Anyone using Zettelkasten?

Posted by Simon
Apr 10, 2019 at 08:13 PM

Ubiquity does seem a necessity for a Zettelkasten. I’ve tried a number of things over the years. I have “The Archive”, which is nice in what it does, but alas no mobile and the hacks are too much effort. I’ve realised the increased friction in data entry usually results in no data entry. I really did like Emacs with orgmode and the Silver Searcher. This was the best for me as the silver searcher showed search results per line in however many folders and documents you searched so you could pinpoint most things.

I’ve recently moved to 50% work being on an iPad Pro and nothing comes close to being a Zettelkasten on iOS.

I’ve debated what I really need. The following would be ideal:
- Wiki links
- Tags
- Categories
- Silver Searcher like capability.
- Markdown styling

It’s the linking that is usually missing. Voodoopad was excellent, but the last two companies that purchased it just used it as a cash cow, although they’re talking about a new release in Q4 2019. Problem is the iOS app is woeful.

Devonthink could actually do it and I started using it several times, but data entry friction was too high. I flirted with Tinderbox, but no iOS, high annual cost (for me) and encourages continual tinkering (not good for CRIMPers) and continual investment in the system or you forgot how you did something.

Perhaps one day the ideal app will present itself!