Replied to Chris Rock's zettelkasten output process by thread by Chris, Andy, Sascha (Zettelkasten Forum)
Chris is going to keep insisting that any set of slips is a Zettelkasten, and Sascha is going to keep insisting that a Zettelkasten is a cohesive and coherent system.

My impression is that human brains are very much of a pattern, that under the same conditions they react in the same way, and that were it not for tradition, upbringing, accidents of circumstance, and particularly of accidental individual obsessions, we should find ourselves—since we all face the same universe—much more in agreement than is superficially  apparent. We speak different languages and dialects of thought and can even at times catch ourselves flatly contradicting one another in words while we are doing our utmost to express the same idea. How often do we see men misrepresenting one another in order to exaggerate a difference and secure the gratification of an argumentative victory!
—H. G. Wells, “The Idea of a World Encyclopedia.” Harper’s Magazine, April 1937. https://harpers.org/archive/1937/04/the-idea-of-a-world-encyclopedia/.

I’ll agree with Wells that most of our difference here is nitpicking for the sake of argument itself rather than actual meaning.

Because we’re in a holiday season, I’ll use our holiday traditions to analogize why I view things more broadly and prefer the phrase “zettelkasten traditions”. Much of Western society uses the catch-all phrase “Happy Holidays” to subsume a variety of specific holidays encompassing Christmas, Hannukah, New Years, Kwanzaa, and some even the comedically invented holiday of Festivus (“for the rest of us”). Each of these is distinct in its meaning and means of celebration, but each also represents a wide swath of ideas and means of celebration. Taking Christmas as an example: Some celebrate it in a religious framing as the birth of Christ (though, in fact, there is no solid historical attestation for the day of his birth). Some celebrate it as an admixture of Christianity and pagan mid-winter festivities which include trees, holly, mistletoe, lights, a character named Santa Claus, and even elves and reindeer which wholly have nothing to do with Jesus. Some give gifts and some don’t. Some put up displays of animals and mangers while others decorate with items from a 2003 New Line Cinema film starring Will Farrell. Some sing about a reindeer with a red nose created in 1939 as an inexpensive advertising vehicle in a coloring book. Almost everyone differs wildly in both the why and how they choose to celebrate this one particular holiday. The majority choose not to question it, though some absolutists feel that the Jesus-only perspective is what defines Christmas. 

I have only touched on the other holidays, each of which has its own distribution of ideas, beliefs, and means of celebration. And all of these we wrap up in an even broader phrase as “Happy Holidays” to inclusively capture them all. Collectively we all recognize what comprises them and defines them, generally focusing on what makes them mean something to us individually. Less frequently do we focus in on what broadly defines them in aggregate because the distribution of definitions is so spectacularly broad. Culturally trying to create one and only one definition is a losing proposition, so why bother beyond attributing the broader societal definitions, which assuredly will change and shift over time. (There was certainly a time during which Christmas was celebrated without any trees or carols, and a time after which there was.)

Zettelkasten traditions have a similar very broad set of definitions and practices, both before Herr Luhmann and after. Assuredly they will continue to evolve. One can insist their own personal definition is the “true one”, while others are sure to insist against it. Spending even a few moments reading almost anything about zettelkasten, one is sure to encounter half a dozen versions. I quite often see people (especially in the Obsidian space) say that they are keeping a zettelkasten, when on a grander scheme of distributions in the knowledge management space, what they’re practicing is far closer to a digital commonplace book than something Luhmann would recognize as something built on his own model, which itself was built on a card index version of a commonplace book, though in his case, one which prescribed a lot of menial duplication by hand. The idiosyncratic nature of the varieties of software and means of making a zettelkasten is perforce going to make a broad definition of what it is. Neither Marshall Mathers nor Chris Rock are prone to call their practices zettelkasten—primarily because they speak English—but they would both very likely recognize the method as a close variation to what they’ve been doing all along. 

