Zettelkasten Method Book (ENG) - Sample Notes in Appendix?
Dear Zettlers,
I am currently editing a section on the zettelkasten as an integrated thinking environment. I want to provide practical examples. This is the current section:
Mind-Material-Loop: As you improve your thinking, you will be able to improve the quality of both your external sources and your own ideas. With better raw material for your work, you will get better results. Example: It took a while for me to understand the unbelievable quality of the Catholic Catechism as a source for my work on metaphysics. For a long time, I ignored this source as "theological". But concepts like "essence" and "quality" belong in same realness category like "egotism" and "self", if we consider the epistemological gap Kant addressed.
The ratio between the description of the mind-material-loop (teaser: one of four loops) and the example is already a bit off. However, I have the intuition that I want to give the real example from my work in the form of an actual application. In that case, it is a note on how the difference between cardinal and lesser sin can teach us about the problem of egotism, independent of your faith.
I am not sure how to phrase the justification for that. Roughly: I want to connect the theory on the Zettelkasten Method not only with higher level examples, but also with the actual raw work of mine.
What do you think?
Live long and prosper
Sascha
I am a Zettler
Howdy, Stranger!
Comments
I am not sure what you are meaning by this.
But for this example, since it is a loop you are demonstrating, I'd myself draw it out @Edmund style, where the numbers below would be a point on the loop.
Not a huge fan of the example you provided, as I am not well-versed in catholic metaphysics, so I just look at it and blink my eyes in confusion. Examples of yours I have related to the most so far have been exercising/dog training ones.
This is exactly the idea.
(I didn't draw the illustrations yet, so I didn't have any to share)
I think you spotted one of my fallacies. Instead of meeting the reader with examples within their experience, I tend to try to impress the reader by the breadth and depth of the knowledge I was blessed by the long-term zettelkasten practice of mine. Ironically, my current toilette literature "Rules for Radicals" by Saul Alinsky, he emphasises the importance of communicating within the experience of others to not sound like a lunatic idiot.
To me, this insight was mindblowing and sifting through the catechism was an unearthly experience, being able to utilise thousands of years of wisdom without the need to buy into the doctrine of the church. (this is inspired by some sufi teachings that you should develop the ability to digest any source productively)
Even now trying to write a short "thank you and I will change that"-reply carries me away. I think this is what I try (and fail above) to achieve: Sharing what happens if you commit to deep knowledge work, with your zettelkasten, of course.
Many thanks for the feedback. I will dial back my lunacy!
I am a Zettler
@Sascha said:
I recently came to (what may be) a similar realization about some ideas in Aquinas: Although I would hate to go back to a medieval world in which his writings were considered to be orthodoxy and the pinnacle of human achievement, and I will never be as enthusiastic about Aquinas as the Thomists are, I can appreciate some interesting ideas in his works if I take them with a cosmopolitan attitude instead of a Christian orthodox attitude.
Of course, as has been pointed out, such topics are far too esoteric to serve as "practical examples" for a general audience.