Posts from 2021
Book Teaser (2nd Edition): Declare Software Independence to Unshackle Your Mind
"The things you own end up owning you." (Fight Club) -- The following is taken from the introduction to the second edition of the German book on the Zettelkasten Method.
Live Zettelkasten Session on Dec 10th (Episode 7)
Dear Zettlers,
There will be a live Zettelkasten session, scheduled for Dec 10th, 2021, 19:30-21:00 CEST.
On that day, you can tune in right here:
(Link to the video: https://youtu.be/dgU0LIykSWI)
Live long and prosper,
Sascha
Live Zettelkasten Session on Nov 12th (Episode 6)
Dear Zettlers,
There will be a live Zettelkasten session, scheduled for Nov 12nd, 2021, 19:30-21:00 CEST.
On that day, you can tune in right here:
(Link to the video: https://youtu.be/a1lLDzP2VVA)
Live long and prosper,
Sascha
Live Zettelkasten Session on Oct 22nd (Episode 5)
Dear Zettlers,
There will be a live Zettelkasten session, scheduled for Oct 22nd, 2021, 19:30-21:00 CEST.
On that day, you can tune in right here:
(Link to the video: https://youtu.be/R5JSMnszw84)
Live long and prosper,
Sascha
Live Zettelkasten Session on Oct 8th (Episode 4)
Dear Zettlers,
There will be a live Zettelkasten session, scheduled for Sep 24th, 2021, 19:30-21:00 CEST.
On that day, you can tune in right here:
(Link to the video: https://youtu.be/Eh7gA0LjoiE)
Live long and prosper,
Sascha
Field Report #3: Mini-Workflow of a YouTuber
This is a little workflow how I use my spare time when am forced to create YouTube videos and notes. I train from 1pm to 2pm. It is fairly similar to Crossfit and Rosstraining. So I need to take a couple of minutes to cool down and let the sweating stop.
Processing Empirical Studies and Separating the Three Layers of Evidence
In case you missed this on our YouTube channel, here’s a 15min video explaining how to process empirical studies and the three layers of evidence: (Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkA6ymlDLtA)
Live Zettelkasten Session on Sep 10th (Episode 3)
Dear Zettlers, There will be a live Zettelkasten session, scheduled for Sep 10th, 2021, 19:00-21:00 CEST. On that day, you can tune in right here: (Link to the video: https://youtu.be/5aMnBKQST0I) Live long and prosper,
Sascha
Live Zettelkasten Session on Aug 27th (Episode 2)
Dear Zettlers, There will be a live Zettelkasten session, scheduled for Aug 27th, 2021, 19:00-21:00 CEST. On that day, you can tune in right here: (Link to the video: https://youtu.be/CqTSIA8bYYE) Live long and prosper,
Sascha
System Crafters Answered org-roam and Zettelkasten Questions in Livestream
On Friday, David Wilson of System Crafters hosted a 2 hour live-stream about Emacs org-roam to answer viewer questions after his previous org-roam v2 video demo and talk about the Zettelkasten Method in general. Sascha and I joined the chat, too, and overall we had a good time and interesting things were discussed with the nice folk in the chat. David’s recapture of the Zettelkasten basics is spot-on, and his pragmatic thinking promises good things to come from him!
Live Zettelkasten Session on Aug 13th (Episode 1)
Dear Zettlers, There will be a live Zettelkasten session, scheduled for Aug 13th, 2021, 19:00–21:00 CEST. On that day, you can tune in right here: (Link to the video: https://youtu.be/2_MJYtWr1vE) It is a casual session of me working with a Zettelkasten. It will be especially valuable for beginner and intermediate users since I am starting a new Zettelkasten in English that I will use for demonstration purposes. I am working with it as a serious Zettelkasten and not a mock example.
org-roam (Emacs Zettelkasten Package) Version 2 Released
Last week, free and open source knowledge management package org-roam was updated to version 2. org-roam is an Emacs package (or “plug-in” as we normies would call it) that adds Zettelkasten features to connect small pieces of knowledge.
