How to Take Smart Notes

Jun 07, 2021 reference/books

How to Take Smart Notes provides an overview of the Zettelkasten system, popularised by prolific sociologist Niklas Luhman. The book starts with an overview of the entire Zettelkasten method, then delves deeper into why it works. This "top down" approach quite reminisant of David Perkins Teaching the whole game approach to teaching.

I tried to be quite comprehensive with the notes while reading, using it as an opportunity to practice the system and ensure I didn't miss anything.

Introduction

  • Lots of books about writing, but most on how to do citations or how to over come procrastination; few about note taking.
  • Writing is much easier when ordering an existing collection of writing than starting from a blank page.
  • Good note taking is setting yourself up for success.

1. Everything You Need To Know

  • Having a structured workflow that you trust allows you to enter Flow State
    • GTD a good example of workflow when the tasks are clearly defined.
  • Writing does not work as a linear to-do list:
    • the work needs to be open-ended
    • consists of lots of small tasks like rereading chapters and looking up footnotes,
  • Profilic sociologist Niklas Luhmann system for taking notes:
    • 2 "slipboxes" consisting of index cards: one for taking bibliographical notes and another for collecting and generating ideas.
    • In the first, he would add cards with bibliographic info on one side and notes about the content on the other.
    • In the second, he would look at notes in the first box and think about their relevance for his own thinking and writing and use to add ideas to the 2nd.
    • The 2nd was one idea per card, he made them such that he could understand them without pulling out the card, but also in full sentences with explicit references to literature.
    • Each card had an numbered index. He would then slot new ideas next to their closest neighbour and use a character to increment the number ie one note may be 1234 and the next 1234a.
    • When adding a new note he would check the slipbox to try to make connections between ideas. Some by slotting next to each other, others by referencing other cards by id potentially anywhere in the box, allowing him to add the same note to different contexts.
    • Last element in the file system was a note which contained one or two notes per topic which served as their entry point.

2. Everything You Need To Do

  • The hardest part of the process of writing something meaningful is in the reading and thinking.
  • On the other hand: ordering notes, writing early drafts from notes and performing final edits is mentally light.
  • Writing is the best, perhaps the only, "facilitator" for reading, writing and any intellectual endeavour.
  • Writing a paper step by step:
    • Take Fleeting Notes when reading: temporary notes that you put in an inbox to process later.
    • Convert fleeting notes to Literature Notes.
      • Be very selective and use your own words.
      • Be careful of using quotes in place of actual understanding.
      • Keep bibliographic reference with your lit notes.
    • Make Permanent Notes.
      • Go through notes in the previous steps and consider how they relate to interests.
      • Once you have a full slipbox, you can compare ideas to those already in slipbpx.
      • Write one note for each idea.
      • Use full sentences, disclouse sources, make references and try to be precise, clear and brief as possible.
      • Add permanent notes to slipbox by:
        • Filing each note behind one or more related notes
        • Add links to related notes
        • Ensure you find it later by linking from your index or making a link on a note that's an entry point to discussion or topic, which is linked by index.
    • Use your slipbox to develop interests, find holes, to ask questions.
      • You may develop new interests as you gain new insights.
    • Eventually, you have enough notes to start writing about a topic.
      • Collect notes and put them in order.
        • Initial order won't be 100%: try out ideas and continue to iterate.
    • Turn notes into rough draft: translate them into something coherent.
      • Continue to fix holes in your argument.
    • Edit and proofread your manuscript.
  • In reality, you likely work on multiple papers and ideas at a time.
  • Some reading may not be useful for a certain pursuit, but may have ideas useful for others.

