How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking

It was a good read and an enjoyable book. I found it insightful and informative with much to take away.

This is a well-written, deeply-considered book, but check that you are among the target audience before buying it. It will most benefit academic researchers to compile raw material for publishing papers. Nonetheless, it describes the method you should use to build a Personal Knowledge Management system (the current fad in productivity) and why the system should benefit you based on psychology research. The book is more helpful in this regard than the countless YouTube videos focusing on computer tool configuration rather than the process. The book would have been better if the method had been illustrated with a real-world example using a knowledge domain that most readers would understand. Instead, the process is described in the abstract, and the value of linking notes together remains somewhat fuzzy. I felt I could have used more explicit guidance on developing a permanent note from a literature note, developing a permanent note and effectively linking all the permanent notes together. All that likely seems self-evident to the author who uses it every day, but not to me. Undoubtedly, the system’s inventor, Niklas Luhmann, was a prolific author who credited his success to the method. However, unless I missed it, further proof that the method is effective is absent from the book. Maybe I’m committing academic heresy by writing that. I finished the book feeling encouraged to try the method using the text as a safety rail, but I remained sceptical. Time will tell.

A literature paradox, if the book instructed how to take the smart note in a shabby manner. Said note would not be smart, not dumb or thick, just not smart, then the book would be crap and probably ignite in permanent loops. Luckily this book is well presented and informative. And my smart note knowledge has never been better

Maybe me. But you need to be smart to understand. Or just spend time taking notes and writing them as a story

I came across the zettelkasten (slip-box) method but I was continuously put off by the complex and elaborate digital zettelkasten setups found on YouTube etc. The book provided a very intuitive and robust introduction to the concept and made a convincing case for the effectiveness of the method. Whenever someone asks me about the zettelkasten method, I recommend them this book. I believe that is enough to be said.

This book is aimed at students, academics, and any others who need to read a lot of material written by other authors, and build on it, or argue against it, or otherwise incorporate it into their own work. It is based on the approach used by Niklaus Luhmann, the renowned and extremely productive social scientist. He used his Zettelkasten (slip-box) technique, comprising an enormous set of linked notes, eventually numbering 90 thousand, to systematise his sources, thoughts and ideas. (He was also a bit of a workaholic, by all accounts: his success was down to working smarter and harder). He did this with real physical slips of paper (in lots of slip-boxes); nowadays there are many tools such as Obsidian available to do the linking (if not the related thinking). Ahrens states that “writing is the only thing that matters”, that is, all the rest of the work (reading, note taking, thinking) is for the purpose of writing. This is aimed more at non-experimental subjects, as it does not cover experimenting, but is nevertheless a key aspect of all academic disciplines (publish or perish) and student work (essays and dissertations). It is essentially about the generation and publication of new knowledge. The publication side is important: Ahrens says that there is “no such thing as private knowledge in academia”, that is, secret knowledge isn’t (academic) knowledge. As such, all the rest of the work needs to support the work of writing, and in particular, the prior reading needs to be structured so that its contents can be organised, assimilated, and repurposed for the subsequent writing. Hence taking good notes, and organising them well for later use. Ahrens spends most of the book discussing the psychology of reading, learning, thinking, and writing. This includes discussion of why the common student practice of highlighting text while reading is almost useless: the reader gets a quick feeling of satisfaction as the line of text become yellow, but nothing much changes in their brain. Note-taking must be an active process: instead of merely highlighting text, make a “fleeting” note comprising the text rewritten in your own words (to force you to think), plus any thoughts it sparks (to make links). Then, soon after writing these fleeting notes, review them, and for ones that still seem worthwhile, make a “permanent” note for the Zettelkasten, and – here’s the crucial bit – link that note to other related notes. (Luhmann had a numerical system to do this by hand; this is where computer support really comes into its own.) The rich network of linked notes provides added value: the “sum of the slip-box contents is worth much more than the sum of the notes”. Ahrens points out that it is difficult to know what to write about until you have done a lot of reading, and built up a mental database of the subject area. The topic of the to-be-published essay, thesis, or book, emerges from the linked structure of notes in your Zettelkasten. So it is important to review its contents continually, to notice emergent clusters, and hence potential topics. This may be one place where physical notes are better: they can be removed from the box, placed on a table, and moved around to form a structure for the writing. Returning them to the box in the correct place (imagine misfiling one of your 90,000 notes: it would be gone forever!) is presumably a bit of a chore. There is a lot of good material here, from the theory of learning to practical advice for choosing and working on projects. One thing missing is specific examples of notes and their links: there are some example notes from Luhmann’s own Zettelkasten, but these are so compact and densely written, that it is hard to extract the principles from them. Never mind, the web comes to the rescue: the Zettelkasten site (https://zettelkasten.de/overview/) has great examples and advice. I have started using this approach, and have already made one link between parts of my reading that I probably wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. I doubt whether I’ll ever get up to 90,000 notes, but I intend to keep reading, and thinking, in this new way.

The book is in depth discussion of Luhmann’s slip box. This book has touched every aspect of reading, writing to taking notes. This is amazing. how the author argued, having clear goal in mind is as crucial as reading, writing and note taking. And finally, in my opinion, Slip box works because author produce this whole book by using slip-box. Happy reading😀

I never used to take notes until I used Obsidian, but still you need a guide to get the most out of it. This book has lots of great information that I keep coming back to on how to make notes work for you.

Es un gran libro que da una perspectiva diferente sobre cómo mejorar tu ruta de aprendizaje.

How to Take Smart Note presents the Zettelkasten (slip-box) method as a note-taking system, which encourages an universal simple note format and an interconnected note storage and retrieval system. This method was pioneered by Niklas Luhmann. This book consists of three parts: - What is Zettelkasten method? This part explains the basic concepts and the practical skills (know-how) of note-taking using Zettelkasten method including how to separate different types of notes (fleeting notes, literature notes and permanent notes), how to use slip-box in writing and research etc. The focus is on what to do and how to do. - The Four Underlying Principles: This part focus on the principles underlying the Zettelkasten method. Zettelkasten method is not simply a skill for note-taking but also a set of principles and mindsets underlying reading, writing, critical thinking and research. To better use of Zettelkasten note-taking system, one should understand why it works. The principles introduced in this part helps the reader to understand what it really matters in note-taking, reading, writing and research. The reader can then adopt the Zettelkasten method with flexibility, allowing the benefits of using this method more obvious. For many, adopting Zettelkasten method would be a paradigm shift in their habits and perspective towards learning and thinking itself. - The Six Steps to Successful Writing: This part moves beyond Zettelkasten method itself and discusses the suggestions and steps of academia writing and research. These steps also follow the similar principles underlying the self-centered research principles. and the five elements of effective thinking. These suggestions are embedded in the design of Zettelkasten system which helps us to separate different tasks, to focus on understanding while reading, to develop ideas with connections, and to share insights with others. The author advocated that Zettelkasten method would lead to successful in non-fiction writing, learning, and academia research.

The printing is terrible, half of the book’s pages are double-printed and look hazy.

That is one of the most useful books I have ever read. It's written in not too difficult for non-english reader language with great storytelling, and describes the method of Luhmann in understandable way.

One of my favorite books now