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Slip box notes6/24/2023 There is no hierarchy in the Zettelkasten, no privileged place, which means it can grow internally without any preconceived scheme. His creativity and productivity took place not in his own mind, but in a dialogue between his first and second brains.Īs contemporary productivity guru Tiago Forte has written, Luhmann's hopscotch linking methods look a lot like pages on the web: Following these links, Luhmann could jump across his sprawling note collection and make new connections among ideas.Īnd that's how the system "talked" to Luhmann. At the bottom of each card, Luhmann would jot down the address of cards with related ideas but positioned under other topics. The second method of connecting cards was through explicit reference links. (The LessWrong website has a great description of this addressing system if you really want to geek out.) That means an idea, no matter how old or new it is, can always be positioned near other cards on the same topic. This branching logic resulted in long but meaningful card addresses such as 21/3d26g53 (an entry on one of Luhmann's intellectual rivals, Jürgen Habermas). The third card would be numbered 1/2, but if it only extended the idea on the second card, it would be numbered 1/1a. So instead of numbering his cards in a traditional "1,2,3" sequence, the first card in Luhmann's system might be 1, but the second card would be 1/1 if it continued the topic. Like synapses between neurons, note links exponentially increase the value of the system.įirst, each card had a unique index number, or address, using numbers, letters, and occasional punctuation based on a branching hierarchy. That's an astonishing number, but the system's power rested in the links between notes. At the time of his death, Luhmann had created 90,000 cards. If an idea has value, it will rise to the surface as more related notes emerge.Īnd relations are key. But the costs of jotting down just one well-formed note isn't a deal-breaker. Psychologists have found that one reason we procrastinate is self-doubt and efficacy issues-the upfront costs of a new project often loom large when future outcomes are so uncertain. His system also offers a low barrier to entry. And by connecting related notes together, he often had an outline of a project before he started it. Even with a relatively small number of notes, he always had something to start with when undertaking a new project. Luhmann never suffered from writer's block.
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