OPML Zettelkasten Update – Day 3

I was able to add another 10 links today to my ZK file (mostly taken from yesterday’s posts – it was EASY to copy outline headlines from other OPML files in the Drummer editor). I then had enough subject headings that I decided to re-arrange the order to be alphabetical. Of course, this was EASY in the Drummer outliner, so yay for that too. Just a note to pass on – the little orange XML icon in the upper right corner of the ZK page shows the raw OPML of the file.

I was able to make progress on the Markdown front, in that I FINALLY got the Hugo static site generator to render a site for the theme I wanted to use. Yesterday, I was struggling with configuration files and setup, and then found this page from Bryce Wray acknowledging that the Hugo Quick Start page needs some updates (at least for Windows users like me – YESSSS!). Also, I became aware of the fact that many Hugo themes have an “exampleSite” folder built in the theme directory, and I found a post from Infinite Ink describing how to get that to render in the Hugo development server (another YESSSS! can you tell I was a little frustrated?). My hope is to have a parallel zettelkasten using Markdown files by the weekend.

Followup on “Tools next to tools” post by Ken Smith and activism

I really liked this post by Ken Smith on how FeedLand has a link-blogging feature (to help easily publish items of note) and his repeated call for activism and how tools can support activism. I thought that was great how Ken added a link to a “Get involved” page on how to be a part of how his NASA news product is put together.

My contribution to this discussion is to point back to two posts (Looking for tools for a citizen’s toolkit and Using non-violence techniques to achieve goals) where I collected some resources for training for activism. Ken, how can you and I get these into some of these things you are publishing? You talk about “Almost nobody’s helping us educate ourselves on activism that has a chance.” Well, let’s do something about that.

To start, I have just created a public OPML file with the links from these posts, it can be viewed here. If you have other links to add (or if other readers have links), I will add them. Then, you and I should continue to refer to this list whenever the subject of “how to learn how to be an activist” or “how to get involved” or FILL IN THE BLANK HERE comes up. How does that sound? Let me know what you think – over to you!

OPML Zettelkasten Update – Day 2

I was able to add another 10 links to my ZK OPML file (did you like how I shortened that name?), have noticed a few workflow things in these first two days. First, I am assigning links under a category outline heading, but I am also adding link for each item and usually have at least two tags per link. Second, Drummer usually allows me to select text by click/drag when I start editing, but at some point, I have to enter links manually (adding a href tag, etc). This is a drag, but I am pushing on. Third, I started by reviewing feeds in my reading list app, added those first to the ZK file, then added other saved links until I got to my goal of 10 links.

So far, adding 10 links at a time is taking at least 30-45 minutes. I am not sure if I can keep up that pace, but again I am pushing on – time will tell.

I have looked over several themes for the Hugo static site generator as a tool for using Markdown files for a zettelkasten, my initial choice will be the Fluency theme (Github, demo), as it seems to feature the ability to display content by tags.

Some links of note for ZK info that I found during my Hugo search (guess I will have to add these to my ZK file!):

Starting my OPML zettelkasten

As mentioned in my post yesterday about an open zettelkasten, I proposed using OPML and Markdown files to capture info. I am starting with using OPML to create a collections of links and analysis. I am using the Drummer outliner by Dave Winer to create the OPML file, and a Drummer feature to display the file openly on the web (see here to review the outline). In the outline, links are grouped by topic, but I am also using Drummer to edit the attributes of the individual entries to add the attribute “tags” and to set that attribute to one or more tags as appropriate. I hope to develop some XSLT style sheets soon to be able to provide visibility into the entries by tag groupings. My goal is to add 10 links a day (I have thousands!) and see where it takes me. Other thoughts:/ideas: archive the OPML on Github, same for the Markdown files.

Feel free to contact me with ideas/comments/links/whatever!

Thinking about starting an open zettelkasten

In yesterday’s post on Chris Aldrich’s overview of zettelkasten techniques, I asked about seeing the zettelkasten itself. He replied saying most of the content was in his Hypothesis account, and sent me a pointer to an entry. I read through a bunch of pages on zettelkasten stuff yesterday, and I am thinking of starting an open zettlekasten. With a nod to the Working Out Loud crowd, I am going to outline my initial plans in this post.

