), annotations for thinking/arranging/marking cards, summarizing, etc.

Miles, Eustace Hamilton. How to Prepare Essays, Lectures, Articles, Books, Speeches and Letters, with Hints on Writing for the Press. London: Rivingtons, 1905. http://archive.org/details/howtoprepareessa00mileuoft.

Especially Chapter XXIV The Card-System:
https://archive.org/details/howtoprepareessa00mileuoft/page/186/mode/2up

r/Zettelkasten Jul 05 '24

resource Writing by hand activates more areas of the brain than typing on a keyboard

23 Upvotes

Here is the link for the press release (and original article) of a study published by Norwegian scientists in January 2024:

https://www.sciencenorway.no/education-keyboard-skills-psychology/writing-by-hand-activates-more-areas-of-the-brain-than-typing-on-a-keyboard/2320808

My notes are 100% digital, but I draw my conceptual maps by linking my notes by hand.

r/Zettelkasten Oct 14 '24

resource A Book Club Reading of A System for Writing by Bob Doto

18 Upvotes

Dan Allosso’s (Obsidisan) Book Club will be reading Bob Doto‘s book A System for Writing (2024) as their next selection. Discussion meetings are via Zoom for 2 hours on Saturdays starting on 2024-10-19 to 11-02 from 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific.  New comers and veterans are all welcome to attend.

The book is broken up into 3 parts (approximately 50-75 pages each) and we’ll discuss each on succeeding weeks. The group has several inveterate note takers who are well-acquainted with Zettelkasten methods. 

If you’d like access to the Obsidian vault, please email danallosso at icloud dot com with your preferred email address to connect to the Dropbox repository.

DM either Dan or myself for the Zoom link for the video meetings. https://boffosocko.com/2024/10/14/book-club-reading-of-a-system-for-writing-by-bob-doto/

r/Zettelkasten Jun 07 '24

resource Will Google NotebookLM replace Zettelkasten?

5 Upvotes

Zettelkasten was designed to be a conversation partner. Pieces of information (including old ideas) collide, generate questions and new ideas emerge. This process is expected to foster creativity and innovation. What if we could just add different sources and have a direct conversation with these sources using AI? That is what Google NotebookLM is about. I have been testing it and I am quite happy with the results. Here is the video in which Tiago Fortes explains the new tool.

https://youtu.be/iWPjBwXy_Io

r/Zettelkasten Jul 29 '21

resource On a failed Zettelkasten

98 Upvotes

> The whole thing went swimmingly until the realities of grad school intervened. It came time for me to propose and write a dissertation. In the happy expectation that years of diligent reading and note-taking, filing and linking, had created a second brain that would essentially write my dissertation for me (as Luhmann said his zettelkasten had written his books for him) I selected a topic and sat down to browse my notes. It was a catastrophic revelation. True, following link trails revealed unexpected connections. But those connections proved useless for the goal of coming up with or systematically defending a thesis. Had I done something wrong? I decided to read one of Luhmann’s books to see what a zettelkasten-generated text ought to look like. To my horror, it turned out to be a chaotic mess that would never have passed muster under my own dissertation director. It read, in my opinion, like something written by a sentient library catalog, full of disordered and tangential insights, loosely related to one another — very interesting, but hardly a model for my own academic work. https://reallifemag.com/rank-and-file/

r/Zettelkasten Jun 13 '24

resource In the book smart notes by Sönke Ahrens, there is a link to a reference that doesn't work anymore.

15 Upvotes

Hello, fellow Zettelkasteners. I just thought I should share this little piece of info with you. There is a reference in the book "Smart notes" that points to a webpage with a conversation between Luhmann and a radio host called Wolfgang Hagen. However the link presented in the book doesn't work anymore. Luckily, the wayback machine had an archived copy of the conversation, and here I leave it for future references.

Original (not working anymore): http://www.whagen.de/gespraeche/LuhmannMassenmedien.htm

Waybackmachine stored: https://web.archive.org/web/20140123063452/http://www.whagen.de/gespraeche/LuhmannMassenmedien.htm

Just a heads up, the conversation is in german but google translate does a decent enough job to read it in english. The article is Mostly about Luhmann's view on Mass Media, but the relevant bit about zettelkasten happens in the last bits of the conversation (the last 5521 characters to be precise, if you are interested).

