How did you become smart?
Hello, forum members, I'd like to hear your advice.
Here's what I'd like to ask:
1. I'm curious how you became so intelligent.
2. I feel like I don't have enough time to truly understand and think about things while working on other things. What's your solution?
I think you seem competent and intelligent. I'm curious how you became so intelligent. Do you find the time to reach that level of thinking while juggling your day job and daily life?
1. I'm curious how you became so intelligent.
I've been monitoring this forum since 2022. Most of the posts on this forum were incomprehensible to me. They were too difficult for me. I didn't even understand the topic the person who started the discussion was talking about. However, you wrote your thoughts on them with clear evidence. Because of my limited understanding, for the first two years, I worried that commenters were going off-topic and just saying what they wanted to say. However, as I became more familiar with Zettelkasten, I began to understand a little bit more, and when I returned to the forum, I realized what a surprising number of questions and answers there were.
However, the discussions here seemed to be not just about mastering the Zettelkasten Method, but also about philosophical, epistemological, historical, and scientific issues. It seems to me that all of you, the forum members, are skilled in logic, philosophy, and science. I'm often surprised to see you cite papers in your responses (e.g., @Andy). Where do you find the time to review so many?
I don't think you're seriously discussing something that isn't important or relevant. I think you're discussing it because there's a real issue. I wish I could think logically, philosophically, and scientifically like you. Perhaps I'm just trying to frame you as a straw man, thinking you're good at logical thinking when there aren't any such people on the forum. But that's how it seems to me at this point. What I want is currently very vague. I'm not sure what I want either. I just vaguely figured out where to go when I'm struggling. I'm a complete beginner right now, so I'm lost.
2. How can I reach such a high level of thinking while working? Do I have the time?
I'm an industrial worker. I think logically, but I'm not a philosopher. However, reading this forum and Charlie Munger, I realized that if I'm going to make a claim, I need to be able to defend it against counterarguments. Watching online discussions, I've seen many people make claims based on inferences without proper knowledge and then believe them. And those claims don't last long. Through that experience, I realized that skepticism, or scientific skepticism, can help solidify a claim.
But I don't have the time. Reading @Sascha's post convinced me that accessing primary sources and thinking directly would lead to better results, so I tried that for a year. However, the cost was far too high compared to the benefits. I used to think that to claim certainty about something, I needed to be able to explain it better than the opposing view. However, the more I tried, the more I realized I couldn't truly claim to know anything, so I kept digging, but without gaining anything. Is it important to know when to stop?
Considering these two things, do I lack the ability to select what is important? While I certainly have areas of expertise, they aren't the ones discussed in this forum. Is it unrealistic to expect that I should spend time in my areas of expertise while maintaining logical thinking, philosophy, and scientific skepticism, and strive to present my own arguments in the forum discussions? Am I actually hoping for the impossible?
What should I do? I seek your help.
Howdy, Stranger!
Comments
The more you learn, the more you realize how much you don't know.
This has been said in various forms and attributed to different people in history, but apparently Einstein said it too, which makes it even more quotable.
Many of us here are in a similar position to you, working full-time in something unrelated, or not directly related, to what we study in our spare time. But we do what we can.
If you only have a little time per week, or per month, that's fine too. There are more books, articles and other resources to read/cite than anyone could ever cover in a lifetime. So we try to get better at choosing which resources we spend our time with, aiming to choose for both relevancy and usefulness.
Just this morning I started a book on 'Research Design & Methods' and got that familiar feeling of: Now I understand that I barely understand the basics!. It happens with any area we explore.
The trick is that it all adds up over time. When you keep going, finding useful information and connecting it to other useful information, you end up with a knowledge base that has both breadth and depth. But it takes time. It can take several years, but you do get there when you keep going.
If you're not sure where to go next, one suggestion would be something like Choosing and Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research. That website has many free books, so you might get other ideas there.
Ultimately, I realized that considering opportunity costs becomes important, as I don't have time to read everything. Thank you for your response and sharing the information.
I agree with what @wjenkins81 said! "We do what we can." "We try to get better at choosing which resources we spend our time with." "It all adds up over time." All very true. But I would change "It can take several years, but you do get there when you keep going": that is true in relation to a particular goal, but with regard to becoming smart, wise, knowledgeable, etc., I would say, "It takes a lifetime, and it is always unfinished". It's called "lifelong learning". I caught the research habit when I was a teenager, and I'm in middle age now. So when you see me spouting references in the forum, I'm drawing on a knowledge base of decades.
