Index

Indexes are helpful in retrieving specific information in the talahardin. Currently, I use indexes in three ways: I use them for my journals (index of my journals), for my outlines (index of speculative outlines) and as a jump-off point for the talahardin.

How others use them

Luhmann, Ahrens, and Matuschak both downplay the relevance of an index when working inside a note-writing system like talahardin. For them, the links between notes are more important. Instead of an index that lists all the relevant notes on a given subject, they would use speculative outlines, which are curated (i.e., an index could contain multiple clusters of notes), editorialized, and uses only the best notes in a given topic.

How I would use indexes should be determined by my talahardin's context of use. Perhaps, I don't need more uses for them other than how I'm using them now.

Todo

• Answer: How can I effectively use indexes given my context of use?
• Perhaps it's worth integrating Emerson's process or even Thoreau's.

References

Ahrens, S. (2017). How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

In the Zettelkasten, keywords can easily be added to a note like tags and will then show up in the index. They should be chosen carefully and sparsely. Luhmann would add the number of one or two (rarely more) notes next to a keyword in the index (Schmidt 2013, 171).

Because it should not be used as an archive, where we just take out what we put in, but as a system to think with, the references between the notes are much more important than the references from the index to a single note.