3. Everything You Need to Have

  • Slipbox follows the Russian Model: "Focus on the essentials, don’t complicate things unnecessarily."
    • Named after the story by De Bono: NASA invested in research for find a gravity-independent pen which could write in space. Russian simply used pencils.
      • Side note: the story is false: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-nasa-spen/
  • Existing learning and note-taking techniques are simple in isolation but complicated together.
  • None of the workflows have tools to help make connections between ideas.
  • Slipbox is not another techique but an overarching workflow stripped of everything that distracts from stuff that's important.
  • The Slipbox Tool Box:
    • Something to write with and something to write on
    • A reference management program
    • The slip-box
    • An editor
  • Workflow
    • Any time you have an idea, add it to a notepad or some inbox that you will process later Fleeting Notes.
    • Use a reference management system like Zotero to handle citations, which can be linked to from your Literature Notes.
      • Create a slipbox: either using sheets of paper "about the size of a postcard (Luhmann used the DIN A6 size, 148 x 105 mm or 5.83 x 4.13 inches)" or a program like Zettelkasten
    • Use an editor, preferable that works with Zotero or your reference manager.

4. A Few Things to Keep in Mind

  • It's crucial to not just understand how it work, or how to work with it, but why it works. Only then can you modify it for your own needs.
  • Book aims to give all resources needed to use the slipbox in the best possible way for your goals.

The Four Underlying Priniciples

5. Writing Is the Only Thing That Matters

  • All your note taking should be taken with a focus on writing:
    • Gives a tangible purpose when reading or attending lectures etc.
    • Ensures you read in an engaged way: to paraphrase text you have to understand it.
    • Helps to learn as efficiently as possible and get to the point where open questions arise. These are the things worth writing about.

6. Simplicity Is Paramount

  • The common system for notetaking used by students and academic fails for the same reason the first iterations of shipping containers did: parts that appear to make sense in isolation can not be combined towards an optimal workflow.
  • In a standard note taking system, the question is: what topic do I store this note?
  • With Zettelkasten: what context will I want to stumble under this note again?
  • Like shipping container, Instead of having different storage for different ideas everything works towards one goal: generating insights that can be published.
  • Slipbox works at scale: when more notes are added more value can be derived. However, adding notes indiscriminately lowers value of slipbox.
  • To achieve "critical mass" for notes, you must differentiate between:
    • fleeting notes
    • permanent noets
    • project notes
  • 3 common mistakes:
    • treat everything as Permanent Notes ie scientific journal
      • good ideas get diluted by other ideas
      • ideas order chronologically are difficult to search
    • collect notes only relevant to project
      • you start from scratch each project and cut off relevant lines of thought at the end
      • exception ideas are created over multi-projects
    • treat all notes as fleeting
      • even small amounts of unprocessed notes can lead to sense of out of controlness
    • All have one downside in common: the benefits of the system decreases as more notes are added.
  • Fleeting notes vs permanent:
    • Fleeting notes are collected if need extra step of understand or grasp an idea
    • Fleeting notes must be processed later
      • Good measure for assessing whether fleeting note was kept too long: if you no longer understand it or appears banal
    • Permanent notes should be written in such a way that you can understand it even when you have long forgotten the original context
  • Finally: project notes that don't fit into the slipbox: todo lists, outlines, drafts etc should go in a project specific folder.
    • You can pull relevant notes out of the slipbox into the project folder to experiment with arraguments.

7. Nobody Ever Starts From Scratch

  • Study guides usually describe paper writing as a linear process: make decision on what to write about, plan, research, then write.
  • However, decision on what to write about has to be informed from reading you've already done on topic and other topics, to determine if it's a topic with merit.
  • Brainstorming is another technique that is often prescribed, but all the ideas that appear to originate in your brain, actual have sources that need to be traced.
  • Using the Zettelkasten system, your Permanent Notes will develop clusters of your own interests.
    • Additionally, nature questions will arise that lead you to more reading.

