The Zettelkasten

How ideas are kept, connected, and allowed to compound.

The Zettelkasten is the internal note system that supports the work on this site.

At its core, it’s not complicated.

A Zettelkasten is simply an index-card system: small notes, each capturing a single idea, observation, or question, deliberately linked to related notes so they can be found again later. I’ve used some version of this approach for decades. What’s changed is the medium, not the logic.

Today, those “cards” live in a distributed computer environment rather than a physical box. The purpose is the same as it’s always been: to keep ideas from disappearing once the initial interest passes.

What the Zettelkasten actually is

In practical terms, it’s a growing collection of short, durable notes:

• one idea per note

• written to be understandable on their own

• explicitly linked to other relevant notes

Over time, those links make patterns visible that wouldn’t show up in isolated documents or drafts. Writing happens when enough related notes form a coherent shape.

This isn’t productivity theater, and it isn’t a system to copy wholesale. It’s a way of working that supports long-horizon research and field-based work without relying on memory or inspiration.

What the Zettelkasten does

• Keeps reading notes, field observations, and research fragments usable

• Allows ideas from different domains to connect naturally

• Reduces the need to “remember everything”

• Makes writing a result of accumulation, not effort

  
  

Notes don’t start as essays or arguments. They start as records: something noticed, something learned, something that didn’t quite fit.

Some notes fade into the background. Others gain relevance as new material connects to them. Writing emerges from that process rather than being forced.

A note on terminology

Despite the German name, there’s nothing exotic about this.

For years, this work was done with index cards, pens, and highlighters — a small box on a desk, cross-references scribbled in the corner, ideas grouped and regrouped by hand. The total cost was whatever a pack of cards and basic office supplies ran at the time.

What computers changed wasn’t the method. They just made it easier to store, search, and rearrange the same kind of material at larger scale.

The logic is old:

• capture one idea at a time

• keep notes small and readable

• link related ideas

• revisit them later

Software didn’t invent that. It just removed some friction.

That’s also why the imagery around this section is deliberately analog. The point isn’t nostalgia — it’s a reminder that the thinking comes first. Tools come later.

What it is not

• Not a second-brain fantasy

• Not a productivity hack

• Not a system that guarantees output

The value isn’t speed. It’s durability.

Ideas can sit dormant for months or years and still be retrievable when they matter again.

How it fits with the rest of the site

The Zettelkasten sits between gathering material and writing.

Reading, research, and field work feed the note system. Writing draws from it. The notes themselves aren’t meant to be impressive — they’re meant to be reliable.

The practical mechanics — how notes are created, maintained, linked, and turned into finished work — are documented elsewhere on the site:

• a page explaining how the Zettelkasten is built and maintained

• a walkthrough of the Notion environment used to catalog and connect material

• examples showing how notes turn into outlines and published work

Those pages exist to make the system concrete, not theoretical.

This page explains the role the Zettelkasten plays in the larger process. If you’re interested in the mechanics, you can follow those links. If you’re not, you don’t need to think about it at all — the site works either way.