Ever Heard of “Zettlekasten”?
I try lots of different things. Not all of them stick, for various reasons. Heck you just saw me bounce out of that extreme daily routine I tried for a few weeks. Just not "me", nor is it someone I desire to be, at that cost.
Zettelkasten is just the latest "hmmm." My current understanding of it is being guided by the system itself. Oroboros, man! In other words, I'm using the "Antinet" system to learn the system. Here are maybe ten things I observe about it.
"Zettlekasten" means "note box" and relates to a system of knowledge creation. There are digital versions of it, like "Obsidian" but for a variety of reasons, the analog version is more attractive to me.
"Antinet" is Scott Scheper's interpretation of the concept. "ANTI" stands for "Analog Numeric-Alpha, Tree, Index.
Basically, you make notes on a "Bibcard" (bibliography) related to a book you are reading (or article, or lecture, or video, etc) with data about the author and origin on the front, and the most URGENTLY IMPORTANT facts or ideas on the back.
You choose only the most URGENTLY IMPORTANT facts, and each gets a separate card with a unique number modeled on Wikipedia's distinctions, similar to the Dewey Decimal System. You write your thoughts on the fact or quote, as well as speculations on which other cards it might connect to.
The notion is that "Information" is not "knowledge." "Knowledge" is your interpretation or perspective on a piece of information. So you need to re-state the original thought in your own language, as well as create connections to other cards.
It is not the information that is important, but the slow evolution of a "web" of association that mirrors YOUR thought patterns and values. This "web" is like the negative space between shapes.
The intent is to create a "second mind" you can actually "talk" to when researching a paper, book, or lecture (it seems intended most precisely for writers of non-fiction, but there are obviously other applications). I would estimate that you will reach a useful threshold within a couple of hundred cards.
This "threshold" is reached when you research a subject and start running into cards you forgot you added. The "friction" of bumping into these cards, and their associations, is an analog of the way the human mind learns, remembers, and creates.
Over time and thousands of cards, the system is designed to help you create genius-level breakthroughs.
The ideal time spent on this is two hours a day. And the ideal number of cards added per day might be 5 or so.
This is a good overview of what I've picked up about this in the last five days, using Zettlekasten to try to understand Zettlekasten. Today will be my first shot at using it on another book. If I like the results…this could be a really cool new resource/hobby. A steep initial investment, followed by a BANG! When you reach critical mass. At the moment, I'm willing to invest 3 months and see what happens.
