How many links is too much?

Hi, consider these 2 examples of a sample note:

Dog

Dogs are [[pets|pet]] that live with [[humans|human]]. [[Cats|cat]] are also a very popular type of [[house]] [[pet]]. Dogs are friendly [[creatures|creature]] that like to play with a [[ball]] or a [[stick]].

Dog

Dogs are [[pets|pet]] that live with [[humans|human]]. Cats are also a very popular type of house pet. Dogs are friendly creatures that like to play with a ball or a stick.

The first example is kind of the “wikipedia” style of linking. In short, I made a ton of links to stuff that’s not really at the core of the concept. [[Stick]] itself could be also connected with [[tree]], making an unnecessary connection between [[tree]] and [[dog]].

In the second example, I cut down on the linking. I only used those that make stronger connections with [[human]] and it’s conceptual parent [[pet]], but refrained from the higher conceptual parent [[creature]].

Which style do you use?

I think it depends on what you are trying to do. For my use case, I use the Wikipedia style because I’m trying to find links that I didn’t think of before. But if your objective change to something else, you might find the second style to be more appropriate.

I try to add only wikilinks for notes that I intend to create, or that already exist. Then refer to the unlinked mentions panel to suggest possible links to existing notes. I don’t want to clutter notes with false links to notes that I never created and probably will not.

More broadly, make notes about things you care about and link notes to things where you care about the connection. I make links for concepts I’m learning or want to explore and avoid connections for things I already know.

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