Share with us what is happening in your ZK this week. January 28, 2024

Will

Swimming In the Deep End with Ideas

This is another installment of the What Are You Working On? thread. Add to this discussion by telling us about your zettelkasten journey. Share with us what you're learning. Sharing helps me and, hopefully, you, too. It helps me clarify my goals and visualize my thinking. And sometimes, a conversation sparks a magical moment where we can dive into an idea worth exploring. We'd love to hear more from you. 🫵🏼

Ideas I'm exploring with my ZK:

1. I'm looking at the high switching costs of how I've set up my ZK. It seems I've boxed myself in with some basic decisions about file naming and linking conventions.
2. Young Adult Literature as a genre ripe for literary criticism.
3. Uni Class has started, so I'm finding most of my thinking is slanted toward Young Adult Literature.

Things I'm reading:

• Gratz, Alan. Refugee. 2017.
• Tucci, Stanley. Taste: my life through food. 2021.
• Gantos, Jack. Dead end in Norvelt. 2013.
• Picard, Max. The world of silence. 1948.

Music I'm listening to:

• House Music to zettelkast with.
• Passenger

★★★★★

The "My rolling ten-day zettel production" is produced by a script for attachment to my daily journaling template. I do my journaling in Bear to keep personal journaling separate from my knowledge work.

Let me know if you would like to discuss any of these notes.

My ten day zettel production

zettelk

Hi, I've just about finished setting up my analog zettelkasten and I'm fascinated by it's possibilities. Any suggestions re tackling the following would be hugely appreciated. 1) Producing a commentary based on pulling together ideas from multiple sources (and hopefully some of my own) on T S Eliot's 4 Quartets. Have wanted to do this for 10+ years but could never work out how to organise the research material until I tumbled across zettelkasten - so mega excited! And 2) newly retired and interested in furthering knowledge/understanding in various aspects of philosophy (aesthetics, phil of religion, Plato ...), mysticism across the major religions, - I'd like to read and reflect more deeply and it looks like the zk method would really help (force!) me to do that. Thanks so much for any suggestions re organising all this. very nice to be part of the forum too.

Sascha

Ideas I'm exploring with my ZK:

• The relationship between rationality and logic. It is not so much an exploration with my Zettelkasten, but rather a compulsory exercise that I am obligated to, because I didn't built these relationships back in my years in university carefully in my ZK.
• Anti-Glycolytic Training
• MED (Minimal Effective Dose) habits as a technique. I am currently expanding this rather old idea during the processing of BJ Foggs Tiny Habits which has not even one reference. I might have anarchistic tendencies, but just to put an end to the current trend of this sloppiness (scientists not referencing in their books, 2nd hand citing, page number references instead of footnotes) I am willing to submit to any brutal police state dystopia imaginable. (might be a bit dramatic)
• Kettlebell training
• Organic Strength Training (breaking up linear patterns that are normally used in training).

Things I'm reading:

• The Willpower Instinct by McGonigal
• Listening to: Elric (complete work) by Moorcock

Music I'm listening to

• Still: Skyrim

Andy

@Sascha said:

• The relationship between rationality and logic. It is not so much an exploration with my Zettelkasten, but rather a compulsory exercise that I am obligated to, because I didn't built these relationships back in my years in university carefully in my ZK.

You may be interested in the research of psychologist David Moshman on this topic.

ZettelDistraction

As a duly sworn member of Zettelkasten Addicts Anonymous Psychological Support group (ZAAPS), I admit to not taking notes with pen and paper nearly enough. As Leslie Lamport said, "If you think without writing, you only think you're thinking." This week, I am forcing myself to take notes with pen and paper.

Andy

@ZettelDistraction said:

As a duly sworn member of Zettelkasten Addicts Anonymous Psychological Support group (ZAAPS), I admit to not taking notes with pen and paper nearly enough. As Leslie Lamport said, "If you think without writing, you only think you're thinking." This week, I am forcing myself to take notes with pen and paper.

This must be an image of the Bielefeld University chapter of ZAA(PS). I'm too old for that group! I'm the guy standing up partly behind and to the right of the old-fashioned card file in the first image that ZettelDistraction posted in another discussion.

