![]() If 23 already existed, he named the new note 22a. If the existing note had the number 22, the new note would become note number 23. “If a new note was relevant or directly referred to an already existing note, such as a comment, correction or addition, he added it directly behind the previous note.The numbers bore no meaning and were only there to identify each note permanently.” “The trick is that he did not organise his notes by topic, but in the rather abstract way of giving them fixed numbers. And it was fun to work with – because it worked.” It helped him to structure and develop his thoughts. His slip-box became his dialogue partner, main idea generator and productivity engine. But he collected his notes in his slip-box in such a way that the collection became much more than the sum of its parts. Just amassing notes in one place would not lead to anything other than a mass of notes. So he started to think about how one idea could relate and contribute to different contexts. He realised that one idea, one note was only as valuable as its context, which was not necessarily the context it was taken from. “He soon developed new categories of these notes.While other systems start with a preconceived order of topics, Luhmann developed topics bottom up, then added another note to his slip-box, on which he would sort a topic by sorting the links of the relevant other notes.” “By adding these links between notes, Luhmann was able to add the same note to different contexts.It is mainly a matter of having an extensive latticework of mental models or theories in our heads that enable us to identify and describe the main ideas quickly.” “Luhmann, certainly being on the outer spectrum of expertise, contented himself with pretty short notes and was still able to turn them into valuable slip-box notes without distorting the meaning of the original texts.“ Every note is just an element in the network of references and back references in the system, from which it gains its quality.” - Niklas Luhmann The only thing that really is a nuisance is the lack of time.” “ If I want something, it’s more time.With this method, to work on different things simultaneously, I never encounter any mental blockages.” “When I am stuck for one moment, I leave it and do something else … I always work on different manuscripts at the same time.Hence, when reading, I always have the question in mind of how the books can be integrated into the filing system.” 2 (What matters is) “what could be utilized in which way for the cards that had already been written.(The zettelkasten is a) “combination of disorder and order, of clustering and unpredictable combinations emerging from ad hoc selection.” 2.“I, of course, do not think everything by myself.“I always read with an eye towards possible connections in the slip-box.”.“Underlying the filing technique is the experience that without writing, there is no thinking.” 2.Luhmann referred to his zettelkasten as his “ second memory.” 2 ![]() The Strategy behind the Niklas Luhmann Zettelkasten System ![]()
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