HOW TO TAKE SMART NOTES by Sönke Ahrens | Core Message

This system completely changed my life i swear. The learning curve is a bit frustrating for a week or so, but damn is it powerful. The bottomup approach is insane. If someone wants to try this, I suggest doing it in Obsidian. It's really really powerful, probably the best system I've ever received from a book

this book inspired me --- like it did many others --- to take notetaking more seriously. but i'd like to give a warning: remember that the zettelkasten is a means to an end, not the end itself. it's a tool. don't get too caught up in making the "perfect note taking system" like i have or else you'll spend more time taking notes rather than doing what the slip box was meant to do: create things. as somewhat of an aside, i'd like to think that this book launched the whole PKM side of YouTube, or at least enriched the notetaking "genre" or section of the site, especially during the pandemic. i remember videos about the zettelkasten, linked note taking, and personal knowledge management popping up left and right just last year i think. what a time that was

Great system. I really liked two things: the fact that the bottom-up approach prevents from confirmation bias and helps you with coming up with new ways to express the topic. Also, handwriting your notes is critical nowadays because it enforces memory (as studies showed). And if done on index cards, as with this system, it enforces conciseness too. The keyword idea is also good, and I loved your metaphor, hashtags

Obsidian is the very best note-taking and ideation tool I've ever come across. It a free PKM system.

My mind was blown away from this book review/video and I love your explanation of these books in your video essay format. Keep it up bud.

The best Zettelkasten System I've ever seen on youtube. Thank you !

Cool... I use Google Keep. And helpful part was to revisit notes once 24 hours and see if it still creates same excitement or not. If not, let it go. If yes, keep in permanent record with proper index. Superb... very useful. Thank you for taking the time to read and create this summary :) You are doing awesome 👍

this is the book summary I had been waiting for the past year, ever since I discovered Sonke Ahrens and the Zettelkasten method and have been experimenting with Obsidian and Foam on Visual Studio code. Thanks mate, this was truly useful!

Nathan, thanks for the great work you're doing! For constructive feedback purposes: criteria is the plural, criterion is the singular.

I had given up on my ability to read dense books, but with this video, I've been able to produce essays im proud of!

Very good idea and as usually great summary. I have been taking notes irregularly every week so as to add to my own personal life philosophy. I think I will have to re-watch this video to fully formulate how to improve my note taking. Thanks for upload.

Thanks for your site and all the interesting books you bring to us every week. when you said hike and backpack I was reminded of a 19th-century botanist or zoologist that went into foreign territory and just collected samples of plants or drew and described animals. that evening or on a particular day he/she ordered everything and compared it existing plants etc. This is a similar process, but for ideas. Have a look "Building your second Brain" by Tiago Forte, it is a pre-cursor to Stellenkasten. At the moment I use Keep, and then Docs and if I really want to keep something I use Evernote. I understand that Obsidian and Notion are all good alternatives. The Keep/ Docs combination just works so seamlessly. Keywords and tags, of course, work very well for your SK notations ie tagging your notes with the 1, 1a,1a2b, etc. ssequence.

Merely 40 seconds into this video… I provide a thumbs-up. I never heard of any of these people.

I will buy this book one day. Your channel is so useful for me.

Nathan, thank you for this video. This is just what I needed.

Easy to understand than other videos on the topic. Thanks.

A proper explanation. Thanks

Another valuable insight from you Nathan. Thanks 🙏🙏

I found your video very helpful. Thanks for making and sharing it.

Keep going love your page I plan to watch all your videos and benefit from them! I try to recommend you anytime I advice someone to watch book summaries aswell!