Scott P Scheper, page 56
Card Address: The numeric-alpha notecard address affixed to the top-left or top-right of each notecard (e.g., 4214/5a/1).
Cardlink: Within a notecard, when you reference another card address in your Antinet, you’re effectively creating a cardlink. For instance, when you find the following card address placed within the main area of a notecard (not in the top-left or top-right), you’re creating a cardlink (e.g., 4214/14). Cardlinks aren’t like digital links. They’re hard to create. Cardlinks are hardlinks (this is a good thing)!
Collectives: A notecard with a list of keyterms, phrases or cardlinks to other cards in the Antinet. Variant terms: Hubs, Hub Notes, Structured Notes, Maps of Content.
External References (ExRefs): References to external sources outside of the Antinet. For instance, a reference to a specific book and page number (Scheper, Scott. Antinet Zettelkasten, p. 122). Variant Terms: External Links.
Hoplink Cards: Very simple cards that contain a brief snippet of text that say something like: For more on x concept, see cardlink ‘xxxx/xx/x’. These cards enable one to quickly hop to other relevant places in the Antinet.
Index: A box within the Antinet containing keyterms and corresponding cardlinks in the Antinet. Variant Terms: Index Box, The Index, Register, Keyword Register.
Indexcards: Notecards placed in the index, which enable you to navigate to different areas of the Antinet (by way of cardlinks and a human-readable keyterm).
Keyterm: A human-readable concept that points you to a numeric-alpha address (cardlink) in the main box of your Antinet.
Keyterm Indexcards: A keyterm indexcard, as opposed to a list indexcard, is a dedicated card listing multiple links or external references for a given keyterm. Whenever a keyterm entry in a list indexcard accumulates multiple cardlinks, you’ll want to create a dedicated keyterm indexcard for it.
List Indexcards: Indexcards filed alphabetically, each pertaining to one letter of the alphabet (A, B, C, etc.). Under the assigned alphabetical character is a list of keyterms that begin with the letter affixed to the card.
Main Box: The main part of your Antinet containing the main types of notecards with numeric-alpha addresses affixed to them. These cards follow the tree-like branching structure of the Antinet.
Maincards (“Cards”): The main types of notecards stored in your Antinet (in the main box). Maincards are 4 x 6 inch (or a6) horizontal notecards (preferentially white and blank). They contain a numeric-alpha card address affixed to the top-left, or top-right, of the notecard. Maincards contain one of the four types of main notes. Variant terms: Cards, Notecards.
Main Notes: The types of notes you’ll find on maincards. These four note types are observation notes, excerpt notes, reformulation notes, and reflection notes.
Neuroimprinting: The concept of more effectively stamping an idea onto your mind for later recall done by way of writing by hand.
Personal Knowledge Management (“PKM”): A Personal Information Storage System used by digital apps, which enables one to link documents (of typically low-processed information). Otherwise known as a procrastinator’s wet dream.
Remotelinks: Say you’re writing a note within the card 4214/5a/2 and you create a link to the card 1334/2a/4. What you have just created is a remotelink. You’re linking to a remote area of a card in your tree of knowledge (your Antinet). Remotelinks are essentially the full card address of another card that reside in a more remote part of your Antinet (relative to the location of the card referencing it).
“See Also” Cardlinks: Oftentimes, you don’t need to create a dedicated hoplink card to navigate around your Antinet. You can just append relevant cardlinks to already developed cards. This is where “See Also” Cardlinks come in handy. These are snippets of text at the bottom of cards that say something like, See also: “xxxx/xx/x.”
Wikilinks: Cheaply created digital links to other notes (usually markdown files). Wikilinks are typically created with text enclosed in two square brackets (e.g., [[I’m a Useless Link to a Digital Note]]).
Acknowledgments
special thanks to the following people who helped me make this book a reality: First and foremost, thank you to my lovely fiancé, Arianna Zabriskie-Scheper. The diagrams in this book were hand-drawn by her (you can blame her for the illustrations containing the man with a man-bun). My copyeditor, Wendy Smyer Yu (aka, “Wendy The Wonderful”). My writing coach, Ross Hartmann, who I worked with only briefly, yet he had a big impact in getting me started on the actual writing process. Thank you to Chris Aldrich, who reviewed the Preface, and provided other invaluable feedback. Chris is an infinite well of knowledge when it comes to the history of analog notetaking systems. He is also less of a knucklehead than Moe, Larry, and Curly. Last, but not least, I would like to thank all of my Antinetters who supported me (by way of my YouTube channel and Reddit and my private email list). Also a very special thank you is deserved for my Antinetters who wrote to me by physical mail very early on in this process. This book is for those who are committed to growth and learning.
