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.
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.
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?
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.
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?
I’m slowly coming to realize that handwriting or typecasting to my website means that I am left with a permanent, physical copy of my post which I can archive into a physical card file. I can file them by date to create a version of a diary, and/or I can file them by taxonomy so that I might reuse the ideas at a later date zettelkasten-style.
The script for my Niklas Luhmann movie is coming along nicely. After watching some of Ned Ballamy‘s work, I’m thinking that he’d be the natural lead… #zettelkasten
I’m tending to lean more toward telling students to rely more directly on something like Cornell notes while they’re in classes learning the basics of an area. Too many students considering starting a Luhmann-artig zettelkasten think that they ought to write down everything, atomize it, and link it which would take an inordinate amount of time to those new to the process. This is particularly troublesome because most courses (especially introductory ones) are designed such that much of the material should be fully internalized by the time the course is over. When you take a math class you might learn what 2+2 is and make a note about it, but by the time the course is over, that idea should now be so basic that keeping it in your system should be a bit laughable. Spending time to excerpt it from a lecture, make it atomic, and interlink it is a lot of make-work that isn’t likely to be useful either for the learning the thing to begin with, much less remember it in the long run to potentially use it again.
Once one has mastered most of a course, they might profitably skim through their notes at the end to summarize outcomes they saw and find most useful and interesting. Those things along with the summaries of their Cornell notes might then be useful zettels to keep in the long run. A zettelkasten practice like that of Niklas Luhmann is more useful when one already has a strong lay of the land and they’re attempting to do the work of expanding on the boundaries of new areas of knowledge.
If you are a student contemplating creating a zettelkasten, then the bulk of your notes probably ought to be short snippets kept with your bibliography notes and should not be individual zettels. By this I mean specifically that you might have a bibliographic note (reference note or literature note) for each individual lecture with some fleeting notes about it kept with that card. Then if necessary, you’ll probably only have one or two zettels or permanent notes out of each lecture. If you’re attempting to create 30 permanent notes a day and interlink them all, then you’re going to find yourself overworked and overwhelmed within just a few days.
I’ve had an oddly large number of emails over the past few months asking me for advice about what sorts of index card cases and carrying options I use on a daily basis. Rather than tip out my zettelkasten in fits and spurts on the topic, I thought I’d pour out all those ideas out here instead.
If you’re all-in on the ever-growing neo-index card lifestyle, then you should really work at adding some actual style to your fichier boîte practice. If your note taking has you going through cards like water, you’ll likely want something to carry them on the go, and often it can be useful, especially in meetings, to have something that not only looks nice, but will hold up through heavy use over the years. Maybe you want something fashionable to fit the change of seasons? Something to suit the occasion whether it’s a corporate board meeting or something to go with your red carpet black tie look? Are you taking notes at romantic wedding get-aways or at the beach? What are you using for storage?
In the vein of my article The Ultimate Guide to Zettelkasten Index Card Storage, below I’ve collected a number of various sorts of daily carry index card cases, wallets, covers, and folios one might consider using. Some, where indicated, are items I use regularly, but others are interesting options I’ve run across in my travels, and though they didn’t fit my particular needs, they might fit yours. I don’t (yet) consider it to be the ultimate guide to this space, so if you’re in the market, feel free to check back occasionally or add your thoughts, suggestions, or reviews to the comments below. Since some items aren’t designed specifically for index cards, notes about their usability and portability with respect to note taking or zettelkasten practices are appreciated.
As I did for boxes, I’m going to focus primarily on the 3 x 5 inch and 4 x 6 inch index card form factors which are more common, and for which these products are often more readily available. If you’re using larger cards, then you might consider searching for folders, cases, and related containers for equivalent sizes of paper in terms of notebook covers, filing solutions, and other binders keeping in mind that equivalent European or DIN A-sizes (A5, A4, etc.) may also suit your needs as long as they’re big enough to physically accommodate your cards. If you find something spectacular, let us all know.
Please double check sizing as I have run into instances where some items were fractions of an inch too small to fit the cards I wanted to use.
