[[Sönke Ahrens]] [[lit/kindle/How to Take Smart Notes|Highlights]] *How to Take Smart Notes* is for academics, students and non-fiction writers whose primary output is writing and whose primary mode of work is research, learning or studying. To Ahrens, good writing is based on good note taking (itself a form of writing). "Writing is not what follows research, learning or studying, it is the *medium* of all this work." Specifically, writing is the work of taking notes in your own words then connecting and recombined them to form a final product. *How to Take Smart Notes* introduces a simple, trusted system that promises to overcome struggles with motivation, unlock states of flow, eliminate the need for complex project plans, and create novel ideas--the Zettlekasten system. ## Zettlekasten The Zettlekasten system was invented by German sociologist Niklas Luhmann in the 1960s. He captured notes on index cards, which he stored in a slip-box, in an order that provided for the development of ideas over time and the connection of disparate ideas to form novel ones. His system allowed him to publish prodigiously (58 books, hundreds of articles) over his 30 year career. He did not organize his notes by topic, but rather by linking one note to the next using a numbering system. A new idea might be numbered 22. The next related note would be 22a. He would then alternate numbering and lettering to support branching patterns in the links from idea to idea. An index helped him find notes again. Only the main entry point to the chain of thought would be on the index. Index entries were keywords, such as "computation, history of". From that note he could find the train of thought on which he wanted to build with a new note. When needed he would create an entry note that summarized and linked to other notes, especially to bring together disparate content. ## Implementing a Zettlekasten Ahrens prescription for a Zettlekasten system is, in my opinion, fairly ambiguous and tailored to his field of sociology. There are many great resources online for developing a Zettlekasten. It's likely that everyone's Zettlekasten would look slightly different even if implemented as faithfully as possible to Luhmann's original system, depending on their choice of technology, field of study, purpose for the Zettlekasten, and personal preferences. The basic idea is to capture fleeting notes, literature notes and project notes in a temporary format, reword those ideas to permanent notes, and store only the permanent notes in a trusted system. Create links between permanent notes. Make sure you can find the note later by linking it in the index or linking it from a note that is already linked in the index. Fleeting notes capture anything that comes to mind. Literature notes capture ideas from other people's work. Keep this simple: "on page X it says Y". Project notes contain information related to a project. Permanent notes should be written in your own words with full sentences as though written for someone else and contain any relevant references. The literature notes and project notes can be stored in an archive; fleeting notes are discarded. To develop a piece of writing, start by exploring within your system. Decide on a topic based on what you have. Re-organize the notes into an outline, then translate them into a single draft. Look for holes and inconsistencies to research more or adapt the argument. Permanent notes should be "atomic", in that they contain one idea per each. That will make connecting ideas easier. In a software-based slip-box, Ahrens recommends each note be no longer than the length of the screen so that no scrolling is required to read the entire note. Do not fall for the trap of collecting every thought or piece of content you encounter. "The idea is not to collect but to develop ideas, arguments and discussions." On the other hand, do not discount notes that are only tangentially related provided they interest you. Don't organize notes around projects; if you do, you'll need to start from scratch with each new project. Finally, don't allow fleeting notes to accumulate into chaos; you must process ideas into the slip-box regularly. Avoiding these pitfalls will ensure that the more notes you collect the better your system will be, not vice-versa. ## Benefits Ahrens provides an overview on literature that shows that willpower is a limited resource that depletes quickly and cannot be counted on for productivity. > Studies on highly successful people have proven again and again that success is not the result of strong willpower and the ability to overcome resistance, but rather the result of smart working environments that avoid resistance in the first place. Luhmann used his slip-box to avoid the constraint of willpower, stating “I only do what is easy. I only write when I immediately know how to do it. If I falter for a moment, I put the matter aside and do something else.” A good notetaking system can unlock the flow state and obviate the need for appeals to willpower or complex project plans. > Having a clear structure to work in is completely different from making plans about something. If you make a plan, you impose a structure on yourself; it makes you inflexible. To keep going according to plan, you have to push yourself and employ willpower. This is not only demotivating, but also unsuitable for an open-ended process like research, thinking or studying in general, where we have to adjust our next steps with every new insight, understanding or achievement – which we ideally have on a regular basis and not just as an exception. Instead of making plans, the slip-box supports flexibility, which is necessary for creative problem solving. > “Specifically, the problem-solving behavior of eminent scientists can alternate between extraordinary levels of focus on specific concepts and playful exploration of ideas” (Vartanian 2009, 57). Working in the slip-box also supports learning. As we add and re-formulate notes in the slip-box we are literally learning with the slip-box. The notes become "hooks" in a latticework of mental models which makes it easier to learn and remember. This type of flexible system supports the bottom-up development of ideas which may lead to emergent discoveries through connection of ideas across concepts or the interrogation of inconsistencies that will appear. "Developing arguments and ideas bottom-up instead of top-down is the first and most important step to opening ourselves up for insight." ## Critique Ahrens contribution to note taking and personal knowledge management with *How to Take Smart Notes* is an important one. He improves upon the GTD and PARA approaches by arguing against a project-based organizational method towards a more flexible "knowledge base" approach. However, the focus on permanent notes minimizes the role of reference material in the development of personal knowledge. In technical fields, a wiki-style reference system is critical. The key to a personal wiki, unlike a public one like Wikipedia, is that developing the content of the wiki, even if the ideas are not novel at all, is a great way to test and cement understanding (see [[Feynman technique]]). A note taking system that combines a wiki-style reference system with an individual's unique point of view is going to look slightly different than a straightforward slip-box of permanent notes.