The core of thinking is writing. Unless all you want is to pat yourself on the back with a "See, I was right all along," you need to be able to express your thoughts and develop them through what you write. Everyone knows how important writing is, and plenty of people care about it.
How do you build writing skill? Isn't it ultimately a matter of reading a lot, writing a lot, and thinking a lot? There's a well-known Korean saying for this: 다독·다작·다상량, "read much, write much, think much." Of the three, reading a lot is the ability people have trained the most. The importance of reading has been drilled into us since childhood, so most of us practiced it, half under compulsion. It mattered for school entrance exams, too. Reading methods are still a popular topic in self-improvement, and having read more than 100 books in a year is one of those things people 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 in volume. Unlike "100 books a year," it's hard to put a number on, so you can't even tell whether you're doing well. That made me wonder what kind of framework might exist for writing more and thinking more. To write and think a lot is to think and write at all hours. That means putting into words every thought that surfaces while you're awake. We usually call that a memo, or a note.
So a framework for writing more and thinking more is probably a framework built around notes. Jotting down notes and stopping there isn't enough. You also need a process for fleshing them out and connecting your thoughts to each other. Only then do your ideas develop and insights emerge. Following that line of thought, I ended up at the Zettelkasten I'm introducing today.
You jot down notes on your own thoughts and other people's thoughts as you go and link them together. You gather material bottom-up, discover a theme later, and then write. This differs from the top-down approach taught in school, where you pick a topic first and then write the outline, paragraphs, and sentences in that order.
What Gets Better with Zettelkasten?
First, it lightens the burden of writing. We usually write top-down: pick a topic, draft an outline, structure the paragraphs, write the sentences. The problem is that writing this way often stalls. You sit down to write and no ideas come. Picking a topic is a headache, building an outline is hard, and coming up with paragraphs that support the topic is tricky.
Zettelkasten gathers material bottom-up. You decide on a topic only once enough insights and material have accumulated, so the pressure at the start of writing eases. If writing comes with a certain unavoidable pain, you're sharing out the load. And since material and paragraphs have already piled up to some extent, writing becomes a matter of assembling what you have, filling gaps, and revising. The burden is clearly lighter than starting from a blank page.
Second, using Zettelkasten is itself good writing training. Zettelkasten demands a lot of writing built on your notes. Writing a lot is important for good writing, and using Zettelkasten means you're already writing a lot. You end up writing quite a few notes, after all.
Finally, Zettelkasten is fun. The process of writing notes with no pressure is fun. So is linking them. The serendipity of stumbling on unexpected insights while linking puts you in a good mood. These days you can even use AI to link similar notes, which is pretty amazing. Writing and linking notes over a beer after work is genuinely enjoyable.
Types of Notes
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 a thought completely so you can use it in your writing later.
Fleeting Notes
A fleeting note is a note where you immediately write down a thought that occurs to you in daily life. It doesn't need to be tidy. It only needs to be enough to remind you later what it was about. It's a temporary holding place before you turn it into a permanent note. Immediacy matters. If you had to boot up a computer and sit down just to record a thought, it could vanish in the meantime. Apps that excel at quick notes, like Apple Notes or Google Keep, work well, and so do analog notes. KakaoTalk's "Send to Me" is also a great place for fleeting notes. A fleeting note eventually becomes a permanent note or gets thrown away.
Literature Notes
A literature note is a note where you collect the parts that inspire you as you encounter other people's thoughts, in books, on YouTube, and so on. Rather than copying and pasting, it's better to put things in your own words whenever you can, since that sticks in memory. You don't need 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 completely so you can use it in your writing later. Looking through your fleeting, literature, and permanent notes, pick the ones connected to your own thoughts and interests and write them up completely enough that anyone could understand them. A single permanent note should hold just one thought. Only then are thoughts separated from note to note, so that linking notes can lead you to insights.
Once you've written a thought completely, consider which existing literature or permanent notes it could connect to. In the course of trying to connect, you can discover new insights through unexpected links. It's an artificial imitation of creative thinking. It reminds me of Steve Jobs's "connecting the dots." Links also make it easy to pull in related notes all at once when you write later. In the analog era, connecting notes was a big problem, but in the digital age links make it easy. There are even apps like Obsidian that specialize in connecting notes.
