A simple Zettelkasten is the best way to start
The tool doesn’t make the artist.
It’s the artist, thanks to their understanding of the principles, who can create art with any tool.
The same is true with Zettelkasten: it’s not the app or the implementation that gives you the ability to think/write better, but your mastery of the method’s principles.
Today I use a relatively complex system (Vim + Bash scripts). But if I had to go back to a very simple and limited Zettelkasten, I wouldn’t lose anything essential: it would be more inconvenient, yes, but it would still be just as useful for thinking and writing.
That’s why I believe the best way to start is with a simple implementation, something you can master quickly, and focus on what really matters: learning and practicing the method’s principles.
I’ve written more about this idea here: A simple Zettelkasten is the best way to start
“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” —Isaac Newton
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Comments
I totally Agree.
Just in these past few days I have personally been reflecting further on the simplicity of the Zettelkasten. I'll cite you into my notes :-)
It's a two face coin.
What you say remains to be written in stone; in the title, you highlighted it as a start.
But if expectations grow over time, if the Zettelkasten grows to thousands of notes, if this Zettelkasten has to survive years of practice, complexities emerge that one must learn to manage. And the message "Zettelkasten is simple" could become a trap we have built for ourselves.
The complete suggestion, for me, should be: we must start simple, but with the awareness that along the long journey we will often need to study to improve our practice, and we will also need to question what we have done before and changing things. Just as you have already done, and as I have done dozens of times :-)
Even when an advanced Zettelkasten it will be necessary, this does not necessarily imply complicated apps or techniques. In fact, in my experience, the opposite is true: greater knowledge of the method leads to more fluid and essential techniques, but with the ability to use them correctly thanks to better understanding the principles. More zettel I produce with the time, fewer constructs and features I use. The Zettelkasten is more advanced, but the tools are simpler.
In Reddit (some days ago there was a discussion about Zettelkasten as Rocket Science, surely bornth as a reaction to one of the latest Sascha writing) I've made an analogy between Zettelkasten and running, two practice I do.
When I started running the only things I needed was a couple of shoes and motivation. And it worked.
But over time, that my aspiration become run much better, much faster and much longer. That two things today aren't enough. So, In addition to running, I started studying how to train in a structured way, how to eat, how to tackle all the smallest details of a challenging race. Using the Zettelkasten, by the way
My two cents. In this three points I think I've distilled what I've developed about Zettelkasten and Simplicity.