“Communicating with Slip Boxes”

"For the inner life of the card index, for the arrangement of notes or its mental history, it is most important that we decide against the systematic ordering in accordance with topics and sub-topics and choose instead a firm fixed place (Stellordnung). A system based on content, (like the outline of a book) would mean that we make a decision that would bind us to a certain order for decades in advance!"

Niklas Luhmann http://luhmann.surge.sh/communicating-with-slip-boxes

As I’ve been working my way through an overhaul of my working / thinking processes and placing value on more on strange connections than linear progressions, my interest in the zettelkasten system has been growing. A bit too complex for my tastes, but I’m attempting to incorporate elements of it into my process, both in physical and in digital form. The above is an excerpt from Niklas Luhmann’s essay, “Communicating with Slip Boxes” about his own use of the zettelkasten system.