# David Kadavy - Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples (Highlights)
## Metadata
**Review**:: [readwise.io](https://readwise.io/bookreview/35631032)
**Source**:: #from/readwise #from/reader
**Zettel**:: #zettel/fleeting
**Status**:: #x
**Authors**:: [[David Kadavy]]
**Full Title**:: Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples
**Category**:: #books #readwise/books
**Category Icon**:: 📚
**Highlighted**:: [[2023-12-20]]
**Created**:: [[2023-12-23]]
## Highlights
### A BICYCLE FOR THE MIND
- There’s a great video floating around the web of Steve Jobs, in the 1980s, talking about his vision for personal computers. He says he saw a study illustrating the distances various animals traveled per unit of energy. “The condor,” he says, “used the least energy to move a kilometer. And humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing.” But then the study tested the efficiency of a human on a bicycle. As Jobs recalls, “a human on a bicycle blew the condor away – completely off the top of the charts. And that’s what a computer is to me....it’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hj3kq8vbv3gndss8fw0d8y49)) ^644938177
#story
### DIGITAL OR PAPER?
- Paper notes may help you remember the material better. Research suggests that writing by hand improves retention. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hj3km67pr500nwecha662sdn)) ^644937996
### ANATOMY OF A ZETTELKASTEN
- Fleeting notes are notes you take "on the fly." They're casual, and may be disorganized. You can take fleeting notes on cocktail napkins, slips of paper, a note-taking app on your phone, in a paper notebook, or even in the margins of your books. Highlights on an ebook reader even qualify as fleeting notes. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hj3m0s3hw7byy80dve183amr)) ^644939251
#actionable
I mainly use fleeting notes for highlights. I should focus on adding new ideas as the new source of fleeting notes.
- So, resist the urge to copy and paste. Even when you're recording an exact quote, take the extra effort to re-write it (very carefully!) You'll be surprised what you discover. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hj3m4xdvq08qtf57d38d03g0)) ^644939608
#opinion
### HOW TO READ
- Once you've exported your highlights, review them and highlight, once again, the parts of those highlights that are the most interesting. This is a mental energy management technique: When you were reading the book, you were more focused on reading it, not on thinking deeply about whether or not a passage was useful. Now as a separate task you're asking yourself which parts are interesting enough that you want to re-write them in your own words later. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hj3m6qznr41d2qypfngrs0h7)) ^644939651
- With plain-text Markdown highlights, I "highlight" simply by bolding text in a text editor. If you're reviewing in a paper book, you could use another color of highlighter or underline with a pen. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hj3m7gvybe1enb5dqvwb075s)) ^644939676
#actionable
I manage highlights in Readwise and export them regularly into Obsidian. I can highlight the highlights in Obisidan. I already use Git to trace the file changes. If I need to re-import the highlight from Readwise, I can merge the new highlights and my highlight of highlights.
- Look at the highlights of your highlights and re-write the interesting ones in your own words. You're now turning your fleeting notes into a literature note. It's okay not to summarize every highlight. Only worry about the information you most want to learn or that you can foresee wanting to use in the future. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hj3mb41w4jxqe6egz8vprha8)) ^644942573
- Now take only the most interesting ideas from the literature notes, and turn each into individual permanent notes. Permanent notes should have one idea per note. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hj3mbshx3dvswgt9xtebex3r)) ^644942607
### HOW TO NAME YOUR FILES
### CHOOSING KEYWORDS/TAGS
- But your first instincts for how to choose keywords for a note may hurt more than they help. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hj3mfayt49qb42n88w6ave7e)) ^644943382
#caveat