If you’re doing your own targeted searches some of the following words can be useful: cases, wallets, covers, pocket briefcases, folios, pouches, bags, pen and/or pencil cases, and fountain pen cases. While some of the pen related cases may not be as suitable, some are free-form pouches which will easily accommodate index cards in addition to other items you may want to carry with your cards. You can’t take notes without a writing instrument, so having space for a pen or pencil or two isn’t a bad thing. You’ll probably notice that some items come with pen loops for such eventualities. Trawling through some of the fountain pen and stationery communities can also give you some creative ideas for portable index card storage.
While not the most spectacular option, this double zippered, expandable pen case fits a huge number of pens and small office supplies as well as loads of either 3 x 5 or 4 x 6 inch index cards.
It bears noticing that one could also go the DIY route and make their own portable index card holders. This would allow one to have the exact form factor and specifications for their personal note taking styles. If this is you, hopefully some of the options below will give you some ideas about what form factors are available for designing your own. You’ll find that there are options in a variety of materials including leather, cotton, canvas, waxed canvas, sailcloth, metal, and even Harris Tweed.
What will you choose?
Size independent options
Before we delve into some of the card size-specific choices, let’s look at a few that are size independent.
Binder Clips. Everyone is likely aware of it, but we will mention that in true old-school hipster PDA-style (aka Parietal Disgorgement Aid), one could certainly use a binder clip, which makes a certain statement, though not the one that many might wish. In a similar vein, I’ve heard people say they rely on rubber bands, or especially in hot climates where rubber bands break down quickly, plastic sandwich bags (Ziploc to keep out the moisture), or even envelopes. Envelopes may present an intriguing practice for those into slip-based project management or forms of kakeibo (家計 簿).
The classic Hipster PDA dressed up with a brass binder clip.
Binder rings. If you want to go flashcard style, then you’ll want to search for a good hole punch (I recommend the Mutual Centamatic Punch No. 250) and some binder rings which come in a huge variety of sizes, materials, and even colors.
Chicago Binding Screws. If you appreciate the flashcard style, but not the esthetic and would rather look a bit more corporate than playground, then perhaps Chicago binding screws (available in various sizes and finishes) will give your deck of index cards a more buttoned up look? For those who are fans of index card filing rod solutions, these can also be used to bundle up cards on the go using your pre-punched cards. Higher end metal finishes (brass, copper, oiled bronze?) can really up the game on this option.
Gangnam Style. Just kidding—I’m just checking to see if you’re still awake. But seriously, the stiff upper body movements in the video were the result of decks of index cards in the suit jackets. I swear!
Uninspired Plastic. If you really must… Only for the indiscriminate completists, I’ll mention the ubiquitous cheap plastic cases, some with snaps or elastics for closure which hold 50 to a few hundred cards. If you carefully follow some of the zettelkasten box market, you can get a solid antique or vintage wooden box for almost as much as you’d pay for a dozen of these cheap toys. I don’t want to shame anyone, particularly those who are still test driving the analog index card life, but perhaps this is what you’ve got now and you’re here searching for a modest upgrade? Good! Keep exploring to find your new index card lifestyle.
Everyone has a few of these plastic holders lying around. Do they spark joy? Probably not.
3 x 5 inch index card versions
Not only are there a variety of custom solutions specifically designed for 3 x 5 inch index cards, but one can also profitably search for and use items designed for passports (3.5 x 5 inches) or pocket notebooks which are slightly larger, but still serviceable. A variety of high quality solutions are designed specifically for a variety of common brand name pocket notebook products including Field Notes (3.5 x 5.5 inches), Moleskine (3.5 x 5.5 inches), Leuchtturm (A6), Hobonichi, Midori, Jibun, etc., so searching for these within the space can provide some additional options for the discerning buyer.
In some cases, products meant for A7 size paper (74 mm x 105 mm or 2.91 x 4.13 inch) may also work, but check the sizing as A7 is physically smaller than 3 x 5 inches. Similarly A6 size paper (105 x 148mm or 4.13 x 5.83 inches) products should work as they are slightly larger than both 3 x 5 inch and 4 x 6 inch index cards, though depending on your card size they may be a bit roomy.
