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Paper or Plastic? I can't decide! combining analog and digital?

TWolf614TWolf614
in The Zettelkasten Method

I'm writing my dissertation prospectus. Prior undergraduate writing was done in the last century--fundamentally a zettelkasten--but I hadn't heard that name back then. I physically ordered my notecards and then typed up a paper from the cards. Very satisfying

Now I'm setup with Obsidian and it's very fun but feels almost too frictionless. I prefer the tangible notecards. But, it all has to get into a document and be written and re-written. So it seems, I can do both? Any thoughts on how to implement that?

Comments

  • harrharr
    edited 10:37AM

    @TWolf614 said:
    I prefer the tangible notecards. (…) Any thoughts on how to implement that?

    With a printer and scissors. Write your notes in Obsidian. Print them out, when you want to shuffle paper.

  • GeoEng51GeoEng51

    Sounds like how I'd write an engineering report back in the early 1970s (before desktop computers):

    1. I'd just let the thoughts flow, in a somewhat organized fashion but without too much worry about the exact order or structure. These would be hand-written.
    2. Someone in our typist pool would type them up.
    3. I'd take some scissors and cut up the report into single or multiple paragraphs. Partial paragraphs were also allowed.
    4. I'd take the pieces and re-arrange them on my desk or a large table into a more sensible order.
    5. There might be parts missing; I'd hand write those and add them into the overall story.
    6. Some pieces would get thrown in the trash bin.
    7. This is where the creative process really occurred. After some mucking around, when everything was about right, I'd paste or tape everything onto sheets of paper.
    8. The new document would then be retyped, usually from scratch.
    9. Draft #2 would be edited, first by me, usually just with a pencil.
    10. That might be retyped (see below) or it might go to a senior reviewer, who would also edit it.
    11. Back into the typist pool for the final version.

    Typing was done on an IBM selectric with a magnetic card backup. Usually the changes in the first version were substantial and the report would have to be retyped, but if the edits in the second draft weren't too egregious, the typist could make the edits to the version on the magnetic card and then "print" the final (i.e., from the magnetic card to the typewriter).

    Such was the state of the art back in 1970-75!

    One of my senior colleagues had been doing this for so long that he had standard paragraphs stored on a magnetic card, which could be retrieved and added into a report he was writing (he tended to take the straight forward jobs that didn't require a lot of creative thinking).

    I gained a certain satisfaction from the process - chopping everything up and re-arranging, and adding new content. I must admit, though, the first chance I got (when the company I was working for bought a PDP1170 mini-computer), I obtained a terminal in my office and did all that electronically, (this was before the days of desktop computers). It was less working with paper and more just being able to move material around and insert or delete material that was the key.

    You might look at all those snippets of information that I was maniplating at a very rudimentary ZK, although I didn't know the term at the time. And they were all stored in my brain, or in the case of the senior colleague, on an IBM selectric mag-card.

  • tomptomp

    @GeoEng51 said:
    Sounds like how I'd write an engineering report back in the early 1970s (before desktop computers):

    1. I'd just let the thoughts flow, in a somewhat organized fashion but without too much worry about the exact order or structure. These would be hand-written.
    2. Someone in our typist pool would type them up.
    3. I'd take some scissors and cut up the report into single or multiple paragraphs. Partial paragraphs were also allowed.
    4. I'd take the pieces and re-arrange them on my desk or a large table into a more sensible order.
    5. There might be parts missing; I'd hand write those and add them into the overall story.
    6. Some pieces would get thrown in the trash bin.
    7. This is where the creative process really occurred. After some mucking around, when everything was about right, I'd paste or tape everything onto sheets of paper.
    8. The new document would then be retyped, usually from scratch.
    9. Draft #2 would be edited, first by me, usually just with a pencil.
    10. That might be retyped (see below) or it might go to a senior reviewer, who would also edit it.
    11. Back into the typist pool for the final version.

    We really relied upon (abused?) the typing staff back then, didn't we? And me with my lousy handwriting and finicky editing.

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