This post is the intersection of two existential crises I have recently experienced. The first crisis was discovering Zettelkasten, a note-taking method using index cards where ideas are tagged or linked to create what some call a “second brain.” The second crisis was discovering the concept of the “multipotentialite,” a term coined by Emilie Wapnick to describe individuals that tend to have varying areas of interest and expertise.
These two things are crises because I’m having difficulty integrating them. I need to organize the wide-ranging threads of my creative pursuits into something approximating purpose and forward momentum, but the Zettelkasten method is optimized for research, not creative exploration. If you’re here, perhaps you have felt the same.
Identity crisis
Identifying as a multipotentialite (or “scanner”, or “polymath”, to use some near-synonyms) came much later in my life than I would like to admit. I didn’t know it wasn’t “normal” for people to be involved in multiple hobbies, skills, pursuits, and interests. What I did know is that one day I could be building a scale model, the next day decide that I really needed to know everything about submarines, and then switch to woodworking for a month. I enjoy novelty, and get bored very easily, and so anything repetitive (like, you know… a job) can be a major slog. It wasn’t until I met my wife that I found out that most people just … aren’t … like that. She told me early on that she couldn’t wrap her head around all the things I was interested in, and how I could just dive into something and then just do it. To her, the learning seemed effortless. It’s not easier for me to learn, but if it is new, then it is fun. I knew other people had hobbies, like stamp collecting or dancing or model railroads, but I didn’t realize that most people just stick with the same hobby or interest all their lives. It’s a crisis in the sense that I honestly don’t know what to do with the information. I guess having a name for it is a start.
Information crisis
I have been interested in knowledge management almost all my life. Mostly, I rely on memory and a sort of “archaeological layers” approach to finding information, essentially remembering things based on a vague recollection of where/when I last saw it. My problem is that I can’t always remember. I’m not as young as I used to be. I need a way to store — and later find — all of this information. I almost accidentally discovered Zettelkasten on my own, trying to carry around a pack of 3×5 cards everywhere I went, jotting down notes, sketches, etc. Where it fell apart was how to sort and/or organize it. I made another attempt with spiral-bound notepads, writing down thoughts, jokes, ideas, occasionally clipping out printed material and gluing it in. With the notepads, I tried to “sort” it by using “codewords” that would sort of tie projects or similar trains of thought together. I didn’t really think of the formal tagging/linking process until later with the discovery of the bullet journal, and then only a year or so ago I stumbled across the Zettelkasten concept for linking individual ideas. This is a crisis because there is just… so… much. I don’t know how to record it, tag it, index and then utilize it just because of the sheer amount. Not to mention that it’s scattered in different media, both analog and digital.
The problem with note-taking
My biggest problem with trendy note-taking methods is that the people promoting them are not gearing it toward multiple disciplines. Most seem to focus on student/learning and assume you have a day that is jam-packed with meetings and events all toward one purpose: getting a degree or learning a programming language or writing poetry. My day is jam-packed with a job, but the projects and ideas ebb and flow, sometimes blending, sometimes diverging into other things. They are not always in the same realms. For me, projects can be digital or physical, creative or practical. The lead-up to executing the project might involve sketches, notes, material lists, almost all of it done both in digital and analog.
Making sense of making sense
None of the Zettelkasten gurus that I can find deal with multipotentialites, and absolutely no note-taking methods that I have found are applicable to someone who on Tuesday is on a tablet, drawing a spaceship docking in orbit for a scale-model project (or just because it’s rad), and on Wednesday is sketching dimensions and assembly plans for a workbench on scrap paper, and on Friday is on the PC writing world-building material for a fantasy story that’s been simmering in the back of their mind. And doing all that while tracking the daily to-do’s and whatnot of life.
So, I’m going to make one. An index for life. I’m going to hack “productivity.” I still believe that the Zettelkasten method can work, so I don’t think I need to fashion something out of whole cloth here. I’m just going to take something that was built around research and see if I can warp it to my own needs. I’m not even sure that what I’m doing is all that unique, but I imagine I will find out. We’ll see where it goes.