What you are reading is an advance copy that may be published online for a general audience. This is the continuation and conclusion of the last document that I sent. Any perceived tone used by me is not to be taken as a personal jab or provocation. What follows is the intended introduction for the complete piece.
Know that this is a rough body of work. Rough in the sense that it is a rough draft and I do not intend to revise it any time soon. If you have any criticism to offer, please send it so that I can feel encouraged to return to this in the future. It contains little to no dedicated edits or proofreads. Expect and pardon any errors or incoherence.
This paper originated from a casual conversation between a longtime friend and I about how we’ve been keeping busy from an intellectual perspective. We weren’t talking about balancing encyclopedias on our noses or anything like that, we were just having a regular dialog about how we went about understanding our interests as of late. As you can see from the result, I was very eager to talk to him about notetaking and making an effort at introducing him to the concept of “knowledge work” and the Zettelkasten method. The topics of knowledge work and the Zettelkasten method are nothing that can be explained during the course of a conversation carried over text message. So like any reasonable person, I typed a document that amounted to a 4-page PDF file.
I’ve expanded those 4 pages into 13, appending my original thoughts with useful tools and my own haphazard explanation of the Zettelkasten method, peppered with some critique on how its applied by some.
I’ve decided to share this publicly because I feel like applying the concepts of “knowledge work”, the “knowledge base” and the Zettelkasten method create a sound infrastructure that enables one to actively seek information and consider their devices (computers, cellphones, tablets, etc) as sophisticated instruments. I hope to at least, inspire people to do that. At the most, we can establish a common ground that can develop as I publish more writing. Once you finish reading this manifesto of mine, bonds will either be strengthened or broken by virtue of my own personal objectives that consider the idea of “knowledge work” and especially the “knowledge base” as a worthwile accessory in certain cases.
Everything that you are about to read reflects my own personal opinions, biases and objectives, those that I have no problem sharing with people who I know personally or complete strangers.
Harbor zero doubt that my primary objective is to invite and educate whoever reads this about Islaam, one way or another. While this may not necessarily be fulfilled in an essay about taking notes, I rather come out and stand on my conviction and my intent in this fashion, than belie the honor of my belief by trying to weave them covertly into this particular essay. It would also belie the honor of my belief, not to profess them in the midst of an essay about how taking notes more effectively can facilitate responsible practices in the digital age. So I’m going to opt for a bold and frank execution and pray that it is accepted as a sincere attempt and not a tactless agenda that seeks to either a) “indoctrinate” or “convert” whoever is reading this and b) derive spiritual benefit through worldly means.
History’s oft-mentioned revolutionary thinkers, your Che Guevaras, your Huey P. Newtons, your John Lockes and Voltaires, Karl Marx, Marcus Garvey and whoever were not silent about the message that they intended for their audience to receive. It’s just so happens that when a message is conveyed and religion happens to be involved with it, many people shy away or are outright repulsed. The bitter truth is, no matter what you believe spiritually or metaphysically, most of us adhere or would like to think that we adhere to a set of principles that give us a sense of identity and dignity. Some people may not be entirely sure what it is that they believe in, period. If my message was democratic-socialism would you think any different of me or this essay? Libertarianism? Black nationalism? Crypto-anarchy? Excuse me for making an effort to appeal to these different groups of people with an invitation to a comprehensive way of life. So comprehensive to the point where it can even be referenced in an essay about taking notes.
As I mention later in this essay, many people derive their identity and their dignity from through intellectual pursuits and orientation. I’d like to use this essay as an opportunity to encourage whoever is reading this to embark on a journey that will contextualize their intellectual pursuits, which are effectively bound to any other type of pursuit that a person believes to be significant to them.
To begin, you can download How to Take Smart Notes by clicking this link. Again, I’ve never read it, but I told you that I’d share it with you.
Unrelated to the topic of the book, consider this: How can individuals or groups go about sharing information discretely? Do words like discrete, or private suggest something subversive? Can we 1 use words like "independent" more often...or something else that conveys a sense of virtue and dignity? These are some things for us to ponder for the future. 2
This link has a list of privacy-orientated file-sharing software. There are certainly more than the ones listed, but these are worth checking out. I don't use any of them as of right now. It's worth exploring the rest of the site as well to get a feel for other privacy-related tools that you can put to use on your computer or mobile device.
