As students, we were all told to take notes, but what we were never taught was how to take them. This is why I always viewed note taking as more of a chore; a necessary process for recalling information in an educational setting. Once I realized note making is creating value out of nothing, it became one of my favorite things to do.
So what’s the difference between taking notes and making them?
Takings notes is a passive process of recording information. Note taking leads to information collecting with no objective or direction. Note making is an active process of reflection, reformulation or rumination that will lead to developing valuable knowledge assets as creative outputs.
Think of the end result of note making as acquiring free deposits of knowledge that compound over time as your notebox grows in value. Through interconnectivity and linked thoughts, your knowledge base grows like a tree.
When you share the knowledge you curated in your notebox, it generates real value that people will gladly exchange for currency. In a sense, you can actually “grow money on trees” by transforming information into publishable intellectual assets with the process of note making!
Be a note maker, not a note taker.
Many YouTubers in the PKM community have done quite a good job of confusing the terminology surrounding note taking and a poor job teaching us how to make notes as creative outputs. Too much emphasis is put on the process, tools and methods without explaining what the purpose of making notes is.
So how do you make your notes valuable? Despite what the note-taking gurus say, there are really 3 types of notes, in order of value.
1. Excerpts: Quotes that are copied either word for word or by paraphrasing what an author has written. Take these scarcely and only when you think its not possible to express that idea in other words.
2. Reformulations: A summarization of the author’s words, thoughts or ideas written mostly in your own words.
3. Reflections: Notes written in your own words, briefly covering what that one idea, topic or concept means to you and how it relates to other notes.
Keep in mind, each note should contain a single isolated idea. Applying this rule can be a challenge when writing digital notes because of the unlimited space. So I’ve found that writing within the physical constraints of a 4×6 index card helps enforce this rule without having to rely on self discipline. I then type the note into Obsidian and link it from there.
Now, I can tell some of you are reading this thinking, “that’s cool and all, but I’m not that interested in sharing my knowledge publicly”. Well, I still believe the notes you write contain intrinsic value for the reader, even if you’re the only one reading them.
Niklaus Luhmann, the creator of the zettelkasten (notebox) system, considered his notebox a “ruminant”, or a conversation partner. It just so happens that a ruminant is also a name for an herbivore which digests nutrients through natural fermentation by chewing regurgitated cud.
Think of your notebox this way. It is a rumination tool that helps you chew your thoughts in contemplation, helping you understand them more intimately.
This is what Socrates meant when he wrote his famous words “know thyself”. He argued that people lacked understanding of concepts due to their lack of self-knowledge. Socratic ignorance maintains that the more you know, the more you realize you know nothing. The way you truly know yourself is through having a socratic dialogue with your knowledge, which leads to wisdom.
Becoming a note-maker means investing in yourself, except it doesn’t cost money and the knowledge you develop can generate unimaginable income if you choose to share it in the creator economy.
So stay curious and keep making notes, my friend.