Keeping zetel notes: productive or counterproductive approach.

Posted by Dellu
Dec 4, 2018 at 09:43 AM

Paul Korm wrote:

> What matters is deciding the method that works for
>oneself, and sticking to it—with adaptation over time if needed.
>And, finally, cross-zettel referencing means a method to point one
>zettel at another as a way of building up the links between notes
>(semantic or otherwise) that help build up a record of a personal body
>of knowledge.

>just as there’s
>no set of objective rules about developing one’s personal body of
>knowledge, there’s no prescriptive approach to zettelkasten. (Some
>bloggers love to be prescriptive—they usually are the ones who have
>an untoward interest in “personal productivity”.) With regard to
>Beck’s approach—I think she has a very long term perspective for her
>note taking, well beyond the current goals of the comprehensive exam.
>That’s terrific.

I agree with the sticking part. Yes, changing methods is as a problem as having no good method.
but, is it impossible to objectively, scientifically show that some methods are superior to others?
The book I linked in the first post strongly argues that using slip box makes one more productive; and presents a lot of “evidence” from the psychology literature.

I agree with you that some people’s way of prescribing is just from their opinions. But, if there is an objective reason to show that some methods improve performance, I am the first to leave “my preference” and follow the effective method.

Assume you like to write in blue ink, and Hugh likes to write in black ink. You have these preferences. Assume a study came out showing that black ink assists memory retention. Shouldn’t you change your ink?I would definitely do; our preferences are not always the most effective ways of doing things. That is why we all hung out in this forum: we want better, faster, and more efficient tool/method of doing things.