I have watched all your videos and they are very helpful in starting my ZettelKasten (I never heard of it before). I have congenital aphantasia and almost no long term memory/abilities. I every much live in the "now" with my electronic plain text journals (use to be labbooks decades ago). I am in the middle of what I call GUI Detox and this will help me on my journey Thank you very much !!!
This is what is really needed in terms of zettelkasten videos online; actual demonstrating how you would do the work instead of breathlessly talking about theoretical ideas. And snails.
Great to hear. If people want, I could try to crank out another one or two where I do more or less the same thing but with different texts (and better audio). I wouldn't send 'em all out at once or in a row. I could send them out in between videos about using Obsidian for note-taking that an old-school, Luhmann-inspired Zettelkasten wouldn't be good for.
@@forrestrperry Aloha! Very interesting you mention this. Since I've jumped into the OZ I've been trying to isolate other uses for Obsidian besides note-making. E.g., I currently use it to stage various projects I'm doing on the Internet because I can embed URLs in notes and to-do lists, etc. My question is, What types of note-making can we use Obsidian for that aren't conducive to an OZ?
I think your footage at 1:01 depicting “the internet” is one of the best descriptions I’ve ever seen. (And all your Zettlekasten are really helpful, I finally understand it, and your folgezettel gives me permission to keep one even though I’ll never publish anything.) (Thanks)
"Slow down in order to speed up": ski cross country rather than skiing downhill provides absorption, understanding, clarity, rememberance to use again.
Man, I am here for the whole FP experience...namely coprolites and an artisan's touch when it comes to stock video. The RC car footage from a few videos back remains one of my favorites. In all seriousness, thanks so much for these videos. I'm looking forward to your upcoming videos on non-Luhmannian note-taking (which sound like they will be more of a "just in time" or more project oriented approached perhaps?). I keep a physical ZK for developing thought over time, but feel like my digital note-taking game could be stepped up a bit. As an instructional designer working in higher ed, I also hope we get to hear more about your experiences introducing students to a ZK (or ZK-like) practice.
Oh, and I'm also super-interested in your decision to back up the notes digitally. For some folks, that level of friction might not be sustainable in the long run, but it seems like the multiple drafts opportunity (and perhaps, peace of mind) that maintaining both systems provides is desirable difficulty for you? It does leave me wondering how you use the notecards you create if you ultimately have a digital copy to inform your scholarly writing or teaching.
Thanks for your comments here, Zach. Very happy to see that you are a fan of not-so-great stock footage that I insert into the videos I make, footage that is often so bad that it has to be used just because it's funny. As for the coprolites, I hope you will fall for the series of videos and sales pitches I make in the future abou the healing properties of coprolites. Better even than crystals! You are correct in your guess that what I plan on presenting when I get around to making the Obsidian videos is going to be more of a project-oriented approach (similar but certainly not identical to Tiago Forte's "just-in-time" approach).
Yes, I agree that backing up Zettelkasten cards may be for plenty of people unsustainable. I may very well end up becoming one of them, but for the past few months, I have been very much enjoying the approach I've been taking to things.
@@forrestrperry Hmmmm... I'm now starting to wonder if backing up my OZ on Obsidian is worth it. It's certainly intriguing. If I pursued this, I'd probably start a separate vault. It may be useful for quickly pinpointing specific cards that I know are there but can't immediately find them fumbling through the OZ. However, at the same time, that "fumbling" often produces interesting results.
Your third sentence: that’s a request, yes? If so, could you please clarify a bit further so that ONLY IF I FEEL LIKE IT, I can keep your request in mind as I make future videos? Thanks for your comments!
@@forrestrperry He's the one who gave me the term lol. Also, yes, it's a request. I just enjoy watching people write notecards by hand, and installing their books into their Antinet (or analog Zettelkasten). I also quite enjoy Scott's videos on the matter.
@Forrest, You asked somewhere about how Scott deals with ExRefs. What was your question? I'm using Zotero, as Scott recommends in his book. I'll attempt to answer your question from memory, and so may not hit it directly. The ExRefs are used if you have an irresistible idea (he defines "irresistible" in the book) but you're not planning on using the idea directly and immediately in your current project. Because of this, you don't want to expend the resources to create a main card and flesh the idea out. So you instead just have a sentence or so describing it, along with the bib/source data, and you stick that in your main box at the appropriate address. So you capture the idea and source without spending the time on creating a main note. The farther that Luhmann went along in his 2nd Zettelkasten, the more ExRefs he used, according to Scott. Does any of that make sense?
Hi Aliman: yes! This does make sense. I'm not so sure it's something I would do with my own analog Zettelkasten. I'd probably be more likely to record such ideas in Obsidian. But my process continues to evolve, and it's helpful to have this explanation to consider as it does. Thanks again.
Excellent content! Do you think a folgezettel (alphanumeric) at the beginning of the note title would work for a zettelkasten fully in obsidian? Thanks.
Thanks for the comment, Jacopo. Yes, you can certainly place alphanumeric addresses at the beginning of a note in Obsidian-provided that you don't have slashes in the title (Obsidian still doesn't accept those, I believe). Bob Doto is one person who places alphanumeric addresses at the beginning of each of his "zettels" in Obsidian. Alternatively, if for some reason you want to place your Zettelkasten cards in themed folders (something I was doing initially and may or may not stick with), you MIGHT want to have the title of the Obsidian file contain just the title of the zettel and then place BOTH the card address and title after "aliases:" in the metadata. Bob's way of doing things is simpler and may very well be superior, so I'd say that you probably shouldn't do as I have been doing unless you really want to.
FP - just adding my thanks for your work. It really is more pragmatic than other stuff I have seen. I am coming from the Roam Research/Beau Hahn sort of methodology. I haven't built it out because it felt a little too prescriptive. Now reading Scott's books and watching your videos. I am intrigued by the digital back up. My first thought was wouldn't it be part to take a picture of the card, but I don't think Obsidian has OCR, right? I would find it incredibly ironic if Evernote had a corner on backing up an analog zettelkasten precisely because it does have OCR. Also, reading through the comments and thinking of snapshots made me wonder if I could take snap shots of my analog card and put them in ANKI. The idea of resurfacing cards algorithmically is kind of interesting.
