Looking for beta readers – The Minimalist’s Zettelkasten (v0.14)

Edmund

Hi everyone,

Christian (@ctietze) encouraged me to share my book project here: The Minimalist’s Zettelkasten – Think Better with Less.

It’s about keeping your Zettelkasten light, clear, and practical — useful without growing out of control.

I’m looking for a few beta readers for version 0.14. If you’d like to take a look and share your thoughts, just send me a quick direct message and I’ll share the PDF.

Thanks a lot,
Edmund

GeoEng51

@Edmund I'd love to help, but have no time until the beginning of next year. Does that timing work?

andang76

@Edmund I can help you, if you want

wjenkins81

I've sent my feedback now... thanks and good luck.

Edmund

Iterative Writing Process

I wanted to tell you a little bit about my writing process. First, however, I had to draw a concept map to better understand it myself:

The first version was v.1, which was around 50 pages long. Versions v.7, v.10 and v.13 were printed as KDP proof copies. You began providing beta reader support with v.14. Thank you all for your thoughtful and generous feedback. However, I will probably need to create more versions before finalising and publishing the first edition.

Edmund

The Title Game

I am convinced that the books we want to write are already waiting for us in our Zettelkasten. They just want to be discovered!

Let's start with the title:

Edmund

Idea Exploration Map

The title of the book is my starting point. The central question that I am trying to answer, solve or explore in the book is this: "Can minimalism help us to stop drowning in notes and start thinking clearly?"

I have created an idea exploration map based on notes from my Zettelkasten to show what I already know about this topic:

The yellow path shows the timeline of note creation dates. It took me 623 days to capture both ideas, from 'Zettelkasten (2022-03-05)' to 'Minimalism (2023-11-18)'. It took an additional 662 days to develop the book title (until 10 September 2025). My personal example of "slow thinking". ;-)

Edmund

Book Evolution Map

The "Book Evolution Map" is a visual, strategic tool to track and plan the development of a book over time. It is especially useful in iterative or agile writing processes.

Well, after reviewing draft version v.18, there are still a few gaps that need to be filled in the next iterations.

thatjpguy

Hello Edmund
Are you still looking for any Beta Readers on your upcoming book?
I would love to read about your thoughts and Ideas surrounding Zettelkasten and trying to keep it simple.

I am not new to the theory and practice but still find it somewhat difficult to employ it properly. I use a combination of hand written notes, images and software to compile my notes but could use some fresh ideas.

Thank you in advance for your consideration.

@Edmund said:
Hi everyone,

Christian (@ctietze) encouraged me to share my book project here: The Minimalist’s Zettelkasten – Think Better with Less.

It’s about keeping your Zettelkasten light, clear, and practical — useful without growing out of control.

I’m looking for a few beta readers for version 0.14. If you’d like to take a look and share your thoughts, just send me a quick direct message and I’ll share the PDF.

Thanks a lot,
Edmund

Edmund

Today, I started work on the next iteration, version 20. The initial feedback that you provided as a beta reader was based on version 14. All of your feedback has helped me to improve my writing. However, there are still many tasks relating to later feedback, such as versions 17, 18 and 19, that need to be completed.

Thank you for your ongoing engagement.

Edmund

Zettelkasten Database Publishing might be an idea for the next iteration: https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/comment/24439/#Comment_24439

tom314

@Edmund found my way here via your linkedin posts+bitly. Came across zettelkasten recently via zsolt‘s „sketch your mind“ conference, and started to look at his excalidraw plugin for obsidian.

However, my understanding of that is very superficial at the moment.

Are you still looking for beta readers?
If so, I‘d be interested to join in the hope the content would make me skip the overwhelm phase in trying zettelkasten as more or less new method for me.

—the crazy idea in the back of my mind…
my team supports the operation of business critical systems
for customers on a proprietary platform, based on documentation we were given.

Issue is, often there are no formal documents written down,
and all the knowledge of the environment grown over decades
resides in the head/memory palace of the now retiring (dyslexic) system administrator.

I‘d love to provide a systematic approach
To gather all information required
And
Present it in a way that is digestible easily,
For both auditory-sequential and visual-spatial learners,
Using the possibilities obsidian and Zsolt’s Excalidraw plugin to the same
Provide.

(Typing these thoughts out here
helped me a lot to better understand myself
where I want to move to next.
Thanks for holding this space! )

OptimusSlime

Dear Edmund. If you look for another perspective on your Beta, I'd be ready
Highly appriciate your initiative, as far as "hording" may be a problem not only in a material and physical way these days.... but also mentally and in a cognitive way. Shrinking a ZK system down and keeping it clean may be THE step therefore to become and stay productive.