up:: LYT Kit tags::#pkm

Why Categories for Your Notes are a Good Idea §

The idea that “categories are bad” hinges on a faulty notion that categories limit access and cause rigidity that inhibit organic thinking.

That argument applies to a system of folders. It does not apply to more fluid structures. Let’s explore…

Argument 1 Creating categories is a top-down process. You start with the structure and then file the material away. Notes will have to fit the structure. If they don’t, there’ll have to be a compromise. ¹

Counter If a categorizing framework is set up to be fluid, it is not top down. Notes do not have to fit its structure. There is no compromise. In the case of a Home note, it’s a pre-existing structure that you can tether to only when you care to. It adds context without limiting access.

Here is that same picture: Wolverine is the note, and your Home note is just another tether:

Argument 2 Static categories are rigid. Our brains are not rigid. Therefore static categories inhibit our knowledge from growing organically.

Counter This is still assuming that “categories equal top-down oppressive hierarchies.”But with Maps of Content (MOCs), it’s quite the opposite. MOCs spring up organically as the need arises for them. An example is this kit’s note called: LYT Kit; I didn’t start with that; I instinctually grasped for it once I felt I had too many notes everywhere.

Argument 3 I don’t have categories and I’m doing fine.

Counter Do you have more than 300 notes or so? You have categories. You just aren’t calling them that.

• Tags are a form of category, they are fluid. They don’t scale well as your note collection grows though. ²
• Starred notes are another form of mostly fluid structuring.
• Do you have “daily notes” or timestamped notes? Certainly seems like a category to me; and a rigid one at that! ³ If you only have notes that are directly linked to other notes—and nothing else—then you can truly say you have no categories. The price for no categorization is steep.

Please read about the framework most likely to produce a paradigm shift in your knowledge management game: MOCs Overview.

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Footnotes §

1. Source: https://zettelkasten.de/posts/no-categories/ From one of the leading minds, Christian is a voice I cherish and he has greatly influenced the broader zettelkasten community. ↩

2. But if you have Boolean searches to your notes, it mostly can mitigate the scaling problem—then you’d just have to remember the correct tags, which in practice isn’t a certainty. ↩

3. Even though it’s a more rigid category, I just can’t give up on the multi-pronged power of the Temporal Context. Give up chronologically-date notes at your own discretion. Your future self may be disappointed. ↩