Products
Simple leather wallets. I have an inexpensive, but nice leather notebook cover/wallet that I usually have a few 3x5s in. Searching for covers for pocket notebooks or A6 notebooks one will find lots of these which are more ubiquitous than those that will hold the larger 4×6 inch cards. Hundreds of variations of this sort can be found on Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and other online and leather retailers. After you’ve seen a few you can pick and choose ones with the number of pockets or slots you’d like, whether or not you want a pen loop, the ability to use it as a wallet for your cash and credit cards along with your notes, etc. Prices can generally range from US$15 to well over $100 with a variety of colors, types of leather, and even personalization options.
Passport wallets. Similar to the above, there are a huge number of commercially available passport wallets in a variety of shapes, configurations, and materials. Most should fit index cards within the pocket designed for the passport. Search and see what you come up with. One correspondent said they loved their Aspinal of London passport cover.
Levenger carries some nicer index card-specific “pocket briefcases”. Their offerings are only for 3 x 5 inch form factors, but they do have a variety of those size cards and small notebooks as well as the ability to custom print stationery at that size if you’re looking for something personalized.
Kaitiaki has a unique form factor. It not only holds cards, but can be stood up as a display as well as be used as a small writing desk while you’re on the go.
Rite in the Rain has a variety of notebooks and index card products whose primary premise is that they are waterproof. Naturally they also carry a variety of protective cases and pouches, most made of cordura, with a variety of configurations to suit a variety of needs. Browsing around here will find a variety of interesting and rugged options. Also of note, they have an index card wallet designed specifically for 3 x 5 inch index cards. Some may also appreciate their field desks for writing on the go. Slightly more difficult to find amid their cordura offerings are their Guide and Sherpa leather wallets which should comfortably fit 3 x 5 inch cards.
Lochby is primarily in the notebook and planner space with a variety of offerings featuring a durable waxed canvas esthetic. Their Pocket Journal case, meant for pocket notebooks, will easily hold a hundred index cards with additional internal pockets for business cards or credit cards and external pockets for miscellanea as well as a pen. It is small enough one could use it as a wallet and it will fit in most back pockets, though depending on its contents, it may not be comfortable to sit on for extended periods. Their larger Venture Pouch has two zippered sides, one for pens and the other with two separate spaces for index cards or other portable office supplies. If you don’t mind a bit more bulk in your portable office, Lockby’s Tool Roll should easily fit 150 index cards along with a variety of pens and side pocket for miscellaneous needs. If you’re price sensitive, sign up to their newsletter as they have regular sales and discounts throughout the year.
IF provides some off-the-beaten-path options for the avid reader and note taker. Of particular note in their line up, is the Bookaroo Notebook Tidy, which is available in a number of colors. It provides eight elastic bands on the front for a variety of storage options, one of which could easily be your 3 x 5 inch index cards (it sadly won’t fit 4 x 6 inch though one could use a binderclip to attach them to the back of the tidy in a pinch). Turned over, the back is a firm surface that could be used as a small writing desk. Also included is an adjustable elastic band which can be used to attach the tidy to an A5 notebook or to a wide variety of standard hardcover novels and non-fiction (9.5 inch tall) books. Just attach your tidy with some note cards and you’re ready to read and take notes at your favorite home away from home.
Rickshaw, an offshoot company from Timbuk2 bags, offers a wide array of bags, wallets, pouches, and miscellanea in a huge variety of materials and form factors. While some of their larger items will certainly fit 3 x 5 inch cards, some of their smaller offerings include: The Diplomat, a wide variety of pocket notebook folios, and lots of pouches and wallets.
Traveler’s Notebook manufactures passport size notebook covers meant for their range of notebooks which are held in by way of elastic bands. This makes them potentially less useful the index card afficionados as unbound or unclipped cards may not stay in them as easily. However, if you’re making or using small index card pads of the sort I’ve discussed in the past, then you can easily slip them in and go. TN also makes a variety of other useful inserts which may make this a intriguing choice.
