royvdb's review against another edition
3.0
I use obsidian for over a year now and found my flow. I noticed that a lot of youtubers were recommending this book. I expected a practical guide, with plenty of inspiration but I got a broaf overview and a very theoretical approach. Still a good book, but not what I was expecting.
smadams's review against another edition
4.0
The basic concept is mind-blowing enough for 4 stars. I can't believe I didn't learn this in school... I might have actually completed an undergrad thesis if I had. The book cleared up some questions I had after watching many videos on the zettelkasten slip-box concept and system.
Would have been an easy 5 stars except for lots of repetition. Could have been much shorter.
Would have been an easy 5 stars except for lots of repetition. Could have been much shorter.
tltorrez's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
4.75
This book is dense but incredibly insightful.
nbcknwlf's review
3.0
This book was a quick read. Agree with many of the middling reviews on here that it’s more of a “why” and less of a “how to” - fortunately YouTube has your back with many great videos on how different folks have employed the zettelkasten method.
My main criticism (and this isn’t totally on the book since it does indeed state it’s primarily for writers and specifically writers of nonfiction) is that note-taking systems in general feel very oriented to professional life.
This makes sense, I use notes a lot in my job where research is a huge component. But I also use notes to take down info about recipes, my kid’s school meetings, hobbies I pursue, professional development courses im taking, and I want them all in one place. I’m looking for something more holistic I think, how to think about and use all my notes in ways that make sense.
And before you go saying that my kids school meetings are totally separate from my work in tech, they’re actually not. Sometimes they are, but other times I make interesting connections between say, my kids curriculum and how people use online search. I need a way to track and capture both the “everyday” utility as well as the interesting connections.
Bit off topic now - in short, this was worth a read, it was short and had some good ideas and food for thought. Still in search of my perfect system but will likely incorporate some of this into it.
Side note, this author goes on and on about how you shouldn’t use topics or categories but rather allow these to emerge from the attributes and relationships of your notes. Spoiler alert my dude, this is … exactly how categories are created in the first place. You did not just invent library science.
My main criticism (and this isn’t totally on the book since it does indeed state it’s primarily for writers and specifically writers of nonfiction) is that note-taking systems in general feel very oriented to professional life.
This makes sense, I use notes a lot in my job where research is a huge component. But I also use notes to take down info about recipes, my kid’s school meetings, hobbies I pursue, professional development courses im taking, and I want them all in one place. I’m looking for something more holistic I think, how to think about and use all my notes in ways that make sense.
And before you go saying that my kids school meetings are totally separate from my work in tech, they’re actually not. Sometimes they are, but other times I make interesting connections between say, my kids curriculum and how people use online search. I need a way to track and capture both the “everyday” utility as well as the interesting connections.
Bit off topic now - in short, this was worth a read, it was short and had some good ideas and food for thought. Still in search of my perfect system but will likely incorporate some of this into it.
Side note, this author goes on and on about how you shouldn’t use topics or categories but rather allow these to emerge from the attributes and relationships of your notes. Spoiler alert my dude, this is … exactly how categories are created in the first place. You did not just invent library science.
avery_rivers's review against another edition
2.0
I really expected to give this book a much higher rating but, like others have mentioned, there are no examples so it's impossible to know (from the book) how to actually put it into practice (which is literally what the title of the book promises). This is more an argument for using the method and a too-high level overview of it. I'm off now to find other resources to demonstrate the how-to promised.