Obsidian Zettelkasten

Bibliography

Blair, Ann. Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information before the Modern Age. New Haven London: Yale University Press, 2010.

DK Publishing, Inc. How the Brain Works. , 2020.

Myers, David G., and C. Nathan DeWall. Psychology . Twelfth edition. New York: Worth Publishers, Macmillan Learning, 2018.

Newport, Cal. So Good They Can’t Ignore You Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love . New York: Business Plus, 2012.

Newport, Cal. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World . First Edition. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2016.

Shore, Zachary. Grad School Essentials: A Crash Course in Scholarly Skills. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2016.

Susskind, Richard E., and Daniel Susskind. The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts . First edition. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2015.

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11 - Example of a Note Size - Andy’s Working Notes - Source for this particular note


Evergreen note-writing helps reading efforts accumulate

It’s important to Write about what you read, but instead of just writing about the specific book you’re reading, you can (and should) write your notes such that your reading observations accumulate over time as they interact with each other and with your own ideas (see Evergreen note-writing helps insight accumulate, Knowledge work should accrete).

This is also why we write Evergreen notes: so that if we encounter a book which discusses a concept we’ve already written about, we’re pushed to integrate new ideas with our prior conception. Certainly, we normally do this when we read, but we’re limited to our faulty memory of other works which might be related. The externalized note-taking system substantially removes this limitation.

This is why part of why Evergreen notes should be concept-oriented: so that the structure of our notes pushes us to notice the relationships between the ideas in different texts—and in our own work (see Evergreen notes should be densely linked, Notes should surprise you).

The notes you write will also produce the foundations of new manuscripts (Executable strategy for writing).

This is one reason for Evergreen note-writing as fundamental unit of knowledge work.

Links to this note

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13 - Example of a Note Size - Luhmann Note Sequence - Source for this particular note


Note Sequence on The System as a Research Tool

Note 8 - The system as a research tool cf.

61.1c ; 17.1b11b/c ; 57.4e7b3h1 ; 1.6f1C ; 29.5db

Literature

  • Max Bense, Philosophy as Research I, Cologne - Krefeld, 1947, IV About the Newer System Concept, pp. 35ff.
  • Emmanuel Mounier, Introduction aux Existentialismes, Paris, 1947, p. 22ff. on systemic property of existentialism
  • Dewey, Logic, pp. 170f, 49ff., 273, 294, 301f., 313, 316, 335, 425, 473, 484
  • Heidegger, What is thinking ?, pp. 128f.
  • Cohen, Reason and Nature, pp. 106ff.
  • Nikolai Hartmann, systematic method, Logos III
  • Wagenführ, Horst, The system concept in the National economy, a method-historical view, Jena 1933, p 384
  • bespr. with whether. Title of Hans Peter Z fd ges CT 95 (1935), pp 360-63

Note 8 - System, further references:

Note 8.1 - The system as a research tool -

1 - branches off a new sequence (To Do)

For systematics and science, see Critique of Pure Reason, transc. Methodology III

System and problem are equivalent categories of research; see. Bense, contours of a spirit history of mathematics, p.36.

The system is a method of knowledge Bense, loc. Cit., P. 71.

The essence of science is the control and securing of individual knowledge in the context of the whole.

See Hartmann, Basis of the Ontology, pp. 294b, 297

Slip 8.1a - system as control and security

branch off

For the sociology of the “system” see Mannheim, “The Conservative Thinking”, in Archives for Social Sciences. and Sozpol. Vol. 57, pp. 86ff. ; Ideology and Utopia, pp. 87, 175

see. 57.3a ; 57.4e7b

The system puts terms together in a manageable security. See Heidegger, What does thinking mean?, P. 128.

Greek thinking is the systematic ago make strange by terms; see. also 8.8.

But it is also not deliberately unsystematic like modern existentialism, which is thus trapped in the ambiguity of systematic thinking; see. Heidegger, op. Cit., P. 129.

Slip 8.1b - System is the fulfilled horizon of understanding of a science - in contrast to the empty horizon of an anticipatory drawing of possible research.

see. 57.4e7b3h

Slip 8.1c - The performance of the system is that uniqueness of the performance.

And only in the system is there definite certainty (see also 8.3). If you used to think that there were simple and elementary elements of your own uniqueness (apprehensively simplex, simple, clear and clear ideas, etc.), you were wrong. The simple is only more system- capable, easier to define systematically, easier to incorporate into the system than the complex, and therefore clearer.

Slip 8.2 - The problem of mutual Ergänzungsbe - paucity of systematic and historical research

s. Kern, Modern State and Concept of State, p. 9ff. Criticism of the leading solution attempts in the State teach their own standpoint without development.

Against an overestimation and absolutization of the contrast between historical and systematic Mannheim ideology and utopia, p. 177, further p. 152ff.

Further literature:

  • W. Sombart, Economic Theory and Economic History (Economic History Review II, No. 1, Jan. 1929)
  • H. Jecht, Economic History and Economic Theory, Tübingen 1928

Slip 8.2a On the problem of the historical perspective cf. 33.1d1A4e still ; 57.4e8e.

Slip 8.2b interesting in this context the attempt Freyer to construct s, sociological terms and to bring in a system that simultaneously at certain historical place and at a certain time behaves - generalizable nis each other are fixed and still are. ( Sociology as a science of reality, esp. P. 189ff.)

