[TeMPOraL]

I'll add this book to my queue then. Because so far, the "heavyweight" part of Zettelkasten for me wasn't organizing notes into graphs, but fitting thoughts into index-card equivalents. I found myself cutting tightly couple prose into linked pieces, with the link forming a fixed and necessary spine, because the whole set of pieces only makes sense if taken together.

[gexla]

The lightbulb moment for me was simply creating these sequences without putting much thought into them beyond that. It may have ended up a little messy but then I found that my creativity in coming up with new ideas lit up. That became super useful even if I were breaking any other "rules."

A lot of people seem to get caught up in LARPing by following strict rules before they see this usefulness and that rational approach holds back the creativity. It's like getting so caught up in the process of how to have sex that you never figure out how to actually enjoy it.

And yes, the card system would require these rules to make it work because otherwise you might not be able to find anything.

Another issue is that people get carried away with some of the better software for using this system and they end up creating their own rigid system. For example, the power in RoamResearch for me is the most basic features it shipped with. But it could also be a sort of "no-code" platform which people use to "no-code" themselves into a corner. I feel like you should have one "database" in Roam which you use only for this purpose and largely without structure. Make a mess and resist temptation to make it super organized. The more you get caught up in structure, the less you're thinking about exploring your ideas.