3 ms·

I’ve tried Zettelkasten for about a year now - it’s a massive time sink, and I’m not sure I’ve seen enough fruits to be worth it, to be honest. But I also don’

by ar_lan 4y ago

I’ve tried Zettelkasten for about a year now - it’s a massive time sink, and I’m not sure I’ve seen enough fruits to be worth it, to be honest. But I also don’t publish writing so maybe that’s my fault!

iLoveOncall 4y ago
> But I also don’t publish writing so maybe that’s my fault! My understanding is that it's indeed 100% pointless if you don't use it with the specific goal to publish.
- ar_lan 4y ago
  I wouldn’t say that - it’s been effective for some of my designs, and I’ve referred to notes for small hacks I’ve acquired, but it’s inefficient IMHO.
- TurkishPoptart 4y ago
  I thought the whole point was that you're organizing your thoughts and ideas across connected notes. I didn't think it required publishing. Got any more info on this? I want to publish someday
  - iLoveOncall 4y ago
    > I thought the whole point was that you're organizing your thoughts and ideas across connected notes. I think the whole point is that you're NOT organizing :D You end up sequencing the notes under a main line of thought per topic, but the idea is that the connections between your notes help you discover new unforeseen connections. > I didn't think it required publishing. I don't think it requires it either, but it seems like it's a waste of effort if you don't want to publish the product of your "notes" at some point. The method asks that you write the notes in a publishable state, so you need to invest time to write like this. This time improves the form of the content, but not the content itself, and if your goal is only to remember or learn, then it's the content that you care about, and a lower quality edit would also do the job. --- It is "sold" as a general productivity method, highlighting the fact that Luhmann (the creator) published 50+ books and 600+ articles in his life. I believe it is a publishing productivity method. I still think it must be beneficial, but the question is are you able to keep up with the effort required if you don't have this end goal of publishing your writings? I'm not sure I do. When it comes to resources there are discussions about that on the subreddit. I can't find one I had in mind but this one covers that: https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/yc35nl/in_which_situations_should_i_not_use_zettelkasten/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/yc35nl/in_whi...
    - ar_lan 4y ago
      > I still think it must be beneficial, but the question is are you able to keep up with the effort required if you don't have this end goal of publishing your writings? I'm not sure I do. This is the exact conclusion I came to. Honestly, a personal wiki seems better in this regard.

by ar_lan 4y ago

iLoveOncall 4y ago

> But I also don’t publish writing so maybe that’s my fault! My understanding is that it's indeed 100% pointless if you don't use it with the specific goal to publish.

ar_lan 4y ago
I wouldn’t say that - it’s been effective for some of my designs, and I’ve referred to notes for small hacks I’ve acquired, but it’s inefficient IMHO.
TurkishPoptart 4y ago
I thought the whole point was that you're organizing your thoughts and ideas across connected notes. I didn't think it required publishing. Got any more info on this? I want to publish someday
- iLoveOncall 4y ago
  > I thought the whole point was that you're organizing your thoughts and ideas across connected notes. I think the whole point is that you're NOT organizing :D You end up sequencing the notes under a main line of thought per topic, but the idea is that the connections between your notes help you discover new unforeseen connections. > I didn't think it required publishing. I don't think it requires it either, but it seems like it's a waste of effort if you don't want to publish the product of your "notes" at some point. The method asks that you write the notes in a publishable state, so you need to invest time to write like this. This time improves the form of the content, but not the content itself, and if your goal is only to remember or learn, then it's the content that you care about, and a lower quality edit would also do the job. --- It is "sold" as a general productivity method, highlighting the fact that Luhmann (the creator) published 50+ books and 600+ articles in his life. I believe it is a publishing productivity method. I still think it must be beneficial, but the question is are you able to keep up with the effort required if you don't have this end goal of publishing your writings? I'm not sure I do. When it comes to resources there are discussions about that on the subreddit. I can't find one I had in mind but this one covers that: https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/yc35nl/in_which_situations_should_i_not_use_zettelkasten/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/yc35nl/in_whi...
  - ar_lan 4y ago
    > I still think it must be beneficial, but the question is are you able to keep up with the effort required if you don't have this end goal of publishing your writings? I'm not sure I do. This is the exact conclusion I came to. Honestly, a personal wiki seems better in this regard.