- **Epistemic status:** #evergreen Atomic notes content is focused on the concept itself and not an author, book, event, or even project. You can then discover connections via [[Linking notes]] between topics that could be unrelated to each other. There are two ways you can “atomize” a note: 1. Compress multiple ideas into one. 2. Reduce a big idea into multiple specific ones. [[Fleeting Notes]] can be atomic and this is the most straightforward way to capture new information about each book, project, or research topic. You will need to integrate them as [[Evergreen Notes]] into your [[Digital Garden]] by [[Decentralizing The Note]] to accumulate knowledge and accrue value. In essence, “atomizing” makes them **agnostic to a parent topic** since atomic. You will find that integrating notes takes significant effort and is time-consuming, since without fully understanding the topic you won't be able to successfully do this. [[Writing is the medium to understand a topic]] after all. These efforts can pay off significantly since you can potentially find connections between 2 unrelated books you never thought of. The [[Zettlelkasten Method]] is one that implemented the idea, avoiding a rigid structure. An example of a rigid structure is African Lions vs all Felines. African Lions are easier to connect, but having a note called all felines gets overwhelming and pushes you to collect them all in one single note. The challenge then becomes where is the line between making a new note or integrating with an existing one. Atomic notes don't need to be small, but they should be able to aid you [[Linking notes]] and not the other way around. As long as it is one idea, it is up to you how you want to structure them. --- ## References - Ahrens, Sönke. _How to take smart notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking - for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers_. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017. - Andyʼs working notes. “Evergreen Notes.” Accessed August 4, 2022. <https://notes.andymatuschak.org/Evergreen_notes>. - Khan, Al. “Zettelkasten Method: How to Take Smart Notes (A Beginner’s Guide).” LEANANKI, May 20, 2020. <https://leananki.com/zettelkasten-method-smart-notes/>. - “Zettelkasten.” In _Wikipedia_, June 10, 2022. <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zettelkasten&oldid=1092515776>.