stamp 202507011837
The Zettelkasten reddit defines Zettelkasten this way (as of May of 2025): “Niklas Luhmann’s zettelkasten method, a bottom-up, emergent, rhizomatic approach to writing and thinking.”
It doesn’t tie Zettelkasten to a certain medium, and doesn’t get into the nitty-gritty details of how to build a bottom-up, emergent, rhizomatic system (like numbering, etc.).
Related
- In contrast, Scott Scheper defines his approach (claiming to be the One True Approach) as “antinet”, where ANTI is a mosaic from analog, numeric-alpha, tree-structured, indexed network.
- Being analog is the hill Scott is willing to die on. This is one of the strong points where he distinguishes his products from digital-embracing Zettelkasten folk, heavily bashing different opinions.
- Numeric-alpha ID-ing is a tool, necessary in analog, optional in digital.
- Scott tweaks Luhmann’s ID system - ironic, isn’t it, Mr. True To Luhmann -, switching letters for dashes, and introducing a new logic with using the outline of academic disciplines as an organizing principle.
- 1b1-scott-scheper-s-suggestion-to-build-your-zettelkasten-numbering-system-on-the-outline-of-academic-disciplines-is-confusing
- I just recently made the breakthrough understanding finally on how my ID-ing logic differs from Luhmann’s and rather follows Bob’s.
- Scott tweaks Luhmann’s ID system - ironic, isn’t it, Mr. True To Luhmann -, switching letters for dashes, and introducing a new logic with using the outline of academic disciplines as an organizing principle.
- A tree isn’t a network. That’s not only nitpicking, but a main struggle on how to file with a network (rhizome) mindset into a tree system.
- 1b1-scott-scheper-s-suggestion-to-build-your-zettelkasten-numbering-system-on-the-outline-of-academic-disciplines-is-confusing
- Not being a tree is why Luhmann didn’t use a library catalog style numbering system.
- Obsidian graph is an often attacked tool in the Obsidian community, but it’s a straight forward representation of how a knowledge network is pretty much not a tree. :)
- Indexing is a tool again.
- Scott’s capitalistic gatekeeping around Zettelkasten just pains me. 1b1a1a-the-gatekeeping-around-zettelkasten-pains-me
- In contrast, Sascha Fast uses a way broader definition as of 2025. 1b1a-i-find-it-interesting-that-sascha-fast-defines-zettelkasten-without-including-any-specific-terms-usually-associated-with-the-definition-of-a-zettelkasten
- I enjoyed Umberto Eco’s book on writing a thesis and the notecard system representation in it. ref-eco-how-to-write-a-thesis