Argumentative Zettelkasten#
Zettelkasten is not a way to keep notes, it's a way to make a speaking partner that can double check you. Many online articles will talk about using this as a note taking system, and you do take notes into this system, but you don't want to actually try to retrieve what's already in this system. Rather, the use case of Zettelkasten is to use your old notes to retrieve info that is beyond the current set of notes.
Baseline System#
Regular note system is optimized for finding information. Thus, for a specific topic, it should have the most current and most accurate set of information and discard any irrelevant sets of information that can create visual clutter. If the change of a subject note is placed on a timeline then the current note should be all of the previous changes combined into one document.
Function from Form#
However, in Zettelkasten, you wouldn't want this. Zettelkasten is generally perceived as a set of nodes linked together. These nodes are also connected with edges that themselves serve as informational containers. If every note was like this, then finding the one singular answer would take the original amount of time that a collapsed singular subject note would take and extra time to traverse the Zettelkasten web. However, the same timeline can and will be one line of thought within the Zettelkasten system.
Why encode this entire timeline? Well, the timeline not only has the set of changes but it can hold the reason for the changes, and if the reason was decent enough to create another information node, then the same reasoning could possibly lead to more nodes in another context. And this is exactly what an argument is founded upon.
Another way to think of this, is that you don't go to a discussion class just to read the textbook, but to talk with others to find information beyond the textbook. From this way of seeing things, the Zettelkasten, wouldn't just be the regular study notes with additional information about changes, but it should exclude the regular study note information and only include information of changes. The changes may be changes to what you had originally assumed or what your note system had assumed, either is fine.
Limitations#
This type of system can only work for when arguments are possible, when there is no singular correct answer, as in research or thesis writing, but without this, then the effort is not worth the payoff. It would appear that there are benefits to this system, but it's like raising a child, zettlekasten's value grows exponentially, meaning just as there will be times the value will be greater than the sum of its parts but also times when it will be less than the sum of its parts. This value is only worth it with a direction and while there can be marginal benefits from using Zettelkasten on a small scale, the same effort could've been used on a regular notes system for greater effects.
This is not to say that parts of the Zettelkasten method cannot be utilized in a regular note system. For example, the fleeting note is useful to collect the full picture before writing, but the Zettelkasten method cannot be the basis of a regular notes system. That would be like using a hammer to build a pc.
Expanding from this conclusion, is an exercise left up to the reader.