What is a Zettelkasten?

Where it comes from

The method is best known through Niklas Luhmann, a German sociologist who kept a slip box of about 90,000 handwritten cards. He published dozens of books and hundreds of articles, and he treated the box as a partner in his thinking.

The cards themselves weren't the clever part. The links between them were. Following a link from one card to another led him to ideas he hadn't planned to put together.

The three rules

1. One idea per note, so each note can be linked on its own.
2. Write in your own words, so the note holds what you think and not just what you read.
3. Link each note to the notes it relates to, so ideas build on each other over time.

Why many people stop

Linking is the point, and it's also the hard part. To link a new note you have to remember an old one at the moment you write. That gets harder as your notes grow, just when the links would help most.

So many people end up with a neat pile of notes and very few links, or spend more time tending the system than thinking.

How Kasti keeps one for you

Kasti takes the remembering off your plate. You write short notes in your own words, and it looks through your earlier notes for a link you might have missed. It shows you one at a time and says why, and you decide. See how it works.

It's a simpler take on the method, not a full copy. There are no note numbers or folders to manage, and Kasti is made for short thoughts rather than long documents. If you want to draw every link by hand, a classic Zettelkasten on paper or in a tool like Obsidian may suit you better.

Questions