8. Let the Work Carry You Forward

  • Having a good workflow can be a virtuous cycle: you have positive experiences that motivates you to keep going, thus creating more positive experiences.
    • Similar to endergonic reaction which releases energy, as opposed to an exergonic reaction, which requires energy.
    • Trying to motivate yourself with rewards doomed to fail - eventually you'll take a shortcut to the rewards.
  • Feedback loops crucial part of learning: nothing motivates us more than getting better at what we do.
  • Most reliable predictor for long-term success: Growth Mindset
    • Growth mindset = "getting pleasure out of changing for the better (inwardly rewarding) vs being praised (outwardly rewarding)"
    • Gifted students are often praised which leads to a fixed mindset to focus on keeping the impression intact.
  • Feedback also a key part of development:
    • Academia's linear approach to writing leaves little room for feedback: only once at end when project's finished.
  • Circular feedback loops gives us many chances to learn and correct mistakes:
    • Writing what you've read in your own words forces a deep understanding.
      • Can't fool yourself incomprehensible literature notes, as you'll be force to understand it when creating permanent notes.
      • The more we do it, the better and faster we get, which allows for more learning - another positive feedback loop.
  • Writing Permanent Notes another positive feedback loop:
    • Forces you to think your ideas through.
    • Combining previously writen notes shows contradictions, inconsistencies and repetitions.
  • Searching through slipbox for categorising notes another important benefit:
    • Shows related notes we may not have considered
  • Slipbox works in a similar fashion to our brains:

The Six Steps To Successful Writing

9. Separate and Interlock Tasks

  • 9.1 Give each task your full attention:
    • There's clearly a trend towards lower attention-span
    • There's more distractions than ever and less opportunities to train our attetion span.
  • 9.2 Multitasking is not a good idea:
    • According to study (often citied - need to find it), quality of work not only decreases with multitasking but the ability to multitask also decreases.
      • Why?
        • Multitasking isn't really doing 2 things at once, it's shifting our attention rapidly from one thing to another.
        • The shifts is a drain in energy and decreases our energy to continue doing it.
    • Writing paper requires reading, understanding, reflecting, getting ideas, making connections, finding words, organising etc: all require different types of attention
      • Not only impossible to focus on more than one thing at a time, but also on different types of attention
    • Focused attention is different from "sustained attention" which is needed to focus on one task for a longer period and is necessary for learning, understanding and getting things done.
      • With focused attention, we can focus on one thing only and only for a few seconds.
    • The slipbox not only gives a clear structure for working, but allows us to shift our attention conciously from one type of attention to another.
  • 9.3 Give each task the right kind of attention
    • Mentioned earlier, writing requires many different types of attention
      • Proofreading is very different from trying to find the write words.
        • Critic must have distance from author: be concerned with what was said, not what was meant to be said.
          • Requires focused attention.
        • Author must have distance from critic: trying to write perfect first time will bring you to stand still.
          • Requires "floating" attention
      • Outline or changing outline requires a focus on the whole argument, not just one thought.
    • Finding write words easier if we don't think about the outline
      • Printed outline of manuscript should be in front of your eyes.
    • Working with the slip-box requires a associate, playful and creative attention
    • Reading another kind of attention
      • Some texts can be skimmed
      • Others studied in depth.
    • To master writing, you need to apply whatever type of attention is needed.
  • 9.4 Become an Expert Instead of a Planner
    • Experts do not rely on rigid plans, they rely on intuition or "embedded experience" .
    • Study guides try to "spare" you from gaining experience by telling you how, what and when to write.
    • To become expert, you need to make own decisions and learn from mistakes
    • Workflow of slipbox ideal for developing experience:
      • provides structure with clearly separable tasks that can be completed in reasonable amount of time
      • gives instant feedback through interconnected writing tasks
  • 9.5 Get Closure
    • Attention is not only limited resource: short term memory is very limited.
      • We can hold 7 things plus or minus 2 (Miller 1956)
    • Information in short term memory can't be saved: it floats around seeking attention until forgotten or replaced.
      • Open tasks occupy our limited short term memory until they're done or, as Zeigarnik found, written down, which is equally as effective for freeing short term memory.
    • On the other hand, things can be added to long term memory when understood, as we understand by connecting to existing knowledge
      • The slipbox seeks to reproduce this phenomena by allowing for interconnected long-term knowledge.
      • Permanent note creations should generate questions like:
        • How does theory fit into idea of ... ?
        • Can a phenonemon be explained by theory?
        • Do 2 ideas contradict or compliment each other?
        • Is argument similar to ... "
    • Slipbox also allows us to take advantage of unconcious process of our brain
      • We can write down unanswered questions and leave our brain to process them as we rest
  • 9.6 Reduce the Number of Decisions
    • Willpower is another limited resource
      • Slipbox allows us to "cheat": we can only work on what we feel like doing but that still moves the project forwards
    • Decision-making another task that depletes willpower
    • By having a system for doing all research, fewer decisions are required:
      • have one notebook for quick note taking
      • always extract ideas from text in one fashion
      • always turn literature notes into permanent notes
    • Taking breaks essential for long term memory
      • The slipbox breaks tasks down into small, completable chunks that allows for breaking and easily picking up where we left.

