Hi
Hello, I have just discovered this Forum.
I am new using Zettelkasten. Or, at least, I am new using Zettelkaten knowing that the name "Zettelkasten" was describing the principles I was using to my own personal knowledge management but more matured, systematic, and a few more. So I am very happy I found a wider, more consistent framework to apply.
I strongly believe that systems like this one are essential as we mature and come across more topics we have to incorporate to our body of knowledge. We never get too old to learn, we just become overwhelmed by the amount of things to keep in our heads if we don't have a method to manage it.
So, yes: I am excited about Zettelkasten, I have a lot of expectations on it and it is already growing on me as I started to notice its benefits.
Howdy, Stranger!
Comments
Welcome to the forum!! There is a lot of good information on the web site (Getting Started) and in the various posts on the forum. Feel free to ask questions and participate in discussions; some of them may seem a bit esoteric but there is so much practical advice here that you can browse for days.
Welcome!
It's amazing how quickly the benefits come. I saw the benefits very quickly after starting my ZK, and I've been hooked ever since.
Hello there nice people,
Since gvisoc begann this discussion, i'm gonna join him and avoid beginning a new discussion since it's about pretty much the same point.
I myself am new to Zettelkasten as well. I've stumbled over this very smart forum in an Internet search and i'm very happy to become a part of it.
Let me start by telling you my purpose, which i'm expecting from using ZK:
I have been always looking for a method in order to learn AND MEMORIZE new stuff. Whether being at work or trivia. I find it very unfortunate and sad, to read a book from its start to end, and not being able to activly recall some of the information you've learned from it. Same goes for my occupation as a cardiologist, you learn a lot of new stuff in every new stuff in every new congress or new published paper.
So my question for you people is:
Apart from using Anki or active-recall training, is ZK a good method for solving the problem of forgetting about new stuff ? If no, why, if yes, please Tell me how do you implement this in order to learn and keep new stuff.
Thanks!, and hello: I actually discovered the Forums thanks to one of your threads. I was looking for experiences on combining ZK and Logseq as I am also a Logseq user.
Thanks all!
@Ahmed what I do if I want to recall new information is to write by hand about it. Handwriting records the information deeper and better in my memory. So applied to ZK, I'd say that handwriting the Fleeting and Literature notes work best for me.
To later process them into Permanent notes within the ZK, I use Logseq.
If I need to reason about my ZK content to produce anything (new notes, or a longer form text) I mix both keyboard and handwriting, depending on how hard I find to produce whatever result I need. If I need to think deeper, I draw and write by hand.
Just handwriting the initial capture makes a lot of difference for me.
I'll add to the round of introductions.
I feel I could write several pages with thoughts and anecdotes about my good and bad experiences with different PKM systems, but I'll spare you - this time.
A while back I started thinking a lot about intentionality when it comes to both input and output. What I consume/read/listen to/view and what I try do with the time and energy I have at my disposal any given day. What is the point of writing things down or saving them if I have no plan of retreiving them later? And if I happen upon a note and don't understand why it's even there, what would be a minimal addition to any note to make it more clear for future me, when present me is creating it?
I then happened to take upon me a writing project related to educational material for my work and somehow ended up reading about Zettelkasten for writing, knowing I visited this page in the start of pandemic - reading most of the "Getting started" articles then but not quite getting it.
But now it finally clicked! What is it for me then? It's the intentionality of atleast trying to state things as distinct and more or less stand-alone pieces of information, and allowing the collection and production of knowledge and ideas to start from the middle, rather from the top. For this current writing project I already knew the main ideas that really must come across, but without ever thinking about the final outline I can add corollaries and my comments and insights related to them and I can work on exhausting all its related topics bit by bit.
I feel the same about this and started to think that it relates to the fact that I can pretty much write at thinkign speed without actually thinking (as weird as it sounds), whereas using a pen I must make a conscious effort to produce even readable letters on the papper, which slows down the process, which forces the thought to stay in the head a bit longer before leaving it... Have you thought about the "why"?
In my case I think (and that's an uneducated opinion of mine) that handwriting works because I used pen and paper to study, learn and think until I finished my University degree. I am just wired that way. I couldn't afford my own computer until I was in my mid-twenties, and the family computer was busy with family stuff. Pen and paper was my (only) mind bicycle.
An I don't think pen and paper is superior in any way, I think that younger folks that did the same with a keyboard will have the same success on a keyboard that I have with the pen. And however my 5 years old daughter learns, it will be the right way for her.
I would imagine that your brain learns to learn the way you learn --uneducated opinion again.