Zettelkasten Live Ep. 7: Visualizing Branching Off in your Archive

System

Zettelkasten Live Ep. 7: Visualizing Branching Off in your Archive

The Zettelkasten note-taking method has made book writing and writing scientific papers easy for hundreds of years already.

Read the full story here

jemscott

Hi, guys. You describe two principal methods of connection here; to paraphrase:

1. Systematic: the notes are structured by the inclusion of an overview note, which links to the constituent sections of, for example, an argument or research process.
2. Organic: these connections are more web-like, less curated, less mediated, and can branch off from any point of a system as described in 1 above.

My question (or comment) was: presumably it's ok for both of these to co-exist? 2 is messy, yes, but from that mess can come interesting insights and unforeseen connections which the more structured system might miss. In other words, there's no need to be constantly touring your archive to slam everything into the kind of shape necessitated by 1. Any thoughts gratefully received, and thanks for taking the time to put the videos together.

Sascha

I think you got that right.

There are several mechanism at play and you cover them best if you employ both "styles" of connection:

1. Ordered and planned
2. Organic and chaotic