Zettelkasten and Evergreen MOC creativity
Copying and pasting other peoples writing creates nothing new, nor is highlighting articles a form of building anything. Studying and highlighting is not to cover material, it is to add notes to our zettelkasten. For this we should always keep in mind, how does what I read fit with my other notes? These actions can be the precursor to writing permanent notes, though. When we collect information and form our own opinion about a subject in reaction to something we studied, we can say that for us: we created something new.
But for this to go beyond simple understanding what other people said we have to create connections between our notes, and in response to that, update or add our own notes. Our understanding broadens and gets strengthened by adding nodes and connections to our ZK
To be creative one should want more then just cover the underlying material. Create notes with a view on creation, not rehashing old ideas
A good note is a combination of Rephrasing, Connecting, and Building on ideas (The difference between note-taking and note-making - Ness Labs), for this one needs creativity, and think outside the original note’s context True understanding is understanding the limits (borders) of a text, and then having the ability to look beyond
Literature notes
creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary work, or a painting). Wikipedia
Creativity encompasses the ability to discover new and original ideas, connections, and solutions to problems. It’s a part of our drive as humans—fostering resilience, sparking joy, and providing opportunities for self-actualization. Creativity | Psychology Today
use theoretically infinite methods to explore the idea on a single note. As a result, the note grows in size, but then you can refactor it. You refactor the note, move the grown components as new ideas into new notes and make the parent note about the relationship between the new notes. –Why the Single Note Matters • Zettelkasten Method
quote everything is a remix remix
- Permanent notes to me are all of the above. They are the copying, the transforming, and the combining. Each note you make will have different levels of those. I even have notes in my collection that are pure copy (e.g. APA psychology definitions) that I use as hubs (collection of links under definition) for that term I copied.
- When first starting out I tended to have a lot of copy notes. But as time goes on it became more about transforming and combining. But part of creativity is exposing yourself to novel information that you let intermingle with your existing knowledge base to see if new ideas or solutions emerge. This novel information are notes I still essentially copy. — Permanent notes are Copy Transform Combine
AQ: A permanent note as an amalgaan q
Remixing other peoples ideas in your own understanding for future use Everything is a remix The permanence is not in its contents, but in the location in the whole
- That’s why people on this forum talk about notes needing to be atomic. You want them to contain a single idea, and you want them to be self contained, and you want them to make sense on their own. Your permanent notes need to make sense to a stranger because your future self that stumbles across that note is, in all the ways that matter, a stranger to your current self. You won’t necessarily remember the context in which you took that note, and so you need to make sure that the note’s context is explicit and written in a way that can be understood without returning to the reference that inspired the note.
- I make permanent notes of anything that I might find useful in the future, or anything that I might want to stumble across again in the future, or anything that I might find useful currently, or anything that I might want to remember again in the future. It’s like every note is another tool in my toolbox, and so I make permanent notes out of any idea or thought that looks like it could be a useful tool for building something. — Permanent notes are Copy Transform Combine
AQ: literature notes as you future tools
- Permanent notes are intellectual creativity. Remixing other peoples ideas in your own understanding.
- Your understanding is always wholly unique
- Over time move from copying to transforming and combining
- because your future self is a stranger → will have forgotten the original context
Fleeting notes
Define creativity Creativity as truth
Thoughts are fleeting, but by writing them down we make them permanent. Notes are a small (atomic) idea, carefully made as small but complete as possible to reveal a truth, as we know it.