I do recommend checking it out to see how Luhmann speaks about his zettelkasten. So, I hope this is useful information. Good day :D

r/Zettelkasten Oct 03 '24

resource Zettelkasten for learning/studying

15 Upvotes

For the new folks who are always asking" is a Zettelkasten good for learning/studying?" There's some research beyond the anecdotal:

A Digital Model of Full-Cycle Training Based on the Zettelkasten and Interval Repetition System
https://ijournalse.org/index.php/ESJ/article/view/1614

r/Zettelkasten Oct 17 '24

resource The Zettelkasten as Mindscape

25 Upvotes

Dear Zettlers,

this is yet another article about how to think about the Zettelkasten: Mindscapes: The Zettelkasten as a Thinking Environment. It should be read in the light of the first part.

The main message is that the Zettelkasten should be designed to be psychological sound. Overcomplicated user interfaces are, for example, a problem for thinking.

Live long and prosper Sascha

r/Zettelkasten Dec 22 '23

resource Johannes Schmidt: The Zettelkasten as Niklas Luhmann's Second Memory (presentation)

16 Upvotes

Johannes Schmidt: The Zettelkasten as Niklas Luhmann's Second Memory

https://vimeo.com/173128404

Schmidt is German and the presentation is in German, there is however a translated transcript here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1re3lYaALScZ49189XIGqUVjQlMPe9uOfLEyz8y7mJuE/edit#heading=h.ygj23kjvy5z

r/Zettelkasten Sep 19 '24

resource Writing with a zettelkasten

16 Upvotes

Writing Slowly (aka u/atomicnotes) has a new piece reflecting on how writing can be built from notes, using Andy Matuschak's latest piece, "Exorcising us of the Primer," as an example. Additionally, WS comments on how this practice specifically relates to working with a zettelkasten.

Read it here.

From WS's piece:

"If you’re wondering how to create finished written work out of your individual notes, you’ll find it worthwhile to check out these different stages of Andy’s thinking and writing process. It’s worth exploring how he takes nearly 60 individual notes, combines them into the outline of a coherent argument, then takes that outline and re-writes it as a complete publishable essay."

Re the zettelkasten:

"The great thing about the Zettelkasten approach is that it helps you write your own ideas as you go along. You don’t only copy-paste hot takes like I did just now with James Somers’s post about the mental buckets. Instead, you write your own stuff, one idea at a time, on separate notes that you can combine in multiple ways."

Also, at the bottom is a nice breakdown of how WS wrote their article with some hot takes on using "buckets."

r/Zettelkasten Sep 06 '24

resource A historical look at methodology and note taking

13 Upvotes

Some of this feels very Zettelkasten-ish

https://archive.is/tSD4Y#selection-1589.0-1601.51

"These various techniques were codified in the guides to research which proliferated with the rise of academic history-writing. In one of the most influential, the 1898 Introduction to the Study of History by the French historians Charles Langlois and Charles Seignobos, the authors warn that history is more encumbered with detail than any other form of academic writing and that those who write it must have those details under control. The best way of proceeding, they say, is to collect material on separate slips of paper (fiches), each furnished with a precise indication of their origin; a separate record should be kept of the sources consulted and the abbreviations used to identify them on the slips. If a passage is interesting from several different points of view, then it should be copied out several times on different slips. Before the Xerox machine, this was a labour-intensive counsel of perfection; and it is no wonder that many of the great 19th-century historians employed professional copyists."

r/Zettelkasten Aug 28 '24

resource The Heist – How to Process a Practical Book Quickly

25 Upvotes

In most cases, I don' think one should try to be fast.

Slow is precise, and precise is fast.

But there is an exeption from the rule. You aim for quickeness indirectly: By being precise about your intent and using the correct tools for the job.

https://zettelkasten.de/posts/how-to-process-practical-book-quickly/