How to Take Smart Notes
One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers
by Sönke Ahrens · first published 2017
64% recommend34% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
Short introduction to the Zettelkasten method, arguing that writing is part of thinking and learning, and that rewriting ideas in your own words helps retention. Suits students, researchers, and nonfiction writers.
Common criticism: Light on concrete examples and step-by-step setup; some find it padded
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
An informational book that describes and advocates for the note taking system of the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann. The author's primary claim is that Luhmann's system of keeping a slip-box (or "zettelkasten") full of interesting ideas and bibliographic references can help students, academics, and non-fiction writers be more productive.
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…(or uses Emacs)?" "Don't worry, they'll tell you". I don't want to derail any discussion though!) For those of you wondering about Zettelkasten and knowledge management, I suggest you start by reading "How to Take Smart Notes" by Sönke Ahrens: https://takesmartnotes.com/ and https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/34507927-how-to-take-...
on “Zettlr – FOSS markdown editor for personal knowledge management and publishing” ↗…decision paralysis, prioritization mistakes, and massive motivation issues. This book gives you specific workflows to cut through these in a magical way. Personal Knowledge Management- The equally classic, How to Take Smart Notes(https://www.amazon.com/How-Take-Smart-Notes-Technique/dp/398...). Where GTD(above) does this for well-defined tasks/work, this book does it for open-ended work, giving you an amazing workflow for introducing…
on “Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?” ↗How to take Smart Notes is a very good book that explains this technique well. Highly recommend. https://www.amazon.com/How-Take-Smart-Notes-Nonfiction/dp/15...
on “Luhmann's Zettelkasten” ↗I can really recommend "How to Take Smart Notes" [1] by Sönke Ahrens. It's made a real difference for me. Ignore the self help-sounding title and give it a chance. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34507927
on “Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?” ↗…able to work through big ideas is really just a process of breaking a problem down into component parts and seeing how those parts interact and connect (much like with software). I'd recommend the book "How to Take Smart Notes" by Sönke Ahrens for some strategies on how to do that.
on “Ask HN: How do you work through large ideas?” ↗Sönke Ahrens has a good point on forgetting in "How To Take Smart Notes". We view it as a negative thing, but if we remembered everything we would be drowned in details and we wouldn't be able to distinguish signal from the noise. He argues that forgetting makes us able to…
on “The strange path of accepting how your brain works” ↗…looking forward to Scott Scheper's book about Antinets). I manage people and write software for a living, but I don't really write articles or papers (which ZK seems a good fit for). I just finished "How to Take Smart Notes" by Sönke Ahrens, and it has inspired me to take another pass at starting a ZK for the benefits of greater understanding and insight about the variety of topics I read about.
on “A tour to my Zettelkasten note clusters” ↗…become an "archiever", because you probably want to evolve your ideas by linking them together in your own unique way -- unique as dicated by your problem at hand plus your own idiosyncratic experiences. "How to take smart notes" by Sönke Ahrens is a great book on this topic, admittedly more oriented towards a Zettelkasten/Obsidian workflow.
on “Anki-Fy Your Life” ↗If you're oriented towards academic writing, "How to Take Smart Notes" from Sönke Ahrens describes the Zettelkasten method which is akin to the GTD method but focused towards writing. Besides, the book contains interesting insights on how we learn and get motivated to work.…
on “Ask HN: How do you take notes?” ↗…page, which helps me to remember some other subject that might be relevant. It uses the Zettelkasten Method: https://zettelkasten.de/posts/overview/ and you can also get a lot of value from reading "How to Take Smart Notes" by Sönke Ahrens. The value also comes from it mirroring your thoughts and experiences, as I said, the second brain thing. (I'm terrible at explaining stuff, sorry :( I hope I didn't bore you to bits)
on “Zotero: Personal Research Assistant” ↗…books that are well worth reading. Short books for developers are rare these days. Algorithms Unlocked, Thomas Cormen, 212 pages The Art of Readable Code, Dustin Boswell & Trevor Foucher, 180 pages How To Take Smart Notes, Sonke Ahrens, 151 pages How to Write a Thesis, Umberto Eco, 223 pages How Charts Lie, Alberto Cairo, 193 pages
on “Ask HN: Best books under 200 pages for developers?” ↗Great book on this topic: How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers Ahrens, Sönke
on “Luhmann's Original Zettelkasten Digitalized” ↗Obsidian [1] for organizing notes of any kind, together with the book How to Take Smart Notes by Sonke Ahrens. [1] https://obsidian.md/
on “Ask HN: What are your favourite productivity tools?” ↗It's not hard, but there's also no silver bullet. Start by reading "How to Take Smart Notes" (Ahrens), which is a science-based review of second-brain/slip-box systems and then iterate on that until it fits your workflow.
on “Everything I Know” ↗I would recommend looking into the Zettelkasten ("slip box") system, then ("How to take smart notes" by Sonke Ahrens is a great read). Particularly to your point (2), the problem I've seen with most systems is they are not simple to maintain. Contrast this with "Getting Things Done", which is practically…
on “How to build a second brain as a software developer” ↗