Type: [[🌲️/{]] Tags: [[Zettelkasten]] - [[Productivity]] - [[Writing]] - [[Knowledge Formation]] - [[Academia]] - [[Literature Review]] Title: [[{ 2020-09-09 How To Take Smart Notes]] Author: [[@Sonke Ahrens]] Reference: [[@Niklas Luhmann]] Publish Date: 2017-02-24 Reviewed Date: [[2020-09-09]] --- ```latex @book{ahrens_how_2017, address = {North Charleston, SC}, title = {How to take smart notes: one simple technique to boost writing, learning and thinking: for students, academics and nonfiction book writers}, isbn = {978-1-5428-6650-7}, shorttitle = {How to take smart notes}, language = {eng}, publisher = {CreateSpace}, author = {Ahrens, Sönke}, year = {2017} ``` --- - Page 5 + [[Well defined tasks negate the need for the use of the limited supply of will power]] + self control / discipline have much to do with our environment not having to use will power is a good indicator that you set yourself up for success * [[A well established environment makes reliance on self control discipline and willpower unnecessary]] + [[A good system allows you to get everything out of your head relieving you of the burden of remembering and tracking it all]] + a good structure makes flow state easier to induce - Page 7 + Reading more does not correlate with having more ideas - Page 9 + [[People tend to try to impose structure on their body of content in order to reduce complexity but this ends up inviting more of it]] + [[Simplicity of structure allows complexity of content]] - Page 12 + Only by trusting your system and believing that everything will be taken care of will you let go and allow your brain to focus on the task at hand - Page 16 + [[Even hard work can be fun if it is aligned with our intrinsic goals and we feel in control]] + Success is not the result of strong willpower and the ability to overcome resistance but rather the result of smart working environments - Page 20 + Luhmann followed the process of notes first and let the MOC’s emerge naturally and use an index with MOC’s as a spring board - Page 22 + The writing is easier with the notes providing the framework of thought but to create the notes themselves you need to do the real work of read --> understand --> Think --> notate - Page 23 + The mind relies on external scaffolding for ideas thoughts and to write + [[utilizing external scaffolding lessens the cognitive burden]] + Writing smart notes shows you understand the material by repeating the material we remembering it [[Spaced Repetition]] + Writing a paper * Fleeting notes * idea capture * no distraction * just place these into an identified inbox * Literature notes about content * Items you don’t want to forget * Items you may use in your own writing * Keep short, be selective, use your own works * Be extra selective with quotes, don’t just copy / paste, REALLY understand them first * Permanent notes * Take notes from steps 1 & 2 and link to main body of work through where they fit `[[ ]]` is step 4 * Point is not to collect but to synthesize atomized thought around: + Discussions + Support of argument claims + Ideas * Add new notes to slip box * `[[ ]]` to related notes * Develop questions * Develop questions, thoughts, and research projects by looking at the notes and where they lead you * Follow your interests and build on them. When inspired by interest we will delve deeper into content with minimal prodding or extrinsic motivation * Decide writing topic based on what you have * Look through the notes * Try out ideas and work back and forth through material if needed to improve and refine ideas / arguments * Translate * Translate notes into something coherent in a manuscript. * Don’t just copy and paste * This is greasing the thought gears not drag and drop paper writing * Edit and proof read then move on to the next > The only way to find out if something is worth reading is by reading it. > > <div class="signature"> -- Sonke Ahrens </div> - Page 41 + The slip box can lose its value if the quality of its notes are diluted. We must aim for critical mass which depends on quality of note - Page 45 + Luhmann: read literature and took notes with bibliographical information attached also like “pg 13 had x” then review these literature notes and make your idea notes. In this way the literature was separate from the ideas - Page ??? + [[Bottom up writing prevents confirmation bias and provide a shorter and iterative feedback loop]] + In linear research writing you pick a topic or question, then read literature, then write, then review. This means also that your feedback loop (review) occurs after multiple stages of research where as with this (smart notes) method you have several smaller iterative feedback loops. This is less intimidating and a more agile approach. * Reading with a pen in hand: think about and check understanding * Notes in slip box by writing in your own words also builds and solidifies understanding * New notes showing contradictions, repetition, and inconsistencies are an ever present gentle feedback loop that also improves the knowledge of the slip box itself - Page 66 + [[Beginners lacking experience to confidently and correctly judge a situation fall back on the framework of values they were taught]] - Page 73 + [[Decision making is wearying and takes resources from other domains of life]]. Choosing clothes to wear, food to eat, etc. Reducing choices or making them easier takes up less cognitive resources - Page 78 + [[Hand writing facilitates understanding since you have to summarize focus on overview and choose what is truly worth noting given the speed of transfer]]. + Read and hand write notes --> notes bundled with papers in zotero --> slip box notes in [[Z/Obsidian]]? Workflow for little sprouts to evergreen notes needs refactoring + Useful for students but with modern tech the ideas are less about memorization in lecture and more about slip box note synthesis and with Anki and [[Spaced Repetition]] for memorization if in lecture maybe ipad & apple pendcil to keep digital but