One of my favorite turns of phrase in How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens (a book you've likely run into if you've been floating around the internet looking at tutorials or forums on Obsidian) is "external scaffolding." This refers to the way in which you build or architect your Zettelkasten for storing and managing the knowledge in whatever system you choose — Obsidian, Roam, Tinderbox, or index cards.
In order to make informed choices and ask yourself useful questions while setting up your new system, one must first understand the marked distinction between what Ahrens deems top down versus bottom up thinking. What I find helpful is taking these concepts completely out of the context of data and cataloging and bringing them to life by envisioning them as social interactions.
In essence we can describe the mingling of our ideas in the same way we can the mingling of people. (Yep, I said mingling twice because it's a great word. Mingling!!) Let's start with the bottom up approach using Thanksgiving Diner as an example before we contrast it with the top down approach of a tech conference.
Welcome to Thanksgiving Dinner
As Thanksgiving dinner came to a close, conversation continued to wander. I was in attendance with my then boyfriend and, at the start of the evening, had never met the hosts nor most of the other guests. A couple visiting from San Francisco asked where I had lived prior to moving to LA. "Interlochen," I responded.
"Oh! One of my best friends attended the Interlochen Arts Academy!" the wife of the couple exclaimed. My boyfriend and I had also graduated from this boarding school for the arts and had met at an alumni event.
We would soon learn that her friend Reid, one of the members of her dance company, not only attended Interlochen with my boyfriend and knew each other from their time there but had also overlapped at American Boy Choir School. What's more, Reid and my friend Mark, another American Boy Choir alumnus, were great friends from their days of working catering gigs in NYC. Small world, huh?
Within minutes, we had established five points of connection at a dinner party of strangers —
LINES Ballet
Interlochen Arts Academy
American Boy Choir School
NYC Catering
Arts Kids
This real life discovery is what a Zettelkasten is replicating. Let's take it one step further.
Should We Meet for Coffee?
Now, this is a very granular focus on connections or what I think of as 'Threads.' What your Zettelkasten is really helping you see is how those intersection points create patterns, questions, and conclusions at a higher level (the Concept Index).
If we pretend that your Zettelkasten (still more fun than slip-box) is again that Thanksgiving dinner, it might prompt you to ask some questions —
• What are the career trajectories of high school students who specialized in the arts at an early age, particularly if within this small group we have a professional dancer, a neuroscientist, a trend forecaster, and a music producer?1 👣
• Why do so many Interlochen Alumni move to California?
• What makes for such strong life-long connections between some Interlochen Alumni and not others?
In turn you might want to zoom out more broadly and explore if other boarding schools for the arts (like Idyllwild in California or Walnut Hill in Massachusetts) see the same trends with their alumni.
• Does the coastal versus Midwestern location of these schools have any impact on alumni connections?
• Do the alumni of urban arts high schools with no boarding school component (like LaGuardia High School in New York or Booker T. Washington High School in Dallas) have similar or different career trajectories as those from boarding schools? Do the alumni remain as close?
Questions beget questions beget questions.
Those initial points of intersection are the catalyst to explore ideas and constructs that would potentially not have occurred to you if they weren't all sitting around the same table eating green beans.
This is the bottom up approach that Ahrens discusses in How to Take Smart Notes.
The exploration begins with the items that spark your interest. Those are the folks you invite to dinner initially. They introduce you to their friends. You click with some and never see others again. Each meeting expands your horizons and gives you another opportunity to reflect on whether you would want to chat over coffee. You have to say no to some coffee dates in order to pursue others. Aspects of personal and professional curiosity and clarity are no different.
Lunch at a Conference
Now let's contrast Thanksgiving dinner with a conference for women in tech to better understand the more traditional top down approach. Right off the bat, self-selection limits who attends. Anyone who is not female and holds no interest in tech will see no appeal in spending an afternoon or a few days in this atmosphere. You'll meet people with different specialties — developers, marketers, business analysts, system admins — each with her focus on the applications within the realm of tech.
You sit down for lunch with a dozen women, and, depending on the crowd, you might discover that you share interests outside of the conference topics. By the end of a conference for fundraising I once attended, a small group had learned that they were all enthusiastic knitters and swapped information so that they could follow each other on Ravelry in order to share patterns. I attribute this intersection more to the nature of those who work in fundraising who are actively looking for connections than the actual conference.
Overall, you typically find more people within your field who share similar professional interests. This is akin to the top down research that you approach with an intention in mind and seek supporting materials that specifically pertain to it. The meandering of ideas is greatly diminished. The likelihood of stumbling upon a whole new line of thinking is far less likely. There's still value in the gathering, but you're missing out expanding your horizons.
A Cocktail Party of Ideas
What's more, the way most people organize top down thinking further narrows your view of the world.
When I was first introduced to the field of trend forecasting, my teacher described it as “cocktail party conversation.” You chatted a little bit about this which reminded someone else of something about that. A guest talking about soundproofing a recording studio could prompt a discussion about those same materials in fabric technology. A discussion on neuroscience could lead to a composer recording brainwaves as sound. (This happened.) Ideas don't live in a vacuum, nor do we want that.
Put in the context of a Zettelkasten, this is akin to asking how you want your guests to mingle. Do you really want to group them by room closing off divider doors between them?
You're living in LA. You go in the dining room.
Oh, you're four years younger than the rest of us. Kitchen it is for you!
Hi! You arrived late. Do you mind waiting on the porch?
This is how I see many of the online 'experts' organizing their data and in turn their thinking. The more rigid the structure, the fewer serendipitous connections you'll discover. What a missed opportunity!
For me, the mingling of ideas is always top of mind. Remember this as you read through my other essays and approaches to setting up your Vault in Obsidian. We're not trying to recreate an existing strategy, system, or application. (The temptation to do so will be strong.)
Take your time with the decision making. These considerations will have a profound impact on your thinking and your work. There are no right or wrong answers, simply decisions that will best support you. Let's make the most of them!
Thanks to Rachel Friedman (Interlochen Arts Camp ‘93-’95), a book on this topic already exists — And Then We Grew Up: On Creativity, Potential, and the Imperfect Art of Adulthood.
I always love to hear how others are thinking. Share what works for you!
