Zettelkasten notes
Zettelkasten Note or Zettel is a minimal semantic unit, info-atom and the basic level of the Knowledge Base. The basic rule is
one note – one thought
Notes should be written in an academic (scientific) style1 : so that you can use2 them in the
Content Boxes as it is.
During The Experiment, I decided to keep a length note limit equal to the tweet size3:
280 characters without links
The character limit allows being laser-focused on one thought and keeps Content Boxes straightforward and minimal. But enough to find all the information and links4 you need to dig further5.
Following the 5Ws, one of the values3 is written to note tags in YAML format:
[opening, who, what, when, where, why, how, closing]
Unlike the Ever Green approach, Zettels, in the Knowledge Forging Methodology, are crystallized, mature ideas that rarely change. This is a fundamental difference between PKB and CKB.
A Personal Knowledge Base (PKB) is a collection of your and others’ thoughts for further reflection and getting insights and ideas. I.e., bias toward creativity (creator mode)6. The goals of corporate KB (CKB) are to preserve and transfer already formed, existing knowledge (archivist mode)7.
The ability to write capacious and concise texts is one of the most important skills of a in_progress/Raw/Knowledge Manager ↩︎
The same Zettel can be used in several Content Boxes ↩︎
If there is a reference, notes, clarifying or other information, then I take it out into footnotes. They do not fall within the limit and can often be larger than the note itself ↩︎
Get yourself familiarized with Progressive Summarization: A Practical Technique for Designing Discoverable Notes - Forte Labs to learn how to compress information effectively ↩︎
In other words, a Zettel must contain the minimum necessary but sufficient information. Context and footnotes help to interpret it correctly ↩︎
This does not negate the use of the PKB for memorizing everything you have read, viewed and heard. A good starting point here is How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens: Book Summary ↩︎
I recommend getting acquainted with The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information - Forte Labs to those of my readers who are looking for an approach to organizing their lives and projects (archivist mode). However, PARA is not well suited for creators (creator mode) ↩︎