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Building a Knowledge System That Enhances Rather Than Replaces Thought

nsavage.substack.com

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Re: Building a Knowledge System That Enhances Rather Than Replaces Thought

#31

Post by Rochus »

> It's reminiscent of Luhmann's original zettelkasten system, where physical proximity created a kind of "neighbor effect" that digital systems struggle to replicate.

That's what outliners are good for. You automatically generate context and proximity when adding/indenting outline items. And we have the thing called hypertext for cross-referencing and navigation. I think Luhmann's zettelkasten is a quite poor concept in comparison, because the cards are small and don't adjust to the size of a topic, so we have to split topics, and we have to take care of identification and referencing the cards ourselves. When translating zettelkasten to digital, then at least we can get rid of some of these limitations, but we still don't have all the advantages of outliners.

In my experience, it is purely a matter of habit whether you write down ideas or thoughts by hand on paper or enter them directly into an outline on the computer. Before I had tools like Ecco or my own CrossLine (https://github.com/rochus-keller/crossline/), I also produced a lot of notes on paper. After a few years of working with these tools, I got rid of paper completely. With CrossLine, I also solved the problem of linking to other documents or emails, so that I can link any information or put it in the necessary context. And it scales well. I have outline files with thousands of notes, minutes, concepts, specifications and the like, everything cross-referenced and full-text searchable. I can still reproduce e.g. meetings or paths to decicions taken ten or more years ago with little effort.

Re: Building a Knowledge System That Enhances Rather Than Replaces Thought

#32

Post by egormakarov »

voidhorse wrote: post #15

After trying out a bunch of digital zettelkasten tools, I just went back to paper. This take may be a bit hot, but I actually think paper and pen is already the optimal maxima for thinking —not for retrieval, mind you, but for helping us produce new thoughts . Zettelkasten (at least the way Luhmann used it) is meant for this purpose—it is not a system for storing information and retrieving it but rather for supportin…

I sometimes dream of video stickers, where you could put some short video on it, and then just put it on the paper notebook page

Re: Building a Knowledge System That Enhances Rather Than Replaces Thought

#33

Post by zozbot234 »

uoaei wrote: post #25
lukev wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a thesis that RDF is good for this sort of work (I gave a talk on it at Clojure Conj last year, https://youtu.be/OxzUjpihIH4 if you're interested.) It's good for bridging the gaps between LLMs, ontologies, traditional structured data, and logic programming.

Do you know of any good RDF datasets or repositories to look for? I am familiar with linked data / semantic web but have not kept up on developments for a long while now.

You can refer to the Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud for a network of openly available RDF datasets. Wikidata currently serves as the unofficial "hub" for the cloud, a role that was formerly played by DBpedia.

Re: Building a Knowledge System That Enhances Rather Than Replaces Thought

#34

Post by buggy6257 »

egormakarov wrote: post #32
voidhorse wrote: post #15

After trying out a bunch of digital zettelkasten tools, I just went back to paper. This take may be a bit hot, but I actually think paper and pen is already the optimal maxima for thinking —not for retrieval, mind you, but for helping us produce new thoughts . Zettelkasten (at least the way Luhmann used it) is meant for this purpose—it is not a system for storing information and retrieving it but rather for supportin…

I sometimes dream of video stickers, where you could put some short video on it, and then just put it on the paper notebook page

Hypothetically with a sticker printer like a Cricut or something you could do little QR stickers…

Re: Building a Knowledge System That Enhances Rather Than Replaces Thought

#35

Post by pxeger1 »

I write with a similar approach to zettelkasten. My technique is purely digital. Paper is too easy to lose, damage, or not have on you when you need it, compared to a digital file that can be copied, synced, and backed up.

I keep everything in just one long file, which I think gives a similar feeling to what the article describes about notecards - by using folds and reordering where necessary it’s quite easy to always have whatever you want visible; there’s nothing forcibly hidden from you by a file structure.

I use plain text (with a tiny bit of custom syntax highlighting) in vim, because I like the simplicity and it fits my needs. But I think a one-file approach could work fine in a Markdown or WYSIWYG format.

