Ha, Chris, I like your diligence and humour. Yes, the quote sounds absurd. I tried to take it seriously. It’s also a surprisingly good rule of thumb for linking notes in a Zettelkasten.

When you’re building a dense web of interconnected thought, it can be tempting to create links just for the sake of completeness or structure. But here’s the catch: not every note is worth “relating” to others unless it’s truly alive—that is, conceptually meaningful, still resonating with your thinking, and likely to contribute to future insights.

A note with no "pulse" is a dead end. Linking it into your system creates noise, not knowledge. Just like in the movie, where fake commitments to nonexistent relatives get the characters into trouble, fake connections in a Zettelkasten—those without intellectual energy—can make your system bloated and confusing.

So, the next time you're about to connect two notes, pause and ask yourself:

Does this note still have a pulse for me?
Is there real, living meaning behind this link?
Or am I just trying to fill in space?

The Zettelkasten thrives on clarity, context, and curiosity—not empty associations. So yes, only commit to a relative if you’re sure they have a pulse. Even in knowledge work, it’s good advice. Surprising that it comes from a movie.