As far as tools are considered, here go some. The main emphasis between most of these tools, is plain text capabilities, file security (as far as access, longevity and independence are concerned) and overall ease-of-use and efficiency. Some tools may not have a mobile version, so you'll have to decide on another choice to act as an accessory to the main one you'd like to use.
Not all of these applications are free. Some are free, but you have to upgrade to a "Pro" account to get the most out of them. Personally I don't mind the one-time payment of $20 (or even $30) or $3 a month for a program that I intend to get use out of every day. If you think some of the prices here are outrageous, then you haven't seen anything yet. Go check out Scrivener, DEVONThink, Tinderbox, Sublime Text.
Free and open source. Very customizable. Steep learning curve, but worth it if you're willing to put in the effort. Org-mode is built into Emacs by default. Org-mode's strengths lie in it's outlining and project management capabilities (it's agenda feature is very advanced), and this is just out-of-the-box. You can further customize it with different packages 3 that extend it's functionalities. Again, the learning curve is steep, but again, it's worth it once you build a cohesive workflow. Notetaking, research, reference and projects can be handled totally in Emacs if one absolutely desires. It's that versatile. I use it to take notes and type out long-form documents also. There's a reason that it has a had very, very, very at times almost literally, a cult-like following in hacker culture 4 since the 80's. Yes, the 80's. If you're interested in Emacs, know that most of its navigation relies on knowing certain keyboard commands (which are customizable as well).
The only draw back is that org-mode as a plain text language is only useful in Emacs. 5 There is no such thing as Emacs for your mobile device, although there are applications for iOS and Android that allow you to handle org-mode files, they aren't necessarily advanced enough to tend to multiple documents. Being that org-mode is a plain text language, you will still be able view and edit org files, but you do miss out on most of the functions that make it so special when you're using it on Emacs. Personally, I don't mind, because I don't do too much serious work with my notes on my phone or tablet, so if I do need to change or create an org file on those devices, it's just to type something up quickly. My use case in this scenario typically does not require anything fancy besides headings, bold, italics and underlinings, lists and links, so I'm not making that big of a compromise.
Emacs primary competition is Vim. I believe Vim has an Org-mode alternative. Learning curve is just as steep.
Free, but comes with a Pro version for about one dollar a month, I may be wrong. Drafts was one of the first programs I got that I was almost certain I was going to decide that I did not need. If you'd like to know how I feel today, I'm typing this document in Drafts. It's purpose is self-explanatory. It's good when you need to type something up quickly or pull a quote or selection from anything that you're reading and save it for later. It takes little effort to select some text on your phone and send it into Drafts either as a new note or place it into an existing note. Is very customizable.
Drafts syncs directly to iCloud (only), which is my only complaint about it. It is one of the only notetaking applications that that I’m sharing that doesn’t store files locally. The other three are Standard Notes, Bear and Simplenote. Notes are accessible individually on any devices, they’re in a (local) database that is synced through iCloud. No, Drafts can't access your files, but you do have to export them elsewhere if you want to remove them. This is a cause for concern when you take account the longevity of an application. If Drafts goes under, yes, I'll still have my files, which is great, but I do have to figure out how to extract them from the database file.
Not free. 60 day free trial. This is where I used to spend most of my time working until I switched to Emacs. Barebones application, but great for dealing with a ton of notes. Easy to search through them, easy to tag them, easy to link between them. Very active community contributing to "theory of note taking and knowledge work" as well as to certain scripts that can increase the functionality of The Archive. Files are saved locally on your hard drive in plain text. Developed by a duo that are very serious about the Zettelkasten method of note taking and the application is supposed to streamline the tasks that it is built around.
Free, with paid upgrades. I'm not sure whether I not I still use it. The Archive is not for mobile devices, so I needed an App to work with my notes on my phone and tablet. 1Writer is recommended by The Archive team and it does work extremely well with it as far as searching, tagging and linking notes is concerned. You really don't miss a beat working between the two. iA Writer is considered on par with 1Writer.
