Bookmarked The Two Definitions of Zettelkasten by Chris Aldrich
This is a great essay by Chris Aldrich for several reasons. Because it aims to address the absence in the current hypelet around recent personal knowledge management tools and note systems like Zettelkasten of the realisation that everything in this space has a deep rooted lineage. In response he writes about the history of commonplacing, using card collection for creative, academic or professional output. Because the essay itself is the result of the very practice it describes. In the past months I’ve been reading along with Chris’ annotations (the value of which led me to share more of my own annotations too), and reading his essay I can readily recognise things from that stream of raw material. The notes Chris made from those annotations in turn resulted in this essay. Seven thousands words in a half-day effort.
Note to self: I should create an overview for myself and here about my note taking practice through the years and their inspiration. Just to further illustrate the history Chris writes about.
Hopefully those in the space will look more closely at the well-worn cow paths of analog history in deciding how to pave our (digital) futures. [….] The hiding value proposition of the older methods can be contrasted with the incessant drumbeat of the value and productivity inherently “promised” by those describing [only] Niklas Luhmann’s system.
Chris Aldrich
This morning, I saw that Chris Aldrich has written an excellent overview of zettlekasten-note taking techniques and history. Ton Zijlstra comments that the article is great, and is itself a product of a zettlekasten, so Chris is “practicing what he preaches”. I agree with Ton’s compliment, but I still have one nagging qualm – what does the zettlekasten itself look like? In July 2022, Chris Aldrich called for public examples of zettlekasten output, which he has created a great example in his recent post. But what about the zettlekasten itself? As I state in the title (a play on the classic Wendy’s hamburger commercial) – show us the beef! Show us what was collected and how it was collected so we (humanity) can try to learn from your experiences. Of all my looking through Zettlekasten.de, I have found only one post with semi-specific information about actual zettlekasten cards/notes. Sounds like a 30-day challenge is in order here…