Hi Bimlas, Just a quick note to say that I quite enjoy reading your thoughts on this. As someone who doesn't really take notes, I don't have much of substance to add. However if I were taking extensive notes the idea of an approach that relied on full text search or links rather than fields/tags would quite appeal to me.
Oh, I couldn't get your link about the weakness of full text search to load for me but this works: https://tefkos.comminfo.rutgers.edu/Courses/e530/Readings/Beal%202008%20full%20text%20searching.pdf Cheers, Saq On Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 8:39:20 PM UTC+2, bimlas wrote: > > I’ve been busy with these topics lately and as I look at, this topic is > becoming more and more interesting for many, so I’m opening a topic where > we can talk about these. Although this is the TiddlyWiki group, keep in > mind that Zettelkasten was originally implemented on paper, so the topic of > conversation is an implementation that can be implemented anywhere, > regardless of software. > > The purposes of Zettelkasten and similar knowledgebases are: > > - Easily recall your long-forgotten thoughts > - Clarify your knowledge of a particular topic > - To notice contradictions and shortcomings during the dialogue with > the Notes > - Create new ideas from your existing knowledge > > Related topics: > > - https://groups.google.com/g/tiddlywiki/c/Re11x96t-qI > - https://groups.google.com/g/tiddlywiki/c/pBVtEa5CVYI > > I think *TiddlyWiki empty edition is exactly the software you need for a > Zettelkasten*-type note collection: > > - Displays "physically" separate notes that we can handle as if they > were made of paper: you can leave all of them on "the desk" that you want > to manage right now and you can put the rest in "the drawer" > - It basically works by not support for renaming tiddlers, which fits > the Zettelkasten mindset (permanent titles) > - Backlinks can be easily displayed in the tiddler info bar > - It does not include table of contents, which may be due to > link-based navigation > - Tags are basically only used for grouping (if ToC-type usage is > ignored) > - The selected text can be extracted into a separate tiddler and > replaced with a link (refactoring of notes) > > *The main principles of the "second brain"* kind of knowledgebase in my > opinion are: > > - Write notes about everything to make sure that thoughts and > experiences are not lost, in addition, the wording helps to understand the > topic > - Add a unique ID to your notes so you can clearly identify them even > with a text search (so you get a list of backlinks) > - There should be only one well-defined idea on a note > - Because of link-based navigation, use links instead of text search > to look for a topic > > *Wording helps with understanding*, thus instead of copying someone’s > writing, opinion, solution, describe it in your own words, because only > then will you become aware of what you actually understood while you have > to articulate, “have to say back”. > > If you just copy, you gather the information without actually interpreting > it, but while writing the text, you need to interpret your thoughts so that > you can put them on paper in a meaningful way. This will shed light on the > dark spots, points you don’t really understand yet, and it will encourage > you to gather more information on that topic (even during a dialogue with > your own notes), so it will lead to real understanding. It will become your > habit that instead of scanning and reviewing the text quickly, you will > actually start reading the text, interpreting what is described, so your > reading efficiency will also improve. > > It is necessary to use IDs in paper form to identify the notes because you > have no other option. In digital form, *each of your notes actually has a > unique ID* (path, in-database ID, URL), but if you use this, you will > depend on the implementation (vendor lock-in): if you want to migrate to > another system where links are marked differently (e.g. the title > identifies the note instead of a generated ID), it will be difficult to > migrate (if it can be solved at all). Therefore, it is worth using a > notation system that works in all circumstances (even with a simple text > search), e.g. the form "2020-09-19_20-24". There is no line break in the > unique ID (which would make it difficult to find with a text search), it > does not depend on character encoding (so it even works in filenames, it > does not need to be modified in URLs because it does not contain accented > letters), so it is a universal solution. > > However, since this name is not verbose, it is a good idea to display the > title of the note along with its ID. It is a software-dependent solution, > but the best solution is, for example, if the note can be identified by an > ID, but we also display the title in the text in the search results. > > *A note should be on a signle topic* and be as short as possible; if it’s > already too long, it probably includes more topics. > > When you put headlines in a note, it is a clear indication that the note > is about multiple topics (e.g., a Mammal note has a Dog and Cat headline). > Put these paragraphs in a separate note and just place a link in their > original location (note refactoring) so that if you use text search, you're > sure to find what you're looking for - if the text you're looking for were > under a headline within a note, you wouldn't find it in the search results > (e.g. you would search for the word "dobberman" and only Mammals would > appear in the results, you probably wouldn’t consider it, but you would > already notice the title Dog). > > Creating *connection between notes requires nothing but links and > backlinks* (see details > <https://groups.google.com/g/tiddlywiki/c/Re11x96t-qI/m/GYuMKHx0AQAJ>) > because they can be used to implement tags (details > <https://groups.google.com/g/tiddlywiki/c/Re11x96t-qI/m/9f9LL5GRGAAJ>), > fields (details > <https://groups.google.com/g/tiddlywiki/c/Re11x96t-qI/m/WoqDEuJzGQAJ>), > and table of contents (details > <https://zettelkasten.de/posts/three-layers-structure-zettelkasten/#middle-layer-structure-notes>). > It > follows that when using a wiki-like annotation method, we can search for a > topic by following links instead of text search, because we can find more > accurate results that we think are as opposed to having to search a list of > notes that contain those words (*must to read details > <https://tefkos.comminfo.rutgers.edu/Courses/e530/Readings/Beal+2008+full+text+searching.pdf> > about > the weakness of full text search*). > > *Backlinks are only useful if they show really relevant content*. For > example, on Wikipedia, the list of backlinks > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:WhatLinksHere/Wiki> to Wiki > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki> page contains a bunch of unrelated > information: > > - The Aeronautics page mentions "Wiki" in the footnote > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeronautics#Research> in connection > with a link > - Batman also mentions it in the footnote > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman#External_links> > - I could list, but this is the case in most places > > So I think we need to choose when to refer to a word and when not. We need > to stick to the Zettelkasten principles to first describe what we want, but > don’t place links in it until we’re completely done with the note: we visit > the related notes and only link to the really relevant places. For example, > if I write a note about squirrels, it would not be worthwhile to link from > that note to the note about mammals itself, but only to the note that > collects rodents. While this is more time consuming than linking to key > words on an ad-hoc basis, a list of backlinks will be really useful if you > don’t have to sort between them because they are all really closely related > to that particular note. > > One of *the advantages of this kind of note-taking*, for example, is that > it took me about 15 minutes to write it all down. In fact, all I had to do > was translate my previously written and thought-out notes into English and > make small changes to it. > > *See https://zettelkasten.de/posts/getting-started/ > <https://zettelkasten.de/posts/getting-started/> for more information.* > > I ask everyone who is also interested in the topic to join the > conversation. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TiddlyWiki" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tiddlywiki+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tiddlywiki/19768a9b-e05a-4a67-81f4-19f1485a1928o%40googlegroups.com.