Thanks for your comments here, Dan. I believe there are some OCR options available in Obsidian. Here’s one plug-in you might want to check out: github.com/schlundd/obsidian-ocr-plugin. Also run a search for “Zsolt Viczian OCR.” If you’re on a Mac, you could purchase DEVONthink, which I’m pretty sure has OCR capabilities. DEVONthink let’s you copy item URLs, so if you’re syncing your Obsidian vault and don’t want it to get clogged with images, you could store the images in DEVONthink and have whatever DEVONthink database that contains your images be somewhere where you have plenty of space to store large-ish files. Alternatively, and most simply, you could type up the contents of your cards in Obsidian. That might sound like an annoying, unnecessary additional task, but the advantage-especially if you wait a few days or more to do it-is that it gets you to review your ideas. If you have any other questions or comments, let me know. I haven’t made a new video in two months (“Shame! Shame!”-that Game of Thrones reference gives you a sense of how ashamed I am about that), but I’m always happy to engage with viewers of the videos I’ve already posted.
@forrest: Aloha! I'm now also convinced that I want to put all my main cards into Obsidian. At least I'll try that and see how it goes. It's part of a larger experiment about a personal use case for Obsidian, given that I'm now using an OZ or Antinet. I do still want to use Obsidian in some way to continue to organize and interface my work with the Internet, something that can't be done with an Antinet for obvious reasons. My question is about how you use the addresses of the cards in your main box. Do you put the addresses in the filename of the Obsidian note? Do you tag the Obsidian file with the card address? Something else? Mahalo in advance!
Hi Aliman: I'm going to paste here my response to a similar question someone had about a different video. I hope this helps... Yes, you can certainly place alphanumeric addresses at the beginning of a note in Obsidian-provided that you don't have slashes in the title (Obsidian still doesn't accept those, I believe). Bob Doto is one person who places alphanumeric addresses at the beginning of each of his "zettels" in Obsidian. Alternatively, if for some reason you want to place your Zettelkasten cards in themed folders (something I was doing initially and may or may not stick with), you MIGHT want to have the title of the Obsidian file contain just the title of the zettel and then place BOTH the card address and title after "aliases:" in the metadata. Bob's way of doing things is simpler and may very well be superior, so I'd say that you probably shouldn't do as I have been doing unless you really want to.
@FP I forgot my most important comment about your vid: the beginning few seconds are good. Now that you've established that, the next time you make a 9th vid in a series, you can start it out with the other side of the coin. Aloha!
@Forrest, one more question: do you use Bib cards the way Luhmann used them? There are obvious and good reasons to do so, and Scott's book gives about 400,000,000 reasons in support. I.e., Luhmann read very quickly (one book or article a day, on average, for 34 years!!), and took what Ahrens would call "fleeting notes" (although Luhmann never used that term) onto a bib card. Then he went back later and reviewed the bib cards and created main notes for the important entries (not all the entries, just the important ones). Scott sets out all those gajillion reasons to use bib notes, but at the same time, esp. with entering main cards into Obsidian, it does add another step into the process, so it's one step more complex. Do you use bib cards or just go right from the source to a main card? Aloha!
Hi Aliman: I do indeed typically go from source card to main/idea card. I've noticed Dan Allosso will often go directly from the source (not to be confused with a "source CARD") to a main/idea card. It's possible I'll do some of that in the future.
Yeah, not all (and perhaps only a small percentage of?) Kindle books have page numbers in addition to location numbers. Of course, you COULD purchase a physical copy of a book you're highlighting on your Kindle, but that's not an affordable option for most people. One thing you might want to consider doing is something I know Tiago Forte has said he does, which is to highlight not just passages but also the titles of chapters (and maybe even the titles of sections within chapters) so that when you pull highlighted passages into your note-making app of choice, you have a pretty good idea of where they are from. And then if you end up publishing something that requires that you provide page numbers rather than location numbers, I guess that's when you might want to run a Google Books search for the passages in question to see whether the page you're looking for in the physical-but-also-digitized version ends up being one of the things your search returns. If anyone else reading this comment has ideas about what to do, please let us know.
Thanks for another great video. Content and editing are just wonderful. A few questions, 1. The notebook: any reason for this? I draft of paper which I then dispose of after creating a 6x4. Do you ever reread the notebook, reference it etc? 2. Are you reading and note taking with a specific output or project in mind and do you think this matters? I ask as I follow a very similar process without any future output/publication etc in mind and am curious whether you think this matters - i.e. whether having a concrete purpose changes the ZK/reading/note taking process in any meaningful way. Thanks again!
Thanks for the comments and questions, and sorry for not responding sooner. 1. I see nothing wrong with disposing of the paper on which you draft the content of a Zettelkasten card. One advantage of using a notebook instead is that it serves as a a chronological record of what I’ve been reading and taking notes on. Another advantage is that I now and FINALLY have a use for all those Moleskine "cahier journals" that I've bought over the years (like plenty of other people, I am attracted to notebooks and journals enough to buy them but not enough to use them for more than two or three days). Lastly, when I'm taking source notes, sometimes I come up with some thoughts for an idea card related to but really entirely grounded in the material I'm reading at the time and decide to jot those thoughts down in the notebook rather than on the source card.
2. If producing output isn't your aim, I don't think it's essential that you have a particular project in mind while building your Zettelkasten. However, having recently read much of Scott Scheper's ANTINET ZETTELKASTEN, I can tell you that he recommends acting as if you are working on a certain project even if you aren't. He writes, "you want to write your notes as if they are part of a project or book that you’ll be publishing so that you can teach others. [...] the best way to grow and learn something is by teaching the material, and the best way to do that is through having the mindset of contribution." By "contribution" there, Scheper means "something you share, publish, etc."
If you find you want to take Scheper's advice, one way you MIGHT go about doing that is creating what Andy Matuschak calls "speculative outlines." He says, "When you write a new note, add it to one or more outlines you’re maintaining, creating a new one if necessary. [...] Normally, we start an outline when we start a writing project. This forces us to start with a blank page. By contrast, if we write new notes every day and notice how they relate to each other, these can accumulate into potential writing projects. [...] Maintaining already-written notes in an outline is comparatively easy: just look at a pair of notes and ask: which comes first?" Here's a link to the page where you can find him making those points: bit.ly/3ij88hd (under "Executable strategy for winning," look for the hyperlink "Create speculative outlines while you write"). If you go to that page, you'll see that Matuschak talks about creating speculative outlines for the sake of eventually turning some of them into pieces of writing, but I would think that even if you don't want to produce output, you MIGHT benefit from the layer of organization of your ideas that speculative outlines can provide.
