Comments

• tomp

  1:16PM

  @c4lvorias said:
  I invite you to think about metacognitive abilities required when tackling Zettling - activities ranging from writing a single atomic Zettel to building structure notes.
  ...
  I believe it's a better discussion than talking about workflows.

  
• tomp

  2:15PM

  @c4lvorias said:
  I invite you to think about metacognitive abilities required when tackling Zettling - activities ranging from writing a single atomic Zettel to building structure notes.

  One may be keeping the track of nested and connected zettels created in a single session.

  I believe it's a better discussion than talking about workflows.

  Folgezettel is very similar to the old Burmashave roadside advertising signs that used to be used in the US. Small rectangular signs were placed low next to a road, one every 30 or 50 meters usually. Each sign contained a short line of a jingle, slogan, poem, etc. As the car drove by, one sign would lead to the next. Here's an example, one sign per line:

  DIPLOMACY IS
  TO DO AND SAY
  THE NASTIEST THINGS
  IN THE NICEST WAY

  There is power in this kind of progressive disclosure that draws one along.
• tomp

  2:55PM

  @c4lvorias said:
  I invite you to think about metacognitive abilities required when tackling Zettling - activities ranging from writing a single atomic Zettel to building structure notes.

  One may be keeping the track of nested and connected zettels created in a single session.

  I believe it's a better discussion than talking about workflows.

  To write notes to be as useful as possible it seems a good idea to use well known principles and methods that improve perception and recall. Some of these, not all by any means, include:

  • Chunking and other ways of respecting limitations of working memory
  • Visual formatting including use of whitespace
  • Don't bury the lede -

  A lede is the most newsworthy part of a news story. Journalists are taught to keep it front and center: a story should lead with the lede. A writer “buries the lede” when the newsworthy part of a story fails to appear at the beginning, where it’s expected (see https://style.mla.org/dont-bury-the-lede/).

  • Retrieval cues
  • Good titles
  • Von Restorff effect (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40788721/) -

  Distinct items encountered in a sequence are better recalled than the less distinctive items
• andang76

  3:22PM edited 3:29PM

  I think it's even more complicated to agree on this than it is to define the Zettelkasten :-)

  In my opinion, personal attitudes, experiences and individual goals play a big role, driving to developing our skills.
  As a software engineer, a "hobbyist" and a "free thinker" (the profiles I identify for me with the most using the Zettelkasten), I believe I have a completely different toolkit compared to a writer, an artist or a researcher.

  I think it requires the ability to exercise a lot of calmness, patience, and consistency—the Zettelkasten is a method that demands a good deal of effort to manage and involves several "slow" dynamics.
  If I had to compare it to a sport, it would probably be an ultra-trail
• andang76

  3:49PM edited 3:53PM

  The first things that come to mind:

  • One of the things I personally use most in my practice is the ability to abstract: to extract the "more general" or "broader" aspect from a situation, experience, event, piece of information, or dataset.
  • Another very important factor is the ease with which I can formulate questions about what I observe: "Why?" "Do I agree?" "Is it really true?" "Is this useful to me?" and so on.
  • Then there is reactivity (I hope it's the correct term in english) to incoming stimuli: the ease and frequency with which I find myself thinking, "This gives me food for thought." I often develop ideas based on a run I’ve just finished, a song I’ve just listened to, or seemingly trivial occasions.

  As I write this short list, I realize that I consider what enables triggering of ideas to be the most important abilities of my process.