10. Read for Understanding

  • 10.1 Read With a Pen in Hand
    • By reading and converting into your own words, you will generate new ideas and content.
    • It's 2-way:
      • adding notes to slipbox turns in arguments, theories, ideas and models in your head.
      • what's in the slipbox will shape what's in your head.
    • Handwriting notes work particularly well in lectures because handwriting is slower, therefore the notetaker must write just the "gist" of what was heard
      • In order to write the gist, you must understand it.
    • Extensiveness of Literature Notes depends on the text (pg. 83).
      • Text on topics you're very unfamiliar with will require more ntoes.
    • What matters above all is the actual writing of slipbox notes.
      • Sometimes reflection on what's not written is needed: frame, theortical background or author, methodological approach etc.
  • 10.2 Keep an Open Mind
    • Ideally, given a hypthosis we would seek to find arguments and facts that challenge our way of thinking
      • However, our brains do not tend to work that way by default
    • We tend to find ourselves drawn to people that think like us, and read and listen to publications that confirm our beliefs.
    • Best scientists and thinkers are not free from it, but activately seek to counter it
      • Charles Darwin would constantly force himself to understand arguments that were critical of his theories.
    • Standard approach of starting with a hypothesis, causes major problems with confirmation bias:
      • we "fix" the present understanding of the outcome, instead of using as a starting point.
      • we create a conflict of interest between getting it done, by finding support for your argument and generating insight.
    • Slipbox changes incentives to finding confirmining facts to collect any information without care for the arguments it supports
      • In fact, more connections can often be made in the Slipbox by adding "dis-confirming" notes, than ones that support our existing argument.
    • Discussions around pros and cons also make for interesting papers
  • 10.3 Get the Gist
    • The ability to find relevant details amongst less relevant details is a skill that improves with practice
      • You can become better at spotting theories, concepts, typical mistakes, general categories, writing styles that indicate certain things and so on.
    • Professional reading and writing only possible through the learned understanding: otherwise all text read as novels.
    • "Reading with pen in hand" and writing permanent notes provides deliberate practice at this skill
  • 10.4 Learn to Read
    • Feynman said that the only way to know if he'd understood a topic is to do an introductory lecture on it.
    • You write notes for a audience in a similar way, only difference is: the audience is you after you've forgotten the material.
    • Writing helps to truely check our understanding and confront ourselves if we don't understand as well as we thing (pg. 93)
      • Simply rereading is dangerous due to the exposure effect: as we become more familiar with something we wrongly assume that we understand it
    • Having external system that systematically forces us to test our understanding consistently is key.
  • 10.5 Learn by Reading
    • "The one who does the work does the learning" Doyle (2008, 63)
    • Learning requires a lot of effort
    • Teachers do students a disservice by sorting their material into topics, categories and themes
      • Instead, though it may annoy students, they should change topics midway through a lesson, then jump back to it later.
      • They should test student constantly, even on things they haven't learned yet.
    • Answer a question before we know how to will allow us to remember the answer better (Arnold and McDermott 2013)
    • Put in effort to retrieve information even if we fail will help us remember in the long run (Roediger and Karpicke 2006)
    • Best-researched and most successful learning method is elaboration: thinking about what we read, how it could inform different questions and how it can be combined with other knowledge: slipbox is a form of this
      • Writing, taking notes and thinking about how ideas connect is the kind of elaboration need to learn.