VERY LONG QUESTION!! Aloha Forrest, I've abandoned the categories and "folder cards." You convinced me of the wisdom there. But, with say 30 pre-defined categories, that may be all I need. But again, my question is about categories I'm creating: How do I prevent them from proliferating? E.g., I'm writing a note about possible life after bodily death. That's the main subject "life after death:" "Whitehead & Hartshorne's Process Theology provides for this (even though neither believed in it, their ontology still provides for it). Because they didn't believe in it, many scholars hold that Process Metaphysics, as such, rules out life after bodily death. But, that's wrong. Yes, W's ontology holds that an actual occasion requires a physical and a mental pole. When the body dies prehension on the physical pole isn't possible. But, as far as I can tell, nowhere does W. say that for prehension and concrescence to occur, that a “Final percipient occasion" must draw its prehensions from its original environment (a human brain and nervous system). Thus, and Griffin speculates about this as well in Re-enchantment, it seems that a Final or Dominant occasion can still undergo concrescence without prehending a human body." Now, I could file this note under 3 categories which I now have: Personal Identity, Theology, or Reincarnation. I could file it under Personal Identity because it is in some sense about the continuity of a human self; I could file it under Theology as it is about Process Theology; Reincarnation in that it's about life after death. Most logically and directly it seems to relate to Reincarnation, but it's more specifically about Whitehead's metaphysics, and deals with his complex metaphysical ideas such as "actual occasions," "physical/mental poles," "prehension," "concrescence," etc. OK, most of what I read and write about is Whitehead's metaphysics so I will have to create that category, but my general problematic still remains--how many categories will I create, and how many is too many? Sure, Luhmann had 108 in his first OZ, then 18 or 20 in his second one. Currently I have 17 categories and I am JUST GETTING STARTED. I can see myself easily creating another 50 categories. Or is that unavoidable? Suggestions?
Aliman: thanks again for your questions and comments. I've been pressed for time this past couple weeks and will remain so for an indefinite period, but I want to QUICKLY respond to what you have written here. Please understand that in the next paragraph here, I'm trying to be a bit playful, for lack of a better term that I could probably come up with if I had more time. You began your comment with the following announcement: "I've abandoned the categories and 'folder cards.'" But then you revealed that you have NOT actually done this: "Now, I could file this note under 3 categories which I now have: Personal Identity, Theology, or Reincarnation." My advice: get rid of categories within what Scott Scheper would call your "main cards." The ONLY place you should be taking note of categories is in your index (which could consist of physical cards, but I think a digital version of an index ain't a bad idea either). Whenever you create a new card, think ONLY about whether it has a good-enough relation to an already-existing card. If it does, then number (or "alphanumeric") it appropriately. You can then add a reference to that card in three different places in your index (Personal Identity, Theology, and Reincarnation). I hope that helps. Be sure to reply saying, "You're amazing. That helped soooo much," after which you are permitted to ask me more questions if you have any.
@@forrestrperry OMG!!!! You're BEYOND amazing! That helped soooo much! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! (But I really mean it!) I may or may not have "categories" in the sense you're referring to. I read and write a lot about, e.g., the mind-body problem and personal identity. I ditched Scheper's pre-defined Wikipedia categories (sorry, Scott, but no worries, I still love you and I did subscribe today to your extremely expensive analog monthly newsletter). After jettisoning Scott's beloved categories, my first note was about the mind-body problem and second note was about personal identity. Because I know I'll eventually have 18 quintillion notes on both the mind-body relation and personal identity, I jotted down "mind-body" and "personal identity" as categories. (Do you hear that? It's Forrest screaming in utter desperation, "NOOO!!! Please, please, dear God in heaven, NOOOOO!!!") Now, I jotted down those categories because if I have a gigamoungously hugistic number of homogenous and undifferentiated, generic, indistinct cards, I'd be drowning in an infinite ocean of confusing distinctions and anxiety each and every time I attempted to file a new card. However, you're implying that I won't. There's no need to suffer that anxiety because I'll so frequently interact with my O.Z. that I'll intuitively navigate to the correct section in the homogenous mass of cards and I'll know where to file the new guy. Is this correct? Aloha!
@@raiseyourvibration1411 Soooooo happy to see that you found my advice of help, Aliman. And yes, I think you're correct that frequent interaction with your Zettelkasten will enable you to navigate rather quickly to already-existing cards that you can look at to see whether a new card you want to "install in your Antinet" (as I think Scott Scheper would put it) can be connected to one of them. As for the "categories" you're using, I assume those will be especially useful to make note of in "the index" part of your Zettelkasten (for the sake of navigating the contents of your Zettelkasten).
@@forrestrperry I hope YT decides to post this comment. Yes, your advice was a HUGE, HUGE help!! I think I've finally settled! I've jettisoned Scott's canned Wikipedia categories and in addition I'm not creating any categories on tabbed cards for easier filing. (That's what I meant last time by "categories." I wasn't using pre-planned categories, but I was creating categories organically, in a sense, as I went along, but I'm no longer doing that. I'm now just going with filing new cards only at the level of cards. I believe this is what you were recommending.) ChatGPT and I figured out that if the new card is a continuation of a current branch I can increment the letter or number at the end by one, or add a number or letter if needed. If it's a new category (woops!!!) I mean a new branch, I'll increment the starting number by one. This gives me, e.g.: 1, 1.1, 1.1a, 1.1b, 1.1c, 1.2, 1.3, 2, 3, 3.1, 3.1a, 3.1a1, 3.1a2, 4, etc. So, in a sense, I do have "categories" (GASP!!!!!!) because I'm incrementing the first number by one when I start a new branch. However, they're not pre-planned and I don't think of them as "categories," and I'm not referencing anything other than the already existing cards themselves in the calculation about where to file a new guy. As you say, this will help my O.Z. grow more organically. Your posts here and an article that Chris wrote convinced me of all this. THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!
@@forrestrperry Also, I'm taking notes usually onto Bib Cards, then after those percolate in my body as I go along, an hour or so later, I create some Main Cards from the Bib Cards. After I create the Main Cards, I go through them and see what new ideas and new connections came up (in the form of key words) on the newly created cards. I then, if needed, create more Main Cards if these are major ideas, or if they're not major ideas then I put the key terms into my Index and cross reference everything. I use the arrows that Scott recommends in the Index. Does all this sound right? Am I missing any major pieces? I know one thing I may be missing are the cards that Scott recommends to install which are simply a reference, placed strategically in your antinet, which aren't note cards per se, but they're cards that point you to a different part of your antinet. I forget what he calls them.
Hello, thanks for your question. Not sure if you’re referring to the 5x7 source card or the 4x6 idea card. The latter is what some people call a “permanent note.” But I think you were referring to the source card-that I place in a small file box along with other source cards so that I can look back at it in the future should the need to do so arise.
@Forrest, yet another question: do you build Maps of Content on Obsidian (Nick Milo's method)? Or simply use Obsidian for back up of your main cards? I started into diving deeply into Milo's MOCs in the several months I was using Obsidian, and have many MOCs now, but as I'm transitioning into the Antinet I'm wondering about the wisdom of remaining too ensconced in the bells and whistles of the software, and if doing so will take time and attention away from the Antinet. Thoughts?