QOwnNotes is, in my opinion, the quintessential free and open source application. Aesthetically simple, teetering between bland and even ugly, depending on who you ask, but I prefer the call back to simpler times that the user interface beckons toward. Besides, I'm not here to stare at it, I'm here to work in it. I never used it to it's full potential, but it fulfills all of your needs as far as notes are concerned. Plain text, locally stored (with built-in support for syncing to your self-hosted cloud), and allows for extensive tagging, searching and serviceable linking between notes.
Standard notes is almost like a privacy-focused version of Drafts in a sense. I'm not sure how well it can manage an entire library of notes, because at the most, I used to similar to how I do with Drafts. Free, but costs a considerable amount for all of the good stuff like Markdown support. Worthwhile for notes that don't necessarily have to be implemented in your knowledge work, and for that reason I may go back to it.
An Emacs alternative.
Free and open source alternative to The Archive with more distinct features such as built-in support for interacting with your reference manager.
Text-editor that's intended for use for programmers, but is supposed to be good. Has it's own sort of packages similar to Emacs.
Not free. I think it's $1.99 a month? In that area. Very popular note taking application. Almost what the native Notes app for iOS intends to be. Advanced tagging features, but not supposed to be the best for a scalable Zettelkasten.
If you're interested in putting together a person "Wiki" sort of environment for your notes, this should work very well.
Free and open source. Very simple application similar to The Archive, perhaps even more simple. Just you, your notes and a search bar. No only being updated, nvUltra is currently in development
Free and simple. No mobile version.
"MindForger aims to mimic human mind - learning, recalling, recognition, associations, forgetting - in order to achieve synergy with your mind to make your searching, reading and writing more productive."
Okay. This sort of rhetoric is cringe-worthy and can be repulsive at times. But this application is actually sort of intriguing and if I wasn't so invested in Emacs it's likely I would check it out.
Notenik looks pretty decent. Not unlike Notable and QOwnNotes in it's simple design and straightforward approach.
This is perhaps the most popular note taking application out right now. The only issue is that it runs in your Web browser (meaning you don't have private access to your files) and that they plan on making you pay for it soon (supposedly a lot of money).
Roam is essentially why I use Emacs now. There is an Emacs package titled "Org-roam" that mirrors Roam's features.
Free and open source. Compare to Notenik, Notable and Bear.
Compare to Drafts and Standard Note. You may need an email to log in...which is lame.
I consider the first two apps as a part of Research and not Notetaking because I typically would not use them for managing notes intimately akin to the Zettelkasten method, but more so for collecting information, webpages, pdfs, etc and allowing them to function as a central database for all of my work outside of note taking, but at the same time giving me access to my notes if necessary. Lately I've been using Notebooks to outline certain topics that I plan on researching. I like this because my notes are in a closer proximity to my work than on Drafts.
Not free, not open source. Costs separately for MacOS and iOS versions. This is also a versatile application, but no, you cannot customize it or implement any fancy doo-dads. But it serves as a good place to take notes, type out more in-depth papers, store and access other files (.pdfs, audio/visual, whatever), archive web links, manage tasks and much more. There is no one thing that Notebooks does extremely well, but it does a good job at doing just about everything you can ask from it. I like it because it puts me in an environment where all of the files that I use are in one pleasant-looking place. I can work with them in Notebooks if I want to, or I can open them in another app if necessary. The handbook explains just about everything that you can accomplish in Notebooks. Plain text documents can be in any format, and if you use Markdown, you can take them to just about any other application and they will render the same.
Free and open source alternative to Notebooks. Also see Turtl.
This is what I use to read PDFs. Free and open source. Does not embed annotations and highlights directly on the PDF document (which I like), but this means you won't see them if you access the PDF anywhere else unless you save the document as an embedded PDF manually. However there are scripts available that allow you to do this automatically. MacOS only.
Free with options for Pro features. MacOS and iOS versions. More features than the native iOS and Mac PDF applications have to offer. "It just works" better than most PDF applications that place strict limitations on their free versions. The only reason that I use Skim instead of this (on my Mac), is because I use a script that allows me to export all of my text annotations on a PDF document into a plain text file. However, I use PDF Viewer on my phone and tablet.
PDF application that automatically exports highlights, texts and just about everything else into a separate Markdown file. Very useful, a bit pricey. Versions for Mac and iOS. I use Skim over this because I ran into problems editing the Markdown file outside of the app.
