Zettelkasten and Evergreen MOC understanding
This is (mostly) a stub
Rewrite, key ideas are understanding, what does it mean to understand something? Why is combining needed for understanding?
Ideas might be just that, raw knowledge, without any practical application or use. Combining different ideas show where they interconnect, and where they might strengthen each other, thus creating something new.
The combining of notes is the key to having a conversation with a ZK. how does this relate to that? How does it prove or disprove it? Does it really make that assertion?
Not combining notes is like swallowing food without chewing and digesting. It will make you full but not benefit.
True understanding is understanding the limits (borders) of a text, and then having the ability to look beyond thoughts are not unique, but the combination (or linking) of thoughts are what makes them distinct the careful initial placement of a note is the first conversation it takes part in A zettelkasten becomes a speaking partner when it can answer questions
Literature notes
Roamkasten
Every zettel I write is, by definition, written in the context of every other zettel I’ve curated from every other text I’ve read related to that subject. That means that disparate ideas from arenas I would have never correlated suddenly stand in stark clarity side by side.
Inevitably, I am pleasantly (or unpleasantly) surprised by what I think on a topic, and now I am having an active conversation with myself. Can I really declare that assertion with so much confidence? Is that a fair or honest statement to make? The cool part is, if I ever want to know how I got there, I have the entire breadcrumb trail back through literature notes, fleeting notes, and original text that I can follow. As I get more dialed and refined in a certain arena, I may go back and refine some ideas with greater context from more reading.
the act of explicitly codifying the relationship between notes elucidated very crisply how poorly my thought patterns were structured. When I tried to identify if a note explicitly supports a parent note, or is just loosely related to that parent note, what once felt like an easy logical leap now seemed like a gaping grand canyon that I wouldn’t encourage the most adventurous daredevil to traverse – Roamkasten - a practical how to guide to optimize Zettelkasten in Roam Research - Blog
source: Roamkasten - a practical how to guide to optimize Zettelkasten in Roam Research | Blog
- keep the writing phases clearly separated:
- don’t add your own thoughts to literature notes
- surprised how easy it was to rewrite the article, bringing your own ideas in what is supposed to be a summery
- intellectual honesty → moral question, not just technique
- fleeting note
- capture everything is liberating
- also get to know yourself better
- GTD closed all the open loops
- he works until completeness!
- Adding zettels to his kasten forces to fit the thought in his understanding of the world
- This can be revealing, either showing a lack of knowledge, unpleasant ideas, or contradictory understandings without obvious solution
- because the zettelkasten doesn’t forget it is more difficult to ignore unpleasant understandings
- Always possible to go back and improve things
Fleeting notes
A very zen idea of note taking, understanding, completeness and acknowledging bias
- don’t project yourself in the literature notes → Cognitive biases
- overlaying my own worldview or agenda.
- rereading should help: “did they really say that?”
- when you do, notice the bias “know thyself”
- paraphrasing or translating for understanding
- some even use a different language, helps to step away from the source text
- Do I actually understand it?
- Explain it like I’m five
- relating and synthesizing
-
Permanent notes make no sense and are largely meaningless without the interconnected web of other notes they are somehow linked to.
- strongly disagree → atomicity means the opposite
- not sure why he made this claim. It really should be the opposite. The ket-idea of a zettel should be clear as day.
- fleeting notes → brains storming ‘till completeness
- this is indeed liberating, and surprising
- what does this mean to me
- completeness clashes with progress and speed. Slowing down is hard
- make notes for yourself, not to show of zettels and synthesis
- worldview emerges from the links and what is highlighted
- not enough zettels to be overly surprised so far
- zettels are related to the source material, but it is fine to deviate