How to Take Smart Notes

One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking

閱讀報告（編寫中）

中文譯名：《卡片盒筆記：最高效思考筆記術》

風靡歐美的卡片盒筆記法(Zettelkasten method)的出處正是這本書，但比起直接拿起這本書學習這套筆記法，我會建議先由其他網站的簡化版介紹開始，有過實際的體驗後才開始閱讀這本書，便會對當中的內容得到更深刻的體會。

例如以下二篇都是十分好的入門指南：

（註：中文版已經出了，你可以考慮看中文版。）

Notes

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How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking

Ahrens, Sönke

Citation (Chicago Style): Ahrens, Sönke. How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking. , 2022. Kindle edition.

INTRODUCTION

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We write when we need to remember something, be it an idea, a quote or the outcome of a study. We write when we want to organise our thoughts and when we want to exchange ideas with others.

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This book aims to fill this gap by showing you how to efficiently turn your thoughts and discoveries into convincing written pieces and build up a treasure of smart and interconnected notes along the way. You can use this pool of notes not

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The right question is: What can we do differently in the weeks, months or even years before we face the blank page that will get us into the best possible position to write a great paper easily?

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Self- discipline or self- control is not that easy to achieve with willpower alone. Willpower is, as far as we know today,

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A good structure enables flow, the state in which you get so completely immersed in your work that you lose track of time and can just keep on going as the work becomes effortless (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975). Something

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Good students also look beyond the obvious.

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poor students often feel more successful (until they are tested),

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In psychology, this is known as the Dunning- Kruger effect (Kruger and Dunning, 1999). Poor students lack insight into their own limitations–

鄧寧-克魯格效應，相關的有彼得原理

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imposter syndrome, the feeling that you are not really up to the job,

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Even the best tool will not improve your productivity considerably if you don’t change your daily routines the tool is embedded in, just as the fastest car won’t help you much if you don’t have proper roads to drive it on.

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importance of an overarching workflow is the great insight of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” (Allen, 2001).

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we experience what Allen calls a “mind like water” -

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The first reason is that GTD relies on clearly defined objectives, whereas insight cannot be predetermined by definition.

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start with rather vague ideas that are bound to change until they become clearer in the course of our research (cf.

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The other reason is that GTD requires projects to be broken down into smaller, concrete “next steps.”

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Writing is not a linear process. We constantly have to jump back and forth between different tasks. It wouldn’t make any sense to micromanage ourselves on that level.

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we need a note- taking system that is as comprehensive as GTD,

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He realised that one idea, one note was only as valuable as its context, which was not necessarily

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but made a transition from one context to another. It was very much like a translation where you use different words that fit a different context, but strive to keep the original meaning as truthfully as possible.

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bullet j mivration

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The numbers bore no meaning and were only there to identify each note permanently. If

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By adding these links between notes, Luhmann was able to add the same note to different contexts. While other systems start with a preconceived order of topics, Luhmann developed topics bottom up.

Zettelkasten是用bottom-up的方式建立筆記，這亦會對筆記的架構有所影響，不需要臃腫的架構，像PARA那種正好適合。

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We need a reliable and simple external structure to think in that compensates for the limitations of our brains. But

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Second brain

2. Everything You Need to do

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Equally manageable is the task of bringing already existing notes into order, especially

Thinking is. Reading is. Understanding and coming up with ideas is. And

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All you have to do is to have a pen in your hand while you are doing what you are doing anyway (or a keyboard under your fingers). Writing

Writing is, without dispute, the best facilitator for thinking,

Notes build up while you think, read, understand and generate ideas, because

Thinking takes place as much on paper as in your own head.

“Notes on paper, or on a computer screen […] do not make contemporary physics or other kinds of intellectual endeavour easier, they make it possible,”

You have to externalise your ideas, you have to write.

不要看輕書寫的重要性，它是重要的思考工具
不要只抄錄筆記，要用自己的方法寫一次，只有這樣才能轉化成自己的智識

2.1 Writing a paper step by step

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Make fleeting notes. Always have something at hand to write with to capture every idea that pops into your mind. Don’t worry

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Make literature notes. Whenever you read something, make notes about the content.

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Write down what you don’t want to forget or think you might use in your own thinking or writing. Keep it very short, be extremely selective, and use your own words. Be

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think about how they relate to what

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Write exactly one note for each idea and write as if you were writing for someone else: Use full sentences, disclose your sources, make references and try to be as precise, clear and brief as possible.

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find this note later by either linking to it from your index or by making a link to it on a note that you use as an entry point to a discussion or topic and is itself linked to the index.

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Develop your topics, questions and research projects bottom up from within the system.

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the more notes you will collect and the more likely it is that you will generate questions from it.

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copy them into an outliner5 and bring them in order. Look

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Turn your notes into a rough draft. Don’t simply copy your notes into a manuscript. Translate them into something coherent and embed them into the context of your argument while you build

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More is unnecessary, less is impossible.

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You need something to capture ideas whenever and wherever they pop into your head. Whatever you use, it should not require any thoughts, attention or multiple steps to write it down. It can be a notebook, a napkin, an app on your phone or iPad. These

THE FOUR UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES

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Under which topic do I store this note? In the new system, the question is: In which context will I want to stumble upon it again?

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Instead of having different storage for different ideas, everything goes into the same slip- box and is standardised into the same format. Instead of focusing on the in- between steps and trying to make a science out of underlining systems, reading techniques or excerpt writing, everything is streamlined towards one thing only: insight that can be published.

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Fleeting notes, which are only reminders of information, can be written in any kind of way and will end up in the trash within a day or two.

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Permanent notes, which will never be thrown away and contain the necessary information in a permanently understandable way.

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Project notes, which are only relevant to one particular project. They are kept within a project- specific folder and can be discarded or archived after the project is finished.

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As he treats every note as if it belongs to the “permanent” category, the