Earlier this year someone else mentioned in the forum that he had been diagnosed with OCPD, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (informally, perfectionistic personality disorder). I looked up the description of that disorder, and the traits sounded quite familiar from my own experience. You probably shouldn't be as obsessive about learning as some of us are!
I learned that it's important not to become too obsessed with perfectionism, but to simply view it as a lifelong task and work on it one day at a time as a daily habit. Thank you for the advice!
@iylock, I too admire the level of intelligence I see here.
I'm looking for some way to make sense of the vast amount of stuff (I think that's a technical term) that I encounter in life and on the internet. There are many things that are easy for me to filter out - I know that I'm not interested in them or anything like them. There are some things that I'd like to understand and learn more about. I'm sure that there are many other things that I have yet to encounter and may or may not find any value in them.
A few years ago, I encountered GTD (Getting Things Done). I saw some of David Allen's Youtube presentations and then ran across his books at the bookstore. I've read a few of them, at least one many times. He has managed to identify and document many thoughts on how to capture, prioritize and act on things "to do". He continues to create content and share it. I'm amazed by how simple he makes some things. I've been able to get some value for my life by internalizing some of what he has shared.
Also, in my travels, I've stumbled across the Zettelkasten concept(s) and a bunch of other related methods and tools which I'm still trying to sort and sift and figure out some thing(s) that will help me with the vast quantities of stuff that I would like to explore and apply. Like you, I keep returning here because of the high quality of the content shared by all kinds of folks.
I recall a sermon that I was blessed with hearing, many years ago. The minister suggested that one should hang around with people who are smarter than ones self. I've tried to apply that to my daily life and this is one of those places where I feel like I learn a lot, just by observing.
Thanks to all who make this possible and all of those who share.
@dgarner As the other two commented, it seems important to do what we can. Because You can level up only if you do what you can at your level. Thank you for sharing your journey with Zettelkasten.
Regarding this point, I always wonder — when someone finds one of my writings difficult to understand — whether the problem lies in the subject itself being too complex, or in my own failure to explain it clearly enough.
I tend to think it’s almost always the latter :-).
If you say you didn’t understand something, I see the problem in myself, not in you.
I believe that when a concept remains cryptic, the issue lies with the writer.
I feel this as a real issue, but especially on Reddit — the other place where I talk about zettelkasten stuff — I almost never get feedback on my posts (“I didn’t get this,” “I have this doubt,” “this part doesn’t make sense,” “you explained that poorly”), and without feedback, I can’t adjust my aim. Feedback would be helpful for the reader, of course, but it would also help me improve my communication. And it's a bit frustrating, I confess :-)
Regaring your main question, I think that in this forum there are people who have made what you read here either a passion or even a profession — rather than it being a matter of higher or lower intelligence. These are ideas and readings that are part of their lived experience, their studies, their works. So it’s perfectly natural that there might be some displays of expertise in areas like philosophy, logic, epistemology, and so on.
I wanted to write these two points to give a more accurate context to the difficulties you mentioned in reading certain topics. I don’t think it’s a question of intelligence; some subjects simply have a very high entry step (they require a significant amount of time to grasp, at least),instead of having a gradual ramp, enough context, and clarity for a newcomer , and some users are true experts in their field and write accordingly.
So, it’s experience into a field rather than intelligence.
In any case, the Zettelkasten itself is excellent for tackling a “challenging :-)” forum like this one.
With a bit of patience, you can extract not only ideas from a discussion but also questions, doubts, reflections, terms to look up, and topics to explore. Every single point (question, doubt, unclear aspect) can be tackled and resolved, and once resolved, it is combined with the others like a piece of a puzzle. Step by step, the Zettelkasten keeps track of all your progress.
As I read @wjenkins81 has already explained the fundamental concept about: "The trick is that it all adds up over time". And Zettelkasten is formidable for this.
At the beginning, almost everything was incomprehensible to me (I work in IT); I found some topics understandable and useful only when I came back to them a second or third time, once I’d gained more experience.
At the beginning, I didn’t even know what “epistemic” or "mental model" meant — not exactly the words you hear at the bar.
@andang76 After reading your comments, my thought was that ultimately, the only way to learn in that field is through continuous effort. You mentioned that you work in the IT field, and although it may vary depending on the field, I understand that in the IT field, you basically need to continuously learn the latest information. What is your own way of studying IT while also studying fields related to Zetelkasten? I suspect you might not have enough time to study.