Sounds like you have made many more MOCs than I have (I've made maybe two or three of them in the past). It seems to me you don't need to use any of the bells and whistles that Obsidian and its many plug-ins offer, so I would say continue creating them if you find them to be of value (and provided that you can resist the temptation to use lots of Obsidian's bells and whistles). I guess you could think of them as kind of like "structure notes" in the Luhmann-like way of building a Zettelkasten.
@FP and @lavvernceD: in case it's helpful, I'm trying not to have separate notes in notebooks or other modalities. Rather, I'm putting all my notes on Bib Cards that get filed. Like Scott recommends, I'm creating an ExRef (external reference) when something isn't important enough to go into detail about, but the ExRef will enable me to go back to the source later if needed. Does this sound right?
BTW, just for kicks, I asked ChatGPT the following: "Is it a better strategy to use "Bib Cards" when you're reading a book, which then get filed into your Zettelkasten, or to take notes while you're reading in a separate notebook?" It responded with: "It depends on personal preference and the purpose of note-taking. Both strategies have their advantages and disadvantages. Using "Bib Cards" (index cards with bibliographic information) when reading a book can help you organize your notes and sources, making it easier to find information later on. On the other hand, taking notes directly in a separate notebook while reading can help you process and synthesize information more actively, leading to a deeper understanding of the material. Ultimately, the best strategy is the one that works best for you, so it may be helpful to experiment with both methods and see which one you prefer." I then told ChatGPT that if you went into sufficient detail on your Bib Cards that you could get the same kind of benefits that it was touting about using separate notes, and that with Bib Cards you have the added advantage of having them filed in your system, and it agreed. But it did stress that it comes down to a personal choice.
Hi Aliman: I'm afraid I'm still a little fuzzy on how exactly ExRefs work. I watched one or two videos in which Scott Scheper explains this, but that was many months ago. If I'm not mistaken, Scott doesn't go into much (or enough?) detail about ExRefs in his book ANTINET ZETTELKASTEN. However, there were plenty of parts of his book that I skimmed rather than perused. (And that, almost all English speakers should note, is how to properly use the word "peruse," the meaning of which is the OPPOSITE of "skim." Too many people got led astray by Mike Myers' misuse of the word in WAYNE'S WORLD, I assume.) All that said, based on my limited understanding, it does seem this could be a valuable addition to a Luhmann-like Zettelkasten workflow. I'd say give it a shot for a while and then, if you have the time and desire to do so, report back to us on how exactly you've been doing things and why you think it's valuable (or not).
Kind of. If you're using only physical/analog cards, then adding entries to the index section of your Zettelkasten is a very good idea. However, since I've been adding the cards I create to my Obsidian vault, I haven't been all that good about maintaining an index. I guess I've been thinking (unwisely, I bet) that I can just use the search function in Obsidian to pull up what I'm looking for.
Maintaining what’s typically referred to as “the index” of your Zettelkasten is the way to find cards. That index should consist of key terms or categories in your Zettelkasten, just as the index of a book contains key terms or categories from the book. Then, when you have a new card to add to your Zettelkasten, you use your index to find a relevant area in your Zettlekasten to go to to find a card that has a good-enough relation to the one you’re adding. This is NOT a fast process, but that’s a good thing in that over time-after over and over again reading through cards as you search for ones related to each new card you add-you are more likely to remember the ideas you put in your Zettelkasten. If you’re looking for a video that goes over this, I recommend you check out ones that Scott Scheper has posted to TH-cam. In a number of his videos he walks through the process of what he calls “installing a new card.” I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
@@davidrogers8516 Good to hear. If I recall correctly, in some/many of the videos in which Scott onboards people to his version of Niklas Luhmann's version of building a Zettelkasten, he instructs them to add the address of every single card to the index. I don't think that's necessary. So long as you are adding to your index terms followed by card addresses for the majority of the cards you create, you should find the practice valuable.
Definitely the mate is the most fundamental intellectual aim, I was wandering from the beginning if that was a mate hahah. How is it that you are drinking mate? I’m guessing you are not from Argentina since you speak and write in english and for english-speaking students… Also, I really like this series about the zettelkasten, you explain things clearly and with great humor. I like videos like this one where you show the actual process. Cheers!
Yes, I see the original comment you posted. Thank you for your kind words about the series. As for the yerba mate, back when I was in grad school, I read a biography of Che Guevara, which kept on mentioning how much he missed yerba mate while he was in the mountains in Cuba. I never looked the stuff up, though. About a year later, I had a housemate who had spent some time in Argentina and drank mate. I got hooked. For me, regular caffeine (or I guess the kind you get from coffee or soda drink) is something I can't really deal with in the afternoon. But there's something about the caffeine in mate (sometimes referred as "mateine") that enables me to keep on drinking it, even into the evening (but I usually stop around 4 or 5pm.
Process is important and I suspect we need more concrete examples for people to see. I'm reminded of Andy Matuschak's note taking live stream a while back: th-cam.com/video/DGcs4tyey18/w-d-xo.html though some editing, time compression, and inserted images can make it a bit more interesting than watching paint dry. Anecdotally, I feel like mate has become at least marginally more popular in the United States in the last few years, or at least enough to enter the consciousness of the cultural zeitgeist at a liminal level.
@@ChrisAldrich1 Yet again, I discover a message that it seems TH-cam was hiding from me for days! Thanks for chiming in, Chris. I'm finally getting to work on my "cows and Mozart" script, inspired by your discussion in Dan's book club.
Example. You have a 10000 notes Zettelkasten. And you decide to let me use it. I have ONE idea and ONE note to put it in to your Zettelkasten. I have no idea what your Zettelkasten is about and which notes it contains. I do not know any relations existing between notes. I have no idea about the context surrounding each of your notes. Just BLANK MIND. How do i put my note in your Zettelkasten so it will be mindfully connected to as much of your existing notes as it can be? Please describe a step by step process of my interaction with your's Zettelkasten.
I have watched all your videos and they are very helpful in starting my ZettelKasten (I never heard of it before). I have congenital aphantasia and almost no long term memory/abilities. I every much live in the "now" with my electronic plain text journals (use to be labbooks decades ago). I am in the middle of what I call GUI Detox and this will help me on my journey Thank you very much !!!
This is what is really needed in terms of zettelkasten videos online; actual demonstrating how you would do the work instead of breathlessly talking about theoretical ideas.
And snails.
Great to hear. If people want, I could try to crank out another one or two where I do more or less the same thing but with different texts (and better audio). I wouldn't send 'em all out at once or in a row. I could send them out in between videos about using Obsidian for note-taking that an old-school, Luhmann-inspired Zettelkasten wouldn't be good for.