11. Take Smart Notes

  • Kirsti Lonka compared unsuccessful students with successful and found that the difference is in their ability to think beyond frames of text (Lonka 2003, 155f).
    • Those with experience read text with "questions in mind" and see what is not mentioned.
  • Even worse than not thinking beyond text: unable to interpret parts of information within wider argument of entire text.
  • Experience read text with questions in mind and look at what's not mentioned as much as what is.
  • When creating permanent notes, we always think about what they mean in the context of other ideas.
  • 11.1 Make a Career One Note at a Time
    • Writing an entire thesis a long, time consuming and daunting task but writing a page a day manageable
      • one page a day and you're have a thesis written in a year.
    • However, pages per day isn't a good measure for research: reading, researching, thinking etc are important parts of the story.
    • Adding to slipbox every day provides this feature but also gives "compound interest", supporting future projects.
      • Measure your productivity in notes per day.
  • 11.2 Think Outside The Brain
    • Putting effort into writing in our own words best way to test our understanding of a topic and whether we have sufficient supporting sources like references on hand.
    • Writing gives us distance from argument and allows us to "scrutinise" our understanding.
    • Author's example of collecting Literature Notes:
      • Step 1. Take notes thinking about arguments in the context of the book:
        • Is it convincing?
        • What methods do they use?
        • Which references are familiar?
      • Step 2. Then when writing permanent notes for slipbox:
        • Think about how it fits within your interests:
          • What does it mean for my own research?
          • What aspects of it catch my interest?
        • First note may start with a statement: "Any comprehensive analysis of social inequality must include the cognitive effects of scarcity. Cf. Mullainathan and Shafir 2013."
        • Which leads to another note: "Why?"
      • Step 3. Skim slipbox for related ideas
        • Some ideas will require more research, but no reason not to note do possible connections to come back to
          • This allows us to make clear distinctions between ideas.
      • 11.3 Learn by not trying
        • Elaboration increases likelihood that we'll remember long-term
          • Literature Notes are archived and would be otherwise lost in reference system if we didn't do something with them
        • Transferring ideas to "external memory" allows us to forget, which paradoxically facilities long-term learning.
        • Robert and Elizabeth Lison Bjork suggest that we can distinguish between 2 different measurements of memory: storage strength and retrieval strength (Bjork 2011)
          • Storage strength becomes greater over life time
          • Therefore, we should focus on retrieval.
        • Connecting information to as many meaningful contexts may be the key to this.
          • Aim to build "self-supporting" network of info in slipbox.
        • Challenge of writing and learning is not to learn as much as to understand
          • The meaning of somtehing not always obvious & needs exploration
        • Teaching others a shortcut to learning as it requires understanding
        • Writing and sorting notes in slipbox forces us to answer questions:
          • What does it mean?
          • How does it connect?
          • What's the diff between ... ?
          • What's it simliar to?
        • Connecting and distinguishing ideas facilities learning much better than simply sorting topics.
      • 11.4 Adding notes to slipbox
        • Add note directly behind note you refer to, or if not follow up, then last note in the slipbox.
        • Add links to other notes or links on other notes to new note
        • Add entry to index or ensure it's linked from note in index

