The Zettelkasten methodology is a note-taking system developed by German sociologist Niklas Luhmann. It is based on creating atomic notes, each containing one idea, and linking these notes to each other using tags and links, thus creating a knowledge network. This helps users not only to store information, but also to find unexpected connections between ideas, which contributes to new insights and a deeper understanding of the material.
Niklas Luhmann
Luhmann was an extremely productive scholar who used the Zettelkasten methodology to manage his notes and ideas. During his career, he wrote about 50 books and more than 400 scholarly articles. His work covered a wide range of topics including sociology, systems theory, legal theory, and media theory. Zettelkasten's methodology allowed Luhmann to effectively manage vast amounts of information and create complex, interconnected research.
The two main principles of his methodology are:
1. Labelling
2. Linking notes
Purpose
Whilst storing and structuring notes and ideas is important, the purpose of the methodology is to ensure that you end up doing something with it. This could mean writing a book, a dissertation, an article, completing a project, etc.
Essence
The essence is to add value to existing records, ideas, arguments and discussions, not just to collect as many records as possible.
Recommendations:
- Avoid creating folders.
- Write brief notes, no more than three sentences, and always in your own words. It is important to formulate and write down an idea as you understand it, rather than copying from a source.
- Don't be afraid to delete old notes, but try to develop them further if possible.
- Tags (keywords) should always be chosen based on topics you are working on or are interested in, rather than looking at notes individually.
- Creating a new project involves combining tags. When you create a new project, you write the project name, which becomes the parent tag. Under it, you merge tags (notes with that tag), related notes, and people.
Finding meaningful connections: As you merge notes, ask yourself four questions:
1. How does this idea connect to what I already know?
2. Can I explain the new idea using another, old idea?
3. What does new idea X mean for old idea Y?
4. How can I use this idea to explain Z (some phenomenon, function, etc.)?
We have extended Zettelkasten's ideas in our Conoted app and introduced several new note-taking features:
- Recommendation System: Suggests tags, other notes to link.
- Public Notes: Added a feature that allows you to link not only your own notes, but also public notes, expanding your work. We rank notes and suggest the most relevant ones in your area (similar to how Google ranks websites).
- Collective Intelligence: We applied a methodology of linking notes to people, recommending linking people based on your area of expertise.
- Useful Contacts: Based on public notes and connections with people, a system we call "Useful Contacts" develops. You rank contacts who are knowledgeable in areas of interest to you, and you can always find these contacts.