4 x 6 inch index card versions
In this category, there aren’t as many custom made solutions, so searching specifically for them has generally been fruitless. The better bet for this size factor is to search for the slightly larger A6 sized notebook covers, holders, cases, and pouches and be comfortable with them being slightly larger. In most of my experience this is fine and there’s isn’t so much extra space that the difference is worrisome or noticeable. Some particular brands that might work include Hobonichi, The Superior Labor, Leuchtturm, etc.
Products
King Jim makes the cotton Flatty Works #5460, an A6 horizontal pouch with small internal and external thin pockets and a clear front plastic window. At H4.8×W6.8×D1.4 inches it easily fits not only 4 x 6 inch index cards but has enough clearance for tabbed dividers as well. I have one I use as a daily carry and love it. I’ve written more details and a review elsewhere on the site.
Lochby. Mentioned above, their only product which will fit 4 x 6 inch cards is their “Adventure Pouch”. It will also provide you with space for a variety of pens, pencils, a pair of glasses and other small niceties. 4 x 6 inch cards won’t fit into the pockets of their tool roll (pictured above), but if it’s compelling enough, you could roll them into the apparatus and they shouldn’t fall out when clasped shut.
Rite in the Rain. Also mentioned in the 3 x 5 inch section, Rite in the Rain offers a handful of covers and pouches which are slightly bigger than 4 x 6 inch and will easily accommodate these index cards. Weatherproof, most are made out of cordura and have a rugged appearance and feel.
ateliers PENELOPE makes a variety of canvas bags and storage solutions, but their large Diary Pouch may be a classy solution for some of your larger index card on-the-go storage. Given its size, it’s got space for both index cards as well as some of your other portable storage needs. It’s small enough that it should fit easily into a briefcase or other larger bags or purses. If you have some index card “notebooks”, you might also consider their A6 canvas covers which are lovely and colorful.
Rickshaw. With a pedigree stemming out of Timbuk2, this San Francisco purveyor of bags for a variety of purposes offers two that look like solid options for the portable 4 x 6 inch index card fan (and which are certainly big enough for 3 x 5 inch users). The first is their Travelers Notebook Case and the second is the Coozy Case. Some may find that their larger A5 cases or their pouches may also suit their needs. The benefit of these options is that they come in a huge array of colors with customizable options. Browse around their site to see if something here strikes your fancy. Houndstooth anyone? Harris Tweed!?! Add-a-Patch? Yes, please. May I have some more?
Galen Leather. Galen, generally beloved within the fountain pen and stationery communities, offers a wide variety of leather notebook covers, folios, bags, and zippered cases which are compatible with a variety of index card sizes. One unique option here is their Writing Box, inspired by a writing desk owned by Thomas Jefferson.
Custom solutions
I’ve been trying to get Aaron Aiken to make a custom leather billfold/cover, but it’ll be a few months before he gets around to it. If this is of interest to you, do ping him with your interest. (See conversation thread for details.)
Thoughts?
Have I missed anything interesting?
What is your favorite index card holder when you’re out on the go? What’s holding your fleeting notes?
This box of 600+ specimen cards holds a complete snapshot of the last metal type foundries in Germany. Produced 1958–1971, the Schriftenkartei (Typeface Index) represents the final effort to catalog all the country’s typefaces in production at the time. The cards are useful for researchers and designers as they share a common format and show complete glyph sets. Thanks to Michael Wörgötter, a set of these cards is now in our collection, and his high-res scans are online. https://letterformarchive.org/news/schriftenkartei-german-font-index/
This Schriftenkartei represents a fascinating example of a card index (#zettelkasten) as a database. This one obviously had a very narrow range of topics.
There’s something incredibly important to learn in studying two very similar photographs of Mortimer J. Adler from the middle of the last century. I’ll present them here for reference:
Adler was a proponent of educational reforms in the form of building on John Erskine’s Great Books programs and went so far as to teach us to read properly before editing and presenting a fantastic collection of books in the form of the Great Books of the Western World by way of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Adler most often suggested consuming a book in increasing levels by marking it up with highlights, annotations and even scaffolding a book’s important material on its end covers. However, when it came to the Great Books project, he and 25 of his colleagues used notes on index cards to index 102 great ideas across a large swath of classical Western literature.
