174 - Zettelkasten is Learning - learning is essentially the process of taking in new information, processing it for long term storage, and tying it to your prior knowledge.
Learning, when done right, is going beyond just rote memorization. You are structure building mental models by combining the new information in front of you with what you already know. In Bloom’s Taxonomy Revised, the cognitive processes involved in learning are: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating.
If you were to map the cognitive processes to the zettelkasten:
- Remember - basic storage and retrieval ability in the zettelkasten. You can type up a note and then find it again through the file explorer or search function.
- Understand - a topic in the zettelkasten through the creation of notes and interlinking them, such that you link to the wider context or topics. You can also facilitate understanding by removing the immediate context of a concept and writing it in your own words.
- Apply - include possible applications of a concept to help facilitate understanding.
- Analyze - further develop ideas in your zettelkasten by breaking down concepts into their constituent parts
- Evaluate claims and arguments within a zettelkasten by collecting evidence and counter evidence over a long period of time.
- Create new ideas in the zettelkasten by comparing two notes and thinking about how they might be related or can be “remixed”.