What are the important Topics in the Periphery of the Zettelkasten Method

Sascha

Hi Zettlers,

in case you missed it:

I will demonstrate by publishing articles what the outcome could be if you use your Zettelkasten to produce essays. I will be transparent about the framework conditions (time invested, structure of the day since I will have a newborn depriving me of sleep an neural drive). There will be some commentary about the how but my focus will be on the demonstration and not the didactics. However, since I will focus on both the truth and usefulness leafs of the knowledge flower and I publish content that is about the Zettelkasten Method there is immediate value to the Zettelkasten Community (hopefully). So, I feel I can skip most of the meta-communication for that project without losing the message. (I expect some people to be surprised what can be achieved with a good method.)
I will have to setup something to deal with the translating part since this is a peripheral problem similar to the problem of making time or getting enough sleep even though both are major factors that influence the productivity. But I try my best to isolate the influence the method in this n=1.
There will be a phase in which I will repeat this process in German (my mother language). I hope to remember to write an article on this for the Zettelkasten Community.

In preparation, I accumulate both sources and possible topics.

To spice things up, I am asking myself, and right now you, what topics (and sources should be processed for that topic) could be interesting to the community but are not just about the Zettelkasten Method. I'll give you an example to clarify:

The Nootropic Day. I am distilling all my coaching on how to optimise a day for mental capacity. (what to eat and why, natural nootropics like light, exercise regimes that improve executive function and neural drive etc.) This will be extended to The Nootropic Life as complete template for people who wish to treat their mental work like an athlete (see the importance of aerobic fitness for high-level chess as a reference)

Some article ideas from my archive that are more connected to the Zettelkaten Method than the Nootropic Day:

• How the Zettelkasten scales to infinite notes (please, don't snipe me @ZettelDistraction )
• Why you can have your Taskmanagement in your Zettelkasten (and why it not desired)
• 5 Examples of link contexts with commentary
• Why the Introduction includes the ID but not the note title as part of the anatomy of a note.
• Zettelkasten Method for Fiction - Commiting the Collector's Fallacy productively

This is brainstorming. So feel free to dumb everything you like in this thread. I will collect everything in my archive.

This is partly inspired by the article A Detailed Characterization of the Expert Problem-Solving Process in Science and Engineering: Guidance for Teaching and Assessment. So, thanks to these authors.

Many thanks for any answer. Greatly appreciated.
-- Sascha

Will

I did miss it.

I will have a newborn depriving me of sleep and neural drive.

Is this true, Sascha? Congratulations.

ZettelDistraction

@Sascha said:
Hi Zettlers,

...

• How the Zettelkasten scales to infinite notes (please, don't snipe me @ZettelDistraction )

...

Perhaps you need ordinal notations or large cardinal axioms to ensure that you have sufficiently many IDs for your Zettelkasten. I'm not going to discourage the use of Folgezettel and timestamps of higher type, not to mention structure notes with infinitely many links...I hope there is storage enough on the forum for examples and that they don' t run up the cost of hosting the site...

Sascha

@Will Yes, this is true. It will be a daughter named Valeria (if you know the first Conan Movie you'll get my goals for her upbringing).

@ZettelDistraction At least, I just got away with a shotgun-type flesh wound.

Carriolan

Here you go..... in the interests of being dumb: Zettelkasten and the impact of entropy.

EDIT: A little too cryptic me thinks....
Any highly ordered system requires energy to maintain it, otherwise it will become disordered over time. Take Luhmann's index, which was alphabetical. It was becoming increasingly 'messy'.

Edit 2: Oops! Congrats @Sascha

ZettelDistraction

@Sascha said:
@Will Yes, this is true. It will be a daughter named Valeria (if you know the first Conan Movie you'll get my goals for her upbringing).

Congratulations!

GeoEng51

@Sascha Definitely - congratulations! Although we should give credit to your significant other, who will be doing all the heavy lifting for the next while

Sascha

Thanks guys.

@Carriolan Noted.

Mike_Sanders

Sascha, though I don't know you, allow me to offer up congratulations for your blessing of a child.

Nick

Some peripheral topics that I think are interesting:

• Being creative using the zettelkasten (e.g. generating ideas, finding useful connections)
• Distilling information for what is most valuable
• What we can learn by comparing the Zettelkasten to other areas that deal with knowledge manipulation (e.g. cognition, learning, neuroscience)
• Articles on the first principles of the zettelkasten and looking at the structure of knowledge work itself

I hope some of those made sense.

On the topic of the baby, my mother kept a weekly/biweekly diary for about my first 5 years of funny things that happened in my early life and anything that is notable. Only a short paragraph per entry. But I found it beautiful to discover in my mid 20s and look at. Would be interesting to do something similar in the zettelkasten (congratulations btw )

Sascha

@Nick said:
Some peripheral topics that I think are interesting:

• Being creative using the zettelkasten (e.g. generating ideas, finding useful connections)
• Distilling information for what is most valuable
• What we can learn by comparing the Zettelkasten to other areas that deal with knowledge manipulation (e.g. cognition, learning, neuroscience)
• Articles on the first principles of the zettelkasten and looking at the structure of knowledge work itself

I hope some of those made sense.

All of them make sense. But can you write a sentence or two about each item, so I can have some confidence in getting you? I'll be the oasis in the service desert of Zettelkasten.

On the topic of the baby, my mother kept a weekly/biweekly diary for about my first 5 years of funny things that happened in my early life and anything that is notable. Only a short paragraph per entry. But I found it beautiful to discover in my mid 20s and look at. Would be interesting to do something similar in the zettelkasten (congratulations btw )

I'll forward this to the CEO (my wife).

That reminds me that I need to prepare a post on the annotated diary.

Sascha

Ramping up the quantity in the beginning for this project.