Zettelkasten Forum


How can PARA and Zettelkasten workflow live together?

Hello All! :smile:
I'm reading Sonke Ahrens' book on zettelkasten. while on the surface level, PARA and zettelkasten seem compatible, when it comes to a level under, I don't know how to integrate them both. So Sonke is against hierarchical approach, especially by topic. However, When organizing Areas and Resources folder, the data can end up getting a hierarchical organization by topic. Do you know of anyways to harvest both of them without sacrificing too much?

Comments

  • What is PARA?

    I am a Zettler

  • @Sascha from my understanding PARA is an organization system/methodology. Here is an illustration on it . It is a popular knowledge management system currently, made by Forte Labs.

  • edited August 2020

    I have taken the BASB training and I have come to hate PARA with a passion.

    PARA ascribes "actionability" to notes, which jibes extremely badly with the GTD methodology but also any kind of creative pursuit, where, by definition, anything can become fuel to anything. It also prescribes a flat system where you mix everything, which prevents any kind of focus (you're working on a book, say – an Area – and have materials for maintaining your car in your face at the same time), while putting notes into airtight silos (directories) which makes them harder to serve several purposes (the way tags do).

    PARA is great for putting out shallow content skimmed from the Net and quick readings, it makes for impressive demonstration videos where you cob an article together that makes you look smart, but to me it's contrary to the thoughtful reflexion the Zettelkasten promotes.

    A somewhat less ranty take here.

    "A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it." - Ernest Hemingway

    Zettelkasten: Bear + DEVONthink, GTD: OmniFocus, production: Scrivener / Ableton Live.

  • @Nick said:
    @Sascha from my understanding PARA is an organization system/methodology. Here is an illustration on it . It is a popular knowledge management system currently, made by Forte Labs.

    Thanks. :kissing:

    I am a Zettler

  • @amirography, here is a discussion from 2017 that may help if you haven't seen it already:

    An Introduction of Tiago Forte, His Ideas, and Some Comments on Their Relations to Zettelkasten

    Maybe post a comment in that discussion and maybe some those users will get notified and reply to you.

  • @Nick said:
    @Sascha from my understanding PARA is an organization system/methodology. Here is an illustration on it . It is a popular knowledge management system currently, made by Forte Labs.

    The illustrations look awesome, but I didn't understand them alone. Too bad they didn't include at least the most basic prose about them, it would've been great to follow them.

  • @Splattack said:

    @Nick said:
    @Sascha from my understanding PARA is an organization system/methodology. Here is an illustration on it . It is a popular knowledge management system currently, made by Forte Labs.

    The illustrations look awesome, but I didn't understand them alone. Too bad they didn't include at least the most basic prose about them, it would've been great to follow them.

    This is normal. Such illustrations are for marketing purposes and not for actual teaching.

    I am a Zettler

  • edited August 2020

    @Sascha @Splattack at the end of the illustration, she says "To be clear there's no affiliate as or kickback involved in these notes. I'm not being paid to say nice things about the course."

    I also haven't read them, I just have them bookmarked and know people like the illustrations. Personally I'd prefer a wiki with a concise explanation. Not that illustrations are useless. I really like the work of Larry Gonick for example.

    The question of efficacy surrounding "learning illustrations" and "note taking methodologies" I find fascinating. I tend to be very skeptical of them in general, as there is a lot of bullshit in areas of knowledge that aren't well defined and widely discussed. I do see the irony of saying this on a zettelkasten forum, while I'm attempting to create my own zettelkasten starter guides.

  • Consider a flat P.A.R.A: https://forum.obsidian.md/t/example-workflows-in-obsidian/1093

    I think the main gist is that instead of using folders, just use structure notes to map to your projects, areas, resources, and archive (or w/e variant you would have), and you can make structure notes to represent what would be your subfolders.

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