- David B. Clear’s blog post has been my favorite explanation of it for the general reader
- Shortened research paper from one of the researchers into Luhmann’s archive. You can also get the actual paper too, but it is much longer. Gives an overview of the index, how cards were integrated, and organization system. This is all in the context of a physical paper zettelkasten
- Slides from a presentation explaining Luhmann’s thinking and how the author created a digital program specifically for zettelkasten.
- Luhmann wrote two essays that have been translated to english titled “learning how to read” and “communicating with slipboxes”.
- You can browse Luhmann’s actual note collection, which is pretty wild
- You have the intro guide I’m creating, which is being developed first over in my public zettelkasten
The actual workflow is quite simple, I’ll go ahead and write a post outlining the process.
How a zettelkasten can help in everyday life
Just as in work, everyday life is full of decisions that are informed by your working knowledge on a subject. Zettelkasten is just a way of formalizing and collecting that knowledge in one place so that you can reference it when you run into a problem related to it. The most mundane example I give is the tracking of my experiences and thoughts on creating homemade pizzas. In my zettelkasten, I put information I come across on what makes a good pizza (theory), reflections on new recipes I try (experience), and others recommendations. I am putting all this knowledge into a system (zettelkasten) because we don’t have the brain space to memorize every piece of information we come across in life. This especially becomes the case when you are consuming a lot of information, whether it be through podcasts, the internet, or books.
If you have any specific questions about the zettelkasten, feel free to @ me because I’ve thought a ton about it and answering questions helps me crystallize my own thoughts on the subject matter.