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severine_aurelia's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
2.75
This book presents some interesting ideas about how to organize one's reading, notetaking, and academic/knowledge work. I will almost certainly adopt a few elements of the suggested approach, at least on a trial basis. In addition, there were some worthwhile reflections on the structure of knowledge systems and how they shape our work.
That being said, for a book purporting to give advice on how to read and write more effectively, it was surprisingly poorly organized and full of grammatical errors.
Regarding the errors: I'm not talking about stylistic quirks - I mean basic grammar errors such as subject/verb agreement, incorrect use of conditionals, etc. I found it distracting. I try not to let writing quality interfere with my assessment of the underlying ideas, but I admit that I would be hesitant to recommend this book to others because of this issue.
The disorganization of the book was a more damning fault, since the book was no doubt written using the approach it recommends and thus didn't serve as an effective endorsement. I found that there was a lot of (unnecessary and unfruitful) repetition of ideas between sections, as well as a lack of logical flow of argumentation. It read very much like a casual collection of tips, reflections, and anecdotes rather than a coherent and rigorous argument for the merits of the recommended system.
Overall, worth a read if you're interested in the zettelkasten notetaking system and its underlying ideas, but be prepared for a slightly shambolic experience.
That being said, for a book purporting to give advice on how to read and write more effectively, it was surprisingly poorly organized and full of grammatical errors.
Regarding the errors: I'm not talking about stylistic quirks - I mean basic grammar errors such as subject/verb agreement, incorrect use of conditionals, etc. I found it distracting. I try not to let writing quality interfere with my assessment of the underlying ideas, but I admit that I would be hesitant to recommend this book to others because of this issue.
The disorganization of the book was a more damning fault, since the book was no doubt written using the approach it recommends and thus didn't serve as an effective endorsement. I found that there was a lot of (unnecessary and unfruitful) repetition of ideas between sections, as well as a lack of logical flow of argumentation. It read very much like a casual collection of tips, reflections, and anecdotes rather than a coherent and rigorous argument for the merits of the recommended system.
Overall, worth a read if you're interested in the zettelkasten notetaking system and its underlying ideas, but be prepared for a slightly shambolic experience.
miq33l's review against another edition
5.0
Nice, short and practical book. It describes in detail the approach Niklas Luhman took in order to become one of the most prolific writers in Sociology. It is concise, provides a useful set of practical advice and reads very well.
Worth the time.
Worth the time.
courtneyr_dev's review against another edition
5.0
Clarity in how I read and later access information
I’ve long read books full of highlights, but when faced with an article to write, come up blank. I am excited to turn these thoughts into meaningful writing and form a new mindset during my research phase.
I’ve long read books full of highlights, but when faced with an article to write, come up blank. I am excited to turn these thoughts into meaningful writing and form a new mindset during my research phase.
bentrevett's review against another edition
2.0
The answer to the question “how do I take smart notes?” is apparently to use the Zettlekasten system because that’s cool and popular at the moment. The Zettlekasten system is only good if you’re making notes with the goal of eventually turning them into writing, e.g. research papers. If you’re not writing then you shouldn’t be using this system and this book is of no use to you and you should definitely not waste your time on it.
Basically, constantly be making rough notes, then at the end of the day turn these rough notes into actual sentences, where you create “links” between concepts that are ideally in your existing notes. These notes should be on little flash cards which you put into a box where each note is numbered/indexed (don’t think about what happens when you need to add a note between some existing notes because it all gets very messy) and then you can procrastinate by looking through all your notes and feel like you’re being very productive.
The whole system done with physical notes sounds like an absolute hassle that isn’t really worth it, luckily there’s loads of digital replacements, like Obsidian and LogSeq (the new productivity tools on the block! second brains! digital gardens! personal knowledge management systems! think how clever you’ll be once you start using these!)
The book starts with an introduction to the Zettlekasten system, then gushes on about how great it is with plenty of things you’ve probably heard many times before (writing is thinking! write things in your own words, don’t underline or copy verbatim! growth mindset!), followed by yet another introduction to Zettlekasten and then another gushing over it (and it very weirdly ends with a section on habits because I guess that Atomic Habits book was popular)?
I’m not sure of the point of the book was to repeat everything to drill it into my head, or it was just yet another case of padding out content (which seems to be a theme in these types of books, maybe someone should come up with a productivity system with the goal of writing shorter books?). It gets two stars instead of 1 because at least it’s under 250 pages.
Basically, constantly be making rough notes, then at the end of the day turn these rough notes into actual sentences, where you create “links” between concepts that are ideally in your existing notes. These notes should be on little flash cards which you put into a box where each note is numbered/indexed (don’t think about what happens when you need to add a note between some existing notes because it all gets very messy) and then you can procrastinate by looking through all your notes and feel like you’re being very productive.
The whole system done with physical notes sounds like an absolute hassle that isn’t really worth it, luckily there’s loads of digital replacements, like Obsidian and LogSeq (the new productivity tools on the block! second brains! digital gardens! personal knowledge management systems! think how clever you’ll be once you start using these!)
The book starts with an introduction to the Zettlekasten system, then gushes on about how great it is with plenty of things you’ve probably heard many times before (writing is thinking! write things in your own words, don’t underline or copy verbatim! growth mindset!), followed by yet another introduction to Zettlekasten and then another gushing over it (and it very weirdly ends with a section on habits because I guess that Atomic Habits book was popular)?
I’m not sure of the point of the book was to repeat everything to drill it into my head, or it was just yet another case of padding out content (which seems to be a theme in these types of books, maybe someone should come up with a productivity system with the goal of writing shorter books?). It gets two stars instead of 1 because at least it’s under 250 pages.
drs's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
4.0
Entertaining and easy to follow. I’m inspired to try the technique described. If it works I’ll bump up my rating.