A couple thoughts have bubbled up…but first, getting on the same page.
There can be basically 3 levels of notes in a digital mass of notes:
- Notes
- Higher-order notes (like MOCs)
- A top note (like an Index note)
These are different levels of “emergence”, which implies that MOCs and the Index actually become something greater than the sum of their parts.
For the sake of not getting bogged down, for the next couple paragraphs let’s agree that we often find meaning by just doing things—then adjusting by either doing more of that kind of thing, or doing a different kind of thing.
So if we spend time in our PKM system, it should naturally evolve to areas of personally meaningful pursuit. I would even argue that just the very act of trying to make “atomic/evergreen/dynamic” notes and MOCs creates meaning.
That’s because it forces many questions to be asked. Many of those questions explicitly or implicitly connect to meaning: “What is the idea here?”, “What is meaningful here?”, “Is this two ideas or one?”, “Why is this important? What does this mean to me?”, “What relates to this?”
Sometimes we are intentional about finding meaning. Cue the angsty existential walk in nature asking “What is the meaning of life?!” (TOP-DOWN).
Sometimes meaning bubbles up from just living and doing. (BOTTOMS-UP)
Despite our best efforts—meaning happens fluidly.
In your Dynamic Note Mass, what does that look like?
- Sometimes bottoms-up creates meaning:
Note » MOC » Index - Sometimes top-down creates meaning:
Index » MOC » Note - Sometimes middle-out creates meaning:
MOC » Note, andMOC » Index
I celebrate all three.