also allow for handwriting - Page 79 + As humans we naturally facilitate the creation of our own echo chambers (confirmation bias) + [[humans naturally facilitate the creation of our own echo chambers]] * Human company * Publications * Media consumption - Page 80 + [[A good strategy to combat confirmation bias is to note and attempt to answer arguments critical of yours]] + Another way is to turn writing on its head through this (smart notes) method. First all information is gathered (your slip box notes) and then writing is synthesized from the whole pool instead of starting with an idea and searching for information to support it - Page 88 + “Manipulations such as variation, spacing, introducing contextual inference, and using tests rather than presentations, as learning events, all share the property that they appear during the learning process to impede learning, but they then often enhance learning as  measured by post-training tests of retention and transfer. Conversely, manipulations such as keeping conditions constant and predictable and massing trials on a given task often appear to enhance the rate of learning during instruction or training, but then typically fail to support long-term retention and transfer.” ```latex @article{article, author = {Bjork, Robert}, year = {2011}, month = {01}, pages = {1-22}, title = {On the symbiosis of learning, remembering, and forgetting}, journal = {Successful remembering and successful forgetting: A Festschrift in honor of Robert A. Bjork} } ``` - Page 90 + The act of creating and curating a slip box and fitting in each new note leads to review of information within thereby facilitates information and connection formation as well as understanding of the interconnected web of information - Page 99-101 + Knowledge is not the remembrance of facts of words but the interconnectedness of those ideas in a latticework that circumvents the inhibition mechanism of our brain to selectively forget information to allow us space also for abstract thinking * Making sure the right cues trigger the right memory - Page 102 + [[Most modern education focuses on improving storage strength and memorization of isolated facts instead of building connections and formulating knowledge]] - Page 103 + [[For useful learning it helps to connect a piece of information to as many meaningful contexts as possible]]. Such as filing away in a slip box - Page 108-109 + The author speaks about the sparingly used tags and an index that emerges over time. Some thoughts I have to take away from this are that with our modern digital tools we have the ability to use UUID’s, so we can name note files distinctly and verbosely and use the file name as the unique identifier. With the name of the document being what is linked and searchable this also allows us to embed it seamlessly into a text as a reference. We also can search these names and document content electronically and randomly open notes to spur on ideas, thoughts, thinking, and additional research to flesh out that random note. This digital approach means that departures from the established [[Zettelkasten]] structure can happen because the tools have changed and so must our approach. We can still focus on atomized evergreen ideas but finding things with indexes is less important than ever. With the index you could list emerging MOC’s as they appear and follow network graphs instead of leaving notes as bread crumbs or additional notes as intermediary links between 2 notes as Luhmann did. We wouldn’t even need MOC’s just interlinked files named after their subjects like [[Productivity]] to have a blank note with a network graph to all of its related ideas. - Page 110 + Where do I want to find a note v.s. where do I want to stumble upon it. Should the note be nested in a rigid index where I know where to find it? Or linked to some ideas and thoughts where I will forget and stumble upon the connection later serendipitously. - Page 113 + Linking back to source topics via back links like notes for this book will have a back link to the literature notes for the book so we can identify the source and not duplicate information like source citation and then file these notes with links to other notes but always identifying their source inspiration. Then MOC Indexing can emerge * Follow up note: what would probably be best is to keep my personal journal pages separate so they are just an orbiting ring around the note clusters, then keep lit notes in zotero and finally only put the true notes / technical info like statistics into the ZK - Page 119 + If we practice learning as the curating of ideas attached to a lattice work (slip box filing) we are re-affirming connections in our brains while also curating these ideas in the slip box while simultaneously avoiding accumulation for its own sake + [[The curating of a zettelkasten slip box is an active practice in knowledge building and spaced repetition]] - Page 120 + We further encode knowledge when implementing [[Spaced Repetition]] on it by random review and review when filing a new note. + So combining flash cards via a [[Spaced Repetition]] system like Anki with the [[Zettelkasten]] is also a receipe for successful learning, memorization, but also and arguably more critical: understanding through the notes, once filed, then turned into flash cards - Page 131 > “the biggest threat to creativity & scientific progress is the opposite: a lack of structure and restrictions.” > > <div class="signature"> -- Sonke Ahrens</div> - Page 134 + Working with a slipbox primes one for writing comparatively to one who only reads - Page 136 + Evolution works by trial and error, not by planning. The same goes for the slip box - Page 137 + When even highly intelligent students fail in their studies it is most often because they cease to see the meaning in what they were supposed to learn, or are unable to make a connection to their personal goals or lack the ability to control their own studies autonomously and on their own terms.