No. 115 What's an idea and what does it matter?
Latest dispatch: Pondering the nature of ideas, PhD student's zettelkasten challenges, demystifying atomicity and embracing the lost-in-notes conundrum.
Nos. 115 THP / 003 COMP • 09/12/2025
Dear readers,
First things first.... My weekly deep-dive is now called, COMPOSITION. It's clean, it's clear, and it speaks to what I'm exploring:
- Writing (creating compositions)
- Reading (decoding compositions)
- Making connections (composing our thoughts on the compositions we engage)
But, "composition" has another definition, one which may be more applicable.
"Composition" refers to the parts that make up the whole (i.e., "What's the chemical composition of this Cheez-It?") It's about the components, the substance, the "stuff." Thinking is wrestling with the stuff—of ideas, of thoughts, of arguments, of concepts. But, ideas, thoughts, arguments, and concepts are also the stuff we use to create long-form narratives. They too are parts of an even greater whole. We examine parts to construct wholes. We rupture wholes to examine their parts. It's creative, it's weird, and it's inspiring.
So, here we go.... COMPOSITION! Examining the parts and the whole.
Let me know what you think. (Seriously, I'm curious to know).
The Playful Struggle of Defining an "Idea"
Speaking of parts.... Lately I've been exploring what it means to make connections, which led me to this r/zettelkasten post from four years ago:
"I hear a lot of people talk about 'making connections between ideas,' but I never really got what they meant.... What exactly is a 'connection' and what exactly is an 'idea?' What kinds of ideas are we talking about? Philosophical ideas? Story ideas? Art ideas? Or all kinds of ideas?"
I empathize with the OP, as it's nearly impossible to explore the concept of "ideas" without finding yourself mired among the weeds. And, while I get the OP is asking about "kinds" of ideas, I can't help but think about the nature of these units of information—these "thought forms"—we're busy relating to one another.
So, what's an idea?
Ask a Platonist, and they'll tell you they're idealized "forms" living in an inaccessible realm. Ask an Aristotelean, and they'll say, "Oh no. Ideas don't live there. They live here, in the rock, in the tree, in wind." Giving away his close ties to the Enlightenment, John Locke states, "[Ideas are] the object of understanding when a man [sic] thinks." Postmodernists may agree, but with the caveat that ideas are always already "problematized" within the tensile nature of power dynamics. None of this gets close to Descartes' granular take on innate, adventitious, and factitious ideas, nor does it touch on Rudolf Steiner's belief that thinking is an organ of perception, to which ideas are the perceived thing (AKA ears : sound :: thinking : ideas). Different intellectual cultures understanding ideas in different ways, each crucial to the culture's understanding of (its unique vision of) the world.
Most of us seem to appreciate ideas as an amalgamation of the above. Like Plato, we grasp for seemingly out of reach, hard-to-articulate ideas. Like Aristotle, we have (often very brief) moments of clarity, staring at a sunset, and "knowing" it's essence. Like Locke, we recognize ideas as thoughts in our minds. Like Steiner, we understand thoughts produce ideas. And, like good postmodernists, we know these thoughts arrive within a particular subjective context.
This is the exquisite complexity we bring to our readings. Not compartmentalized, but as a composite. A summation of parts. A generalization. In turn, we recognize this complexity in the "things" we encounter on the page. The claims, disclaimers, arguments, concepts, musings, notions, and questions. The "stuff" of text.
When I wrestle with the question, "What is an idea?" I take comfort in Niklas Luhmann stating in his book, Risk, "[D]efinitions serve only to delimit, not adequately to describe (let alone explain) the object under investigation." Oh, to have had that in my back pocket during the "Why do we have to define it?" screwing around days.
The truth is, you're not required to define "idea" by any or anyone's metric of precision. Nor do you need to do so to recognize one in the wild. Ideas take many forms. They serve many functions. They are neither singular, nor static. They are everywhere, in every text, in every guise.
In forthcoming emails, I'll show you examples of how I engage ideas in texts. How I choose which ones to capture and which to leave for another time.
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A PhD student facing difficulties with his 6 months ZK
On the .de forum, TriboKiv brings up four issues they're having with implementing their zettelkasten IRL while getting their PhD. The four issues they bring up are:
- Reading too slowly, and wanting to capture each concept they read about.
- Spending too much time stewing on the potential note before deciding what to do with it.
- Feeling stuck with their approach to indexing (sounds like a heavy lift)
- Questions about what constitutes a finished note, and will seemingly incomplete notes become more fleshed out over time.
I see these questions come up a lot in the ZK / PKM world. And, my immediate response is always the same: take a deep breath. You don't need to capture everything that's interesting to you. You don't need to have immediate access to everything you capture. You don't need to create perfect, fool-proof databases of all your thinking. You don't need to worry whether a note is "finished."
I know this isn't what people want to hear. They want hacks and tips and "methods." And, yup, those can be helpful. But, take it from an old timer. The primary issue is your mentality. Just do what you need to do to get what you're already doing done. Do that again for the next thing, and tweak your approach as needed.
Getting to the bottom of atoms
Sascha Fast continues to work on his Complete Guide to Atomicity. While the writing I've seen on the topic has yet to scratch the itch (in fact, it's made me all the more itchier), the outline for the project is looking very good:
Why Should You Care About Atomicity?
Levels of Atomicity
- Level 1: Atomicity and Linked Note-Taking
- Level 2: Atomicity and the Zettelkasten
- Level 3: Atomicity and the Zettelkasten Method
- Level 4: Atomicity, Thinking, and Knowledge
What is Atomicity?
- More Knowledge Building Blocks
- Less Than an Idea Yet an Atomic Note?
How To Take Atomic Notes
- Giving Ideas What They Deserve
- Demonstrations on Atomic Note-taking
Applying Atomicity as a Thinking Skill
Parting Words: Don't Be an Atomicity Zealot, But Atomicity-Informed
Take Action
Admittedly, nothing of the quality of information nor its delivery can be garnered from an outline. I've got so many "amazing" outlines for "amazing" books, I've lost count. The writing—the actual content of the work—is the determinate of value. Nevertheless, I'm a sucker for a handsome outline, and this is one of them.
PS: Sascha's post, "The Scam Called 'You Don't Have to Remember Anything'" got a Hacker News "hug" (though it felt more like a kick in the teeth) this week. Lots of good feedback, and a few lol quips:
"I've reached my limit and I'm going to tap out of reading the blogosphere. It almost exclusively contains half-baked musings and overly reductive conclusions of little value."
I always find it fun to watch articles and ideas, otherwise safe in their scene-bubble, get read by outsiders. I've been there many times. Always feels like a dream where you show up to school without any clothes on.
Woes of getting lost in notes
A somewhat common question was asked this week:
"I thought to myself: as long as I have one entry point, I'm ok. But it becomes like a forest and you jsut [sic] have one path to enter.... easy to get lost. How do you guys go about it?"
Most of the answers were in the realm of technical advice. Which is fair enough. As per usual, however, I couldn't help think this is yet another case of mindset. Getting lost is part of the process. Learn to become friends with it.
PS: If you wanna hear me talk on this topic in podcast form, click here.
And, that's that! See ya next week.
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