These programs are all free. They're used to generate .bib files, which allow certain programs (Like Pandoc, which you may want to become aware of soon) to generate a bibliography for any sort of writing that you may do. They also provide neat spaces to view and manage whatever sort of references that you collect and make use of.
I use BibDesk because it's simple to use. Some applications like Zotero allow to edit PDF files inside of them, and other stuff, that's cool and all, but I can do that elsewhere. Just let me manage my references so that I can generate a bibliography when I need one.
What applications you use to fulfill project needs is entirely up to you.
Most my own "Projects" for the time being revolve around long-form writing (essays, articles, blogposts etc). After using Ulysses, I wound up going straight to Emacs. Most of your Note taking applications can manage long-form writing, with the exception of maybe Bear. When it comes down to it, at least in my use case, the only functions that you need is the ability to type in markdown (or org) and export what you've written into a PDF or whatever necessary file type. You can especially consider Notebooks and Zettlr, and of course Emacs if you're looking for an application for writing projects.
I can however, give you a list of good task management and project outline applications to consider (again, I use Emacs for this).
Free with paid premium features. Uses Markdown. Totally in the cloud (unfortunately). Integrates well with Reminders and Calendar on iOS and MacOS.
Free. Mindmapping software that allows you to visualize complex concepts.
Not free, but available on Setapp. Another mind mapping tool.
Not free. Available on Setapp.
This is a very advance and in-depth outliner for projects that demand tons of details and may be drawn out over time. Available on Setapp.
Alternative to Agenda that is available on Setapp.
To be honest, you with the exception of the Mindmapping tools and Aeon Timeline, you can accomplish a lot of work as far as outlining and managing tasks with applications such as Notebooks, Joplin, Notable, Bear and a lot of the other applications already mentioned.
It's easy to read through all of this and think that you may need 4-5 different programs to get work done. That isn't true. I could never tell you how many programs you need to get your work done. There is absolutely nothing wrong with handling all of this in one place, it boils down to the ability of the applications that you prefer and what best suits your needs.
Workflows evolve, often overnight. Besides just applications, I have notebooks and notepads. I don't create individual notes for my Zettelkasten without first creating larger "block notes" that the individual Zettels are created from. I make "engagement notes" in a notebook that don't necessarily have to ever appear anywhere on a device until I create a Zettel.
These programs are only a starting point. This is just an introduction of the sort of programs that are useful for knowledge. They all have strengths and weaknesses and these strengths and weaknesses are ultimately dependent on what you demand from them.
If I haven't exhausted you yet, I intend for our next installment to focus on workflow theory and method. The Zettelkasten method will be explained, and different practices in knowledge work will be introduced and examined. After that, we may begin to try to figure out how to utilize these efforts on a collective scale.
Org-Mode Is One of the Most Reasonable Markup Languages to Use for Text
MultiMarkdown is an extension of the general Markdown format. This document was written in it.
Being that a lot of these documents store files directly on your hard drive, it's necessary to have a means to access them elsewhere if you need them on-the-go.
Nextcloud is unmatched. Privacy-focused and open source (meaning that its code can be audited by a third-party so figure out how the application manages user data while online). Can be self-hosted (like a website, so to speak) or through a third-party provider. If you see anything mentioning WebDAV support, that means it supports Nextcloud. Owncloud is another alternative.
You may already be familiar with Dropbox. Supported just about everywhere.
Syncthing is a bit different than Dropbox and Nextcloud, but it does allow you to sync files between your computer and another device. Free and Open source.
All of these services offer encryption, but to my knowledge, and this should especially be considered in the case of Nextcloud, Owncloud and Dropbox, it only affects the files that are being deployed (ie. in the cloud), not the ones that are stored on your local device. I'm not knowledgable enough to tell you how Syncthing manages encryption. To be honest a disciplined encryption approach is something that I need to get into myself, locally and when syncing files.
Cryptomator is a free application that can provide an extra layer of encryption to files in the cloud.
Backblaze costs, but it's cost-efficient and popular. Syncing your files in the cloud is different from having dedicated and automated backups.
Again, my file discipline hasn't developed past the basic stages. I sync them with Nextcloud on my own self-hosted server and that's it. I need to get into encrypting them. If this topic every gets addressed in-depth, then we can discuss stuff like the different ways you can use a Raspberry Pi as a Network Attached Storage device or as a Time Capsule for MacOS
My intention with this chapter is to briefly outline and describe a few concepts related to working with a Zettelkasten.