RE: Backlinks Should Be Context-Rich
Jared Gorski wrote a response to my article “Backlinks are bad links”. Since it’s a short and concise response, a re-response is warranted. He summarised my point fairly and sufficiently, so I don’t need to repeat myself here. If you are not familiar, please read the article linked above. I’ll reply to Jared’s post point by point.
Create Image Previews for Your Notes From Links With This Tool
Stephan Bogner (@st_phan in the forums) shared a neat and free web tool with the community the other day, a link preview generator. It creates image previews of a website from a link. The result is optimized to be embedded into your notes without taking up too much space.
Field Report #2: Lessons Learned From Processing "Team of Rivals"
My research area is machine learning. My first zettel was created on 02/23/2020 and most of them focus on my research area or research in general. This mostly consists of extra the key ideas in short 4-10 page article. Throughout my life I have read many books, but I remember little about them. For instance, I say books like “The Double Helix” or “The Art of Learning” made a big impact on me, but outside of a few anecdotes, I remember nothing. More than that, I have no notes to go back and refer to. My plan this year was to change this and systematically process any book I read.
Field Report #1: A PhD About Writing with His Zettelkasten
It is not difficult to find articles that herald the benefits of using a Zettelkasten and because of this, a dose of skepticism is perhaps healthy. Do you really get magically productive? Produce world-class research? Uncover secret connections for elevated understanding? Write 10 books spontaneously?
Insert a New Zettel Where You Are with Will's Macro
Forum legend @Will showcased another Keyboard Maestro macro this week that does a particularly interesting thing: from anywhere you are in your web of notes, his macro ties a new Zettel into the web. Check out the GIF teaser for Will’s 10-minute YouTube demo: Wills’ demonstration basically goes like this:
Measure What You Want to Achieve with Your Zettelkasten
The user @wanderley opened a thread in the forum. He basically wrote that whenever he creates a Zettel, he goes into a research frenzy to make the Zettel “worthy” of his Zettelkasten. In his example, he transformed a report based on experience into a claim supported by quite some evidence.
Alternative The Archive App Icon Fan Art
@lucaschultz on the forums shared an alternative icon for The Archive for free for everyone to use. This came out of nowhere and was a pleasant surprise: It’s really cool that Luca poured in the time and work to create “fan art” for our app! Luca even published the .sketch source files, so you can generate and tweak the icon further! The icon set is published under a CC-BY-4.0 license, so you can do what you want with it, provided you mention the original author.
Use Case: Investing with the Zettelkasten Method
I am not an investment professional. I do invest in stock and some other assets to create passive income through dividends and to build a safety net. I don’t make the time-commitment for in-depth research. I merely want to avoid dumb decisions. So I created a table of conditions that a company needs to meet before I buy stock. This is a snapshot in time. It is a work in progress of course:
The Archive: 3rd Anniversary
This week marks 3rd year of The Archive being available in public. In March 2018 we published the final release. To celebrate this anniversary, we have a special treat for you to share the joy with friends! We asked ourselves what there is that we could give back to show our appreciation of the community. What is even better than receiving a gift from someone? Well, giving a gift!
The Archive v1.6.0: Image Preview in Your Notes
Since this week, The Archive v1.6.0 is available. The coolest feature addition is our new image preview. It works with tons of image formats out of the box. It shows a preview of a PDF’s title page if you use a PDF file path instead of an image file path.
Use Image Capturing to Couple Your Desk and Your Zettelkasten
In this video, Sascha demonstrates how you can get stuff from the physical world into the digital: by capturing images of sketches on paper with The Archive, and turning on our shiny new inline image preview function to see the sketches inside his notes.
Chinese Introduction to the Zettelkasten Method
Someone recently reached out to us and sent us a Chinese translation of the Introduction to the Zettelkasten Method: This generous person is Zhixiang Cai, Ph.D in Oil and Gas Well Engineering. He is a programmer and loves knowledge management and did an amazing job translating the article. We happily publish the translation on our page, so check it out!
How to Use Wiki Links for Saved Searches in The Archive
You can use [[wiki links]] in The Archive as a clickable shortcut to searches, which support complex logical operators to form very specific expressions. People on the forums seem to enjoy the discovery of clickable complex search expressions in The Archive, so here’s a short explanation of how you can use links like [[#Gardening soil NOT fertilizer]] to create a stored search.