How To Build Your Zettelkasten to Master AI • Zettelkasten Method

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How To Build Your Zettelkasten to Master AI • Zettelkasten Method

Those who don’t learn to use AI, won't be able to keep pace with those who do. I strongly hold the belief that the same is true for the Zettelkasten Method.

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Andy

@Sascha asked:

This article has two parts: 1. A plain description on how to use your Zettelkasten to work on AI prompts. 2. A reason why AI can’t write anything for this page. I combined both parts deliberately. AI has a specific relationship to our zettelkastens. I am seeing a pattern, but can’t put my finger on it yet.

A suggestion about the general relationship: Here you have two kinds of creativity: human and artificial.

1. Nicolas Cole's video is about taking advantage of an attribute that is unique to AI creativity: superhuman speed. In situations like the one Cole demonstrates, that speed can give you an advantage in achieving the specified goal. Your point 1 is about using a Zettelkasten to prepare to take advantage of that speed attribute of AI information retrieval and creativity.
2. On the other hand, there are attributes that are unique to human creativity: the authentic voice, point of view, and individual intention of a living person. In a blog post with your name on it, your regular readers expect those attributes. You said that AI "won't come up with evidence layering or organising your reading with your zettelkasten in mind." I think that AI could generate similar concepts if it was trained on similar concepts that are in the literature. But the result would not be the same as something authentically generated by your mind. That is why Nicolas Cole in his video said that ghostwriters would probably have to tweak the pitch suggestions generated by AI: to make them sound authentic. You have to at least collaborate with AI to write your blog post, and not leave all the work to AI, because your regular readers can perceive when your authentic voice and point of view is not present. As I see it, your point 2 is about these attributes of human creativity that must be present in a blog post that you claim to have written.

Sascha

I agree with what you are saying, though I feel that it doesn't go in the direction of what I am seeking. However, your post sparked two ideas.

1. AI offers superhuman speed for pure combinatory creativity. You can mix and collide everything and anything. AI will give you whatever the probabilistic calculation will elicit packaged in a readable format. My favourite prompt is "Give me the existential weight for X and make it deep." You will get something as deep as a 16 year old drunk guy can come up with to impress a girl on a party, having skimmed a couple dozen philosophy TikToks.
2. Since AI (LLMs) is a big probabilistic calculator, it is actually strange that the quality of output is that high. It reminds me that there is no math in nature, yet math seems to be the language of nature. The probabilistic substance seems to be at the foundation that AI is somewhere in the uncanny valley.

Andy

@Sascha said:

My favourite prompt is "Give me the existential weight for X and make it deep." You will get something as deep as a 16 year old drunk guy can come up with to impress a girl on a party, having skimmed a couple dozen philosophy TikToks.

"Garbage in, garbage out"? You could get a similar result with a Zettelkasten, if you wanted, I guess...

Andy

@Andy said:

@Sascha said:

My favourite prompt is "Give me the existential weight for X and make it deep." You will get something as deep as a 16 year old drunk guy can come up with to impress a girl on a party, having skimmed a couple dozen philosophy TikToks.

"Garbage in, garbage out"? You could get a similar result with a Zettelkasten, if you wanted, I guess...

Over time, a Zettelkasten, and the creative products created with it, should reflect the personal growth of the person using it. I like the posts of the 2025 version of @Sascha much, much more than the 2015 version of Sascha, who, in my view, was closer to that 16-year-old drunk guy. A part of the authenticity of your blog and forum posts is that we can see the growth of your wisdom over time, which is not just attributable to the growth of information in your Zettelkasten, but is also due to your life experiences and reflective practice.

andang76

I think using of AI is a new version of "collector's fallacy" we have tried to fight in this forum.
A new falling into the trap of shallow processing because we think we must process a lot and we don't have enough time to do it.

I'm using ChatGPT for something, but for a very limited scope. For example when I am blocked by a blank page syndrome, or when I need a fast response from a search engine (for example, "What is the book with this ISBN about in brief?" "what is the difference between Agentic AI and Conversational AI"?
I'm trying to scope use of AI to low value thinking tasks. The other tasks are valuable if they engage my brain, not if they provide an output.

ctietze

@andang76 said:
I think using of AI is a new version of "collector's fallacy" we have tried to fight in this forum.
A new falling into the trap of shallow processing because we think we must process a lot and we don't have enough time to do it.

Fair warning. We will actually also get exactly that. I recall having read someone describe their workflow as shoveling URLs through their LLM assistant to generate notes. Not in Zettelkasten context, but personal knowledge management nevertheless. The temptation to summarize 20 open Firefox tabs is just like the temptation to shovel them into Evernote "for later". Might as well save the energy and water for something worthwhile.

Sascha

@Andy said:
@Sascha said:

My favourite prompt is "Give me the existential weight for X and make it deep." You will get something as deep as a 16 year old drunk guy can come up with to impress a girl on a party, having skimmed a couple dozen philosophy TikToks.

"Garbage in, garbage out"? You could get a similar result with a Zettelkasten, if you wanted, I guess...

Yes, but why is that garbage? I don't think that I could manage to abuse my Zettelkasten for this, because I can't abuse myself. After all, I will be the one who is doing the processing.

@Andy said:
I like the posts of the 2025 version of @Sascha much, much more than the 2015 version of Sascha, who, in my view, was closer to that 16-year-old drunk guy.

Very true.

@andang76 You are highlighting the problem that the key metrics of knowledge work are not in place. The key metrics are internal: Created or recreated ideas and their quality. (~creation and learning) Using AI to bypass both creation and learning means to defy the very purpose of knowledge work.