Hi.
I have a few failed ZK attempts behind me in which I focus too much on the top down approach, obsessing on which hub notes (or MOCs, indexes or "structure notes") a new note should be linked from and also focusing on colleting notes rather whan thinking about notes, leaving me overwhelmed and demotivated. So its clear I need a different approach.
I really like Sönke Ahrens's approach in "How to take smart notes", and would like to give this a try. With this in mind I could need some advice on how to let topics emerge from the notes themselves. Ahrens is (likely deliberately) a bit vague on this, but from my understanding he regularly scans his existing notes and look for new topics. This sounds good enough, but how exactly would one do this; would you add every single note to an (alfabetical ordered) list, and simply read through it from time to time and see what pops out?
He also mentions (maybe in the book, but also in YT-videos) using keywords (i.e. tags) to make up an index, but I'm not sure how that process would go as far as developing new topics; does he tag each note with something that resembeles a topic (broad such as "psychology" or maybe a bit narrower such as "systematicErrorsInThinking")?
What about using forward links (i.e. links to non-existent notes) instead of tags?
I know there are not hard rules and that I should find what works for me, but having failed multiple times av ZK I'd really appreciate advice on this particular issue to increase the odds of my next attempt being successful.
reddit.comHow do topics emerge in a bottom up ZK?
In the old system, the question is: Under which topic do I store this note? In the new system, the question is: In which context will I want to stumble upon it again?
Sönke Ahrens • How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers
Making sure you will be able to find this note later by either linking to it from your index or by making a link to it on a note that you use as an entry point to a discussion or topic and is itself linked to the index.
Sönke Ahrens • How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking
If we then link from the index to such a note, we have a good entry point. If the overview on this note ceases to correctly represent the state of a cluster or topic, or we decide it should be structured differently, we can write a new note with a better structure and update the respective link from the index. This is important: Every consideration
... See moreSönke Ahrens • How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers
He realised that one idea, one note was only as valuable as its context, which was not necessarily the context it was taken from. So he started to think about how one idea could relate and contribute to different contexts. Just amassing notes in one place would not lead to anything other than a mass of notes. But he collected his notes in his slip-
... See moreSönke Ahrens • How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers
In the old system, the question is: Under which topic do I store this note? In the new system, the question is: In which context will I want to stumble upon it again?