Book Review - How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens

The Book at a High-Level

Motivation for learning drops dead when people are not in control of the direction of learning.
The benefit of writing above all else is that it’s the best tool for learning and generating insights worth sharing.
Ideas should be developed from the bottom-up instead of top-down.

Book Impressions

How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens was a fun read worth sharing. The book is a great primer on Zettelkasten, but it truly shines when describing the importance of writing when it comes to learning.

The book describes how you can use a Zettelkasten to facilitate learning. A Zettelkasten is a note taking methodology. Zettel refers to a slip of paper (a note) and kasten means a catalog or box. When combined, it roughly translates to slip-box.

This methodology was popularized by Niklas Luhmann, a German social scientist. Ahrens describes how Luhmann used this system to produce notes that served as the foundation for 60+ books and 400+ articles.

Ahrens identifies three types of notes in a Zettelkasten:

Fleeting notes - Notes that capture everyday thoughts. Things you would like to remember for later. Moments of brilliance.
Literature notes - Notes on pieces of literature that caught your attention while reading and would be useful to connect to existing notes.
Permanent notes (or Main Notes) - Finalized notes that link to other notes within your Zettelkasten.

The combination of these notes makes the Zettelkasten. However, I did not find Ahrens’s book to be a clear “how-to” guide to creating a robust Zettelkasten system. Instead, Ahren focuses on the significance of writing when it comes to learning. To be able to grasp a concept you must be able to write it in your own words. That means to teach it to yourself and others. Writing and teaching are the catalysts for true learning.

Since reading this book, I have shifted the way I learn. My Zettelkasten is slowly building with ideas that I find interesting. It’s like a conversation with myself since I have to make some effort to connect a note to an existing note.

That said, while the Zettelkasten system is comprehensive, it is not perfect. I find it lacking when it comes to STEM-related notes. Topics that lean towards the humanities (philosophy, sociology, etc) tend to do quite well as I find them easier to connect. However, highly technical notes like walkthroughs on programming do poorly as they are very specific. Perhaps more abstract technical concepts would do well in the Zettelkasten system.

For now, I am enjoying the process of piecing together and expanding ideas that caught my attention with smart notes. Highly recommend the book.

Favourite Quote

“Writing, taking notes and thinking about how ideas connect is exactly the kind of elaboration that is needed to learn. Not learning from what we read because we don’t take the time to elaborate on it is the real waste of time.”

- Sönke Ahrens, How to Take Smart Notes