12. Develop Ideas

  • New notes should be written with explicit references to other notes.
    • Luhman would put a note behind another note and use an alternating number/letter sequence like: 1, 1a, 1a1 etc, in order to ensure that he could keep branching topics out.
      • Digital can handle changing numbers much more easily.
    • "Note sequences" the backbone of Zettlekasting.
      • Note: doing some reading, it seems most people disagree with the importance of a sequence for digital notes.. Luhmann used sequences to compensate for lack of search in a physical slipbox. Just linking notes should be enough
      • Allow for topic-related order without locking self into topics up front - let them grow naturally over time.
      • Not an encyclopedia - doesn't need completeness.
        • Gaps can be examined when notes are used for manuscripts.
  • 12.1 Develop topics
    • Luhmann used an index to help retrieve notes
      • Created index cards using a typewriter
      • Index defined entry points to ideas, which contain other links.
    • Keywords were added to notes, but chosen sparsely and carefully:
      • Not an archive for putting stuff in to pull out, but system to think with
        • Can remind us of old ideas and trigger new ones.
      • Links between articles more important.
    • One can't get an overview of the whole slipbox (like the brain) but can for a topic
    • Archiver vs writer
      • Archiver: keywords are used to store notes
      • Writer: where would I want to stumble on note after forgetting.
    • You likely won't need all notes for a broad topic, like "experimental psychology"
      • Instead, look to slipbox for questions and existing threads of ideas to see where a new note can contribute
  • 12.2 Make smart connections
    • Cross-referencing a crucial part of developing thoughts within slipbox
    • Luhmann had 4 types of cross-references that he used. Only the 1st and 4th relevant for digital slipboxes, the other to compensate for short comings of the physical boxes:
      • Links on the Topic Overview (Zettlekasten).
        • The topic overview is referenced directly from the index, as entry point into topic.
        • Used on topic fleshed out enough that this is required.
        • Considered an inbetween step for writing manuscript.
        • Luhmann collected up to 25 notes on a topic.
        • They topic overview should change over time and show the growth of the topic.
      • Collection of links that gives overview of a local physical cluster of notes
        • Keeps track of the topics that are physically close together
      • Links to indicate which note follows up which
      • Note-to-note references.
        • The most common type of link.
        • Can allow for surprising connections and similarities between thoughts.
        • Some observations that Luhmann made in his work could not be achieved through organising notes based on preconceived themes and topics
      • Making connections builds the internal structure of the slipbox, which in term shapes our thinking.
        • Ideas become rooted in facts and thought-through ideas with verifiable references.
    • 12.3 Compare, correct and differentiate
      • As slipbox grows, you find yourself adding notes that are already in there.
        • Sometimes even realising that an idea you had was someone elses.
          • This is a common occurance but most don't have a system that confronts us with it.
          • Doesn't feel good but it's how you push into new frontiers with ideas
        • Can be useful for detecting differences, contradictions, oppositions that wouldn't otherwise be noticed
        • Constant comparison of notes leads to new insights about old ideas
          • Can highlights errors or incorrect citations in source material (indicating that I likely should be storing the original sources)
          • Discover studies that conflict with each other
        • Leads to constant improvement of your work and can find weaknesses in others
      • Also helps with "feature-positive" effect:
        • our brains tend to overstate the importance of info that's easily available: favouring recently acquired facts over most relevant.
        • Reminds us of info we've forgotten.
      • 12.4 Assemble toolbox for thinking
        • Using the slipbox method will have you retrieving old facts on an irregular basis.
        • This is a similiar idea to flashcards, however, with some advantages:
          • In flash cards, surrounding context is not included.
            • Ideas, for example scientific terms or concepts, are only meaningful within context: otherwise they're "just words"
        • In science, as in life, we use our accumulation of knowledge and experience to interpret info and handle situations.
        • Useful to build a Latticework of Mental Models, a term coined by Charlie Munger.
          • He advocates for a "broad theoretical toolbox"
            • looks for powerful concepts across many disciplines
            • having a range of mental models allows you to avoid getting attached to just a few
        • When adding to slipbox, we focus on principals of ideas
        • When we write, add and connect, we look for patterns and think outside obvious interpretations
          • In doing this, we are building the latticework
        • We grow with the slipbox: as we connect ideas in slipbox, so do our ideas in our brain, making it easier to remember facts by having a connected network.
        • We should aim to practice learning not to simply accumulate knowledge, but to build mental models
          • This encourages a positive "vicious circle", when learning leads to more learning
        • Helmut D. Sachs quotes talks about the pitfalls of not retaining the basics, which makes it harder to retain new ideas leading to a sense of reaching our brains capacity
          • His recommendations sound a lot like slipbox:
            • Pay attention to what you want to remember
            • Encode info you want to keep
            • Practice recall
      • 12.5 Use the slipbox as a creativity machine
        • World-changing insights do not appear out of thin air: they're the product of hours spend immersed in a problem, trying every possible solution