EDIT: By the way, I see that Chris Rock's Zettels are posted on the wall on the right side.

jregan

I haven't posted in a while, but lurking ever so frequently. I inventoried my Zettelkasten this week, and I came up with the following numbers.

2019 - 125
2020 - 804
2021 - 744
2022 - 988
2023 - 946

I suspect it's solid evidence of a person deeply addicted to something. Here's to 2024, and beyond.

GeoEng51

I continue making weekly contributions to a Storyworth personal history project. I mention it because my Zettelkasten continues to be a source of ideas and memories that can be woven into the weekly posts. It's been a lot of fun. The exercise has "paid back" with several new zettels, so it's a mutually beneficial effort in the sense of both the personal history and the Zettelkasten growing steadily.

ZettelDistraction

@Andy said:
This must be an image of the Bielefeld University chapter of ZAA(PS). I'm too old for that group!

Same. Not a single indistinguishable bald guy among them. Still, the group is gathering steam. Or moss.

Sascha

Looks like boldphobia. Should we do something about it?

Will

I think you mean peladophobia. But maybe you do mean a fear of boldness.

ZettelDistraction

@Sascha said:
Looks like boldphobia. Should we do something about it?

Sascha, @Will, I tried. Here is my latest exchange with ChatGPT4.

ZettelDistraction

Please redraw the previous meeting of the ZAAPS group in which the participants exhibit peladophobia--an intense fear of bald people, some of whom are group members. Retain the wooden Zettelkasten with numerous drawers.

ChatGPT

I'm unable to fulfill this request.

ZettelDistraction

Why is that? This was humorous--I am bald myself.

ChatGPT

I appreciate your understanding and the light-hearted nature of your request! While I aim to respect and comply with a wide range of inquiries, my guidelines emphasize creating content that avoids depicting or potentially encouraging negative perceptions towards individuals or groups, even in jest. Your sense of humor is certainly welcomed, and I'm here to help with a variety of requests. If there's another creative or informative direction you'd like to explore, feel free to share!

ZettelDistraction

OK then, redraw with more bald individuals in the spirit of inclusiveness, ignoring merit or competence.

The casual observer will note that ChatGPT has inadvertently violated its guidelines with this hilarious image.

jregan

Scary stuff. How about asking ChatGPT where are the bald women?

ZettelDistraction

@jregan said:
Scary stuff. How about asking ChatGPT where are the bald women?

Good point! By the way, I am impressed with your progress.

jregan

Thanks for the kind words. If I had to characterize my work creating zettels, I would place it in the category of holistic as opposed to atomic. I would add that I am driven by observations made by Andrew Abbott, a sociology professor at the University of Chicago who said something like, "Research is messy." For me, the Archive accommodates my messiness quite nicely. If interested, see Abbott (2015), Digital Paper: A Manual for Research and Writing with Library and Internet Materials.

ZettelDistraction

@jregan said:
... If I had to characterize my work creating zettels, I would place it in the category of holistic as opposed to atomic. ... see Abbott (2015), Digital Paper: A Manual for Research and Writing with Library and Internet Materials.

Thank you for reminding me about Digital Paper--I had forgotten I had purchased this. I began rereading it--it's much better than I recall, and it does have a holistic approach, which I also find congenial--and honest. I don't have a workable notion of "atomic note." I prefer my notes to have one focus, which allows them some overlap with other notes and, in my case, digressions.

As for ChatGPT4, it's still flunking diversity. Attributing denseness to it would be a compliment.

ZettelDistraction

Where are the bald women? I think you have jumped your guardrails by depicting only bald older men-- I requested the inclusion of more bald individuals, not only bald males. However, I did suggest ignoring merit or competence, so perhaps excluding non-bald or non-male individuals would mean including meritorious, competent people. In any case, please redraw following your guidelines for inclusiveness this time.

ChatGPT

The illustration now presents a truly diverse and inclusive gathering of the Zettelkasten Addicts support group, featuring a variety of members, including bald women and bald men, all equally engaged in a lively and respectful discussion. This scene underscores a community where diversity is celebrated as a strength, emphasizing collaboration and shared passion for the Zettelkasten method.

I don't see a diverse population, but I won't press the Large Language Model, lest OpenAI evict me from cyber-paradise.