Upgrade Atomic Thinking to Holistic Thinking

URL: https://zettelkasten.de/posts/upgrade-atomic-to-holistic-thinking/

Whenever you come across a train of thought that is difficult to grasp, break it down into smaller and thus easier to understand components. (View Highlight)

Breaking down the idea is undoubtedly valuable because it gets to the root of the problem of understanding: it is not the length of the distance our mind has to travel that challenges us. Rather, it is the question of what the first steps are. Once we get going, the path almost goes by itself. (View Highlight)

This does not mean that the left brain is fundamentally problematic. It provides us with deep insights. It enables us to think about something. Only the left hemisphere gives us the possibility to separate out individual qualities of the world and to see commonalities of individual qualities in what for the right brain are unique occurrences in the world. When the right brain keeps us in contact with the living earth, the left brain lets us become spirit and fly into the sky. (View Highlight)

What has once been unfolded and dissected by the left brain should be returned to the right brain and revived. The left brain is unable to do this because it tries to use the same way of making the whole that it uses for dissecting. But what was alive and is dissected to death cannot be brought back to life by sewing it together. It has to be digested and become food for a living being. We cannot sew on a piece of muscle from a cow, but must eat the meat, digest it and then use its amino acids to build our own muscles. (View Highlight)

Note:: I think the author is saying that we cannot just consume data. We must consume it, digest it, then use it in the form of output.

There is a phenomenon that I call “solving gross motor problems with fine motor skills”. It vividly shows what happens when the left hemisphere of the brain oversteps its jurisdiction. Fighting, throwing, running and scuffling are domains of gross motor skills. Even technically demanding aspects such as punch combinations in boxing or combinations of quick directions changes in football are gross motor tasks. The (good) teaching of these techniques does follow the usual pattern of breaking them down into smaller subtasks and then putting them back together. But the return must make the leap in a fluent execution of a whole. This leap is a paradigm shift. If one does not make this leap, the movements remain wooden and mechanical. They can be strung together, but they remain inharmonious and hideous. They remain stilted. Easy to recognise is the nerd who lives entirely in the world of mind and analysis, but moves like an awkward puppet when he is supposed to dribble the basketball. The frustration these people feel when they are put under pressure in sports is left-brain frustration.3 It is rarer that people start out with a good body feeling (gross motor skills) but have difficulty benefiting from individual technique exercises. After all, the right hemisphere of the brain is made to process what the left hemisphere has digested. (View Highlight)

These three phenomena, the failure of resynthesis by analytical means, the profundity of a musician and the problems of gross motor learning can be wonderfully explained by the way the two halves of our brain have to work together to create a complete picture of reality. What is born alive in the right half is handed over to the left for analysis, but must find its way back to the right half to be alive again. (View Highlight)

Knowledge work is subject to the same rules. Only when we use our brain harmoniously do we get good results. We have to use both halves of the brain. And: we have to relate them to each other. (View Highlight)

The Feynman technique is an example of using both sides of the brain to understand. Essentially, the technique works like this:

1. pick a topic and try to explain it to someone else.
2. record all the gaps in your explanation attempt. 3.
3. fill in the gaps by learning.
4. repeat step 1–3 until you are satisfied. (View Highlight)

We find this whole only in contact with another person. We don’t find it alone during analysis. Only in conversation and coherent explanation do we find the whole. Only the return to the right hemisphere of the brain gives us the whole. (View Highlight)

Even the Zettelkasten Method only gives us a real understanding when it takes into account the way our brain works.

1. If we follow the barbell method of reading, we do not start with the exact analysis, but in the first reading cycle we look at the source as a whole. In doing so, we only notice individual things that stand out. We stay in right brain mode for as long as we can. We gain a feeling for the source rather than exact knowledge.
2. In processing, the second reading cycle, we begin the analysis: we dissect the source into individual atomic thoughts. We make full use of the strength of the left hemisphere.
3. We relate each atomic thought, each note, to other thoughts. This is a difficult step because on the one hand we are still using the analytical and thinking in parts left hemisphere. On the other hand, we have to make the leap to hand over the individual parts to our right hemisphere to create a whole. (View Highlight)

They follow the principle of atomicity and set links. And yet the Zettelkasten does not “speak” to them. Their Zettelkasten does not come alive. This problem arises when you follow the steps in the wording but not the spirit of the instructions. (View Highlight)

We need places in the Zettelkasten. Places are where the individual ideas can come together and connect. I call these places structure notes. (View Highlight)

A Dungeons and Dragons player who writes a structure note about their favourite character will make that leap. Someone who wants to gather information because they think it might be useful later likely won’t. (View Highlight)

Note:: And, it finally sinks in! I have been a hoarder and gatherer until recently when, finally, starting to be active with my notes.

It’s about the idea, not the note (View Highlight)

The Zettelkasten relates to the thinker as the workshop does to the craftsman: good tools and lovely furnishings make good work possible, but do not replace it. Therefore, great thinking work can be done without a Zettelkasten, and wonderful craftsmanship can emerge even in the most adverse of circumstances. (View Highlight)

Work with the ideas of your Zettelkasten. Avoid idea bureaucracy by doing more than “correctly” hitting the methodological beats of the Zettelkasten Method. (View Highlight)

Note:: This makes a lot of sense. Previously, I would try to get to atomicity, then stagnate. The last week or so, I have bumped into this more - the concept of concepts or ideas. Sure, it is helpful to break down a general topic to it most pure roots for better understanding, but then that needs to be developed into a full concept or idea. Knowing how batteries are made is helpful in reducing costs, but knowing exactly how they work most efficiently can help build a better electric car inexpensively.

Write complete texts. Writing complete texts is similar to speaking. In the flow of writing we recognise much that remained hidden from us in bullet points and outlines. (View Highlight)