No. 033 • 04/17/2026

Dear readers,

I'm noticing a proliferation of LLM-informed / -enhanced responses in the zettelkasten community, and especially in situations where "debates" are taking place. This wouldn't be a problem if the "augmentation" were kept at the level of grammar and syntax (although, there's an argument to made against that, too). But, it's clear people are using LLMs to both reinforce their talking points and scaffold (read: develop and outline) responses. In short, LLMs are being used to win arguments. And, they're being used by some of the more vocal people you've already come across. That's very disappointing.

If you're interested in seeing what pre-LLM-to-win-debates discourse looks like, check out this long and winding thread between U/AssetCaretaker and I, where the former gives me very meaningful feedback on one of my articles / new-book chapters.

In other news, I'm working out a schema for what makes great non-fiction writing of the instructional (ie "how-to") variety. First thoughts = "A good instructional guide should be...":

1. Open to dissent (allow people to take your instructions and modify them)
2. Striking a balance between "how-to" and "why-so" (procedure and principle)
3. Audience forward

Number 3 can be broken down into:

1. Be able to distinguish between your audience and your readership.
2. Exhaust research into the needs and questions of your audience and readers.

This is leading to a further deep dive into my fascination with instruction as a creative, socio-political, and artistic medium.

Do notes travel?

A subreddit post showed up this week asking a curious question: "Where do your notes actually go when you start writing?" To the point:

"[W]hat actually happens to your notes when you write? Do they become part of the draft, or do you leave them behind?"

Although I called the question "curious," it's not unreasonable. It's just based on a misunderstanding of where notes (specifically, main notes) live and what their function is.

Main notes notes don't really go anywhere, at least not in the sense of disappearing after you've used them. Notes are containers, which hold information. Whenever you go to write off your notes, all you're really doing is copy/pasting (digital) or rewriting (paper) into a writing document the information contained in the notes, editing the verbiage and context as needed. But, you leave the notes and their information in the main compartment (or if you've taken them out, return them to the main compartment), so they can be used again in the future.

Watch Luhmann talking about and using his zettelkasten

This video of Luhmann talking about and using his zettelkasten has been around for a while, but in case you missed it, here's the link. A subreddit post brought it up this week, with some commentary from the OP:

"The video is interesting for many reasons. For those interested in a few minutes of his zettelkasten, seeing him refer to notes, seeing his heavily cluttered office space, go to 37:30 for a 2-3 minutes peek. For others like me, who wonder: in ZK2, how did Luhmann come up with those 11 super-themes around which he organized his entire zettelkasten, this video is superbly helpful. There are many times in this video, when Luhmann seems to be actually speaking his zettelkasten into existence, by going from the topic of archaic societies, to modern societies, to subsystems, to the state, to risk. Recommended as both engrossing and enlightening."

U/atomicnotes gives a short, but very informative reply on the nature and genesis of Luhmann's supposed top-level categories. Read it here.

The cyborgian approach to zettelkasten work

U/c4lvorias has a very interesting (but not entirely understood by me) take on using AI alongside / as a cyborgian appendage of their zettelkasten.

"The approach to using LLMs alongside the Zettelkasten method is controversial and most people have different opinions about that. I'm a "pro-AI" in that sense with some caveats:

• I am OK with a cyborg approach. No querying some question and pasting that onto a new note or finding connections solely based on LLMs.
• I see using LLMs in the learning phase. You may not like learning from LLMs directly, I like it. I mainly use LLM-based learning for quick definition checks and evaluating my inferences in the beginner phase. I also should indicate that I use my vault mainly for academic research. Academic research if the area is heavily complex requires too much time passes with engagement for learning purpose. It helps if you want tangible output in the learning phase. I don't delete my thinking notes.
• I am trying to achieve a state of not starting with a blank slate. You should add your organic thinking process on top of what you yield from LLMs. Engagement with the vault without LLMs is required."

There's quite a bit more details in the subsequent back-and-forth between commenters. This is all very interesting to me, even if it's outside my wheelhouse.

And, that's the best of the week! See ya next week.

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