"Explain Like I'm Five": Zettelkasten

Posted by Dr Andus
Apr 23, 2015 at 04:57 PM

zoe wrote:
>- each card (or digital note) is given a unique ID, typically a number
>or number/letter combination.
>- the numbering is based upon branching out or relatedness of concepts.
>So, a card about poodles might be numbered 27, and a card about poodle
>haircuts might end up being 27b2, because the writer started with 27,
>added additional cards on this topic which he/she numbered 27a, 27b,
>27c, and then expanded upon the content of 27b with another card
>descending from 27b, which is numbered 27b2. (Do I have it right so
>far?)
>- direct references to other cards are indicated by writing that card’s
>unique ID on another card.

It sounds like you’re referring specifically to Luhmann’s system, which was paper-based (fairly large index cards in a massive filing cabinet), and the above numbering approach was developed to create and retrieve links in such an analogue system.

I took Manfred Kuehn’s advice on this and never bothered to replicate that system (or even fully make sense of it). Manfred’s argument is that with modern software where you can create direct and multiple links in every which way there is no need for that numbering system. Simply create an electronic link and that’s it.

Having said that, I do give a numerical ID to each of my note titles in the form of the date and time of the note taken, but simply for practical reasons, so I can order my notes in a chronological order and have a quick idea about when the note was taken.

Here is what that looks like in CT:
https://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/1405/7322/original.jpg

And here is the commentary:
https://disqus.com/home/discussion/zettelkastende/zettel_note_header_automation_in_nvalt/#comment-1653945810

There was actually an interesting debate about the nature and need for such electronic links between Manfred and Christian Tietze over here (see also the comments section):

“You Don’t Need a Wiki – Being Content with Your Software”

http://zettelkasten.de/posts/you-dont-need-wiki/

Though as you might suspect, I’m with Manfred on this one :)