Pareto Principle tied to note-taking — stress testing an idea

Will

I am exposing my thinking to public scrutiny as a way of probing the universe, seeking wisdom, and improving my thoughts. Writing ideas in the form of notes is an essential act, and hugely impacts my thinking. For example, I spent the morning writing this little diatribe. In the process, my thinking improved, but I still have a long way to go. Knowledge emerges through continuous stress testing of ideas, mostly through writing.

★★★★★

In knowledge work, the Pareto Principle suggests that 20% of the activities contribute to 80% of the achievement, making it especially pertinent in knowledge management.

Initially, whether we are zealous explorers or hesitated, confused overthinkers, the one activity that provides the most value is the habit of routinely writing notes, which are proxies for our ideas. This habit is the foundation of intellectual work.

As journeyman knowledge workers, we tend to the minutia of the 80% of activities that contribute less, arguing the merits of this practice or that piece of software. Still, writing notes make up 20% of the activity, which contributes 80% to knowledge development. With deliberate practice, we clarify our thinking, and our writing improves.

A knowledge craftsman looks to balance activities. They realize that not every activity contributes equally to the goal of developing knowledge, and the craftsmen concentrate on letting go of low-performing practices and focusing their efforts on finding and leaning into the vital few that push the work forward. They develop the humble confidence to discard low-value practices. Writing continues to be a high-value activity. As our writing improves, it creates a feedback loop of improved writing, leading to clarified thinking to improved writing, and so the wheel turns.

References

• [[80-20 Pareto's Rule 201812311404]]
• [[Writing is thinking 202001021620]]
• Pareto principle - Wikipedia
• Power law - Wikipedia
• Jim Nielsen’s Notes
• Controversial thoughts on networked note-taking | Sean Voisen
• Our Mistaken Ideas About What Makes Us Happy - Zen Habits

GeoEng51

Just finished writing an article about happiness for my children (Storyworth journal) - there are a lot of parallels to the Zen Habits article, with which I mostly agree. Thanks for sharing.

andang76

mmm, I'm not fully convinced about the Pareto effect on notetaking and knowledge learning and development, at least according to my experience of Zettelkasten during these months.

I surely spend, sometimes, a lot of time only for refining details.

But if I had left the status of my notes only at the 20% of the whole effort, I would often get a very poor result, not the 80% of the result.
I often obtain the burst of the quality of the result a the end of the effort. Sometimes during a second processing, rethinking and rewriting on already done work.

Thinking about that, maybe because in my process I don't adopt a "greedy approach" (doing the best and the most at first, then refine), but almost the opposite, a more incremental approach (explore at first, then gradually improve). I could recognize even in my dynamic a "low performance phase" (the first), but I don't consider that a "less useful" phase that I can disregard.

andang76

@andang76 said:
mmm, I'm not fully convinced about the Pareto effect on notetaking and knowledge learning and development, at least according to my experience of Zettelkasten during these months.

I surely spend, sometimes, a lot of time only for refining details.

But if I had left the status of my notes only at the 20% of the whole effort, I would often get a very poor result, not the 80% of the result.
I often obtain the burst of the quality of the result a the end of the effort. Sometimes during a second processing, rethinking and rewriting on already done work.

Thinking about that, maybe because in my process I don't adopt a "greedy approach" (doing the best and the most at first, then refine), but almost the opposite, a more incremental approach (explore at first, then gradually improve). I could recognize even in my dynamic a "low performance phase" (the first), but I don't consider that a "less useful" phase that I can disregard.

In this personal reflection about the Pareto Principle applied to knowledge development I see the essence of Zettelkasten and the difference between a "thinking and knowledge development system" like Zettelkasten and a "knowledge representation system" like Wikipedia.

1) In the second I could find the Pareto principle theory. In the first I have, now, how meeting that theory has an impact on me.
2) It is enough to meet a proposed idea, randomly on a Saturday morning, to see fired a train of thought about a thing that two hours ago I didn't think to have.
This topic has fired in me three directions of thought to develop in my Zettelkasten (Pareto effect, difference between wiki and zettelkasten, point 2 in this post, related to serendipity)

Will

@andang76 said:

2) It is enough to meet a proposed idea, randomly on a Saturday morning, to see fired a train of thought about a thing that two hours ago I didn't think to have.
This topic has fired in me three directions of thought to develop in my Zettelkasten (Pareto effect, difference between wiki and zettelkasten, point 2 in this post, related to serendipity)

We randomly encounter interesting ideas, like the sudden scent of baking bread. When we do, they're exhilarating, like a joyous conversation with friends around the table. Yesterday and again today, I had the perfect opportunity to sharpen my writing skills. It seems like you will have a similar opportunity today.

andang76

@Will said:
It seems like you will have a similar opportunity today.

Yes. A very important thing that I've realized, I had these chances many months and years ago, too, but I was unable to caught them.

Zettelkasten has given me the power to caught them.

It happens, now, not only when I start with an explicit intent of apply zettelkasten to a source having my software already opened, when I have a goal, but even when I partecipate to a conversation in a forum like in this moment, without having that initial intent.
Zettelkasten has forged in me a different forma mentis when I read, view videos or talk with others online, it's not only having an effective method for making notes, it has a much broader impact.