This summary of How to Take Smart Notes outlines the key points about the Zettelkasten note-taking method developed by Niklas Luhmann.
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Key Takeaways from How to Take Smart Notes
In a well-designed workflow, the writing process begins long before you start “writing” or even have a topic to write about. The Zettelkasten method will give you a vast array or notes to draw from. “Writing” then becomes easy. You just have to reorganise existing notes into an article (with a little extra work to fill in any gaps).
Luhmann was a German sociologist who wrote 70 books and over 400 academic articles in his lifetime. He wrote on many subjects, including law, economy, politics, religion, art and love. The reason he could write so much was because of his unique note-taking method, with physical index cards and boxes. Even after his death, Luhmann’s ideas were used to write more books on his behalf! (You may not have heard of Luhmann, but that’s not because his writing was crap. His work did influence German sociology but it was difficult to translate, so has not had as much influence outside of Germany.)
Other Interesting Points
- Academic writing guides are often linear, but writing is not a linear process. For example, the guides often tell you to start with a topic. But how can you decide on a topic without having done research, writing and thinking already? With the Zettelkasten method, you will have done these long before you pick a topic to write about, so your problem will be too many topics to write about rather than too few.
- Often guides tell you to brainstorm ideas. But you don’t need to do this under the Zettelkasten method because you’ll have lots of ideas already written down. Relying on your brain to recall ideas when you want to “brainstorm” is not a great way to generate ideas. Your brain is limited and can only recall so much at one time.
- When you take a good note, it should be in your own words. This ensures you’ve truly understood the point. You should also think about how it is relevant to your existing projects. [This latter point I think is less important. It’s fine just to take some notes for interest without thinking about how it is relevant until later (when it becomes relevant).]
My Thoughts
Overall I wasn’t a huge fan of the book. The ideas in the book were useful but I’d already heard most of them expressed more clearly in some YouTube videos. I was already sold on many of the benefits of a Zettelkasten-inspired method – that was what led me to the book in the first place. So I found much what Ahrens wrote repetitive, despite the book being quite short. The more interesting points I’ve noted above.
It definitely felt like Ahrens wrote the book using the Zettelkasten method! There were some parts that were somewhat interesting, but felt a bit shoehorned in (e.g. the history of the shipping container, the supermarket collection).
That being said, I am still grateful he wrote the book since it inspired YouTubers to create their videos.
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