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10+ years experience in industrial cybersecurity
@Nicolascole77 I like to listen to the authors voice, especially when they do a lot of YouTube / Courses / Videos.
There already is a strong association to the voice.
The best approach to note-taking comes from this Jordan Peterson monologue.
When asked for his advice on effective communication, he said,
"Learn to write."
How?
Here are the 3 steps:👇
1. Pick a Problem
"First of all, you need a problem because why write if you don't have a problem? Find something that grips you, something you desire to investigate."
2. Read
Have something to say about the problem. How do you do that? Reading is a good start.
3. Articulate
Wrestle with the material until you can articulate and "discover what you believe to be true."
But, King...
How does this relate to note-taking?
Well...
If "writing is formalized thinking", then note-taking is the foundation of your thoughts. If starting from a problem is good for writing, note-taking should facilitate this.
Organize by Problems
So, I've been focusing on organizing my notes around problems for the last 6 months, and I saw a significant boost in my:
• Recall
• Quality of ideas
• Clarity of thought
Here's how you can go about it:
Instead of organizing by action, relation, or themes, organize every new note by how it contributes to a conversation about a problem.
How? First, drop your preconceived notion that notes are files in a folder or a cluster of links from note to note.
Instead, imagine the problem you're curious about as a question posted on X or Reddit. Then, anytime you come across an idea, a solution, or a concept from something you read, add it as a comment to this post.
Over time, you'll get a lively conversation happening. Authors and brightest minds are all responding to each other's comments.
Here's what it looks like in my @obsdmd Zettelkasten:
Now, there are many benefits to this approach:
Benefit 1: Incremental Writing
Practically, as notes build up around a problem, you can see the whole argument from all sides, and therefore, writing is essentially picking the train of thoughts you've already established.
Benefit 2: It's long-term.
When you want to write something about this topic, you don't need to move your notes around. You simply 'consult' the conversation, pick a stance, and then be on your way.
Benefit 3: It makes learning more fun
Elon Musk says, "Instead of learning about building [an engine] by taking a course in wrenches and screwdrivers, it's better to look at an engine and take it apart. And then go, we'll need a screwdriver for that. Then it makes sense why you're learning what you're learning."
Benefit 4: Become more sensitive to your audience
As content creators, we should be looking to solve our audience's problems. Why not have your notes converge on problems they care about?
Benefit 5: Idea Cross-Pollination
"Usually, it is more fruitful to look for formulations of problems that relate heterogeneous things with each other." - Niklas Luhmann.
Problems are a great container that can re-contextualize ideas from one domain to another.
So, give it a go, and let me know how it goes!
If you want to learn how Niklas Luhmann did this in his zettelkasten, I am running a workshop on this in January 2024.
Sign up here: https://t.co/oiWke7uGHC