What is a Zettelkasten? Zettel…, Zettelkas…, Zettelkasten How strange that such a complicated German word, is becoming a household name in the knowledge management niche. Basically, the Zettelkasten is a system for managing information created by the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann. If we translate this name into English, Zettelkasten would simply mean slip or note box. This makes the concept clearer for non-german speakers. At its core, it’s a note-taking methodology. But reducing it to this definition wouldn’t do justice to the Zettelkasten. If we look at a Zettelkasten we would see a box (analog or digital) that is full of notes. Every note is atomic which means that it contains a single idea. The huge innovation of this methode is that eventually, every single idea you put into a Zettelkasten will receive multiple connections. After a while, the notes start forming a web of knowledge. This makes the Zettelkasten a creativity machine that helps authors, researchers ,and students come up with better ideas. Because creativity is simply the art of connecting different things and creating something new out of those connections. The Zettelkasten also resembles how our brain works: You probably know that it contains almost 100 billion neurons and those neurons are linked together with synapses. Simply, replace neurons with notes and synapses with hyperlinks and you have a Zettelkasten. If we are looking at the Zetetlkasten this way, it becomes clear that it is in fact the one system that deserves to bear the name second brain. Why is this template 100% better than the PARA system by Tiago Forte? It is also superior to other second brain concepts like PARA by Tiago Forte. While PARA is a good methode, when you are focusing just on task management, this methode collapses like a house of cards when you have to continuously digest knowledge and apply it to different projects over many years. Why? Because PARA is a top-down approach while creativity would require the reverse bottom-up approach. As it is done with the Zettelkasten. Therefore, Luhmann’s box is a powerful tool for everybody who needs to apply knowledge creatively:

Philipp Stelzel

Personality Archetype Test for Notion

Maker

3yr ago

Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen

Write Invisible

@philipp_stelzel - This looks a like a good option for Notion users (not me). Your comparison to PARA raises a question for me - can projects be organised in a Zettlekasten? I agree that something like a Zettlekasten helps with creativity, but can it also help with projects.

@ebrahimkhalil Not in the traditional sense, but this Zettelkasten can be easily linked to individual projects in Notion (I am actually preparing a video on this topic)