F. believes that he can deduce this possibility from the dialectical structure of social reality, which has happened on the one hand and on the other hand throws out mentally shaped structures that have a certain permanence. Nevertheless, in my opinion , there is no convincing demarcation of the sociological structural terms from the historical concept. The relatively clearest sentence is:

Slip 8.2b1 p. 197: “But there remains a clear distinction as to whether the conceptualization relates to the chain of the present, in which the social structure has become, and to the question of what has happened and been done in these present, or whether it is based on the building law of the structure is directed and only considers its dynamics as an essential element of its structure.”

The concept of maximum historical saturation binding to a limited hours for its connotation heard the historic moment, which can then formalization and generalization continue to terms that overlap the increasingly longer periods of time, until formal almost, general categories reaches such rule.

Slip 8.2b2 - But whether it makes sense to include the time constraint in this way in the definition of the term is very much a question. Anyway, you can these necessary ness not from the special nature of the subject field of sociology deduce how Freyer says. And it then sets the term from quite heterogeneous inventory of which that of the time constraint share together, never clearly grasped (? From 1750 to 1849) and will never be experimentally controlled.

A detailed criticism of Freyer’s very prescriptive teaching would probably go too far.

24 - Network Graph (Graph View in Obsidian) are information visualizations that shows how notes are connected through the use of nodes and links repented by lines.

The primary use of a Network Graph is to show how notes may be connected that aren’t obvious. I am not talking about the obvious connections that you see through a direct link but instead when two notes are connected through a chain. Think “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” for your notes.

Another common use of network graphs is when they implement clustering, which allows you to see common themes among your notes. This will seem insignificant when your note collection is in its infancy, but when it has been around for awhile it helps show you themes in your notes that you may have forgotten.

Indeed, I hadn’t meant to imply that she was the first to develop the method but that she had given a detailed description of how she used it, and as a sociologist she was a major writer, researcher and theorist in Luhmann’s field.

That was an interesting paper; I hadn’t read that.

26 - Index - is an alphabetical list that you can use to look up the locations of terms. It is an ancient form of information sorting that allowed for easier information retrieval. It operates similar to your memory in the sense that it relies on a retrieval cue in the form of a word.

It is a layer of structure in the zettelkasten that works because it is utilizing a well known model (memorized alphabet) that allows you to narrow your search options. When you go to look up a word (your retrieval cue), you immediately narrow down the options in the index to words that start with your letter and can jump to that section.


27 - Core Note Functions - I see the four core note functions of text management as the “first principles” of note taking, serving as a set of useful lenses to look at the tools and methods of note taking throughout history. They can also be used for thinking about modern note taking. The four core functions are: storing, sorting, selecting, and summarizing (Blair 2010, pg 15). I’ve also added compiling to the list.

The core functions emerge from the main purpose of note taking.

You can analyze how the functions individually have evolved over time and also how they manifested throughout the various mediums of knowledge management. See 5A .



28 - Mediums of Information Management are the different ways we record information or knowledge.

With the emergence of writing, we can now store and share information on mediums that require minimal use of the brain (only for interpretation). Further reading - see Alpha Beta: How 26 Letters Shaped the Western World

  • Tablets are flat, square or rectangular blocks of material used for inscriptions. Material used to make the tablets tends to be clay, stone, and wood.
  • Scrolls
  • Reference Books
  • Note Boxes (e.g. zettelkasten)

The introduction of the computer has led to an explosion of information sharing and management. Now there are many different ways one can store their notes (important information) digitally.

  • Wiki
  • Note Programs (Obsidian)

Future of Information Storage returns to the roots of reality with the manipulation of DNA and quantum computing for storing information.

  • Qubit is the basic unit of quantum information, with the two states of an electron spin.
  • Digital DNA

A lot of the programs are geared towards information storage and retrieval, basic functions of management. The next step that is being taken and is important to keep in mind for designing note software is tools for knowledge development. How can we help people

  • Connect Knowledge in meaningful ways?
    • Contextual Information that is surprising and useful
    • Structural Connections that illustrate the connections in a model
  • Help facilitate the building of external models through note taking
  • Store Knowledge such that you can find all the relevant information when searching?
  • Make notes shareable through

Unconventional Storage

  • One form of unconventional storage is showcased in the movie Memento, directed by Christopher Nolan. The main character has important information written on his body as a way to overcome anterograde amnesia.

29 - Core Note Functions in Memory - because note taking is a solution to memory, you can see the four functions of note taking (storing, sorting, selecting, and summarizing) happening in our brain’s system.

Storing

You start out the memory process by storing new information through the process of encoding and storage. You turn information into a visual, auditory, or semantic format then it gets transferred into long-term memory.

Sorting

After it has been stored, the memory consolidates, which is akin to the sorting function of information management. Both are functions done to make storage more efficient and retrieval (search) easier (fact check needed/source).

Selecting

Once a memory has been integrated into long-term storage, you retrieve it when you come across a stimulus that serves as a retrieval cue. In the same way the link serves as a retrieval cue for my notes on retrieval cues.

Summarizing

Overtime our memories re-consolidate, allowing us to forget unimportant details and streamline the memory. People who have extremely good memory, such as Solomon Shereshevsky can easily memorize the contents of a story but struggle with “getting the gist” of it (Myers 2018, pg 895).

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