@@forrestrperry Aloha! Very interesting you mention this. Since I've jumped into the OZ I've been trying to isolate other uses for Obsidian besides note-making. E.g., I currently use it to stage various projects I'm doing on the Internet because I can embed URLs in notes and to-do lists, etc. My question is, What types of note-making can we use Obsidian for that aren't conducive to an OZ?
Thanks for allowing us to take a glimpse at your workflow.
Happy to do so. Thanks for the comment.
I think your footage at 1:01 depicting “the internet” is one of the best descriptions I’ve ever seen. (And all your Zettlekasten are really helpful, I finally understand it, and your folgezettel gives me permission to keep one even though I’ll never publish anything.) (Thanks)
Great! So glad to see you’ve found the videos valuable.
Thank you for taking the time to show your actual process . . . Very informative . . . Keep up the great work!
Thanks Greg, will do!
"Slow down in order to speed up": ski cross country rather than skiing downhill provides absorption, understanding, clarity, rememberance to use again.
Man, I am here for the whole FP experience...namely coprolites and an artisan's touch when it comes to stock video. The RC car footage from a few videos back remains one of my favorites.
In all seriousness, thanks so much for these videos. I'm looking forward to your upcoming videos on non-Luhmannian note-taking (which sound like they will be more of a "just in time" or more project oriented approached perhaps?). I keep a physical ZK for developing thought over time, but feel like my digital note-taking game could be stepped up a bit.
As an instructional designer working in higher ed, I also hope we get to hear more about your experiences introducing students to a ZK (or ZK-like) practice.
Oh, and I'm also super-interested in your decision to back up the notes digitally. For some folks, that level of friction might not be sustainable in the long run, but it seems like the multiple drafts opportunity (and perhaps, peace of mind) that maintaining both systems provides is desirable difficulty for you?
It does leave me wondering how you use the notecards you create if you ultimately have a digital copy to inform your scholarly writing or teaching.
Thanks for your comments here, Zach. Very happy to see that you are a fan of not-so-great stock footage that I insert into the videos I make, footage that is often so bad that it has to be used just because it's funny.
As for the coprolites, I hope you will fall for the series of videos and sales pitches I make in the future abou the healing properties of coprolites. Better even than crystals!
You are correct in your guess that what I plan on presenting when I get around to making the Obsidian videos is going to be more of a project-oriented approach (similar but certainly not identical to Tiago Forte's "just-in-time" approach).
Yes, I agree that backing up Zettelkasten cards may be for plenty of people unsustainable. I may very well end up becoming one of them, but for the past few months, I have been very much enjoying the approach I've been taking to things.
@@forrestrperry Hmmmm... I'm now starting to wonder if backing up my OZ on Obsidian is worth it. It's certainly intriguing. If I pursued this, I'd probably start a separate vault. It may be useful for quickly pinpointing specific cards that I know are there but can't immediately find them fumbling through the OZ. However, at the same time, that "fumbling" often produces interesting results.
Yo dude. I like these vids. I want to see more of the intellectual behind the scenes. I love seeing people write notes by hand.
r/antinetporn
Great term you just coined there. Since Scott Scheper coined the term “antinet,” I think someone should let him know about your term.
Your third sentence: that’s a request, yes? If so, could you please clarify a bit further so that ONLY IF I FEEL LIKE IT, I can keep your request in mind as I make future videos? Thanks for your comments!
@@forrestrperry He's the one who gave me the term lol. Also, yes, it's a request. I just enjoy watching people write notecards by hand, and installing their books into their Antinet (or analog Zettelkasten). I also quite enjoy Scott's videos on the matter.
@Forrest, You asked somewhere about how Scott deals with ExRefs. What was your question? I'm using Zotero, as Scott recommends in his book. I'll attempt to answer your question from memory, and so may not hit it directly. The ExRefs are used if you have an irresistible idea (he defines "irresistible" in the book) but you're not planning on using the idea directly and immediately in your current project. Because of this, you don't want to expend the resources to create a main card and flesh the idea out. So you instead just have a sentence or so describing it, along with the bib/source data, and you stick that in your main box at the appropriate address. So you capture the idea and source without spending the time on creating a main note. The farther that Luhmann went along in his 2nd Zettelkasten, the more ExRefs he used, according to Scott. Does any of that make sense?
Hi Aliman: yes! This does make sense. I'm not so sure it's something I would do with my own analog Zettelkasten. I'd probably be more likely to record such ideas in Obsidian. But my process continues to evolve, and it's helpful to have this explanation to consider as it does. Thanks again.
Excellent content! Do you think a folgezettel (alphanumeric) at the beginning of the note title would work for a zettelkasten fully in obsidian? Thanks.
Thanks for the comment, Jacopo. Yes, you can certainly place alphanumeric addresses at the beginning of a note in Obsidian-provided that you don't have slashes in the title (Obsidian still doesn't accept those, I believe). Bob Doto is one person who places alphanumeric addresses at the beginning of each of his "zettels" in Obsidian.
Alternatively, if for some reason you want to place your Zettelkasten cards in themed folders (something I was doing initially and may or may not stick with), you MIGHT want to have the title of the Obsidian file contain just the title of the zettel and then place BOTH the card address and title after "aliases:" in the metadata.
Bob's way of doing things is simpler and may very well be superior, so I'd say that you probably shouldn't do as I have been doing unless you really want to.
FP - just adding my thanks for your work. It really is more pragmatic than other stuff I have seen. I am coming from the Roam Research/Beau Hahn sort of methodology. I haven't built it out because it felt a little too prescriptive. Now reading Scott's books and watching your videos. I am intrigued by the digital back up. My first thought was wouldn't it be part to take a picture of the card, but I don't think Obsidian has OCR, right? I would find it incredibly ironic if Evernote had a corner on backing up an analog zettelkasten precisely because it does have OCR.
Also, reading through the comments and thinking of snapshots made me wonder if I could take snap shots of my analog card and put them in ANKI. The idea of resurfacing cards algorithmically is kind of interesting.
Thanks for your comments here, Dan. I believe there are some OCR options available in Obsidian. Here’s one plug-in you might want to check out: github.com/schlundd/obsidian-ocr-plugin. Also run a search for “Zsolt Viczian OCR.” If you’re on a Mac, you could purchase DEVONthink, which I’m pretty sure has OCR capabilities. DEVONthink let’s you copy item URLs, so if you’re syncing your Obsidian vault and don’t want it to get clogged with images, you could store the images in DEVONthink and have whatever DEVONthink database that contains your images be somewhere where you have plenty of space to store large-ish files. Alternatively, and most simply, you could type up the contents of your cards in Obsidian. That might sound like an annoying, unnecessary additional task, but the advantage-especially if you wait a few days or more to do it-is that it gets you to review your ideas.
