My old belief was that storing all these links in a souped-up database would lead me to magically generate new insights about the topics I write about. After several years of banging my head into a wall, I realized that to generate new insights from these links I would need a new approach.

That led me to Zettelkasten, a technique for creating webs of thoughts through a more active form of note-taking. Now, instead of only creating standalone notes for individual links or stories, I’m also creating notes that organize my thinking around individual narratives.

Every beat reporter is always tracking a few dozen different big ideas on their beat. For Platformer this year, some of those ideas would include ideas like:

Google is accelerating the decline of the open web

Artificial general intelligence could arrive in the next 10 years

OpenAI is a weird company

Now on most days, I combine my reading of the morning news with active note-making. When I see a story about a breakthrough in AI, I add it to the note (or “zettel”) labeled “AGI could arrive in the next 10 years.” I may also add a few sentences of analysis at the top of the note to reflect the current state of things.

Some of these notes turn into columns. Others are useful resources for me when I return to a topic after being away from it for a few months. But in all cases, they represent an effort to map out my current thinking, support it (or challenge it) with fresh evidence, and build raw materials for reporting, analysis, and podcasting.

This specific version of Zettelkasten feels most useful to people who work with ideas: writers, students, academics, and communications executives, to name a few groups. But most knowledge workers are tracking some set of ideas over time, and for that this approach seems superior to simply taking an endless series of disposable notes with empty titles and counting on your brain to remember it all for you.

I don’t want to overstate the power of this approach: I’m not sure it has yet to generate any earth-shaking insights or scoops for me. But it has helped me feel a bit more in control of my beat, and given me a welcome sense that my expertise in certain subjects is increasing over time.

Casey Newton • Three apps that made me more productive this year