Make Useful Notes

Will

Our friend on the forum, @Edmund, is a sketchnoting junkie and has written a book describing zettelkasting and how to extend ideas from verbal to visual. He's hooked me. Here is my novice stab at turning a zettel into a sketchnote. Meta all the way down.

Suggestions welcome. Play the role of a "Brutally Honest Critic."

Sascha

I'd start by drastically increasing font size. Right now, I feel as if I am flying waaay above the ground and rather see rough shapes and not details.

Then each group should get a signifier: An icon or a big fat heading (or label).

Visual notes are awesome when you can get a sense of the whole.

Will

@Sascha, I'll work on the icons. That was a great suggestion. Here is a PNG, which is the largest allowed on the forums, I think. However, I've also included a link to the PDF that can be opened and zoomed in. The fonts are the largest the application I'm using (Simplemind) will produce.

Sascha

The next iteration would be to ask yourself how to create coherence. Right now, there are groups of items around a certain topic. That is one cognitive action: Grouping.

So, now you can enrich this visualisation with more meaning. So, each position of the grouping should be meaningful. The foundation or the principles could be either at the bottom or at the top. Each gives your visualisation a specific flavour.

Will

Thanks again. Your critique has improved my understanding.

Thinking and practicing more convinces me that there is a difference in presentation between a mindmap and a sketchnote. This example is trying to be a Frankenstein of a hybrid digital sketchnote.

One of the foundational practices of zettelkasting is incrementally working our way to understanding. The value in improving this note comes from a growing understanding of visually representing ideas.

This iteration attempts to add cohesion by connecting all the elements in a way that leads from the initial start to the maintenance of a ZK. I removed clutter and rearranged the groups to display better how to approach making useful notes.

Here is the v0.3 PDF.

Sascha

Now, there is some positioning being done. However, as an outsider, I wouldn't see that the principles would act as the foundation. You are using meaningless grouping devices like boxes and clouds.

Move beyond that and actually make the principles the foundation of the structure your are building here.

Will

Move beyond that and actually make the principles the foundation of the structure you are building here.

Thank you, Sascha. This is not only great advice for improving this digital sketchnote but also great advice on life.

I want to correct my negligence by providing a link to the book that is the source of this exercise.
https://github.com/groepl/Take-Useful-Notes/blob/main/Assets/make_useful_notes_v0-18-0_2023-07-24.pdf

Here is a link to v0.4 PDF

To clarify, this is a sketchnote made from a note I made while processing a book written by @Edmond. These are my takeaways. This is not original material. I'm starting to feel like I'm drifting from the way the material was presented in the book. I'm not drafting my own book. Am I wrong to think that sketchnoting is a way of capturing ideas present in a talk, video, or book rather than documenting what should have been presented?

Edmund

Thank you @Will. Your Literature Map is a wonderful and amazing feedback. For me it is the first time to have the chance to compare my own map I used to create the outline of my book with the map you offered me as your feedback from analytical reading (see Mortimer Adler). And I‘m shure I‘ll find a difference.

May I ask a question? Do you find existing notes in your Zettelkasten which you would link with some new „key terms“ you‘ve found in the book?

Will

Do you find existing notes in your Zettelkasten which you would link with some new „key terms“ you‘ve found in the book?

Yes. I found interesting terms and ideas. I'm not the target audience for the content of this book. I was interested in it because my friend wrote it. It is an example of sketching to a writing format, and it was an excellent subject for my attempt at making a sketchnote representing the ideas in the book—Sascha’s "honest critique" has been super instructional.

1. Number 10 of the Zettelkasten Priniples - Colloberation [p.63]

• Expert Problem Solving 202210271458
• Thinking Effectively 202008291656
• Self Binding Benefits Cooperation 202210052008

2. Get Feeback [p.96] This is so important. It's why I stay here.

• How to Keep Getting Better at Stuff 202405270952

3. I didn’t get this keyword from your book, but hearing and thinking about the idea intersected with reading about tags for search. [p.113] Object-oriented

• Create Object-Oriented Notes with Tags 202411190856

4. I liked the iterative process description on p.118, describing refactoring sketches.

5. I had never heard of Empirical Process Control.

6. I loved Eva-Lotta Lamm's video.