Humankind has had various instantiations of sense making, knowledge keeping, and transmission over the millennia classified under variations of names from talking rocks, menhir, songlines, Tjukurpa, standing stones, massebah, henges, ars memoria, commonplaces, florilegia, commonplace books, card indexes, wikis, zettelkasten and surely thousands of other names. While they may shift about in their methods of storage, means of operation, and the amount of work both put into them as well as value taken out, they’re part of a broader tradition of human sense making, learning, memory, and creation that brings us to today. 

Perhaps it’s worth closing with a sententia from Terence‘s (161 BC), comedy Phormio (line 454)? 

Quot homines tot sententiae: suo’ quoique mos.

Translation: “There are as many opinions as there are people who hold them: each has his own correct way.” Given the limitations of the Latin and the related meanings of sententiae, one could almost be forgiven for translating it as “zettelkasten”… Perhaps we should consult the zettelkasten that is represented by the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae?

Replied to a post by Aaron DavisAaron Davis (https://collect.readwriterespond.com/)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videodrome
I had never seen Videodrome. It felt like a film that leaves many questions. It made me want to dig back into Deleuze and the body without organs. The concept of the body without organs was mainly defined by Deleuze and Guattari in the two volumes of their work Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus.[11] In both books, the abstract body is defined as a self-regulating process—created by the relation between an abstract machine and a machinic assemblage “Assemblage (philosophy)”)—that maintains itself through processes of homeostasis and simultaneously limits the possible activities of its constituent parts, or organs.[12] The body without organs is the sum total intensive and affective activity of the full potential for the body and its constituent parts.[13] Source: Body Without Organs by Wikipedia
ᔥ “Jim Groom” in AI106: Long Live the New Flesh | bavatuesdays (01/01/2024 21:36:56)
I keep running into references of Deleuze lately myself, so it may be time to pull some of his works off the shelf.
https://hypothes.is/users/chrisaldrich?q=tag%3A%22Gilles+Deleuze%22
Replied to Micro.blog Analog Tools Meetup by cygnoircygnoir (cygnoir.net)
Nearly two years later, I’m reviving the idea of a Micro.blog meetup for analog tools like paper and notebooks, pens and ink, pencils, stationery, planners and journals, typewriters, index cards, etc. Thirteen intrepid fans of analog tools filled out the survey last time, and the majority thought a one-hour Zoom meeting each month would be the best way to start. Timing is everything, in so many realms, and this one is no different. I’m available to host this meetup every third Saturday of the month from 9-10 a.m. PST. That would make our first meetup on Saturday, January 20th.
Typed index card that reads: "@cygnoir:
I'm all in for this! Let me know the zoom details when it's set.
Thanks for taking the initiative for setting this up for the community.
Bestest, @chrisaldrich" 
Followed by a signature . On top of the index card is a demonstrator fountain pen.

FireKing Index Card Filing Cabinet: Rock Solid Zettelkasten Storage for Under 10¢ per card

I’ve just run across what must be one of the largest and most impressive currently manufactured card index filing cabinets on the planet:

FireKing Card, Check & Note File Cabinet, 6 Drawers (6-2552-C)

FireKing International manufactures a 1-hour fire protection filing cabinet with index card inserts, that has options for various locks, is rated for 30 foot drops, and is sealed against potential water damage. They offer both four and six drawer options with the larger clocking in at a massive 863 pounds. With each of the 18 sections on the 6 drawer model capable of 25 15/16″ of storage, this beast should hold about 64,800 index cards.

The rough news is that this king of cabinets, while providing great protection and security for your zettelkasten, runs a fairly steep $6,218.00. Despite the initial sticker shock, keep in mind though, that it should provide a lifetime of secure and worry-free storage for just under 10 cents per card. 

Unless you’re into the older vintage wooden boxes which aren’t very good for protection against fire or water damage, there aren’t too many modern card index filing cabinet manufacturers out there, and this may be the most solid of the group. I’ll add it shortly to the ever-growing list at The Ultimate Guide to Zettelkasten Index Card Storage.

