How to Cultivate an Idea Garden

Notetaking as Creative Cross-Pollination

Nov 10, 2023

*Spring*, Allegra Villarreal, hand-drawn digital illustration, 2023.

One of the greatest challenges I encountered in college was that I absolutely sucked at taking notes. It wouldn’t have mattered so much if final exams in the U.K. system—three hours of essay writing on potentially anything discussed in the previous 16 weeks of lectures—didn’t depend on this vital skill that seemed to elude me. I tried every way of taking notes, in furtive starts and stops, trying to coax my brain to retain as much as it could. Some systems were enjoyable but time-consuming (sketchnote, anyone?), others felt like ill-fitting suits (Cornell), and others felt good at the moment (marginalia, highlighting) but didn’t necessarily “pay off” as I had hoped. So, I never really solved that riddle as a student.

Once I’d left formal studies behind, I still read all the time—but was happy to leave notetaking behind. Sort of. Every once in a while, I’d read something so pertinent, so perfect, I’d be desperate to note it somewhere. Spiral notebooks, index cards, marginalia (again), Apple Notes, Word docs—these notes are scattered about, like haphazard breadcrumbs that seem like they lead somewhere (but where?) It turns out that notetaking in the “real world” has a different purpose entirely. Rather than needing to memorize anything, I needed to connect ideas to produce something new. This is true for a lot of people. And yet, notetaking may be one of the great under-studied arts. Because there are better systems for generative notetaking. I only wish I’d discovered them sooner.

Notetaking is somewhat of a cottage industry for dozens of YouTubers: Ali Abdaal, Elizabeth Filips, Tiago Forte, Jeff Su, Mariana Vieira among many, many others. No matter who you watch, all roads seemingly lead to a single ur-text: How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens. It’s a powerful book built around a simple idea: write notes as you read. Ahrens argues that,

“Writing is, without dispute, the best facilitator for thinking, reading, learning, understanding, and generating ideas we have.”

He goes on to assert that the human brain is not particularly good at retaining information, so all our efforts to increase “storage strength” (including the memorization I did in college) is done in vain. Rather, the focus of education should be on increasing “retrieval” strength. And this can be done through notetaking.

Above this, there is a particular way of taking notes that increases the capacity of the brain not only to note down information but to connect ideas in new ways. The Zettelkasten, or “Slip Box” is an ingenious system of storing knowledge through associations, where “idea trees” can branch-off and intertwine in novel directions. This note-taking method harnesses the brain’s natural desire to find patterns and helps with what all good research aspires to do: move information from a familiar context to an unexpected one in order to create deeper understanding.

Though it is existent among earlier thinkers, it gained a foothold in productivity and systems theory research via German sociologist Niklas Luhmann who described it in his essay “Communicating with Slip Boxes: An Empirical Account.” His “slip box” contained index-sized notes of either “literature” (i.e. sources) or “Ideas” type. When processing a new note, he would write it, add bibliographic references, locate its closest association, number it hierarchically to fit there, and slip it behind. He kept track of topics via an index, and, eventually, a wealth of “idea-clusters” would prompt a publication or writing project. He didn’t just view his Zettelkasten as a repository of ideas but a true “thought-partner”, an extension of his mind:

“As a result of extensive work with this technique a kind of secondary memory will arise, an alter ego with who we can constantly communicate.”

For obvious reasons, this way of organizing information is especially salient for writers, academics, researchers, and content creators. I’ve kept my own Zettelkasten for almost two years now. This very article was written by connecting a few notes together from my “PKM” (personal knowledge management) category:

Snippet from my Zettelkasten (made on Notion). Each “title” expands to a full note. Associations run vertically (within categories) and horizontally (across categories).

One of the major skills students need more of—in an age of information overload—is the ability to create their own knowledge systems. That is, to deliberately consume, analyze, and connect ideas throughout their lives. Daniel Pink called this skill “symphony” in his book A Whole New Mind. From this skill, “inventors” (who see convergences among many needs), “boundary crossers” (who see similarities across disparate fields), and “metaphor-makers” (who can succinctly communicate the connection of all things) are born. And this is exactly what we need more of in academia and beyond—a collective mental landscape filled with diverse and buzzing idea gardens that propagate new ways of understanding ourselves, each other, and our world.

3 Things Newly Noted

Loved Austin Kleon’s re-surfaced Tumblr post of famous missives from authors, artists and thinkers—all detailing, in ways terse and florid, “no thank you.” How to Graciously Say No to Anyone is worth the read.
Really appreciated Sophie Gilbert’s piece on Madonna this month for The Atlantic. By way of explaining our collective fascination that has endured decades, Gilbert quotes Kim Gordon, of the band Sonic Youth: “…people pay to see others believe in themselves.”
Related to this week’s article: Hobonichi planners. 10 years ago, I bought one of the original black books (I think I didn’t manage to maintain entries for more than two weeks), but it turns out there are a lot of iterations now of this famous Japanese calendar/diary combo translated into English. It’s a rabbit-hole if you Google it. You’ve been forewarned.
See you next Friday!