About The Author
scott p. scheper, aka “The Analog Knowledge Revolutionary,” is a writer, copywriter and marketer residing in San Diego, California. When not communicating with his Antinet (“Stewie”), one may find Scott communicating with an actual human being. Actually, probably not. One is more likely to find Scott reading a book with a bibcard sticking out of it. Keep in touch with Scott, and join his highly entertaining private email list, by visiting his website: https://scottscheper.com.
Alberto Cevolini, ed., Forgetting Machines: Knowledge Management Evolution in Early Modern Europe, Library of the Written Word, volume 53 (Leiden ; Boston: Brill, 2016), 11.
Niklas Luhmann, “Communication with Noteboxes (Revised Edition),” trans. Manfred Kuehn, https://daily.scottscheper.com/zettelkasten/.
Johannes Schmidt, “Niklas Luhmann’s Card Index: Thinking Tool, Communication Partner, Publication Machine,” Forgetting Machines. Knowledge Management Evolution in Early Modern Europe 53 (2016), 295.
Alberto Cevolini, ed., Forgetting Machines: Knowledge Management Evolution in Early Modern Europe, Library of the Written Word, volume 53 (Leiden ; Boston: Brill, 2016), 15. Emphasis added.
Alberto Cevolini, ed., Forgetting Machines: Knowledge Management Evolution in Early Modern Europe, Library of the Written Word, volume 53 (Leiden ; Boston: Brill, 2016), 20.
Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works, Norton pbk (New York: Norton, 2009), 113.
Adam Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know (New York, New York: Viking, 2021), 59.
Adam Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know (New York, New York: Viking, 2021), 59.
Johannes Schmidt, “Niklas Luhmann’s Card Index: Thinking Tool, Communication Partner, Publication Machine,” Forgetting Machines. Knowledge Management Evolution in Early Modern Europe 53 (2016), 295.
Niklas Luhmann, “Communication with Noteboxes (Revised Edition),” trans. Manfred Kuehn, https://daily.scottscheper.com/zettelkasten/.
Michael Jacob Kahana, Foundations of Human Memory. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 12.
Niklas Luhmann, Niklas Luhmann Short Cuts (English Translation), 2002, 22. Emphasis added.
“Definition of BISOCIATION,” accessed January 20, 2022, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bisociation; For a nice summary of the concept as found in Arthur Koestler’s The Act of Creation , see: Maria Popova, “How Creativity in Humor, Art, and Science Works: Arthur Koestler’s Theory of Bisociation,” The Marginalian (blog), May 20, 2013, https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/05/20/arthur-koestler-creativity-bisociation/; Koestler’s work is not without its critics and critiques. See also: Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works, Norton pbk (New York: Norton, 2009), 549ff.
Niklas Luhmann, Niklas Luhmann Short Cuts (English Translation), 2002, 22.
Niklas Luhmann, “Communication with Noteboxes (Revised Edition),” trans. Manfred Kuehn, https://daily.scottscheper.com/zettelkasten/.
Kate L. Turabian, Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations,: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers, 9th edition (Chicago ; London: University of Chicago Press, 2018), 31.
Alberto Cevolini, Storing Expansions: Openness and Closure in Secondary Memories (Brill, 2016), 158.
John D. MacDonald and Lee Child, A Purple Place for Dying: A Travis McGee Novel, Reprint edition (Place of publication not identified: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2013), 128.
Johannes Schmidt, “Niklas Luhmann’s Card Index: Thinking Tool, Communication Partner, Publication Machine,” Forgetting Machines. Knowledge Management Evolution in Early Modern Europe 53 (2016), 311.
John Venn, Annals of a Clerical Family: Being Some Account of the Family and Descendants of William Venn, Vicar of Otterton, Devon, 1600-1621 (Macmillan and Com- pany, 1904), 70ff.
John Venn, Annals of a Clerical Family: Being Some Account of the Family and Descendants of William Venn, Vicar of Otterton, Devon, 1600-1621 (Macmillan and Company, 1904), 71.
John Venn, Annals of a Clerical Family: Being Some Account of the Family and Descendants of William Venn, Vicar of Otterton, Devon, 1600-1621 (Macmillan and Company, 1904), 71.
Patrick J. Hurley and Lori Watson, A Concise Introduction to Logic (Cengage Learning, 2016), 284.
“John Venn | Biography, Inventions and Facts,” accessed May 3, 2022, https://www.famous inventors.org/john-venn.
“Inhaltsübersicht ZK II—Niklas Luhmann-Archiv,” accessed March 31, 2022, https://niklas-luhmann-archiv.de/bestand/zettelkasten/inhaltsuebersicht.
“Inhaltsübersicht ZK II—Niklas Luhmann-Archiv,” accessed March 31, 2022, https://niklas-luhmann-archiv.de/bestand/zettelkasten/inhaltsuebersicht.
I address these objections in the chapter on Analog.
Antinet Zettelkasten (epub), Scott P Scheper