Could one go as far as to say that the ten commandments (numbered notes) presumably etched onto stone tablets (slips) and placed into the ark of the covenant (a box) and which coherently formed the basis of knowledge and living a good life for the twelve tribes was a zettelkasten?

Why not?

Lower register (second of two) of an Illuminated manuscript page in rich colors. Two men are carrying the ark of the covenant in the center surrounded by men playing ram's horns. Above the ark is a blue circular wall representing Jericho inside of which is a jumble of buildings and heads.

On the seventh day of the siege of Jericho, the Ark of the Covenant is carried around the city, horns are blown and the walls collapse (Josh 6:20-25).
Extract from Latin Psalter from England – BSB Hss Clm 835, fol. 21r. Oxford, 1st quarter of the 13th century
Source: München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Replied to a post by PratikPratik (microblog.pratikmhatre.com)
One more use for ChatGPT - enter all ingredients, including the type of alcohol you currently have, and ask it to suggest cocktails. Reply by email Also on Micro.blog Reply on Mastodon
🗃️ 🍸🥃 I have a section in my card index for that functionality: 

Column of index cards displaying tabs for cocktails and cocktail ingredients and sample cards showing for various ingredients (aperol, bourbon, brandy, vermouth) and related drinks one could make with them (dry martini, old fashioned).

Chris Rock’s zettelkasten output process

In the documentary Kevin Hart & Chris Rock: Headliners Only (Netflix, 2023) while preparing for a portion of their tour, Kevin Hart admires a portion of Chris Rock’s stand up comedy method and calls it “a science”. Chris Rock writes headlines for his jokes on slips of paper and then arranges them on either tables or small bulletin boards to outline his set list for presenting jokes for his performances.

A small bulletin board with about 50 slips of colored paper pinned up on it.

Low level coffee table covered in a grid of about 40 colored slips of paper.

If there are interesting contemporaneous news items which appear, he’ll include a newspaper or other material to represent the related joke for inclusion into his set. This makes a fascinating means of outlining his material and seems to fall within the realm of my search for zettelkasten output processes. Even if Rock doesn’t use index cards to write or store his jokes like comedians in the past have, he’s using a slip-based method for outlining and arranging them as part of his output process.

Chris Rock and Kevin Hart standing up in a green room. Behind them is a small board covered with rainbow colored slips of paper.

Kevin Hart: Chris, I’m so… I’m so, uh blown away by what I’m discovering that is your process.

Chris Rock: My process.

Kevin Hart: This all your shit?

A grid of slips of colored paper with various notes written in black sharpie. Some of the headlines read: Repubs lie/Dems, Fake-Selective Outrage, Black Lives Matter, Biden, Fruit Loops, Addicted to Attention, Neighborhoods.

A grid of slips of colored paper with various notes written in black sharpie. Some of the headlines read: Shortest in Class, Daughter Supreme Court, Hillary, Cops Deliver Babies.

Chris Rock: Well, this here would be, uh, bullet points for tonight. Every card represents a joke or a reference that I choose. I don’t wanna forget. You know what I mean? Like, you can remember all your jokes, but some nights, I’m like, ‘ehhh, I’m not gonna close with this one. I’m gonna close with that one’.

Kevin Hart: You have it down to a science where you can bullet point the time.

Chris Rock: You can. And by the way, sometimes, something happens in the news.

Kevin Hart: You got jokes on the bench.

Chris Rock: I have jokes on the bench.

View of a coffee table covered with slips of paper. Next to them is a broadsheet copy of the New York Post with a big photo of Elon Musk overlaid with the headline "Musk Rat".

Kevin Hart: I’m going to tell you I’m not only impressed by that, but I’m disappointed in myself. Because, uh, whatever I got, got to to fly.

@GMJuditPolgar, I’m doing some research for a book on note taking traditions, commonplace books, and zettelkasten/card indexes. In watching an interview of you with Christiane Amanpour from 2020 I noticed a photo of you next to a card index while playing chess. Do you have 15-20 minute for a short interview to talk about it and how you compiled and used it?