You can see the majority of this indexed collection of knowledge splayed around him in the first photo. These index cards became the raw materials by which he and his team compiled and wrote the impressive Syntopicon which comprised volumes 2 and 3 of the 54 books in the Great Books of the Western World series (1952). Upon its release, the second photo was used extensively in marketing materials to sell the set to the general public over the ensuing decades and several editions of the books.
Even if one doesn’t look very closely at the photos, once juxtaposed they will probably have already noticed that the photos of Adler himself are the same. The second photo has obviously had the set of books superimposed around a cropped photo of him from the first photo. While it is a great advertising gimmick, it belies a lot of the serious work involved in building the Syntopicon which hides a tremendous amount of value.
Even Adler’s co-editor extolls the immense value of the Syntopicon:
But I would do less than justice to Mr. Adler’s achievement if I left the matter there. The Syntopicon is, in addition to all this, and in addition to being a monument to the industry, devotion, and intelligence of Mr. Adler and his staff, a step forward in the thought of the West. It indicates where we are: where the agreements and disagreements lie; where the problems are; where the work has to be done. It thus helps to keep us from wasting our time through misunderstanding and points to the issues that must be attacked. When the history of the intellectual life of this century is written, the Syntopicon will be regarded as one of the landmarks in it.
—Robert M. Hutchins, p xxvi The Great Conversation: The Substance of a Liberal Education. 1952.
However, while the Syntopicon as an end product holds great value, knowing how it was created is potentially even more important. The second photo does a huge disservice to the entire enterprise by way of erasure of the true nature of the Syntopicon. While the first photo may seem dull and esoteric, it holds a huge amount of hidden value for both students and teachers. It is photographic evidence of how the knowledge of the incredibly valuable Syntopicon was actually built. If properly scaffolded for students, following their lead of indexing their ideas, students could have their own personal Syntopicons for learning and exploring.
Imagine, if you will, the majesty and awe inspired by the Pyramids of Giza to the people viewing them from the ground. The Great Pyramid itself is significantly taller than both Big Ben and the Statue of Liberty, and at approximately 45 stories tall is almost half the height of the Eiffel Tower, though obviously with a much more massive base. The entire structure of the Pyramid of Giza is estimated to weigh 5.9 million metric tons comprising 2.3 million blocks of stone averaging weights of about 3 tons each. These rocks were cut and moved only by humans across vast distances of sand. Anyone who has done the intense labor of dragging a cooler and pop up tent across even a few hundred feet of sand to spend a day at the beach will marvel at moving such massive blocks, even with thousands of people to help drag it. Yet they managed to lay 1,764,000 pounds of stone every day for nearly 20 years. How did the ancient Egyptians manage this feat? Curious people have tried for centuries to imagine how they managed to build such spectacular monuments from scratch. But because there is little in the historical record and no remains of scaffolding, anyone who might want to build their own monumental pyramid is left to start their process from scratch. But what if you had a picture of the method or the scaffolding? Perhaps even set of plans, diagrams, or description? That might make all the difference, wouldn’t it?
I’ll give you a head start and suggest you begin with this image from c. 1880 BCE which was painted on the wall of the tomb of Djehutihotep:
The idea that the statue is being pulled by a large host of people on a sled is relatively obvious. But even if you can’t read the writing, you’ll probably know that that number of people isn’t nearly enough for what must be a tremendous weight. How about the image of the guy almost in the center of the painting? The one standing at the front of the sled who appears to be pouring liquid out? What is he doing? Could we try some experiments to learn what his purpose was? (In some literature he is often called a tribologist.)
Fall, Weber, Pakpour, et. al tried just that and found some surprising results. Pouring water onto sand decreases friction for objects pulled over it, meaning that its much easier for fewer men to pull large weights over sand. Their paper also contains a transcribed picture of the original painting prior to damage which has occurred since the early 1900s.