The item that Chris showed me was a picture and short caption describing what the picture meant. From this, I could see that an item/card in a zettelkasten could be just a reference to something with a short description. A type of information that I collect on a regular basis is links to posts/articles/things that I read in my feed reader. I have wanted to organize/classify all of these links, but have struggled to get started. I looked at Tom Critchlow’s wiki on his site, and saw a number of references to links where the link and an excerpt or summary was provided. I also saw an article on ZettelKasten.de about filtering flow from RSS feeds into a zettelkasten. From another ZettelKasten.de post, quotes and excerpts from sources are part of the chain of increasing value of knowledge within a zettlekasten system. Finally, Chris Aldrich, in an earlier post, gave his own advice for starting a commonplace book – “The general idea is to collect interesting passages, quotes, and ideas as you read”.

Based on this survey, I am going to experiment with collecting and organizing links within an OPML document and in Markdown files. Both of these methods of capture should be able to produce an organized output (OPML using XSLT style sheets, Markdown files using Hugo to render them (hopefully like Tom Critchlow’s wiki, even though he used Jekyll). For my five regular readers – let me know what you think!

PS – I noticed that yesterday I misspelled “zettelkasten” – sorry!

Zettlekasten – the recipe looks great, show us the beef!

This morning, I saw that Chris Aldrich has written an excellent overview of zettlekasten-note taking techniques and history. Ton Zijlstra comments that the article is great, and is itself a product of a zettlekasten, so Chris is “practicing what he preaches”. I agree with Ton’s compliment, but I still have one nagging qualm – what does the zettlekasten itself look like? In July 2022, Chris Aldrich called for public examples of zettlekasten output, which he has created a great example in his recent post. But what about the zettlekasten itself? As I state in the title (a play on the classic Wendy’s hamburger commercial) – show us the beef! Show us what was collected and how it was collected so we (humanity) can try to learn from your experiences. Of all my looking through Zettlekasten.de, I have found only one post with semi-specific information about actual zettlekasten cards/notes. Sounds like a 30-day challenge is in order here…

In the end, it is up to us

This phrase first came to my mind in a therapy session, but since then I have realized that it applies to every aspect of our lives. The first time it came to me, I wanted the therapist to “fix” something, but in that session, I saw that it was up to me and the others involved to solve the issue. The therapist could suggest options or encourage/facilitate dialog, but it was up to us to solve the problem in front of us.

In this current political, economic, social, and media atmosphere, there are many people (sometimes, it feels like EVERYONE) who are calling out problems wherever they turn. Many people are experiencing social and economic problems. Many people look to their local, state and federal governments for help, and those organizations/agencies/administrations all seek to address the problems of towns, cities, states, and the nation. Still – I believe that for almost all problems that occur in our lives, the first step to solving the problem starts with us. In the political realm, it may mean giving up the comfort of armchair quarterbacking the evening news and spending your time and money to support or fight against an issue or candidate. In the economic realm, it may mean having to seek other employment, education, or assistance. In the social realm, maybe the people you associate with are dragging you down, and a change is needed. For many, inaction is the default response to problems.

So, the next time a problem appears in front of you, ask yourself the question – is there something I can do about it? It may be that the answer is no, but the reflection is vitally important. I feel that all of us have agency to take some steps to improve our lives or where we live or our world. Indeed, in the end, it is up to all of us to work together to solve the problems that face us. 

What deserves the label “conservative”?

Frank McPherson continues exploring the use of the terms “conservative” and “liberal”, looking at the current makeup of the Supreme Court, and discussing recent court cases that infringe on the liberty of the people. An interesting article was published on The Federalist web site, putting forward the idea that “conservatives” should stop calling themselves conservatives because of changes in our culture, and should think of themselves as revolutionaries. I disagree with The Federalist – I think many of the people referred to in the article are seeking to attack and hurt our democracy. One last interesting observation on terms of speech – a recent podcast I listened to hosted by Vicki Robin described “category disruption” to not let “conservatives” be the sole definers of the term:

From the transcript: “Vicki Robin: Totally. I think another thing listening to you, I think is sort of like a tool we can use is category disruption. For example I’m conservative, I want to conserve nature. I want to conserve relationships. I want to conserve meaning. I want to, you know, I want to conserve intact ecosystems. I’m conservative. So I’m gonna take it. I’ll take conservative, I’ve got it now, you know, and so but I’m liberal because I think, you know, there is no no particular group has a, you know, a purchase on the truth. We’re finding truths together. We’re evolving. You know, it’s like I’m pro life. I want every child to have enough food and security, etc. You know, it’s like we have to be courageous and category mixing.”

PocketCasts is open source

I have used PocketCasts as my podcast client for several years, and I think it is a nice thing that Automattic is making it open source. I also agree with Dave Winer’s feature request that a OPML subscription list should be able to be imported via a URL (OPML file hosted somewhere on the web) instead of having it be a file local to the app (on your phone or in Google Drive).