Re: Building a Knowledge System That Enhances Rather Than Replaces Thought

#36

Post by hunter-gatherer »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #5

> What parts of note-taking should we digitize? What aspects should remain firmly in human hands? And most importantly, how do I create a tool that enhances rather than replaces human thought? My personal philosophy is to use the most primitive methods possible and only use technology when there really is a strong need to go to the next level. It exposes what I really need, what are the weaknesses, etc. For example,…

> My personal philosophy is to use the most primitive methods possible and only use technology when there really is a strong need to go to the next level.

This is a good take on life in general. My parents were atmy house recently and my mother commented on how we never have dirty dishes. I told them the solution to me was always obviouse; don't own a dish washer. My wife and I have never owned a dishwasher since we were married, which has forced us to be more discriminatory about our dishware & forces us to wash dishes immediately after use so they're available again. People with dishwashers tend to have double what they need because they wait to start a load until the washer is full. Lots of the available technology we have has progressed past the level of optimization IMO.

Re: Building a Knowledge System That Enhances Rather Than Replaces Thought

#37

Post by Dennip »

voidhorse wrote: post #15

After trying out a bunch of digital zettelkasten tools, I just went back to paper. This take may be a bit hot, but I actually think paper and pen is already the optimal maxima for thinking —not for retrieval, mind you, but for helping us produce new thoughts . Zettelkasten (at least the way Luhmann used it) is meant for this purpose—it is not a system for storing information and retrieving it but rather for supportin…

would something like an ipad + apple pencil not bridge this concept? The usage of pen & paper with the addition of the digital world; OCR, tagging etc.

Re: Building a Knowledge System That Enhances Rather Than Replaces Thought

#38

Post by sdwr »

Dennip wrote: post #37
voidhorse wrote: post #15

After trying out a bunch of digital zettelkasten tools, I just went back to paper. This take may be a bit hot, but I actually think paper and pen is already the optimal maxima for thinking —not for retrieval, mind you, but for helping us produce new thoughts . Zettelkasten (at least the way Luhmann used it) is meant for this purpose—it is not a system for storing information and retrieving it but rather for supportin…

would something like an ipad + apple pencil not bridge this concept? The usage of pen & paper with the addition of the digital world; OCR, tagging etc.

You would think so, but the micro-interruptions of switching modes, selecting documents, selecting tools, etc make a huge difference in terms of flow.

It sounds small, but "taking a second to select a new brushstroke from a list of options" is exactly what OP is talking about in terms of raw creation vs synthesis.

Re: Building a Knowledge System That Enhances Rather Than Replaces Thought

#39

Post by Dennip »

sdwr wrote: post #38
Dennip wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

would something like an ipad + apple pencil not bridge this concept? The usage of pen & paper with the addition of the digital world; OCR, tagging etc.

You would think so, but the micro-interruptions of switching modes, selecting documents, selecting tools, etc make a huge difference in terms of flow. It sounds small, but "taking a second to select a new brushstroke from a list of options" is exactly what OP is talking about in terms of raw creation vs synthesis.

I guess so, but those are also all optional right? IF you would only write freehand with a ballpoint in real life then you wont use any of those menu options on-device either? IIRC the native notes app on iPad will dynamically create bullet lists, rule lines etc from your freehand typing without needing to select things.

Re: Building a Knowledge System That Enhances Rather Than Replaces Thought

#40

Post by 1123581321 »

sdwr wrote: post #38
Dennip wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

would something like an ipad + apple pencil not bridge this concept? The usage of pen & paper with the addition of the digital world; OCR, tagging etc.

You would think so, but the micro-interruptions of switching modes, selecting documents, selecting tools, etc make a huge difference in terms of flow. It sounds small, but "taking a second to select a new brushstroke from a list of options" is exactly what OP is talking about in terms of raw creation vs synthesis.

There are a couple apps that try to address that problem. My favorite is Muse. You just open it up, pan to a blank area and start writing. Tools are deliberately limited so there’s no point futzing with colors and thicknesses. There’s no document selection, just optional nested boards, so your spatial orientation is always engaged, like with paper.
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