Just as the painting of our new tribologist friend scaffolds the “secret” behind how one moves large weights over sand in ancient Egypt, the photograph of Adler with his card index provides the answer to the secret behind how one writes a paper, article, thesis, or even a book. It certainly provides a lot more information to the viewer and potential reader of the Syntopicon than the second picture which excerpts Adler’s photo and simply surrounds him with books.
Teachers, including Adler, should prefer to show their work or scaffold their knowledge more often so that students can see how they they did their trick. Too often, like a magician, they perform their prestidigitation and leave out the secret of how it was performed. This certainly impresses the audience temporarily, but it doesn’t provide them with any actual knowledge they can apply for themselves. Teaching patently isn’t meant to be held to the secrecy of the “Magician’s Code”. It should be much more like the techniques of magicians Penn & Teller who frequently not only perform their magic, but then go on to reveal the actual method by which they produced it. It’s nice to enthrall students, but then show them how they might enthrall others. But let’s also not do it to the level of amateur magicians who will only practice a trick until they get it right once, let’s help them move to the level of professional magicians who continue to practice every day until they never make any mistakes.
Too often in our writing courses we don’t reveal any useful methods by which one might produce interesting research and writing. Simply reading an encyclopedia article, a few beginner magazine articles, and a book or two might be a small enough project for a sixth grader to miraculously produce a three page essay and remember most of what they need to do so. But what is a high schooler or a college student to do when they need to produce theses of 20 pages or longer that go beyond the idea of simply regurgitating the data they’ve read over several months’ time? It’s much harder to remember and maintain the information of dozens of books and journal articles over such a time span. How might they better generate new insights into what their doing? Create new knowledge? And things compound dramatically if a student decides to become a professional researcher, writer, or even academician.
The better course would be to have a teacher scaffolding how to practice these methods in class with the students as they try their own hand at it. I’ve seen well educated adults struggle with these methods, so I know it’s going to take some practice.
Of course, not every teacher knows how to do these things themselves(to pass along the secrets, the magician must actually know how to perform the magic first), much less to do them in the most efficient ways. In fact, much like this story of teachers in the “Reading Wars” who weren’t taught concrete methods of teaching reading, many teachers were never taught how to teach writing at higher technical and creative levels and were never forced to practice it themselves. Some who were forced just muddled their way through as best they could. As a result they teach their students to take the same long and arduous road involving the most work and often some of the worst results. At least in regard to writing, there is a royal road that one might take.
The photo of Adler’s index cards is the tip of the iceberg that suggests a potential method. I suspect that for some, simply knowing about the index cards and seeing the final form of the two volumes of the Syntopicon could allow one to puzzle out the intervening steps with some minor experimentation. For those who’d like to jump ahead without experimentation or the need to read the hieroglyphs might make the next step with learning about methods shown in an excellent video of Victor Margolin explaining his method of research and writing. Or by reading a short article by Keith Thomas in the London Review of Books. They can then move onto Adler’s introductory How to Mark a Book.
For those who appreciated the analogy of quarrying and dragging stone to make the pyramids, Gerald Weinberg’s 2005 book on The Fieldstone Method is sure to be a crowd pleaser. Overwise, similar more advanced methods are spelled out in Umberto Eco’s How to Write a Thesis and Sönke Ahrens’ How to Take Smart Notes. One might place the finishing touches with Adler and van Doren’s How to Read a Book (1972, 2011) and C. Wright Mills’ short paper On Intellectual Craftsmanship.
Conclusion
If you must for the exercise, allow students to drag their building blocks over the sand so they can see how difficult it is. But then reveal the secrets of the tribologists and the prestidigitators so that they can go on to build their own pyramids and make their own magic in life. Be sure not to have them use the method for just one project, but allow it to span several projects or to be used across their lives much the way many greats of history have leveraged the value of commonplace books which falls into a very similar tradition of knowledge management.
