number of entries

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Posted by alexxx
Apr 14, 2014 at 09:22 AM

I read in some place (damn I forgot to save the reference) that increasing the number of entries one inserts in a zettel/mind manager/whatever, there is a threshold beyond which we can observe some kind of qualitative change, in terms of what we insert vs. what we get out of the system.
Meaning, I guess, that our system really starts becoming useful in making both store&recall; our materials, but also in letting us discover new links and hindsights in what we write.

So I wanted - just curious - to ask you the order of magnitude of the number of entries you inserted in your favorite mind manager (in my case: 620)

Posted by Dr Andus
Apr 14, 2014 at 10:38 AM

alexxx wrote:
I read in some place (damn I forgot to save the reference) that
>increasing the number of entries one inserts in a zettel/mind
>manager/whatever, there is a threshold beyond which we can observe some
>kind of qualitative change, in terms of what we insert vs. what we get
>out of the system.
>Meaning, I guess, that our system really starts becoming useful in
>making both store&recall; our materials, but also in letting us discover
>new links and hindsights in what we write.

It sounds like you might be referring to Manfred Kuehn’s description of Luhmann’s system of note-taking:

“When we consult this external or artificial memory, we will often be surprised by what we find. In fact, the more information we have fed into the system, the more we will be surprised.”

http://www.connectedtext.com/manfred.php

>So I wanted - just curious - to ask you the order of magnitude of the
>number of entries you inserted in your favorite mind manager (in my
>case: 620)

I recall Manfred saying somewhere that he had over a thousand or more notes in CT. I haven’t got to that point yet in mine.

Incidentally, Christian Tietze has just mentioned recently that he as over 3000 notes in his nVALT system:

http://christiantietze.de/posts/2014/04/nvalt-zettelkasten-implementation/

Posted by Dr Andus
Apr 14, 2014 at 07:37 PM

Dr Andus wrote:
>I recall Manfred saying somewhere that he had over a thousand or more
>notes in CT. I haven’t got to that point yet in mine.

Manfred informs me that he has nearly 10,000 items in his main CT notes database, and another 3000 in his other CT databases.

Posted by quant
Apr 14, 2014 at 08:34 PM

I have around 3000. What of find is that at this stage it often happens that I’m going to add new item but I recall that I might already have something similar, which often turns out to be the case, so instead of adding new item I add a bit of info to existing ones, or refactor some items or add links between items. So at this stage (about 7y old db), the database is not growing that much, but rather improving in quality by restructuring and adding links.

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