Author: Sönke Ahrens
Published year: 2017
Genres: Productivity Self-improvement
Status: DONE
The Book in 3 Sentences
- slip box, atomic note, aka. Zettelkasten
- Fleeting notes, permanent notes, project notes
- Read with a pen, take smart notes and make connections between them, ideas will come.
- Make it a habit, the trick is not to break with old habits and not to use willpower to force ourselves to do something, but to build new habits that will replace the old ones.
Top Quotes
The brain alone is too eager to make us feel good – even if it is by politely ignoring inconsistencies in our thinking. Only in the written form can an argument be looked at with a certain distance – literally.
Real thinking requires some kind of externalization (external scaffolding), especially in the form of writing.
Keywords should always be assigned with an eye towards the topics you are working on or interested in, never by looking at the note in isolation. This is also why this process cannot be automated or delegated to a machine or program – it requires thinking.
The slip-box does not put the learner in the centre. Quite the contrary: It allows the learner to let his or her own thinking become decentralised within a network of other ideas. Learning, thinking and writing should not be about accumulating knowledge, but about becoming a different person with a different way of thinking. This is done by questioning one’s own thinking routines in the light of new experiences and facts.
Summary & Reflection
Learn by reading does not make much sense if the action is just pure reviewing, what is more important is building meaningful connections, and making sense of everything by translating into you own language, and this is indeed called “Elaboration method” - writing for leaning.
Using slip box is not about storing info there instead of your head, it is to facilitate the long term learning by not scramming all facts in the brain.
If the slip box system is my second brain, then it has very clear division there: the slip box takes care of details, references, so the real brain can focus on the deeper understanding and creativity.
Got hooked up by the NASA anecdote NASA et stylo bille
Reflected on: 2025-05