The word “Zettelkasten” can refer to different things. It is a particular method and is also used to refer to the platform where the method is carried out at. Many people who are practioners of Zettelkasten put way too much effort into explaining it as some enigmatic, epistemic experience. The Zettelkasten is a phenomenon not because it’s hard to grasp, but because it incites such in-depth debate on how to use it. I think most people find themselves stuck on how to go about using it because they feel like they need to follow a particular format. When I observe a person’s workflow or a particular practice that they use, I’m most interested in observering what it is that they’re trying to achieve, not necessarily how they go about achieving it. By focusing too much on the how you’ll never be content or confident in your own setup, but if you try to key on what a person intends to get done while working in their Zettelkasten it’s a lot easier to determine how far you have to go in adopting, modifying or ignoring their practices.
Some people spend copious amounts of time studying Luhmann, the man who popularized the method, which is fine if that’s what you want to do. Why not? This chapter is about workflow theory after all, shoot, it would’ve helped if I had studied his use of the method. The truth is, that my understanding of the Zettelkasten as a method is a lot less complex and romantic than most. Just take notes in a way that (a) allow key concepts to become identifiable as you read source material and interpret it in your writing and (b) emphasize accessibility, in how you are able to retrieve and recall them. Again, these notes should exist in a central database in order to facilitate access, linking, filing and interaction between them.
This article may or may not be of benefit to you as a more verbose explanation of the method. Truthfully, I think it’s best to just explain the method as simple as possible, focus on the big principles: create lots of individual notes that are brief in the sense that they are one thought per note but dense enough so that they can convey a suitable amount of information without having to refer back to the original text. Connect a bunch of well-written, well-filed, beefy notes together and you’ve got a single robust corpus of thought that can be used for whatever goal (or project) that you plan to fulfill.
Categorization can be achieved either through the explicit use of categories, tags, a particular way of categorizing notes that is refered to as folgezettel or through structure notes (think a table of contents, either for a particular piece of material or even a particular idea).
Here are a list of articles that discuss these different approaches:
Why Categories for Your Note Archive are a Bad Idea
Different Kinds of Ties Between Notes
No, Luhmann Was Not About Folgezettel
Understanding Hierarchy by Translating Folgezettel and Structure Zettel
It gets deep. Sometimes these sort of discussions can be overwhelming to the point where you want to tell the author “it’s not that deep”, because it isn’t that deep. These conversations can be used to our advantage regardless, because we can totally ignore the arguments that are basically just centered around preference and go straight to the application of the method that’s being discussed so we can find out which one we prefer. Let them worry about whether ot a note should end in {a1bac-June} or be placed in a Structure Note titled “Scented Candles”, our job is to sit back and watch. While they talk about taking notes...we can actually take notes, or learn from their ideas and go about it carefree.
The fact is that everyone processes information differently.
I can imagine that a lot of the discussions in the “Knowledge Processing” section of the zettelkasten.de would be tough for someone not involved in certain areas of academia to stomach, such as myself. The dialogue is actually valuable until you get tired of people arguing over how to take notes.
This is a good article to learn the basics of using citations in your notes, why it’s handy and the programs that are useful to keep a bibliography. If you combine this approach with Dan Sheffler’s Skim & Bibdesk guides then you’ve got a good process for taking notes on PDF files that is helpful when studying and when you’re composing complete documents.
This article uses a lot of words to explain a simple four-step approach to knowledge work:
And repeat. There it’s that simple. How you go about achieving those four tasks is up to you. I don’t find that this article necessarily teaches you how to go about doing them, it’s goal is to essentially tell you to keep your knowledge work cycle to these four tasks, which is a good idea.
This link leads to articles from Zettelkasten.de that offer advice on how to begin a Zettelkasten.
The principle of atomicity is explained as such, "put things which belong together in a Zettel, but try to separate concerns from one another.” This is another long article that can be explained relatively easily. If you’ve got a bunch of notes from a book (that are preferably on little sheets of paper), dump them all on your desk, group them by topic, now distinguish what sub-topics stand out among the groups of main topics, you can repeat this process over and over demanding on how many notes you have and how deep the topics appear to you. Once you’re satisfied with whatever concepts you’ve identified, write about them.
