Using permaculture as a lens (Permaculture as a lens), I try to find the edges in a system so I can narrow in on where the greatest activity will be.

In a zettelkasten, the boundaries could be:

• The connections (Learning is meaningful connections) between each note
• The gap between knowledge captured and knowledge not yet captured
• The tension created between two opposing (Opposition in all things is Yin and Yang) viewpoints
• The juxtaposition of one topic directly against a somewhat unrelated topic

These all have the theme of highlighting the tension (THIS IS MARKETING) created between notes and concepts. Maybe this is one of the reasons the atomized notes concept works so well - it increases the system's edge surface area.

In fact, on the zettelkasten blog, there's an article that talks specifically about the value of looking for the topics that naturally form themselves in the gaps between topics. These are topics of unexplored territory worth fully exploring, and treating like a good puzzle (Discovery Games are Like Puzzles).

Citations

#toolong