Zettelkasten revelations anybody?

Marcel_Liauw · August 19

As indicated in my introductory post (and not unlike Edmund in his most recent post), I look for surprising revelations when going to my zettelkasten. I have made one zettel "zettelkasten revelations", a screenshot of which I paste below. Not rocket science yet, but getting there. I wonder what your most impressive nuggets were when being surprised by your zettelkasten.

andang76 · August 19

Without explaining them, leaving the readers' curiosity :-)

I never thought I’d connect Taylor Swift to Mortimer Adler
I managed to make a loop connecting the autopoiesis of the Zettelkasten to the movie Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
One meter a day and I can achieve results I could only dream of at first
I realized that keeping a journal about my running activity helps me grow as an athlete
I AM a runner and a vegetarian, not someone who just uses these tools to maintain their weight

Sascha · August 20

In no order:

How to teach my daughter the concept of "no" when she was 8 months old
The strange dichotomy between raising children and self-responsibility (which leads to the difference between training and raising a child)
That nature is not typically depicted as feminine but nature as force, while nature often is personified masculine. (in myth)
That Gandalf and Dungeon Master (the old series Dungeons and Dragons) are the exact same archetype to preserve the agency of the protagonists.
That the assault bike is far superior to the bike erg for cardio vascular adaptations and the current best is the Arc Trainer (expensive)
That what so-called theories are very often models (e.g. Luhmann's opus magnum)
That knowledge (in a narrow philosophical sense) indeed is not the goal of epistemic work but truth.
That optimal experience is not identical with flow as Csíkszentmihályi states.
Joy is orthogonal to pain and pleasure.
The problem of acrasia is part of the human condition by necessity
Habit work is part of the meaning work designed to deal with the existential problem (as laid out by the French existentialists)
That stimulus refining is at the foundation of the zero-sum game that we play with each other as producers and consumers.
There is a problem with using logic in communication. Logic is far less convincing and even if you "proof" something being correct or wrong, the chances for acceptance are fairly slim, even (or sometimes especially) in intellectual circles.

harr · August 20

Following @andang76's example, no explanations. :-)

I made a connection between tourist guides, desert camels and ferroequinology
Note-writing skills and mnemonic skills strengthen each other
I write notes to improve my knowledge of the world, not for the sake of writing notes
My favorite episodes of Lie to Me were written by the same screenwriter
Nietzsche's geistige Aristokratie is a self-control aristocracy (Heath)
The Bible command "Do not judge" has more in common with metta and sati, than with thin-slicing and taxonomies
I want to learn the art of asking the right questions
How to read a book? Good question!
"Das gute Schreiben erzieht das gute Denken" (Cornelia Klinger)
I enjoy rereading some books from time to time
Not everyone shares my interest in history and the sources of shared knowledge
Luhmann had a fine sense of humor

FernandoNobel · August 20

Also, in no particular order:

Clear discernment is a prerequisite for right action.
Every situation has a need that you must address; do not force the situation to do what you want to do.
It is essential to distinguish between different types of management. For example, do not mix task and project management.
Determination (the ability to stay focused on a goal and move toward it) depends on two virtues: discipline, the ability to do what is necessary even when you do not feel like it, and flexibility, the ability to change how you act and think in order to adapt to what the current situation requires. Their opposites are the flaws of perseveration (not changing when change is necessary) and inconstancy (changing without a good reason). I found this model of complementary virtues and flaws in a tabletop role-playing game and adapted it to my own concept of personal determination. And, how do you know if you need to apply discipline or flexibility? You need clear discernment ;-)
The task in both the Zettelkasten method and meditation is to stop searching and instead recognize what is already there. In other words, you do not need to search for the ghost in the box; you need to recognize that it was there all along.
The creative process involves parts that are painful or unpleasant. The task is not to make them pleasant, but to accept the discomfort and do them despite it.

Edmund · August 20

Just by filtering #type/insight:

Zettelkasten can be used as a creativity tool for applying frameworks and principles from one field of knowledge to another.
Creative work is basically like breathing. We take in information and emit new ideas. - Ralph Ammer
Good places are not just about good locations; they are also about environments that resonate with you or make you feel at home. They are also about receiving a proper education.
Tags provide architectur, not content.
Leave a reason to revisit your idea is a simple rule to create and structure useful Permanent Notes.
We can easily distinguish differences in line length, shape, orientation, distances, and color readily without significant processing effort.
If you have a question, Zettelkasten will not always give you the answer, but it will improve the quality of your question.
If the tasks on your to-do list don't support the goals on your wish list, then you're most likely working for someone else's goals.
I use my Zettelkasten to find out how I am thinking.

