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My Method of Zettelkasten

findflaxfindflax
in Critique my Zettel

Hi, I am a student currently taking computer engineering. I have been taking zettelkasten for the past three months. I have learned through asking AI but it seems almost impractical so I am asking the community. I use emacs to take my notes, more specifically doom emacs. I was irritated the other day and felt that my notes did not seem like it was reaching the standard for zettelkasten. My different kinds of notes are atomic, source, tags, reference, and fleeting. I link all these as nodes, so theres not really much identification but just notes linking to other notes. It looks nice visually (org-roam) but I feel like something is missing? Any Ideas? Thoughts? Thank you

Comments

  • harrharr
    edited 8:27AM

    I'm curious how you prompted the AI. Have you tried something like this?

    You are an expert in personal knowledge management systems, personal note-making and note-writing for students.
    Help me design a digital system for my personal notes using Doom Emacs.
    I want to take notes about computer programming and Star Wars.
    I want the system to support me with these tasks:
    - prepare for exams in undergraduate computer engineering
    - write fan fiction about Grogu.
    Ask me questions that clarify my needs.
    Make multiple suggestions, so that I can get an idea of the possibilities.
    Remind me to explain what I like and dislike about particular suggestions.
  • findflaxfindflax

    @harr said:
    I'm curious how you prompted the AI. Have you tried something like this?

    You are an expert in personal knowledge management systems, personal note-making and note-writing for students.
    Help me design a digital system for my personal notes using Doom Emacs.
    I want to take notes about computer programming and Star Wars.
    I want the system to support me with these tasks:
    - prepare for exams in undergraduate computer engineering
    - write fan fiction about Grogu.
    Ask me questions that clarify my needs.
    Make multiple suggestions, so that I can get an idea of the possibilities.
    Remind me to explain what I like and dislike about particular suggestions.

    Thanks! I will try those questions. I really went down a rabbit hole getting my head around zettelkasten, apparently taking notes digitally has a new architecture than was Niklas Luhmann implemented. Its more atomic when making notes on an app..

  • harrharr
    edited 11:35AM

    @findflax said:
    I really went down a rabbit hole getting my head around zettelkasten, apparently taking notes digitally has a new architecture than was Niklas Luhmann implemented. Its more atomic when making notes on an app..

    I came to similar conclusions after getting lost in that same rabbit hole. :-)

    Sascha's and Christian's "Zettelkasten Method" makes much more sense to me, since I approach it as hypertext.

    Nori's blog post describes methodological differences to Luhmann:

    Funnily enough, the three principles of atomicity, deep processing and connection don’t even come from Luhmann. His notes weren’t atomic; most weren’t connected in any other way than through their position in the sequence and many of them were rather telegraphic—definitely no detailed processing written with an audience in mind. And so the most famous user of the Zettelkasten method wouldn’t even recognise the rules that now seem to define the method he is credited with inventing.
  • wjenkins81wjenkins81

    @findflax said:
    I use emacs to take my notes, more specifically doom emacs.

    What about portability? How do you use those notes if you use a different app in the future? One of the key ideas of a Zettelkasten is that it could potentially become a lifetime system, over the course of not just years but decades. Are you sure emacs will still be around in 20 or 30 years, and that you'll still be using it?

    I recommend thinking about a portable format that will be independent of app choice. This usually means something close to plain text, like markdown. It also usually means your notes being saved as files, not as a database that you'd have to export in the future... and hope that the export isn't a huge pain to deal with.

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