        • Even for purely theoretical work, intimate familarity with tools of the trade are required and a lot of experience
          • "Intution" grows over time - you learn which ideas are more promising to follow than others
        • Innovation is the result of incremental steps
          • Searching for small difference is key
            • Important to see differences concepts that appear similar
          • Having notes in front of our eyes allows for easy comparison
      • 12.6 Think Inside The Box
        • Comparing and connecting notes foundation of academia
          • Great writing come from "tinkering" with ideas
        • To truely play with ideas, we have to remove them from their original context: "abstraction and respecification"
          • Though abstract has a bad name (does it now?), it is a neceassary step connecting diverse ideas
            • Example: Darwin abstracted observations of sparrows into general principle of evolution
          • Abstraction not just for theortical work
            • In art: Romeo & Juliet is moving because we can abstract time and place to related to the tragedy
            • A correlation to successful engineers is ability to abstract concrete concepts
            • Also the key to analysing and comparing concepts
            • Only useful if we can put into practice ie put ideas into different contexts within slipbox and combine them creatively
        • Real enemy of independant thinking is not some authority but our "bad habits of thinking" (pg. 134)
          • Our brains love routines: before we think different about something, our brains try to fit the new into the know.
          • We usually don't even see our brains changing "our surroundings to meet our perceptions" (pg. 134)
          • In book "The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking" by Burger and Starbird they collect strategies to do it:
            • Add feedback loops and ways to confront ourselves with "errors, mistakes and misunderstandings" in thinking. Slipbox does this
            • Focus on main idea: "get the gist". Slipbox does this too.
            • Another key idea: "make sure you see what is really there"
              • Perception doesn't see first and interpret 2nd: it does it simulaneously
                • Why optical illusions are so effective on us
                • When we read, we don't see paper, then words, then understand, we immediately get to level of understanding
                • That means, to truely understand a text we have to practice constant revision of our first interpretation
                  • We are lying to ourselves trying to "hold back" our first interpretation
                  • Example of this in practice is Abraham Wald
          • Abraham Wald
            • In WW2 was tasked with finding areas in planes to reinforce. Instead of reinforcing the areas that had sustained hits, as intuition tells us, he reinforced areas that hadn't been hit. Key idea is that the planes that didn't make it back where hit in areas surviving planes weren't.
              • Called Survivorship Bias
          • Survivorship Bias (Taleb 2005)
            • Product managers make mistake on regular basis
              • Don't consider that a product isn't in the market because it has already failed.
              • Some companies don't keep track of their own failures, leaving new generations of employees to make the same mistakes (McMath and Forbes 1999)
            • Manager biographies a great example of survivorship bias: successful managers write biographies, but we could likely learn more from failures.
              • Perhaps the things that were supposeably responsible for success, resulted in failure for the vast majority.
            • One way to deal with it is to ask "what if?"
              • We can learn a lot about the problem money solves by asking the question of how society would function without money
        • Some problems don't get solved directly. Instead, we redefine the problem to make it fit with an existing solution.
          • Get in habit of asking questions about the questions itself:
            • What kind of answer can you get to a question asked like that? What's missing?
        • Another habit of great thinkers: take simple ideas seriously
          • Idea of buying high and selling low. It's easy to grasp but that's not understanding
          • When purchasing stock, people often neglect the fact that you're buying part ownership in company.
            • The price is set by market: so supply and demand
              • That involves rationality of market participants and valuation
                • Should know someting about the business you're buying
          • Simple is not necessarily easy - worst thing is to make a simple task complicated
          • Breakthroughs in scentific process are sometimes simple principals behind complicated processes
            • Flying example: for a long time we tried to emulate birds, until we discovered that the key is a subtle bend of the wings (Burger and Starbird)
        • Simple ideas can tied into theories to build complexity
        • Using slipbox trains these intellectual skills deliberately
          • Check we really understand a text by having our interpretation right in front of us
          • Focus on gist (the abstraction) by restricting space
          • When saving ideas, make a habit to ask: what's missing?
          • We practice asking good questions when we sort and connect notes in the slipbox
      • 12.7 Facilitate Creativity through Restrictions
        • The limitations we place within the slipbox facilitate creativity
          • We should treat digital note as if it were phyiscal with limited space: it forces us to be concise and get to the point
          • As does restricting notes to one idea. It allows for creative combining later.
        • The system of the slipbox also offloads the fatigue of choice.
          • In "The Paradox of Choice", Barry Schwartz has various examples that show less choice increases productivity: we waste less energy on making choices.