If you have any other questions or comments, let me know. I haven’t made a new video in two months (“Shame! Shame!”-that Game of Thrones reference gives you a sense of how ashamed I am about that), but I’m always happy to engage with viewers of the videos I’ve already posted.
@forrest: Aloha! I'm now also convinced that I want to put all my main cards into Obsidian. At least I'll try that and see how it goes. It's part of a larger experiment about a personal use case for Obsidian, given that I'm now using an OZ or Antinet. I do still want to use Obsidian in some way to continue to organize and interface my work with the Internet, something that can't be done with an Antinet for obvious reasons. My question is about how you use the addresses of the cards in your main box. Do you put the addresses in the filename of the Obsidian note? Do you tag the Obsidian file with the card address? Something else? Mahalo in advance!
Hi Aliman: I'm going to paste here my response to a similar question someone had about a different video. I hope this helps...
Yes, you can certainly place alphanumeric addresses at the beginning of a note in Obsidian-provided that you don't have slashes in the title (Obsidian still doesn't accept those, I believe). Bob Doto is one person who places alphanumeric addresses at the beginning of each of his "zettels" in Obsidian.
Alternatively, if for some reason you want to place your Zettelkasten cards in themed folders (something I was doing initially and may or may not stick with), you MIGHT want to have the title of the Obsidian file contain just the title of the zettel and then place BOTH the card address and title after "aliases:" in the metadata.
Bob's way of doing things is simpler and may very well be superior, so I'd say that you probably shouldn't do as I have been doing unless you really want to.
@FP I forgot my most important comment about your vid: the beginning few seconds are good. Now that you've established that, the next time you make a 9th vid in a series, you can start it out with the other side of the coin. Aloha!
@Forrest, one more question: do you use Bib cards the way Luhmann used them? There are obvious and good reasons to do so, and Scott's book gives about 400,000,000 reasons in support. I.e., Luhmann read very quickly (one book or article a day, on average, for 34 years!!), and took what Ahrens would call "fleeting notes" (although Luhmann never used that term) onto a bib card. Then he went back later and reviewed the bib cards and created main notes for the important entries (not all the entries, just the important ones). Scott sets out all those gajillion reasons to use bib notes, but at the same time, esp. with entering main cards into Obsidian, it does add another step into the process, so it's one step more complex. Do you use bib cards or just go right from the source to a main card? Aloha!
Hi Aliman: I do indeed typically go from source card to main/idea card. I've noticed Dan Allosso will often go directly from the source (not to be confused with a "source CARD") to a main/idea card. It's possible I'll do some of that in the future.
How do you take analogue notes on Kindle? I mean, there is no page number and the LoC is kinda wonky, unless you're using highlights.
Yeah, not all (and perhaps only a small percentage of?) Kindle books have page numbers in addition to location numbers. Of course, you COULD purchase a physical copy of a book you're highlighting on your Kindle, but that's not an affordable option for most people.
One thing you might want to consider doing is something I know Tiago Forte has said he does, which is to highlight not just passages but also the titles of chapters (and maybe even the titles of sections within chapters) so that when you pull highlighted passages into your note-making app of choice, you have a pretty good idea of where they are from.
And then if you end up publishing something that requires that you provide page numbers rather than location numbers, I guess that's when you might want to run a Google Books search for the passages in question to see whether the page you're looking for in the physical-but-also-digitized version ends up being one of the things your search returns.
If anyone else reading this comment has ideas about what to do, please let us know.
Thanks for another great video. Content and editing are just wonderful.
A few questions,
1. The notebook: any reason for this? I draft of paper which I then dispose of after creating a 6x4. Do you ever reread the notebook, reference it etc?
2. Are you reading and note taking with a specific output or project in mind and do you think this matters? I ask as I follow a very similar process without any future output/publication etc in mind and am curious whether you think this matters - i.e. whether having a concrete purpose changes the ZK/reading/note taking process in any meaningful way.
Thanks again!
Thanks for the comments and questions, and sorry for not responding sooner.
1. I see nothing wrong with disposing of the paper on which you draft the content of a Zettelkasten card. One advantage of using a notebook instead is that it serves as a a chronological record of what I’ve been reading and taking notes on. Another advantage is that I now and FINALLY have a use for all those Moleskine "cahier journals" that I've bought over the years (like plenty of other people, I am attracted to notebooks and journals enough to buy them but not enough to use them for more than two or three days). Lastly, when I'm taking source notes, sometimes I come up with some thoughts for an idea card related to but really entirely grounded in the material I'm reading at the time and decide to jot those thoughts down in the notebook rather than on the source card.
2. If producing output isn't your aim, I don't think it's essential that you have a particular project in mind while building your Zettelkasten. However, having recently read much of Scott Scheper's ANTINET ZETTELKASTEN, I can tell you that he recommends acting as if you are working on a certain project even if you aren't. He writes, "you want to write your notes as if they are part of a project or book that you’ll be publishing so that you can teach others. [...] the best way to grow and learn something is by teaching the material, and the best way to do that is through having the mindset of contribution." By "contribution" there, Scheper means "something you share, publish, etc."
If you find you want to take Scheper's advice, one way you MIGHT go about doing that is creating what Andy Matuschak calls "speculative outlines." He says, "When you write a new note, add it to one or more outlines you’re maintaining, creating a new one if necessary. [...] Normally, we start an outline when we start a writing project. This forces us to start with a blank page. By contrast, if we write new notes every day and notice how they relate to each other, these can accumulate into potential writing projects. [...] Maintaining already-written notes in an outline is comparatively easy: just look at a pair of notes and ask: which comes first?" Here's a link to the page where you can find him making those points: bit.ly/3ij88hd (under "Executable strategy for winning," look for the hyperlink "Create speculative outlines while you write"). If you go to that page, you'll see that Matuschak talks about creating speculative outlines for the sake of eventually turning some of them into pieces of writing, but I would think that even if you don't want to produce output, you MIGHT benefit from the layer of organization of your ideas that speculative outlines can provide.
@@forrestrperry I would type it and save a few trees. It took me a stack of notebooks, breast high, to say that was enough.
VERY LONG QUESTION!!
Aloha Forrest, I've abandoned the categories and "folder cards." You convinced me of the wisdom there. But, with say 30 pre-defined categories, that may be all I need. But again, my question is about categories I'm creating: How do I prevent them from proliferating? E.g., I'm writing a note about possible life after bodily death. That's the main subject "life after death:"
"Whitehead & Hartshorne's Process Theology provides for this (even though neither believed in it, their ontology still provides for it). Because they didn't believe in it, many scholars hold that Process Metaphysics, as such, rules out life after bodily death. But, that's wrong. Yes, W's ontology holds that an actual occasion requires a physical and a mental pole. When the body dies prehension on the physical pole isn't possible. But, as far as I can tell, nowhere does W. say that for prehension and concrescence to occur, that a “Final percipient occasion" must draw its prehensions from its original environment (a human brain and nervous system). Thus, and Griffin speculates about this as well in Re-enchantment, it seems that a Final or Dominant occasion can still undergo concrescence without prehending a human body."
