[Online Course] Updates and Teasers

Sascha

To my estimation I finished 65--70% of the first rough draft of the script. Christian is racing behind me with filling the script with short clips, slides and more.

At this moment it is ~3:54h of me purely talking (the exercises and practices are not included in this time) This number is inflated because Christians comments of the unedited parts of the script are included.

Sascha

I have only one complex modul to script. It is about Structure Zettel:

To wrap the nature of Structure Zettel up: A Structure Zettel is a Meta-Zettel. Its content is the content of your Zettelkasten. If you create Structure Zettel about Structure Zettel you create a Meta-Layer in your Zettelkasten that gives your unordered hypertext hierarchical order that you can work with.

orderinthecourts

Will there be a comparison between structure zettels and what Daniel Luedecke calls folge? At a glance, it seems a structure zettel and a folge are the same thing, implemented differently.

I will patiently (or maybe not so patiently) wait for the course

Sascha

@orderinthecourts said:
Will there be a comparison between structure zettels and what Daniel Luedecke calls folge? At a glance, it seems a structure zettel and a folge are the same thing, implemented differently.

I think I can include it. But it is not called by Daniel as. It's what Luhmann did.

But you are almost right. Sequence is a principle that can be implemented by various techniques. Folgezettel is one of them and the structure zettel another.

I will patiently (or maybe not so patiently) wait for the course

We are working 6--7 days/week on this course (sunday is off sometimes of because girlfriends think it would be nice to be not working sometimes..). It will happen soon.

Sascha

Progress

• The script for the structure notes is rough-drafted.
• Only one medium complex script left: Complexity of your Zettelkasten (how ironic..)
• After that only a handfull scripts that are quite easy (for me to write). Then I'll start the first edit run.
• Progress is about 80% but estimation is uncertain because of proximity to the end.

Evidence for correct formulation of the Zettelkasten Method

Now, let’s take a step back to the model of knowledge work as the continued differentiation between structure and content of knowledge work. The similarity is striking, isn’t it? The Zettelkasten treats itself as a body of knowledge -- or, as I like to call it, with respect. The Zettelkasten Method leads to the continued differentiation between structure and content by relating Zettel to each other. A Zettel can be Structure Zettel to one set of Zettel but be content to another.

Practically, this is not super relevant. But it is evidence that the Zettelkasten Method is formulated correctly as a super theory. A super theory is a theory that refers to everything and therefore includes even itself as a point of reference.¹ The Zettelkasten Method is, indeed, the practical manifestation of a general theory of knowledge.

Comment

For those who weren't aware: The design of the Zettelkasten Method is being a actionable but still acurate theory of knowledge. The mapping is like the following:

Theory of Knowledge (arguments, models, theory, thruth, justification etc) -> Knowlege Work -> Zettelkasten Method

The claim for the Zettelkasten Method is not to be just another system for knowledge work but to be a correct actionable map of knowledge and knowlege work.

In my own Zettelkasten, I have three seperate but interconnected departments for knowledge, knowledge work and the Zettelkasten Method. The reason is to have truly seperate theories that so I can work on the internal coherence of them without being compromised of wanting to make them fit to the other two.

---

1. Niklas Luhmann (1984): Soziale Systeme, Frankfurt/M: Suhrkamp, S.19. ↩︎

Sascha

Complexity of the Zettelkasten

I mentioned sometimes that a Zettelkasten will not only grow in size or number of Zettel but in complexity. But now, I will expand on what that really means.

The archive will build up its own complexity that will one day exceed the capacity of your understanding. It's absurd to think that one can keep up with this kind of complexity. The better approach is how to handle this overwhelmingly complexity with ease.

Let’s ask us first on what complexity is.

Complexity

A system is complex when not every part of it can be connected to every other part of the system.(Luhmann1997, 137)(Luhmann1984, 46)

This sounds complicated but surpringly is -- in the context of the Zettelkasten -- a quite practical definition that can guide the correct handling of complex Zettelkastens. The level distinctions are marked by the rational choice of action when you enter a new Zettel. Let’s see what that means.

Sascha

Update: The first rough draft is ready.

Now, I'll create some of the additional material. Then I the first editing cycle will be on my schedule.

Sascha

Wrote the first exercise. Text: Luhmann -- Learning How to Read

http://luhmann.surge.sh/learning-how-to-read

Sascha

First cycle of editing: Edited the first third. Now, I am backing off, because Christian needs to review first and is creating slides which is a more time-consuming process.

On Reading

This is, by the way, the reason so many people won’t make much of their reading practice. They read only. Reading in itself is pretty shallow processing. I repeat: reading on its own is very shallow processing. I will digress for a minute because that is a very important point to make for all of us.