There are three ways to connect: (1) connect from memory, (2) find notes through a graph or an index and connect them, or (3) use semantic search like QMD to find notes with similar meaning and connect them.
Thanks to "connection," hub notes also appear among permanent notes. A hub note is a note that links many notes together. It's usually a keyword for the topic you're currently digging into. If you're digging into Zettelkasten, the "Zettelkasten" note would be a hub note. And among hub notes, the one you're interested in "right now" becomes an entry point. This entry point serves as the starting point for the "reading" process of your notes.
The Zettelkasten Process
Zettelkasten isn't merely a matter of superficially linking notes in an app like Obsidian. It's a bottom-up writing framework for producing output. Let me walk through the process, from generating ideas to the final piece of writing.
1. Create Fleeting Notes
When an idea strikes in daily life, jot it down quickly 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 anytime.
2. Create Literature Notes
If something you read, watch, or listen to contains an inspiring idea, put that idea into your own words and write it as a literature note. Record the source and file it in your literature note collection. The reading notes or YouTube summary notes you already keep are literature notes.
3. Create Permanent Notes
You write permanent notes while looking at fleeting notes, literature notes, or existing permanent notes. Think of it as making paragraphs you'll use when you write later.
3-1. Write Permanent Notes from Fleeting Notes
Fleeting notes get created at all hours, so it's best to check them periodically, move them into permanent notes, and delete the fleeting notes entirely. Every other day, I open Google Keep and Apple Notes, clear them out, and move the contents into permanent notes.
3-2. Write Permanent Notes from Literature Notes
When a thought of your own comes up while looking at a literature note, turn it into a permanent note. And link that permanent note to the literature note, to record where the idea came from. I don't do this on a regular schedule. I do it when I'm digging deep into a topic and going through a lot of material.
3-3. Write Permanent Notes from Permanent Notes
Using your entry point, the topic you're interested in right now, as the basis, write new permanent notes while looking at existing ones. When you revisit them after some time has passed, you'll come up with other ideas or see other connections. Being "permanent" doesn't mean you can't edit an existing permanent note. If there's something to add, add it.
4. Produce Output Once You Have Enough Notes
As I said, 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 theme will have emerged, and paragraphs suited to that theme will have piled up. Loosely weave these together and start writing.
Things to Keep in Mind When Using Zettelkasten
The Zettelkasten process itself is very simple. But it can feel very confusing in practice, which is why there's so much debate about the methodology. Here I'll point out what I think you should know when using it.
Zettelkasten Is Less Efficient than Traditional Top-Down Writing
A bottom-up approach like Zettelkasten can be less efficient than a well-designed top-down one. Top-down, with clear goals and clear methods, produces the desired result quickly. For example, Zettelkasten isn't well suited to a challenge like one blog post a day of book reviews. Zettelkasten does lighten the burden of writing, but it won't make you more efficient at an assignment due tomorrow or at writing for work. It's effective over the long term, when you're writing pieces that carry your own insights. For that, gathering lots of notes bottom-up is the way to go.
If It Isn't Fun, Don't Do It
You shouldn't force Zettelkasten. The process has no immediate goal to achieve. So the motivation that keeps you absorbed is mostly "fun." Fleshing out and connecting your 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 eventually you can't sustain Zettelkasten. There's no need to grind. Just keep at it steadily while enjoying it. Enjoy the process of finding your own insights and writing.
You Are the Right Answer
Zettelkasten methodology differs from person to person. On the internet, there are plenty of posts arguing "you're wrong, I'm right." Content explaining Zettelkasten also differs a little from one to the next. This post is probably no exception. Like GTD, Zettelkasten is a framework, so it can be personalized. Rather than forcing yourself into a standardized method, find the one that suits you, or twist the methodology a little to apply it your way.
- Feel like writing literature notes is too grueling? → Do it sloppily. You don't need to do it for every book, either.
- Feel like permanent notes need rules, like attaching at least two links? → That's fine too, if you have the resources.
- Adapt the framework to your own tastes and goals. What matters is understanding the big picture: gathering notes bottom-up and developing them into writing. If you find the method that suits you, it will become a powerful framework for writing more and thinking more.
Furthermore
Here are some materials worth reading.
숀케 아렌스의 제텔카스텐 (Sönke Ahrens's How to Take Smart Notes) 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 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 be gained from reading it, but I don't recommend it. I don't like the author's mindset.
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