Marcel_Liauw · August 20

@Edmund said:

We can easily distinguish differences in line length, shape, orientation, distances, and color readily without significant processing effort.

Great input by all! This point by Edmund triggered me to individually differ: I suffer of congenital red-green color blindness and have a hard time distinguishing reddish and greenish hues. May be simulated by the normal-sighted with e.g. https://www.vischeck.com/run.html

ZettelDistraction · August 20

None. There have been no surprises or unexpected connections. This is probably because I wrote the notes.

I have software to check that my notes conform to a specification. Let's make the conservative estimate that out of the 1253 files checked, the 1003 valid notes should be counted toward notes that could offer some revelation, and the 250 invalid files do not belong to the Zettelkasten and should be excluded.^†

Perhaps at a mere 1003 notes, the Zettelkasten hasn't reached the critical mass Niklas Luhmann wrote about, when the prolific sociologist's Zettelkasten underwent a rapid phase transition from a mundane filing cabinet to a conversation partner capable of surprising its interlocutor (cf. the illustration below). As it is, my Zettelkasten agreed, despite serious reservations, to take me on as its remedial student.

^† This is false: each note among the 250 syntactically invalid notes either needs repair or does not belong, and at least half of them belong. At some point I will clean up the Zettelkasten and either repair or move the notes that don't conform to my template.

andang76 · August 20

Two again:

Anyone who says running is easy and fun is talking bullshit §
Running at an easy pace isn't easy §§

§ The real one is way more crude, a bit censored here
§§ pun intended.

tomp · August 20

@ZettelDistraction said:
None. There have been no surprises or unexpected connections. This is probably because I wrote the notes.

Luhmann:

"...[communication with the slip box] becomes productive only at the moment of evaluation, and is thus bound to a certain time and is to a high degree accidental"

Perhaps the accidents haven't come to pass yet? Or evaluation isn't taking place?

I have software to check that my notes conform to a specification. Let's make the conservative estimate that out of the 1253 files checked, the 1003 valid notes should be counted toward notes that could offer some revelation, and the 250 invalid files do not belong to the Zettelkasten and should be excluded.^†

I notice that "So oft it chances in particular men" [1] doesn't validate against the Iambic Pentameter schema. How should we handle it?

[1] Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 4; retrieved from https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/hamlet/read/1/4/

ZettelDistraction · August 20

@tomp said:
I notice that "So oft it chances in particular men" [1] doesn't validate against the Iambic Pentameter schema. How should we handle it?

[1] Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 4; retrieved from https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/hamlet/read/1/4/

I could repair the evaluator.

tomp · August 20

@tomp said:
Luhmann:

"...[communication with the slip box] becomes productive only at the moment of evaluation, and is thus bound to a certain time and is to a high degree accidental"

I wouldn't call this a revelation but it was fun and I learned some new things. When I looked up the Luhmann quote I used in a comment to @ZettelDistraction's post, I ran a search in my ZK, of course. Besides the card I had in mind, I also noticed one named "The Zen Of Zettelkastening". After looking at that card, I noticed that three cards away in the outline was "The Zest of Zettelkastening".

That card only contained a little joke for myself but it got me thinking of lemon zest. And that got me wondering if there is such a things as "zen zest". So I ran an internet search for "zen zest". And I got some hits, including:

“Lemon Zen is a cheerful Noisette rose.”
“Zen Green & Lemon – Sticksology.”
"Ginger Lemon Zen - Saratoga Tea & Honey Co."
"Zen Lemonade – Lemon Soul - Discogs"
"The Zen Fizz Cocktail"
"Lemon Zen Herbal Tea - Meeting House Farm"
"Lemon Infused Creamed Honey - Honey Bee Zen" [Hmm, sounds good!]

Who knew? Thank you, Zettelkasten!

tomp · August 20

@tomp said:

Who knew? Thank you, Zettelkasten!

The trail of association and discovery ran like this, to condense my last post:

Luhmann → Zen → Zest → lemon zest [Hello!] → zen zest [NEW! Yay!] → internet search

I sure never planned my notes to associate that way!