Yes, time is an issue. And I need to manage that issue.
In the IT world, whether you like it or not, you’re forced to keep learning all the time: investing time in staying up to date is simply part of the job.
That’s why it’s important to learn how to use that time in a more rational and intentional way.
It was by analyzing how the Zettelkasten method affects my daily work that I began to understand just how powerful it can be.
I realized that thinking deeply (because writing forces you to think, to analyze and break down what you’re learning) and documenting what I do and think while I work takes more time at first, but I end up gaining that time back later.
I can reuse my past work multiple times: I understand it better, I remember it better, and I’ve kept track of situations, questions, and problems I’ve already solved.
What’s written stays. Memory fades.
Let me give a simple example.
Until not too long ago, when working on a project or a task, I would simply look up articles, book chapters, or tutorials, apply a solution to the problem at hand, and move on.
I would get the job done quickly, but the only thing I had to show for it was the final result.
Most of the knowledge I’d gathered along the way inevitably faded over time — our brains just don’t retain everything.
And in IT, the same kinds of problems and situations tend to come back. When that happens, you often find yourself starting almost from scratch again.
Working with the Zettelkasten, on the other hand, means I move more slowly, but at the same time I build up:
Of course, this would matter little if I never had the chance to reuse what I’d done before — but that rarely happens. in my days, things often recur.
Today I use the Zettelkasten because it works well for me, though it’s obviously not the only possible method.
I mention it because it’s a tool that allows me to do exactly what I’ve just described.
The main thing I've learned is the value of writing. Writing is slow, but written things persist and accumulate over time. And things written in a "good way" become valuable.
Naturally, the process isn’t as ideal as it sounds.
It’s demanding, and I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t require extra effort.
Sometimes I spend a lot of time on things that seem useless, or whose value I can’t yet see — but even then, I’m gaining experience, and learning something is never a waste.
I’ll be honest: this practice often leads me to keep working on my Zettelkasten even in my free time.
I want to complete the "Zettelkasten way" of a project, even after work hours are over.
But I don’t see that as a problem — finishing a project through the Zettelkasten gives me a sense of personal satisfaction and engagement that goes beyond simple work fulfillment.
Maybe this all sounds a bit long-winded, so here’s the summary.
Yes, it’s true: time is a major factor. The Zettelkasten method isn’t "cheap" in terms of effort or time.
But I consider it an excellent investment if you truly want to learn something.
I don’t think there’s an "easy" or "efficient" way to learn deeply.
Recalling the principle of doing it whenever possible, If I only have one hour a day, I’d rather spend that hour building notes on a single article of two pages than skim an entire book in the same time and forget it two days later.
In the first case, I’m actually accumulating knowledge.
In the second, I’m just feeding an illusion.
You need to find the way to balance the learning process with the time you have available, keeping in mind that learning is demanding in any case. I think there are no shortcuts.
I can add, one of the advantages of Zettelkasten is that it is, in a way, incremental.
If at this moment I barely have time to write even a single note, and in a very rough version, I don’t give up saying I have too little time to do a complete and perfect writing regarding an activity or a learning session; instead, I just write that single rough note. Tomorrow, I’ll still have it. It's a very small progress, but it will remain a progress.
If you want to know my actual process when I work, I can describe it in broad strokes.
Alongside my usual work tools, I practically always have an Obsidian window open, on a note I call the thinking canvas.
If, while working, what I call a "situation" arises (a problem, question, reflection, task, or something I need to study), I jot it down on the canvas. When my mind starts formulating thoughts to solve anything of those tasks, the ones worth noting I quickly write on the canvas.
If a good amount of material accumulates about a single situation, I move everything to a note dedicated to that situation.
What’s written on the canvas or in the situation note can, later on, lead to the development of one or more Zettels if it’s worthwhile.
My main trick is having developed the habit of writing down my thoughts (not all of them, of course) while I work, instead of just thinking them. Once it’s written, it can be developed at any other time and accumulated later.
For me, the key is simply not making the mistake of building a system that requires a lot of energy during the pure initial capture phase of ideas.
What I found essential here is simple bullet writing.
With this method, I jot down my thoughts—in reality, just a few seconds—right while I’m working, and later I can devote more time to those worth developing into Zettels that will be useful over time.