What are you grappling with in your ZK? - May 9, 2023

Will

How has your week been? What are your plans for the coming week? Tell us about the state of your zettelkasting journey.

I'll start.

I finally released my project that extends The Archive, showing an "Idea Explorer" on demand for every note. This can be thought of as a way to look at "note sequences." Sequences that develop an idea. I'm looking for collaborators to develop this idea further. Idea Explorer - an extension exclusively for The Archive.

This past week I've had the opportunity to practice and work on my technique for onboarding videos into my ZK. Speed and timing are critical—speed in taking notes and timing in reviewing the event. I feel I've gained a little success making a rough, rough draft during the presentation, then immediately after, as part of the process of watching a video, I expand my notes as I would if they were highlights from an article. Having a few minutes of uninterrupted time immediately after the video presentation to fill in my thoughts on my note is critical.

I'm looking to do more of this. I get excited when I onboard live streams or Zoom events more than videos where I can start, stop, and replay the action. They feel more dynamic, and they spark my juices.

Maybe I should try sketch-noting. It just feels like my skills at sketching are so poor that I'd miss stuff with the fast pace of a live presentation. Maybe this would be best reserved for youtube videos.

My ten day zettel production

ZettelDistraction

In a previous installment of "What are you grappling with?" (WAYGW), I mentioned changing my IDs to match this regex: ((\w{1,4}\.){2,}\d\w{3}). This left me with numerous broken links, which are now fixed, thanks to some back-and-forth between Zettlr and an Obsidian plugin.

The James Web Space Telescope photographed this graph view of my ZK:

OK, it's a screenshot of a graph view in Obsidian. The entire graph won't fit on the screen. The Obsidian plugin file-explorer-markdown-headers worked until the current version of Obsidian, version 1.2.8. The plugin once displayed the first H1 header of a Markdown file in the file explorer, which is what Zettlr will show, if configured, in the Zettlr files pane.

I'm still using Zettlr, whose developer has the good sense to avoid moving fast and breaking things like a bull in a china shop.

The Internet misquotes the former Chairman of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union: "You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs." Since the tycoons of Silicon Valley--architects of command economies--pride themselves on moving fast and breaking things, the misattribution is justified.