Now, I could file this note under 3 categories which I now have: Personal Identity, Theology, or Reincarnation. I could file it under Personal Identity because it is in some sense about the continuity of a human self; I could file it under Theology as it is about Process Theology; Reincarnation in that it's about life after death. Most logically and directly it seems to relate to Reincarnation, but it's more specifically about Whitehead's metaphysics, and deals with his complex metaphysical ideas such as "actual occasions," "physical/mental poles," "prehension," "concrescence," etc. OK, most of what I read and write about is Whitehead's metaphysics so I will have to create that category, but my general problematic still remains--how many categories will I create, and how many is too many? Sure, Luhmann had 108 in his first OZ, then 18 or 20 in his second one. Currently I have 17 categories and I am JUST GETTING STARTED. I can see myself easily creating another 50 categories. Or is that unavoidable? Suggestions?
Aliman: thanks again for your questions and comments. I've been pressed for time this past couple weeks and will remain so for an indefinite period, but I want to QUICKLY respond to what you have written here. Please understand that in the next paragraph here, I'm trying to be a bit playful, for lack of a better term that I could probably come up with if I had more time.
You began your comment with the following announcement: "I've abandoned the categories and 'folder cards.'" But then you revealed that you have NOT actually done this: "Now, I could file this note under 3 categories which I now have: Personal Identity, Theology, or Reincarnation."
My advice: get rid of categories within what Scott Scheper would call your "main cards." The ONLY place you should be taking note of categories is in your index (which could consist of physical cards, but I think a digital version of an index ain't a bad idea either). Whenever you create a new card, think ONLY about whether it has a good-enough relation to an already-existing card. If it does, then number (or "alphanumeric") it appropriately. You can then add a reference to that card in three different places in your index (Personal Identity, Theology, and Reincarnation).
I hope that helps. Be sure to reply saying, "You're amazing. That helped soooo much," after which you are permitted to ask me more questions if you have any.
@@forrestrperry OMG!!!! You're BEYOND amazing! That helped soooo much! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! (But I really mean it!) I may or may not have "categories" in the sense you're referring to. I read and write a lot about, e.g., the mind-body problem and personal identity. I ditched Scheper's pre-defined Wikipedia categories (sorry, Scott, but no worries, I still love you and I did subscribe today to your extremely expensive analog monthly newsletter). After jettisoning Scott's beloved categories, my first note was about the mind-body problem and second note was about personal identity. Because I know I'll eventually have 18 quintillion notes on both the mind-body relation and personal identity, I jotted down "mind-body" and "personal identity" as categories. (Do you hear that? It's Forrest screaming in utter desperation, "NOOO!!! Please, please, dear God in heaven, NOOOOO!!!") Now, I jotted down those categories because if I have a gigamoungously hugistic number of homogenous and undifferentiated, generic, indistinct cards, I'd be drowning in an infinite ocean of confusing distinctions and anxiety each and every time I attempted to file a new card. However, you're implying that I won't. There's no need to suffer that anxiety because I'll so frequently interact with my O.Z. that I'll intuitively navigate to the correct section in the homogenous mass of cards and I'll know where to file the new guy. Is this correct? Aloha!
@@raiseyourvibration1411 Soooooo happy to see that you found my advice of help, Aliman. And yes, I think you're correct that frequent interaction with your Zettelkasten will enable you to navigate rather quickly to already-existing cards that you can look at to see whether a new card you want to "install in your Antinet" (as I think Scott Scheper would put it) can be connected to one of them.
As for the "categories" you're using, I assume those will be especially useful to make note of in "the index" part of your Zettelkasten (for the sake of navigating the contents of your Zettelkasten).
@@forrestrperry I hope YT decides to post this comment. Yes, your advice was a HUGE, HUGE help!! I think I've finally settled! I've jettisoned Scott's canned Wikipedia categories and in addition I'm not creating any categories on tabbed cards for easier filing. (That's what I meant last time by "categories." I wasn't using pre-planned categories, but I was creating categories organically, in a sense, as I went along, but I'm no longer doing that. I'm now just going with filing new cards only at the level of cards. I believe this is what you were recommending.) ChatGPT and I figured out that if the new card is a continuation of a current branch I can increment the letter or number at the end by one, or add a number or letter if needed. If it's a new category (woops!!!) I mean a new branch, I'll increment the starting number by one. This gives me, e.g.: 1, 1.1, 1.1a, 1.1b, 1.1c, 1.2, 1.3, 2, 3, 3.1, 3.1a, 3.1a1, 3.1a2, 4, etc. So, in a sense, I do have "categories" (GASP!!!!!!) because I'm incrementing the first number by one when I start a new branch. However, they're not pre-planned and I don't think of them as "categories," and I'm not referencing anything other than the already existing cards themselves in the calculation about where to file a new guy. As you say, this will help my O.Z. grow more organically. Your posts here and an article that Chris wrote convinced me of all this. THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!
@@forrestrperry Also, I'm taking notes usually onto Bib Cards, then after those percolate in my body as I go along, an hour or so later, I create some Main Cards from the Bib Cards. After I create the Main Cards, I go through them and see what new ideas and new connections came up (in the form of key words) on the newly created cards. I then, if needed, create more Main Cards if these are major ideas, or if they're not major ideas then I put the key terms into my Index and cross reference everything. I use the arrows that Scott recommends in the Index. Does all this sound right? Am I missing any major pieces? I know one thing I may be missing are the cards that Scott recommends to install which are simply a reference, placed strategically in your antinet, which aren't note cards per se, but they're cards that point you to a different part of your antinet. I forget what he calls them.
Curious, what do you do with the 4x7 card you took all the notes on before your wrote your permanent Z card?
Hello, thanks for your question. Not sure if you’re referring to the 5x7 source card or the 4x6 idea card. The latter is what some people call a “permanent note.” But I think you were referring to the source card-that I place in a small file box along with other source cards so that I can look back at it in the future should the need to do so arise.
Are the source cards addressed/indexed by author?
@Forrest, yet another question: do you build Maps of Content on Obsidian (Nick Milo's method)? Or simply use Obsidian for back up of your main cards? I started into diving deeply into Milo's MOCs in the several months I was using Obsidian, and have many MOCs now, but as I'm transitioning into the Antinet I'm wondering about the wisdom of remaining too ensconced in the bells and whistles of the software, and if doing so will take time and attention away from the Antinet. Thoughts?
