Hi!
I’m new to Remnote and have some questions. I love the idea of it, and am excited to learn it, but I’m still very much a learner here!
First, a very basic question: what is the point of the concept/descriptor framework? I understand that it’s meant to break ideas down into simple components for easier retention, but what does it accomplish that simply indenting and using bullet points would not? Is it only applicable to Rem/flashcards rather than the program as a whole, and is meant to just break down information in the flashcard format, rather than just any and all notes you make?
Secondly, what exactly is the point of the “daily document?” Is there a way it’s supposed to be used? What do people tend to use it for? If anyone could point me to some workflows or explanations of how it’s used, that would be appreciated.
Thirdly - I’m a medical student and I’m also interested learning to build a Zettelkasten. Does anyone know of other medical students/residents who approach their medical knowledge building in this way? It seems appealing but I’d love to hear more from someone who is doing it!
I am new here as well but will help out as best I can
Aside from breaking an idea down it is an easy way to create a flashcard with the : as a trigger since the content resides within the same block/ rem. RN views things in a hierarchy fashion where they believe all ideas can be broken down. When dealing with something simple the value might not be apparent but when an idea is more complex it allows you to know what you are focusing on. Instead of trying to wrap your head around the thing in all of its complexity you can now break it down. You can ask what am I trying to get out of this? This would be the concepts. When understanding something there is often concepts & descriptors but also a lot of fluff (irrelevant info that is there to make the info more engaging but sometimes is more confusing when trying to understand).
Yes it helps with retention. It also helps in understanding. Those ideas are close in concept but are actually different. If trying to retain we need to first understand. Depending upon the topic, & your own struggles, this might not be so easy to do, Especially if time is not on your side. This is starting to turn into *edge or fuzzy *areas but that is another topic
Daily would depend on workflow. Journaling could be an option why. If you are researching something it provides a timeline. If you want to create a habit, be more productive (or look back & realize you were doing better than you thought) would be some other options. Homework, chores, tasks come to mind but this could be used with To Do as well.
Zettlekasten works very well with Daily. As you might know zettles make up zettlekasten. They are your snippets of ideas, thoughts, notes, etc. Traditionally they had to be contained to the restrains of an index card & referenced to multiple cards. In RemNote these would be your rems (blocks/ bullet pts).
Let’s think about it traditionally. We have a card with an idea plus a reference to another (or multiple) cards. If we just left them on a desk, table, etc they would become lost in the shuffle of the room. It needs a container of sorts. Thus the cards were kept in the slip box
In RemNote you need a box as well, an input pt. You could try to put it into Docs but this is not very useful from a zettle perspective as you are creating a collection. Docs would be more on the output pt, where you have taken the zettles, put them together to create a cohesive flow to a given thought from your zettles of info in your PKM system.
So where are we going to put them? Where is the box? We could just randomly create rems as orphans (stubs I believe they are called in RemNote) & connect them later. Once your knowledge base becomes large, though, this would become challenging. You need some where to put them without imposing a restraint on them.
This is where the Daily could come into play. If you enter your ideas, thoughts, notes into the Daily then if you need to find it there is a way instead of it getting lost in the void of RemNote. The Daily could be your slipbox, your collection pt (while at the zettle level). Then if you need it to evolve into larger ideas you could reference them & do other levels of magic to them. The normal rem, the original input, would start at the Daily.
If you don’t want zettlekasten you could create a doc & put your ideas there. Where you have decided what you want in there ahead of time. There are other ways you could implement zettlekasten but that is one possible approach