This is similar to the guide above, but much more brief. Again, this is a simple approach. Dan names the note, lists some connections, focuses on the main idea, and adds some references. Dan also explains the content of his individual reading notes which is helpful too.
Dan Sheffler’s posts about how he goes about taking notes are very useful because he isn’t trying to coach you up, he’s just talking about what he does. Dan’s guides feel more personal, the process is explained as if you stumbled upon him at his desk and casually asked what he was doing. Personally, my workflow mirrors much of his, from the use of engagement notes/permanent notes as mentioned here and explained in detail here , to his Skim/Bibdesk setup.
In three steps, Will explains how goes about his knowledge work. The screenshot of his Zettelkasten in The Archive shows you everything that a note typically consists of, metadata, note titles (he titles his notes in YYYYMMDDHHMM format, which is popular and facilitates filing your notes), and references. If you can’t tell. The best people to learn from are the ones who are more on explaining how they actually get things done instead of hankering over theoretical approaches.
Andy Matuschak's Working Notes
Everything I Know - Nikita Voloboev
We should now know that there exists a way an immersive way for us to go about collecting information, studying it, archiving it, and developing the ideas that sprout from it in a way that leverages technology without it becoming a hindrance. It’s appeal, in my opinion, is that it provides the infrastructure for just about anyone to moonlight as an “academic”, or just someone who is serious about studying their interests in-depth and is looking for a practice that keeps them steadfast in constant thought and motion. Constant interaction with a Zettelkasten allows a person to suprise themself with their own insight. A Zettelkasten isn’t your “second brain”, it isn’t even close. It’s just a nice place to feel good about yourself and what you’ve learned and perhaps figure out how to put action behind your ideas after you’ve identified common links and themes.
There is no guarantee that your work will be of any benefit to yourself or mankind because you took better notes. Your self-esteem may or may not increase. You may or not become more productive. Just because you have an extensive archive of notes and ideas does not mean that you’ve produced anything valuable. You may learn more, you may remember more, but there is no guarantee that you will become a budding intellectual or a “thought leader” or found a startup company. It’s easy to be persuaded by yourself and others that a bunch of programs and a routine is all it takes to become more productive and more insightful. Let the record state that while I am indeed an advocate for knowledge work as a practice and a purpose, I am ideologically opposed to many of its adherents and those who they appear to learn from.
If there wasn’t benefit in learning about things such as the Zettelkasten, the importance of plain text notes, how to use a bibliography manager and what not, I really hope that I would not have coerced myself into writing this manifesto. But the truth is that there is a threshold that has to be sought out between knowledge work as a practice can often eclipse knowledge work as a purpose.
Discovering and understanding the best way to connect and format your notes will not make you a better learner, you’re just a great micro-librarian. You’re a thought-janitor. A mind-maid. The value of knowledge work is that it creates an environment where you are using technology such as your computer and the internet more responsibly. The real value of the Zettelkasten is the person in charge of the actual mind that’s operating it, not the second “mind” you think that you’re constructing on your computer or your notebook.
Eventually your presence in this world will cease to exist. Your notes, references and projects may very will outlive you, stored on an external harddrive that’s kept in a shoebox with the rest of your old belongings, bunkered away in your mother’s garage.
The best approach to knowledge work is not to worry one’s self over theories and methods, but to concern one’s self with becoming knowledgeable of one’s “self”; that being who they believe is in pursuit and possession of knowledge to begin with.
We, not just meaning "you and I" but also "whoever else this agenda may be introduced to".↩︎
"Decentralized" is also a word thrown around a lot often, I may or may not be the most reliable practitioner of it in my own speech.↩︎
Packages in Emacs are basically plugins or add-ons. Org-mode itself is a package.↩︎
The use of "hacker" here refers to how it was initially meant by those who innovated the word, as Wikipedia explains, "While 'hacker' can refer to any skilled computer programmer, the term has become associated in popular culture with a "security hacker", someone who, with their technical knowledge, uses bugs or exploits to break into computer systems."↩︎
Languages like Markdown are used in just about every notetaking app that's around today and elsewhere. This document is written in Markdown. And I'll share the source file with you if you're interested in seeing what it looks like.↩︎