up:: [[Zettelkasten]] Tags:: #🌿 # Benefits of the zettelkasten notetaking system ### Top Down and Bottom Up Thinking Notetaking top down by coming to your zettelkasten with a research question already in mind. Then you look for notes in your system relevant to the question at hand. But you can also come at your zettelkasten with a bottom up approach. Instead of asking a research question, you ask your zettelkasten what you would like to research by analyzing the clumps and connections between notes, something I will discuss how to do more effectively later on. ### Fights Confirmation Bias By taking a bottom up approach to notetaking we can potentially fight [[Confirmation bias]] we don't come in with a precrafted research question looking to confirm something. Rather, we ask our zettelkasten what our research so far is telling us. ### Fights Perfectionism [[Treating the note as the fundamental unit of research output fights perfectionism]]. Many academics I know can feel unproductive during the literature review stage of research. But if you are taking notes during your research--in your own words (see: [[Notemaking]])--then you are by definition still being productive. How is an article made? By assembling notes together because [[The creative process is an act of assemblage]]. If follows then that the creation, connecting, and assembling of notes is the fundamental part of the writing process itself. ### Creates a Unique Knowledge Base The way you connect ideas together will naturally differ from person to person because of your unique [[Ideaverse]]. You have an entirely different perspective which grows from your unique genetics and background. This allows you to create your own [[Infinite library]] and avoid falling into the trap of [[Cookie Cutter Student]], the student who only follows [[Notetaking]] principles rather than [[Notemaking]]. This leads to their knowledge base becoming cookie cutter versions of all the other students taking notes in the same way. ### Allows Your Past, Present, and Future Selves to Work Together [[We are unable to judge the quality of an idea at one point in time]]. Some ideas only show themselves to be insightful or relevant to our other knowledge over time. Other times we will have no idea why we captured something after seeing it again. This is why when initially reading something, I believe you should highlight wherever resonates with you (to a certain point to avoid [[Capture bloat]]) even if you don’t know why it does yet. The ideas that get seen by your future self later on will be the truly insightful ones that benefited from [[The Lindy Effect]]. The zettelkasten method of notetaking naturally lets you see ideas over periods of time. If you're doing it correctly than you are turning fleeting and literature notes into atomic/zettels into evergreen/permanent notes into MOCs which naturally exposes you to ideas over and over again. ### Digital Tools Make it Easier Than Ever Before Digital wikipedia style notetaking systems like Obsidian, Roam Research, and Logseq allow you to create the "slip boxes" or notes used by Luhman digitally. If you want to connect a note to another note you don't have to go through the painstaking process of physically finding it in your zettelkasten and writing down the connection. Plus they also bring with them a ton of powerful other capabilities like the insane customizability from community plug ins in Obsidian. Related: ___ # Resources