34 - Hubs are collections of note sequences centered around a theme. You create a hub once you notice a bunch of notes in your index centered around a topic.
An example in my own zettelkasten is I had the follow index entries
Note Taking, Problems in
Note Functions, Core
History of Note Taking
Public Note Repositories
Ideal Note Taking Program
Once I notice 5-10 notes centering around a certain topic (e.g. Note Taking) I will excise them out the index into their own note and then link that new hub note to the index.
It is the type of knowledge you typically want to acquire because it is just more useful as you can apply it to a wider set of situations (e.g. General Thinking Concepts).
40 - Generalization “is the process in which you ignore the details to reveal a deeper structure. The term overlaps with abstraction, conceptualization, inductive reasoning, modeling, theorization, categorization, conclusion, unification, colligation, de-concretization, pattern extraction, and pattern separation” (Wozniak 2020).
You also see this process happening with memory, where information disappears as you go from sensory memory → working/short term memory → long-term storage → retrieval from long term storage. See Memory Consolidation.
41 - Applicability refers to the utility of a rule or model (Wozniak 2020), how much use you can get out of it. You create a mental model of the inside of a car such that when you get into someone elses car you are still able to drive it. You don’t get bogged down in the details and become unable to drive it because the steering wheel is a different color from yours.
You have to be careful though because if knowledge becomes too abstract than it loses its meaning and ceases to be applicable. If I’ve removed so many details that you can’t make sense of some information then it is of no use.
43 - Concept is “a generalization of a set of objects/nouns. It overlaps with idea, entity, notion, group, etc.” (Wozniak 2020). Concepts allow you to work with new but familiar objects because you can match them to the “prototypical example” and immediately gain information about them.
If all you’ve used in your life are kitchen table and rocking chairs, then you don’t suddenly become unable to sit when presented with a computer chair. You are able to successfully adapt to the new chair because you have the concept of a chair to work with.
2. in conditioning, a class of stimuli to which an organism responds in a similar or identical manner (see stimulus generalization) and that the organism discriminates from other classes. —conceptualadj.
Wikipedia Definition
Concepts are defined as abstractideas or general notions that occur in the mind, in speech, or in thought. They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks of thoughts and beliefs. They play an important role in all aspects of cognition.
In contemporary philosophy, there are at least three prevailing ways to understand what a concept is:[4]
Concepts as mental representations, where concepts are entities that exist in the mind (mental objects)
Concepts as abilities, where concepts are abilities peculiar to cognitive agents (mental states)
Concepts can be organized into a hierarchy, higher levels of which are termed “superordinate” and lower levels termed “subordinate”. Additionally, there is the “basic” or “middle” level at which people will most readily categorize a concept.[5] For example, a basic-level concept would be “chair”, with its superordinate, “furniture”, and its subordinate, “easy chair”.
When the mind makes a generalization such as the concept of tree , it extracts similarities from numerous examples; the simplification enables higher-level thinking.
A concept is instantiated (reified) by all of its actual or potential instances, whether these are things in the real world or other ideas.
When the mind makes a generalization such as the concept of tree, it extracts similarities from numerous examples; the simplification enables higher-level thinking.
Philosophy An idea or mental image which corresponds to some distinct entity or class of entities, or to its essential features, or determines the application of a term (especially a predicate), and thus plays a part in the use of reason or language.
44 - Model is a “set of rules that apply to a specific phenomenon. It overlaps with theory, metaphor, opinion, schema, view, (concept) map, and more” (Wozniak 2020).
When we take information through the process of generalization and use structure building, we create a mental model of the phenomenon. This process distills the most important parts of the model, which we can then use to carry out a task (e.g. drive a car to work) or solve a problem (e.g. got a flat tire on a car) in the future.
45 - Rule is " : a generalization of an observed regularity. It overlaps with formula, theorem, principle, proposition, law, statement, and more." (Wozniak 2020).
You use rules to get a desired outcome because they point you towards an “action → outcome” relationship that repeats. So you can rely on the rule when you make decisions or act in the world.
When you combine a set of rules you create a model, which allows you to work with a multifaceted phenomenon. See 10e1 - Food Rules.
46 - CSS (cascading style sheets) are special files typically used to style websites. You can use a CSS file to style Obsidian, which is a big plus for me because I am a stickler about visuals/design.
48 - Zettelkasten Feedback Loop involves structure building mental models in your zettelkasten over a long period of time through reading multiple books.
Developing storytelling ability through Zettelkasten - 12a1
Developing stories themselves through Zettelkasten - 12a1a
Zettelkasten for Scientists - 12a1b
Zettelkasten for Self Improvement - 12a1c
Zettelkasten for Programmers - 12a1d
Zettelkasten for Students - 12a1e
Zettelkasten for Laywers - 12a1f
The point of this is that you further develop ideas over a long period of time. Why do we do this?