Sounds like you have made many more MOCs than I have (I've made maybe two or three of them in the past). It seems to me you don't need to use any of the bells and whistles that Obsidian and its many plug-ins offer, so I would say continue creating them if you find them to be of value (and provided that you can resist the temptation to use lots of Obsidian's bells and whistles). I guess you could think of them as kind of like "structure notes" in the Luhmann-like way of building a Zettelkasten.
Can you do a video on how to find at card if you have 10 subjects and 100's of cards???
I just now replied to your first message, so check that out when you get a chance.
@FP and @lavvernceD: in case it's helpful, I'm trying not to have separate notes in notebooks or other modalities. Rather, I'm putting all my notes on Bib Cards that get filed. Like Scott recommends, I'm creating an ExRef (external reference) when something isn't important enough to go into detail about, but the ExRef will enable me to go back to the source later if needed. Does this sound right?
BTW, just for kicks, I asked ChatGPT the following: "Is it a better strategy to use "Bib Cards" when you're reading a book, which then get filed into your Zettelkasten, or to take notes while you're reading in a separate notebook?"
It responded with:
"It depends on personal preference and the purpose of note-taking. Both strategies have their advantages and disadvantages. Using "Bib Cards" (index cards with bibliographic information) when reading a book can help you organize your notes and sources, making it easier to find information later on. On the other hand, taking notes directly in a separate notebook while reading can help you process and synthesize information more actively, leading to a deeper understanding of the material. Ultimately, the best strategy is the one that works best for you, so it may be helpful to experiment with both methods and see which one you prefer."
I then told ChatGPT that if you went into sufficient detail on your Bib Cards that you could get the same kind of benefits that it was touting about using separate notes, and that with Bib Cards you have the added advantage of having them filed in your system, and it agreed. But it did stress that it comes down to a personal choice.
Just more evidence that ALL thinking should be done by ChatGPT rather than by humans!
Hi Aliman: I'm afraid I'm still a little fuzzy on how exactly ExRefs work. I watched one or two videos in which Scott Scheper explains this, but that was many months ago. If I'm not mistaken, Scott doesn't go into much (or enough?) detail about ExRefs in his book ANTINET ZETTELKASTEN. However, there were plenty of parts of his book that I skimmed rather than perused.
(And that, almost all English speakers should note, is how to properly use the word "peruse," the meaning of which is the OPPOSITE of "skim." Too many people got led astray by Mike Myers' misuse of the word in WAYNE'S WORLD, I assume.)
All that said, based on my limited understanding, it does seem this could be a valuable addition to a Luhmann-like Zettelkasten workflow. I'd say give it a shot for a while and then, if you have the time and desire to do so, report back to us on how exactly you've been doing things and why you think it's valuable (or not).
Hi there! Are you also
indexing the idea cards you write?
Kind of. If you're using only physical/analog cards, then adding entries to the index section of your Zettelkasten is a very good idea. However, since I've been adding the cards I create to my Obsidian vault, I haven't been all that good about maintaining an index. I guess I've been thinking (unwisely, I bet) that I can just use the search function in Obsidian to pull up what I'm looking for.
When you have hundreds of cards how do you find other cards that might be related so you can link the new card with?
Maintaining what’s typically referred to as “the index” of your Zettelkasten is the way to find cards. That index should consist of key terms or categories in your Zettelkasten, just as the index of a book contains key terms or categories from the book. Then, when you have a new card to add to your Zettelkasten, you use your index to find a relevant area in your Zettlekasten to go to to find a card that has a good-enough relation to the one you’re adding. This is NOT a fast process, but that’s a good thing in that over time-after over and over again reading through cards as you search for ones related to each new card you add-you are more likely to remember the ideas you put in your Zettelkasten. If you’re looking for a video that goes over this, I recommend you check out ones that Scott Scheper has posted to TH-cam. In a number of his videos he walks through the process of what he calls “installing a new card.” I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
@@forrestrperry Thank You Very Much! So I started looking for "Zettelkasten index" on TH-cam and found a Scott Scheper Video about this subject.
@@davidrogers8516 Good to hear. If I recall correctly, in some/many of the videos in which Scott onboards people to his version of Niklas Luhmann's version of building a Zettelkasten, he instructs them to add the address of every single card to the index. I don't think that's necessary. So long as you are adding to your index terms followed by card addresses for the majority of the cards you create, you should find the practice valuable.
2:55 me watching this video in 1.5x speed: "uhmmm okay i'll slow down a bit😅"
Definitely the mate is the most fundamental intellectual aim, I was wandering from the beginning if that was a mate hahah.
How is it that you are drinking mate? I’m guessing you are not from Argentina since you speak and write in english and for english-speaking students…
Also, I really like this series about the zettelkasten, you explain things clearly and with great humor. I like videos like this one where you show the actual process.
Cheers!
Hmm, I posted another comment here but it seems gone, can you see it or this is the only reply that appears?
Yes, I see the original comment you posted. Thank you for your kind words about the series. As for the yerba mate, back when I was in grad school, I read a biography of Che Guevara, which kept on mentioning how much he missed yerba mate while he was in the mountains in Cuba. I never looked the stuff up, though.
About a year later, I had a housemate who had spent some time in Argentina and drank mate. I got hooked. For me, regular caffeine (or I guess the kind you get from coffee or soda drink) is something I can't really deal with in the afternoon. But there's something about the caffeine in mate (sometimes referred as "mateine") that enables me to keep on drinking it, even into the evening (but I usually stop around 4 or 5pm.
Nice! Great to see people from other places enjoying it.
Process is important and I suspect we need more concrete examples for people to see. I'm reminded of Andy Matuschak's note taking live stream a while back: th-cam.com/video/DGcs4tyey18/w-d-xo.html though some editing, time compression, and inserted images can make it a bit more interesting than watching paint dry.
Anecdotally, I feel like mate has become at least marginally more popular in the United States in the last few years, or at least enough to enter the consciousness of the cultural zeitgeist at a liminal level.
@@ChrisAldrich1 Yet again, I discover a message that it seems TH-cam was hiding from me for days! Thanks for chiming in, Chris. I'm finally getting to work on my "cows and Mozart" script, inspired by your discussion in Dan's book club.
Example. You have a 10000 notes Zettelkasten. And you decide to let me use it. I have ONE idea and ONE note to put it in to your Zettelkasten. I have no idea what your Zettelkasten is about and which notes it contains. I do not know any relations existing between notes. I have no idea about the context surrounding each of your notes. Just BLANK MIND. How do i put my note in your Zettelkasten so it will be mindfully connected to as much of your existing notes as it can be?
Please describe a step by step process of my interaction with your's Zettelkasten.