Show students how to take small ideas written on index cards and use them as proverbial building blocks to slowly and creatively build up larger arguments, create paragraphs, papers, and books with with them. While it may not seem obvious, variations on these methods were the secrets behind almost every great thinker or writer in history including Boethius, Thomas Aquinas, Desiderius Erasmus, Konrad Gessner, John Locke, Carl Linnaeus, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Niklas Luhmann, Beatrice Webb, Marcel Mauss, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Mortimer J. Adler, Niklas Luhmann, Roland Barthes, Vladimir Nabokov, George Carlin, Phyllis Diller, Twyla Tharp, and yes, even Eminem and Taylor Swift.
References
Adler, Mortimer J. “How to Mark a Book.” Saturday Review of Literature, July 6, 1941.
Adler, Mortimer J., and Charles Van Doren. How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading. Revised and Updated edition. 1940. Reprint, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972.
Fall, A., B. Weber, M. Pakpour, N. Lenoir, N. Shahidzadeh, J. Fiscina, C. Wagner, and D. Bonn. “Sliding Friction on Wet and Dry Sand.” Physical Review Letters 112, no. 17 (April 29, 2014): 175502. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.175502.
For those who have a significant paper-based zettelkasten practice, have you considered commissioning custom made cards? There are a variety of stationers who do custom work and one could also purchase directly from Chinese manufacturers to get costs down by buying in bulk.
Ryan Holliday is one of the few I’ve seen in the wild who has mentioned custom making cards, usually done on a per-project (book) basis where he’ll put a header title at the top of his note cards. Example: https://www.instagram.com/p/CeWV6xBuZUN/?hl=en
Other options could include doing custom/personalized stamps. (I have a date stamp handy for quickly stamping the dates of creation/updating in the corner of cards.)
I’m curious what suppliers/manufacturers folks have researched/used? What were your experiences? What sort of templates or printing did you use on them? Paper weight? Did you go Grid, blank, dot, lined, or all of the above? If you were looking to purchase something for yourself, what would you want?
Robert Hutchins, former dean of Yale Law School (1927–1929), president (1929–1945) and chancellor (1945–1951) of the University of Chicago, closes his preface to his grand project with Mortimer J. Adler by giving pride of place to Adler’s Syntopicon. It touches on the unreasonable value of building and maintaining a zettelkasten:
But I would do less than justice to Mr. Adler’s achievement if I left the matter there. The Syntopicon is, in addition to all this, and in addition to being a monument to the industry, devotion, and intelligence of Mr. Adler and his staff, a step forward in the thought of the West. It indicates where we are: where the agreements and disagreements lie; where the problems are; where the work has to be done. It thus helps to keep us from wasting our time through misunderstanding and points to the issues that must be attacked. When the history of the intellectual life of this century is written, the Syntopicon will be regarded as one of the landmarks in it.
—Robert M. Hutchins, p xxvi The Great Conversation: The Substance of a Liberal Education. Volume 1 of The Great Books of the Western World. 1952.
Adler’s Syntopicon has been briefly discussed in the forum.zettelkasten.de space before. However it isn’t just an index compiled into two books which were volumes 2 and 3 of The Great Books of the Western World, it’s physically a topically indexed card index or a grand zettelkasten surveying Western culture. Its value to readers and users is immeasurable and it stands as a fascinating example of what a well-constructed card index might allow one to do even when they don’t have their own yet. For those who have only seen the Syntopicon in book form, you might better appreciate pictures of it in slipbox form prior to being published as two books covering 2,428 pages:
Adler spoke of practicing syntopical reading, but anyone who compiles their own card index (in either analog or digital form) will realize the ultimate value in creating their own syntopical writing or what Robert Hutchins calls participating in “The Great Conversation” across twenty-five centuries of documented human communication. Adler’s version may not have had the internal structure of Luhmann’s zettelkasten, but it definitely served similar sorts of purposes for those who worked on it and published from it.
Hutchins, Robert M. The Great Conversation: The Substance of a Liberal Education. Edited by Robert M. Hutchins and Mortimer J. Adler. 1st ed. Vol. 1. 54 vols. Great Books of the Western World. Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1952.
