Next month the book club is reading Think Again by Adam Grant Join the book club to get all the content in your inbox.
While the most famous book about starting a Zettelkasten may be How to Take Smart Notes it’s not necessarily the best book on the topic. Valuable entries have come from Dan if you’re looking at note-taking methods specific to education and How to Write A Lot tackles the practice of writing for general purpose better than many of the other books.
There have also been some bad entries into the space of books on making notes. Scott Scheper wrote Antinet Zettelkasten in which he tries to extol the virtues of an analogue system of writing, and while I love analogue systems the meandering unorganized nature of Scott’s book doesn’t make a strong case for his ideas, which he presumably used. It’s a meandering poorly written book, which acts as a negative touchpoint for those interested in building a Zettelkasten system.
Then we have some books that were more about marketing the “next GTD” system that would solve all your productivity needs in a world where you have so much information. The leader of this seems to be Tiago Forte who wrote both Building a Second Brain and The PARA Method. Neither are bad books, and I use PARA to organize all my project files, specifically the Archive portion of the method to put away things I don’t need to look at any longer. My overall impression of his work is summarized by the first sentence of this paragraph, it’s about marketing his new updated productivity system and then his course to help knowledge workers exist in a world of overwhelming information.
Few of the books are bad, except Scott’s. Don’t even bother with it. Many aren’t really for someone that wants to read information, take notes on it in a manner that aids in personal growth, and then gives you the tools to push you towards publishing your thoughts in writing1.
In this field where does Bob Doto’s book sit? Is it worth reading, or is it yet another marketing book that has a course backing it, and a newsletter…and a bunch of other stuff you should spend on once you think Bob’s the smartest guy in the room.
First, no Bob is not that guy. He’s more like me, sharing the process he uses in his writing which is extensive and varied. From stretching, to Christianity and other spiritual topics, Bob has covered a lot in his decades of experience and when it comes to being a writer that connects disparate topics, Bob knows of what he speaks.
My Takeaways
My biggest takeaway, that I already firmly believed, is that taking your notes and processing them is a practice that you must devote time to if you want to produce anything of value2. After Bob’s initial mention that it takes time he revisits the idea in Part 2 reminds us3 that merely putting notes into your system is the first step in the process to having a good note system and good writing output. If you’re unwilling to spend time revisiting notes, exploring connections, and doing hard work with your notes don’t expect much out of them. Far too many people think that a Zettelkasten will be “magic” and surface connections without them needing to put in effort. In truth, the magic only happens when you start to put in the effort to track back through your notes and find all the different paths you’ve already explored.
Bob also provides us with a good reminder that the person you are today will never exist again. Thus, you need to take your notes for a future you that has no idea what you’re talking about4. So don’t use shorthand, unless it’s well established across months/years of your life. Take the time to describe the connections you see today, link that book you’re thinking of instead of writing a random half-assed description of what you think you remember now. That memory is only going to get more vague in the future. Don’t rely on a future self to understand, unless you take the time to clarify your thoughts now.
Some of Bob’s methods, like his approach to numbering notes in Chapter 5 and his discussion of how he numbers his cards/notes. I do agree with the point that if a note isn’t worth putting effort into it’s not worth taking, but the tedium of writing card numbers according to the Zettelkasten structure has always seemed like a waste of time to me. But, if you’ve got a digital system and don’t need to number cards to generate links, spend that time you’re saving working your notes and thinking about the ideas so that you can build a solid system.
Should You Read A System For Writing?
If you haven’t read much in the Zettelkasten space then yes Bob has a great book that’s direct and helpful. He’s not using it as a vehicle to upsell you to anything or get you on his email list. It’s a genuinely helpful guide to how to take notes and turn them into connected ideas and eventually writing.
If you’ve read lots in this space, don’t expect any huge revelations, but do expect a digestible book that will give you a few tips for your system and remind you to work the notes instead of waiting for “magic”.
Yes, A System For Writing is a short practical guide that doesn’t waste your time. I enjoy Bob’s direct writing style and would recommend the book to anyone looking to get started with taking good notes. It doesn’t fall into the trap of trying to build Bob as an influencer so that you purchase his courses. Bob sticks to practical advice that will help you take better notes and use them for producing writing.