I don't make things complicated. That's the way they get all by themselves - Mel Gibson 😅

When Niklas Luhmann, most famous for how prolific his Zettlekasten was, added a new note in his slip-box, he simply placed it "behind" the most related note.

The Problem of replicating this digitally.

If you think about it, a slip-box of notes is basically one tall stack of notes.

A folder structure or a bi-linking won't work because we'd lose that ordering.

And if we lose that ordering, we lose track of how a conversation happens between ideas in a linear way.

If you can't follow how an idea develops, evolve, or contradict itself, you don't have a Zettelkasten.

So, this is priority #1.

Prototype #1

My first prototype was using Luhmann's number system (i.e. a1a1a1). Then I sorted by the file name in Obsidian's file explorer. It was hard to navigate.

Prototype #2

Then I experimented with dataview, and gave each note a "topic" tag and an "order" parameter. Blah blah blah.

Long story short, I complicated the heck out of this for a few days...

Prototype #3

Then, it hit me. "Keep It Simple Stupid" 💩.

All I had to do was create an overview page.

Every time I add a new note, I'd go to this page, find the most relevant note, and add a link right "beneath" it. That's all!

Not only did this mimic what Luhmann had to do, but mine is also better.

I can add headings between rows when topics begin to emerge. This, made Luhmann's index obsolete as well.

If anyone has else tried this, I'd love to hear your solution as well!