No. 109 Writing with a zettelkasten is (good) coconuts
No. 109 • 2/11/2025
Dear readers,
Writing with a zettelkasten is kinda nuts. Good nuts. Healthy plain nuts (sans skins containing lectins for those who religiously watch Dr Gundry's ads on Instagram 🖐️). But, also candy-coated, salty, tamari, and curry-flavored nuts (for those who religiously watch Dr Gundry's ads on Instagram and just like great-tasting nuts 🖐️).
But, before I tell you why, know that my next five-week course, "Writing with Your Zettelkasten," starts in just under one week. To learn more and sign up, click here. To flash back to all the details and insights I provided a few weeks ago, click here and click here. I wanna see you there, so click EVERYTHING.
What makes writing with a zettelkasten good nuts?
I'm currently in one of my writing "surges," where the throws of working on a new book overtakes my entire life as I sit (or stand) wrapped in a blanket (it's below freezing in NY these days) pouring over "texts." In the past week, I've read, annotated, digested, and regurgitated no less than ten scholarly articles and three books (or large portions of books) on things like "pragmatics," "context," "meaning-making," "anarchic reading," "transactional theory, et al.," "encoding vs decoding," "relevance," and Metis, Greek goddess of wisdom, planning, and cunning (or "prudence" if you believe the oh so "sensible" Stoics who rebranded her as such).
So, my brain is spinning. Not because I can't keep track of it all. Because I can.
Using a Luhmann-style zettelkasten has allowed me to capture insight after insight, importing each one into a nonhierarchical (read: anarchic) database of meaning-making, where I gleefully establish connections between ideas worth connecting. From this, I began framing out the bones of a new book, all while writing a couple articles. (PS: These may or may not see the light of day. I really wrote them for myself).
And, that's what I'll be teaching starting next week. How to make bones.
Wanna know more?
From my previous email:
Writing with Your Zettelkasten is for people who already work their zettelkasten, but not to their or its fullest potential. It's a course for writers and should-be-writers who want orient their system toward output, always having something to write about, and writing more frequently. This is a full-on behind-the-scenes look at how I do things, how you might do things yourself, and how to make it all work on behalf of your creativity. Find out more [here].
Would be so awesome to see you.
With love,
Bob
What I'm up to
- I'm traveling to The Netherlands this March to give a talk, mingle, and hang with PKM nerd-erinos at the PKM Summit in Utrecht, NL. Come meet me there! 3/14–3/15. Pretty sure the "talk" will really be a live demo/performance art piece where I dance around a shopping cart, myself covered entirely in Silly Putty, while showing how I use my zettelkasten to go from one idea to a scaffolded article. Again, bones.
- Ye olde wife and I have been eating home-cooked food for most of our meals for the past month and a half, and wouldn't you know it.... It really makes you feel better. We bake our own bread (every week). We make our own enormous pots of vegetable soup (every month or so). The system works.
Get my book
Pick up my latest book, A System for Writing, [here].
Bonus poné
Got a question or something you'd like me to write about? Send me what you're thinking!