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Anyone using Zettelkasten?
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Posted by Dr Andus
Apr 12, 2019 at 11:35 AM
MadaboutDana wrote:
>I’d agree that Dynalist is moving in the right direction. Although links
>between individual items is tricky (apart from tags, which work
>extremely well).
What do you find tricky about it?
I only played with the demo version, but I liked the simplicity of the implementation (e.g. that after typing [[ and a few extra characters it brings up suggestions of existing pages/items, and that it hides the markdown syntax once you hit enter.
Posted by Simon
Apr 12, 2019 at 05:14 PM
Dr Andus wrote:
Simon wrote:
>>I’ve debated what I really need. The following would be ideal:
>>- Wiki links
>>- Tags
>>- Categories
>>- Silver Searcher like capability.
>>- Markdown styling
>
>I haven’t fully explored it yet, but it seems to me that Dynalist would
>meet almost all of the above. You could use @ for tags and ‘# for
>categories, if you must distinguish between those two.
Dynalist is good, but lousy for export. If you have to share (without getting people to create a Dynalist account) there is a lot of cleanup needed to the text. I’ve found this quite problematic as I need to continually edit some documents and share the update. I have to remove # and @ and reformat !(2019-0412) dates to something more acceptable and change markdown link etc. This adds a lot of friction when you have a lot of documents.
Posted by Hugh
Apr 12, 2019 at 07:23 PM
When the OP asked “Anyone using Zettelkasten?”, was he/you referring to the methodology or to an application? Because I have a Zettelkasten app on my Mac machine. It was developed by Daniel Lüdecke four years ago, and I seem to remember Christian Tietze - who may also have been involved - writing about it here.
When I first downloaded it I used it frequently, but much less so in the last two or three years when I’ve made much greater use of DevonThink Pro Office and Tinderbox.
Posted by nathanb
Apr 12, 2019 at 08:15 PM
I don’t use an ubiquitous Zettelkasten, where every topic has a zettel code, but I’m a fan of using Z-codes as robust linking between systems. I have a Z-code generator on hotkey, just a date-time stamp that I know will be unique. Now my notes, tasks, filenames, calendar, etc are littered with these Z-codes which are simply two way links. As long as I NEVER delete or change these codes as I find them, my ‘links’ stay good, even if I completely re-arrange one system (which usually breaks one-way links) or switch entire platforms.
Examples:
Taking notes generate a lot of action items. I just ‘tag’ that task within my notes with a Z-code, then add that task to my task manager with the same Z-code. Within my notes, the z-code is a signal that this particular inline task is managed within my to-do lists. Within my tasks, when I complete that one, I can search for it’s original home within my notes and dive back in there to see if there is more followup tasks to be activated.
It’s also a nice way to link to files and without worrying about breaking links by renaming files (except for the Zxxx part) or re-structuring directories.
It just relies on search, which is easy. Even if I completely forget the context and ecosystem of a Z-code reference, it’s usually not more than 3 quick searches away. That’s real handy for things you don’t deal with very often. Like reviewing life insurance every year (or five, whatever). I can keep excel files and pdf scans within a file system, notes and thoughts within notes, etc and a year later the Zettel-codes tying these elements together still let me find the references. Even if I’ve completely changed all the platforms, locations, and hierarchies since last time I messed with it.
Of course it’s kind of old school and clunky. But CRIMPers know the frustrating trade off between interconnectability and fragility of our information systems. I’m still looking for that Ferrari of a solution, but until then, plunking z-codes throughout my digital world has proven to be a very reliable daily driver.
Posted by Simon
Apr 13, 2019 at 02:34 PM
I was not really gripped by linking in the Zetelkasten method. I appreciate that Luhmann didn’t really have any option when working on card, but with advanced searches these are a moot point for me. I much prefer tags as I can tag everything with multiple tags and narrow down what I’m looking for.
If Luhmann’s ZK were all his cards is mine all the data on my hard disk? He accessed it only through the linking method or memory, but I can access mine via, dates, folders, tags and searches. Plus mine contains, images, videos and other types he could never have included.
Rather than replicating a limited system restricted by technology and trying to replicate it on more advanced technology, the more imprtant lesson from Luhmann in my opinion is the ability to connect your data in some way. To this end we have much more scope than he ever had. Devonthink is a phenomenal ZK out of the box. Not only does it store all types of data, it allows you to add meta data and search for connected words. It’s search is also something beyond Luhmann. He could never look through his ZK to find “term1 NEXT/8 term2” (find term1 one within 8 words of term2).
Perhaps if Luhmann had today’s technology he wouldn’t use his ZK?