The core of thinking is writing. Unless you're content with a pat on the back along the lines of "see, I was right all along," you need to be able to put your thoughts into words and develop them through what you've written. Everyone knows how important writing is, and a lot of people care about it.
How do you build writing skill? Isn't it ultimately about reading, writing, and thinking a lot? This is the familiar idea of 다독, 다작, 다상량: read much, write much, think much. Of these, reading a lot is a skill many people have trained. We've been told how important reading is since we were kids, so we practiced it, half under compulsion. It mattered for entrance exams, too. Reading methods are still a popular self-improvement topic, and having read over 100 books in a year is something to brag about. Anyone can read a lot if they set their mind to it.
The problem is writing a lot and thinking a lot. There's no famous methodology or training regimen for writing and thinking more. It's also hard to quantify the way "100 books a year" is, so you can't even tell whether you're doing well. So I wondered what kind of framework there might be for writing and thinking more. To write and think a lot is to think and write at any time, regardless of the occasion. That means putting down in writing the thoughts that come to you throughout your waking hours. We usually call that a memo, or a note.
In other words, a framework for writing and thinking more would have to be one tied to note-taking. Jotting down notes and stopping there isn't enough. You also need a process of fleshing them out and connecting your thoughts to one another. Only then do your thoughts develop and do you discover insights. Following that line of thought, I ended up at the Zettelkasten, which I'll introduce today.
It's a method where you note down your own thoughts and other people's in everyday life, connect those notes, and gather material for writing from the bottom up, then discover a topic later and write. This differs from the top-down method taught in school, where you pick a topic first and then write outline, paragraphs, and sentences in that order.
What Gets Better When You Use a Zettelkasten?
First, it lightens the burden of writing. When we write, we usually go top-down: pick a topic, draft an outline, organize paragraphs, write sentences. The problem is that writing this way often doesn't work. You sit down to write and no ideas come. Picking a topic is a headache, building an outline is hard, and thinking up paragraphs to support the topic is tricky.
The Zettelkasten gathers material from the bottom up. You decide on a topic only once enough insights and material have accumulated, so the burden at the start of writing shrinks. If writing carries some absolute amount of pain, you're sharing it out over time. And since material and paragraphs have already piled up to some degree, writing becomes a matter of assembling what you have, filling gaps, and revising. That is clearly lighter than starting from a blank page.
Second, using the Zettelkasten is itself good writing training. The Zettelkasten demands a lot of writing built on your notes. Writing a lot matters for writing well, and using a Zettelkasten means you're already writing a lot. You end up writing quite a few notes, after all.
Finally, the Zettelkasten is fun. Writing notes with no pressure is fun. So is connecting them. The serendipity of stumbling on unexpected insights as you connect them puts you in a good mood. These days you can even use AI to link similar notes, which is pretty amazing. Writing and connecting notes over a beer after work is genuinely enjoyable.
Types of Notes
The Zettelkasten has three kinds of notes: fleeting notes, where you quickly jot down your own thoughts; literature notes, where you record other people's thoughts; and permanent notes, where you write out your thoughts in a complete form to use in writing later.
Fleeting Notes
A fleeting note is a note where you immediately write down a thought that comes to you in daily life. It doesn't need to be tidy. It only needs to be enough that you'll remember later what it was about. It's for holding something briefly before it becomes a permanent note. Immediacy matters. If you had to boot up a computer and sit down to write a thought down, it could vanish in the meantime. Apps that are excellent for fleeting notes, like Apple Notes or Google Keep, work well, and so do analog notes. KakaoTalk's "send to me" feature is also a great place for quick notes. A fleeting note later becomes a permanent note or gets thrown away.
Literature Notes
A literature note is a note collecting the parts that inspire you as you encounter other people's thinking, in books, YouTube, and so on. Rather than copying and pasting, it's better to put things in your own words wherever you can, since that sticks in memory. You don't have to go overboard, though. A brief summary is enough. And of course, always note the source.
Permanent Notes
A permanent note is a note where you write out a thought in complete form so you can use it in writing later. Looking at your fleeting notes, literature notes, and permanent notes, pick the ones related to your own thoughts and interests, and write them up completely enough that anyone could understand them. One permanent note should hold only one idea. That keeps each thought separate from the others, so connecting the notes can lead you to insights.
Once you've written a thought in complete form, think about which existing literature notes or permanent notes it could connect to. In the process of trying to connect, you can find new insights through unexpected links. It's an artificial imitation of creative thinking. It reminds me of Steve Jobs's "connecting the dots." Connected notes also make it easy to pull related notes together when you write later. This kind of linking was a big problem in the analog era, but in the digital age links make it easy. There are even apps like Obsidian that specialize in connecting notes.
You can connect notes by (1) searching your memory, (2) finding notes through a graph or an index, or (3) finding notes with similar meaning through semantic search like QMD.
