%% Last Updated: - [[2021-02-18]] %% The Zettelkasten process outlines a way to learn given a certain input. ## 1. Consume content (books, articles, videos, educational courses, conversations). ## 2. Make [[Fleeting Notes]] or [[Literature Notes]]. At this level, notes are chronological and otherwise unstructured. The notes at this stage could be as crude as direct highlights or quotations from the source material. The goal is to capture the content as it is said. ## 3. Create [[Permanent Notes]] from the fleeting notes. Revise the fleeting notes and reflect about what they mean in the context of your work or in your areas of interest. Record these higher-level learning observations as several separate notes. Unlike fleeting notes, permanent notes include your own interpretation of what you've learned, including strengths and weaknesses of claims. Each note must be atomic in nature and sufficiently vague as to be applicable to a variety of subjects. [[Beau Haan]]'s [[Implementing a Digital Zettelkasten Using Block References in Roam Research with Beau Haan|methodology]] calls this the process of "solidifying". (Gases > Liquids > Solids) [[Andy Matuschak]] calls these [[Evergreen Notes]]. (Seedling > Budding > Evergreen) ## 4. Link permanent notes to existing notes. This comparison forces an even deeper examination of the content in the context of other viewpoints. Add insights learned from this comparison into the permanent notes or make new ones. ## 5. Revise the Zettelkasten for clusters of notes around similar topics. The network of Zettel should be accurately linked such that it is easy to spot a critical mass of notes forming around the same topic. Luhmann was less explicit about this step, but we can surmise that there was a type of regular review (maybe similar to [[Getting Things Done]]'s reviews) that specifically looked for these clusters. It may also have been easier for Luhmann to spot these clusters because he was using a physical Zettelkasten. [[Nick Milo]]'s [[Map of Content]] refines this step further by encouraging the use of a hierarchical structure that emerges bottom-up. ## 6. Create new work around clusters of Zettel. Link these Zettel like building blocks and use them to build something new. These creations can then be reused further in longer or alternative forms of work. [[The Zettelkasten method is a bottom-up approach to turning content you consume to content you create.]]