49 - Developing a Model of Storytelling w/ Zettelkasten - if you are a writer or screenwriter, you can use the zettelkasten to develop an external model of “what makes a good story” and “why we tell stories” over a span of 14 years (or lifetime because your zettelkasten doesn’t disappear).
Example Timeline
2005 - Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need - You read your first book on storytelling while taking a class on screen writing in college and build a basic model around how to tell a good story.
2009 - Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting - Four years later you come across another book on screenwriting and add information from it that is new and enriches your model developed back in 2005.
2012 - The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human - same process as before, but instead this time you are fleshing out the reasons why we like story more so than what makes a good story.
2015 - Screen Writing 101 by Film Crit Hulk
2019 - The Science of Storytelling - In a sense this is a good book that you could develop in the zettelkasten because it draws heavily on many different fields of social science to explain “the science of storytelling”. So you could imagine the author reading different social science books, textbooks, and research papers over the years. Then when he hit a critical mass of notes around the subject “science behind storytelling”, he coalesced them and wrote a book about it.
During this time, you can also read other nonfiction books, integrating their lessons on society and human nature into your notes on how stories work
50 - Connections aren’t Immediate. New knowledge often comes from the interaction between your existing knowledge base and what you learn. You will not always have an aha moment during a research project but you perhaps may have it 2 years later when a new piece of information allows you to see a connection that you hadn’t before. This is one of the reasons for why the zettelkasten works so well.
It gives you layers of structure that allow for information to connected that are seperated by strectches of time.
The creative productivity project is a public notes collection I’m creating around giving people models that they can use to improve different aspects of their life. It is a framework focused around developing the environment and skills needed for creative problem solving, which in turn can be applied to problems in your own life, your community, and society at large.
The project centers around five major themes. The first theme is health because you will not be productive unless you get your physical and mental health in order. The second theme is productivity because nothing happens unless you put in the hours and do the work. This means developing good habits and routines. The third theme is learning because you need an existing knowledge base to bounce new information off in order to generate creative ideas. The fourth theme creative productivity itself, which is learning how to generate new ideas and evaluate them. The final theme is about learning how to act on your creative solution to a problem. This means either being able to effectively communicate the solution to others and mobilize people if necessary.
Note - the Github link above is from an outdated version. I am currently developing it privately within my Obsidian Vault until it reaches a level of critical mass or I find a good way to publish it (e.g. Obsidian Publish or Neuron).
52 - Structure Building Framework lays out the mental processes used to understand and create meaning out of text. You do this through creating mental structures out of the information you are studying. When done properly, through rule learning, you are taking the most salient points from a text and relating them to each other with hierarchies and webs of knowledge, while ignoring the irrelevant details.
For example, if you think of a medieval society, their exists vertical relationships(king and his subjects) and horizontal ones(different guilds operating in a town).
53 - Storing is the process of recording information for future reference. The two important aspects of storage are the medium and workflow. The medium is where you store your notes. Do you write it on a clay tablet, piece of papyrus, note card, or note taking app? The workflow is the process you stick to for recording your notes and any rules you follow. In the zettelkasten, a workflow rule would be the principle of atomicity, where you keep a note small enough to allow an idea to be referenced elsewhere. See 2 - Note Size.
5a1 - Evolution of Storage - new mediums of storage drove [[infoglut]] which in turn drove new methods of [[sortig]], [[summarizing]], and [[selecitng]].
54 - Ray Dalio Archtypes - Ray Dalio has a similar process to what I had in mind for developing external models within the zettelkasten. Instead of calling his maps of reality models like I do, he uses archtypes. Here is a explanation from him
“Through my research I saw that there were many cases of the same type of thing happening (e.g., depressions) and that by studying them just like a doctor studies many cases of a particular type of disease, I could gain a deeper understanding of how they work. The way I work is to study as many of the important cases of a particular thing I can find and then to form a picture of a typical one, which I call an archetype. The archetype helps me see the cause-effect relationships that drive how these cases typically progress. Then I compare how the specific cases transpire relative to the archetypical one to understand what causes the differences between each case and the archetype. This process helps me refine my understanding of the cause-effect relationships to the point where I can create decision-making rules in the form of “if/then” statements—i.e., if X happens, then make Y bet. Then I watch actual events transpire relative to that template and what we are expecting. I do these things in a very systematic way with my partners at Bridgewater Associates.[1a] If events are on track we continue to bet on what typically comes next, and if events start to deviate we try to understand why and course correct.”