Thanks to "connection," permanent notes also give rise to hub notes. A hub note is a note that links to many other notes. It usually becomes a keyword for the topic you're currently digging into. If you're digging into the Zettelkasten, your "Zettelkasten" note would be a hub note. And among the hub notes, the one you're interested in "right now" becomes your entry point. This entry point serves as the way in when you "read" through your notes.
The Zettelkasten Process
The Zettelkasten isn't just a superficial idea of linking notes in an app like Obsidian. It's a bottom-up framework for writing, aimed at producing output. Let me walk through the process, from generating ideas to the final piece of writing.
1. Create Fleeting Notes
When an idea comes to you in daily life, quickly jot it down as a fleeting note. I recommend an app like Google Keep. If you put it on your home screen as a widget, you can write down a thought quickly at any time.
2. Create Literature Notes
If something you read, watch, or hear contains an inspiring idea, restate it in your own words and write it as a literature note. Note the source and put it in your literature note folder. The reading notes or YouTube summaries you already write are literature notes.
3. Create Permanent Notes
You write permanent notes while looking at fleeting notes, literature notes, or existing permanent notes. Write them as if you're making paragraphs to use in a later piece of writing.
3-1. Writing Permanent Notes from Fleeting Notes
Fleeting notes pile up at all hours, so it's best to check them regularly, move them into permanent notes, and delete all the fleeting notes. Every other day, I open Google Keep and Apple Notes, clear them out, and move things into permanent notes.
3-2. Writing Permanent Notes from Literature Notes
When your own thought comes to you while looking at a literature note, make it a permanent note. And link that permanent note to the literature note, to show where the idea came from. I don't do this on a schedule. I do it when I'm digging deep into one topic and going through a lot of material.
3-3. Writing Permanent Notes from Permanent Notes
Using the entry point, the topic you're interested in now, as your base, look through permanent notes and write new ones. When you come back to them after some time, other ideas may occur to you or other connections may show up. A permanent note isn't one you can't edit. If there's something to add, add it.
4. Once You Have Enough, Produce Output
As I said, the Zettelkasten is a framework for output. You can't just keep writing notes forever. Once enough notes have accumulated, you'll have your own distinctive insights, a topic will have taken shape, and paragraphs fit for that topic will have gathered. Stitch them together loosely, and start writing.
Things to Keep in Mind When Using a Zettelkasten
The Zettelkasten process itself is quite simple. But it can get very confusing in practice. That's why there's so much debate around the method. Here I'll point out what I think you should know while using it.
The Zettelkasten Is Less Efficient Than Conventional Top-Down Writing
A bottom-up approach like the Zettelkasten can be less efficient than a well-designed top-down one. Top-down, with clear goals and clear methods, produces the result you want quickly. For example, the Zettelkasten isn't a great fit for a "one blog post a day" challenge based on book reviews. The Zettelkasten does lighten the burden of writing, but it doesn't make you more efficient at an assignment or work document due tomorrow. It's effective over the long run, when you're writing pieces that carry your own insights. For that, gathering lots of notes bottom-up is the better approach.
If It's Not Fun, Don't Do It
You shouldn't force the Zettelkasten. The process itself has no goal you need to achieve right now. So the motivation that keeps you absorbed is mostly "fun." Fleshing out and connecting your own thoughts is fun. But the moment it turns into an obligation like "write 5 notes a day," the fun disappears and so does the absorption, and in the end you can't keep the Zettelkasten going. There's no need to push hard. Just keep at it steadily while enjoying it. Enjoy the process of finding your own insights and your own writing.
You Are the Right Answer
The Zettelkasten method differs from person to person. There are plenty of posts online arguing "you're wrong, I'm right." Content explaining the Zettelkasten also differs a little from one source to the next. This post surely does too. Like GTD, the Zettelkasten is a framework, so it can be personalized. Rather than forcing yourself into a standardized method, find one that suits you, or twist the method a little as you apply it.
- Does writing literature notes feel too grueling? → It's fine to do it sloppily. You don't have to do it for every book, either.
- Feel like permanent notes need a rule, like attaching at least 2 links? → Go ahead, if you have the resources.
- Frameworks can be adapted to your own taste and purpose. What matters is understanding the big picture: gather notes bottom-up and develop them into writing. If you find the way that suits you, it becomes a powerful framework for writing and thinking more.
Furthermore
Here are some materials worth reading.
How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens Needs no introduction. You can't read it just once; you have to read it several times, with time in between. It's criticized as hard to put into practice, but you have to read it to understand the core principles.David Kadavy's Digital Zettelkasten
If you want to see how to use the Zettelkasten in Obsidian, see my book,
세컨드 브레인은 옵시디언
https://zettelkasten.de/introduction/ is good too.What about the Antinet Zettelkasten?
- -> I haven't read it. Of course there's something to gain from reading it, but I don't recommend it. I don't like the author's mindset.
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