13. Share Your Insight

  • After using a slipbox for a while, you will never have to find topics to write about: you are already aware of the clusters of topics that have caught you attention repeatably.
    • Every time we read, making a decision about what to remember (reference), then what is relevant for our long term thinking
      • These visible clusters of ideas are self-reinforcing:
        • Attracts more ideas and provides more connections while informing what to read and explore
  • To write manuscript, lay out your notes around topic and start constructing order of sections, chapters paragraphs
    • This will add new questions, show gaps in your thinking etc
    • This process is now about constructing a linear narrative: trying to narrow a perspective to a single topic
  • 13.1 From Brainstorming to Slipbox-storming
    • Brainstorming has the downside that we tend to prioritise ideas that are easily available
    • Does it work adding more people? No. Adding more people to brain storming session narrows the range of topics (Mullen, Johnson, and Salas 1991) (pg. 143)
    • We tend to like our first ideas and can be reluctant to let them go
      • Therefore, asking our brains what to work on, will limit us to recent ideas
    • With slipbox, questions are generated through writing
      • If we start with a question that doesn't turn out to be fruitful, there's many more. Not so if you start writing with a single question: you end up stuck with it, even if it's not right.
  • 13.2 From Top Down To Bottom Up
    • Only when we become completely familiar with a topic, can we start to explore its limits: we don't have risk of repeating an idea thinking it's new.
    • Even true in art: the great artists could take risks and explore the boundaries of an aesthetic by first being intimately acquanted with it.
  • 13.3 Getting Things Done By Following Our Interests
    • Only 2nd to autonomy, motivation is the key factor in successful students.
    • Even highly intelligent students fail because:
      • they can't see the value in what they're learning (Teaching the whole game tries to solve this)
      • unable to make connections to personal goals
      • don't feel like they can control their education's direction
    • Nothing is more motivating than feeling like your project is moving forward, nothing more demotivational than not
      • If you realise the initial topic was wrong, a system that allows you to change course mitigates this risk
    • We develop interests and remain motivated by asking, at every step of the journey: what's interesting and relevant about this?
    • Breaking down task into manageable concrete steps allows us to continue moving forward, always in control - no longer relying on willpower
  • 13.4 Finishing and Review
    • Key point to structuring a text is to allow ourselves flexibility
    • We want to structure our drafts visibly by arranging out notes
      • Eventually we will have the opposite of "blank screen problem": have to decide what to remove, not what to keep
    • Another key point: try to work on multiple manuscripts at a time
      • If you get stuck on one, you can make progress on the other: all the while accumulating useful knowledge
  • 13.5 Become an Expert by Giving up Planning
    • Students are bad at planning and estimating their time: in fact, all people are
    • Be skeptical of any planning that's outcome based, only plan the process
  • 13.6 The Actual Writing
    • First draft is supposed to be revised
      • It can be difficult to throw away ideas, but it's essential
      • Tip: keep a separate document of the stuff that gets thrown out, to tell yourself you'll use it one day.

14. Make a Habit

  • Don't rely on willpower
  • Instead, develop habits that actually have a chance to replace old ones
  • Tunnel effect (Mullainathan and Shafir)
    • The more stress and pressure we feel, the more we stick to old habits: even if habits are the reason for the stress.

Ahrens (2017)

References

Sönke Ahrens. How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking: For Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers. CreateSpace, North Charleston, SC, 2017. ISBN 978-1-5428-6650-7. ↩