Marcel_Liauw · August 21

@tomp said:
Besides the card I had in mind, I also noticed one named "The Zen Of Zettelkastening". After looking at that card, I noticed that three cards away in the outline was "The Zest of Zettelkastening".

(emphasis by me)
You flipped three cards forward or backwards in a physical or digital Zettelkasten? Sounds like a fun approach. I should flip up and down whenever I find something in the Archive. Thanks for the inspiration!

tomp · August 21

@Marcel_Liauw said:

@tomp said:
Besides the card I had in mind, I also noticed one named "The Zen Of Zettelkastening". After looking at that card, I noticed that three cards away in the outline was "The Zest of Zettelkastening".

(emphasis by me)
You flipped three cards forward or backwards in a physical or digital Zettelkasten? Sounds like a fun approach. I should flip up and down whenever I find something in the Archive. Thanks for the inspiration!

My ZK is based on an outliner program so I just scanned the outline. With a paper system that uses something like Luhmann's numbering system I would have riffled through the nearby cards. Having good card titles helps a lot for this (Luhmann himself did not write many good card titles, so far as I can see).

And yes, it can be fun. Most of the time when I navigate to a card, I scan the outline to see what's nearby. I also wrote a script that will show me the neighborhood of any link in a card so I don't have to navigate to it to see.

Marcel_Liauw · August 21

Neat!
I just tried it, and it worked already. I looked up a "teaching snippet" I recently remembered (and which I paste below as weekend candy), moved three cards up and hit upon plans for a microdegree I made 18 months ago and completely forgot. Food for my upcoming vacation (31.08.-18.09.) Thanks again!

Here a "teaching snippet":
A Royal Class

On Friday, April 29, 2011, from 10:15 to 11:45, my Reaction Engineering class took place. For all those deep into the British Royal life, they will instantly realize that that was the day of the wedding of Prince William and Catherine “Kate” Middleton.
When starting the class, I asked if the students were aware of that event, and could tell from the replies that many would have loved to follow the coverage. Smartphones were not so common those days, so I summoned up the coverage on my laptop and projected it (muted) above the blackboard on which I would then hold my class. At a certain equation, a deep collective sigh could be heard, which obviously was rather due to a first glimpse at the bride above my head.

tomp · August 21

@Marcel_Liauw said:
Neat!
I just tried it, and it worked already. I looked up a "teaching snippet" I recently remembered (and which I paste below as weekend candy), moved three cards up and hit upon plans for a microdegree I made 18 months ago and completely forgot. Food for my upcoming vacation (31.08.-18.09.) Thanks again!

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

tomp · August 22

@Marcel_Liauw said:
Neat!
I just tried it, and it worked already. I looked up a "teaching snippet" I recently remembered (and which I paste below as weekend candy), moved three cards up and hit upon plans for a microdegree I made 18 months ago and completely forgot. Food for my upcoming vacation (31.08.-18.09.) Thanks again!

Your post inspired me to write a script to choose a random card and show its neighborhood.

tomp · August 22

@tomp said:

@Marcel_Liauw said:
Neat!
I just tried it, and it worked already. I looked up a "teaching snippet" I recently remembered (and which I paste below as weekend candy), moved three cards up and hit upon plans for a microdegree I made 18 months ago and completely forgot. Food for my upcoming vacation (31.08.-18.09.) Thanks again!

Your post inspired me to write a script to choose a random card and show its neighborhood.

This script has already served up a real surprise. I had no memory of experimenting with putting recipes into my ZK. Look what it came up with, all created about a year ago:

            Notes For Sonoral Tortillas
    Corn
Recipes
Crepes
Blintzes
    Blintzes 2
Empanada Fillings
    Sweet Corn Empanada Filling
Pikelets
    Basics of Pikelets
--> Flour -specialty varieties cost
Laminated Dough
Rough and Blitz Puff Pastry
    Blitz Puff Pastry Dough For Meat Pies
    Serious Eats Blitz Puff Pastry
    Easy Rough Puff Pastry Recipe - The Woks of Life
    Handmade Puff Pastry (Sally's Baking)
Meat pies
Maltese Meat Pie
Pies

The arrow in the left margin points at the card selected by the random number generator.

Marcel_Liauw · August 22

Mouth-watering - both the script and the tortillas!

andang76 · September 7

Fresh from the session I have now:

"With my Zettelkasten, I can be honest. It is my TRUSTED PARTNER, it is the place where I can think without having to save face"

Zettelkasten Forum

Zettelkasten revelations anybody?

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