Originally published on July 13, 2023 at 11:24PM
🗃️ I just did a quick calculation and I’ve purchased 2 large card index cabinets, and 5 small indexes (which includes some small desktop trays and a 2 drawer wooden index) for a total of $636.52. It gives me about 65 linear feet of index card space which should hold approximately 108,000 index cards. In physical storage cost (just for the cabinet, not for the square footage), it comes out to spending about 6/10 of a cent per card.
Buying cards in bulk groups of a 1,000 for the going rate of about 2 cents each, I’m looking at a lifetime index card bill of around $1,700 to fill it all up.
If I look at a 30 year time span, I’m all in for about $2,500 (I’m adding a bit for pens/pencils/ink) versus an annual subscription to Roam Research (currently $165/year) or for Evernote (currently $170/year) both of which would put me at about $5,000 (presuming either is around in 30 years.)
I really ought to be set for a while, but I do have my eye on one or two other stunning pieces…. #ZKLife
The good news is that I’ve traded my expensive notebook/journal habit for a somewhat less expensive card index habit. Now I can spend the difference on more books and fountain pens. 😁
Merchants and traders have a waste book (Sudelbuch, Klitterbuch in German I believe) in which they enter daily everything they purchase and sell, messily, without order. From this, it is transferred to their journal, where everything appears more systematic, and finally to a ledger, in double entry after the Italian manner of bookkeeping, where one settles accounts with each man, once as debtor and then as creditor. This deserves to be imitated by scholars. First it should be entered in a book in which I record everything as I see it or as it is given to me in my thoughts; then it may be entered in another book in which the material is more separated and ordered, and the ledger might then contain, in an ordered expression, the connection sand explanations of the material that flow from it. [46]
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Notebook E, #46, 1775–1776, as translated in Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: Philosophical Writings
In this single paragraph quote from his own notebook, Lichtenberg, using the model of Italian bookkeepers of the 18th century, broadly outlines almost all of the note taking technique suggested by Sönke Ahrens in How to Take Smart Notes.
While he doesn’t use the same terms, he encourages writing down and keeping fleeting notes as well as literature notes. (Keeping academic references would have been commonplace by this time.) He follows up with rewriting and expanding on the original note to create additional “explanations” and even “connections” (links) to create what Ahrens describes as permanent notes or which some would call evergreen notes.
Lichtenberg’s version calls for the permanent notes to be “separated and ordered” and while he may have kept them in book format himself, it’s easy to see from Konrad Gessner’s suggestion at the use of slips centuries before, that one could easily put their permanent notes on index cards (“separated”) and then number and index or categorize them (“ordered”).
The only serious missing piece of Luhmann’s version of a zettelkasten then are:
the ideas of filing related ideas nearby to each other, though the idea of creating connections between notes is immediately adjacent to this, and
his numbering system, which was broadly based on the popularity of Melvil Dewey’s decimal system and early 20th Century German filing practices (Aktenzeichen).
It may bear noticing that John Locke’s indexing system for commonplace books was suggested originally in French in 1685, and later in English in 1706. Given it’s popularity, it is not unlikely that Lichtenberg would have been aware of it.
Further, given that Lichtenberg’s very popular published waste books were known to have influenced Leo Tolstoy, Albert Einstein, Andre Breton, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, it would not be hard to imagine that Niklas Luhmann would have also been aware of them.
This short paragraph certainly says something interesting about the note taking methods of Lichtenberg’s time.
References
Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: Philosophical Writings. Edited and translated by Steven Tester. SUNY Series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy, 1.0. State University of New York Press, 2012
Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph (2000). The Waste Books. New York: New York Review Books Classics. ISBN 978-0940322509.)
Open questions
Did Lichtenberg number the entries in his own (original) waste books? This would be early evidence toward the practice of numbering notes for future reference. Based on this text, it’s obvious that the editor numbered the translated notes for this edition, were they also Lichtenberg’s numbering, or added later by other scholars/editors?
Is there evidence that Lichtenberg knew of Locke’s indexing system? Did his waste books have an index?
A photo in which I reveal the generative creativity drawers that Niklas Luhmann’s #zettelkasten was missing… (content warning: Alcohol) 🗃️🥃
Letterform Archive (@letterformarchive@typo.social)
