Zettelkasten for Regular Emacs Hackers

Christian Tietze (he) - @ctietze@mastodon.social https://christiantietze.de https://zettelkasten.de, hi@christiantietze.de

The following image shows where the talk is in the schedule for Sun 2025-12-07. Solid lines show talks with Q&A via BigBlueButton. Dashed lines show talks with Q&A via IRC or Etherpad.

Format: 24-min talk ; Q&A: BigBlueButton conference room https://media.emacsconf.org/2025/current/bbb-zettelkasten.html
Discuss on IRC: #emacsconf
Status: Ready to stream

Description

There's this one thing you can do with your Emacs that is not chiefly a technological problem to solve: thinking through writing.

Emacs offers a malleable environment where you can tweak every key stroke, and every pixel on screen to your needs.

Since we're all here at EmacsConf, the intention is clear: to use and enjoy Emacs, and spend our lives in this amazing environment.

While it's easy to ditch modern UI conveniences and pull technology like email, chat, database and server management, and editing book drafts into Emacs – well, these are tasks that have been implemented, for which there exist alternatives, and which you can teach Emacs to do in a similar way.

Oversimplifying: we can copy and tweak existing solutions and have a good life.

Now while everyone's email needs to use the same protocol, everyone's approach to thinking is different. There's no cookie cutter solution to merely rewrite in Emacs Lisp. We all need to figure out how to do this on our own, and then find an implementation that suits our needs. (Including using paper, but we're not talking about paper here.)

This is where I want to show you one simple foundational method to deep thinking, understanding, and problem solving: create yourself a Zettelkasten, an environment of linked notes that scales well over decades, so that you can take it with you into retirement and beyond for a lifelong journey of learning.

For this presentation, I merely assume that you agree that writing improves the quality and depth of thought. I also assume that you know how to type and move around in Emacs. The rest is just convention, and we'll walk through a couple of examples and exercises together so that after this talk, you're equipped with the simple tools that help you unlock new insights in your future.

About Christian

Christian is a macOS/iOS developer with a strong focus on user experience and clean architecture. Driven by a passion for accessibility and performance, Christian has shipped many apps and authored three technical books and 895+ blog posts, helping developers world-wide to realize their app ideas with a deep understand for the technologies they use. In 2013, Christian wrote about the Zettelkasten topic on his own personal blog and eventually moved everything over to https://zettelkasten.de where he and Sascha continue to teach and write.

Code and Notes from the Talk

Minimal Emacs + Denote Configuration

This is the relevant configuration Christian used in the Emacs demo. Save this to a folder as init.el, and launch via:

$ emacs -nw --init-directory . init.el

init.el contents:

(load-theme 'modus-vivendi-tinted)  ;; Dark theme to match dark slides
(menu-bar-mode -1)                  ;; Disable topmost menu bar

(package-refresh-contents)

(use-package denote
  :ensure t
  :hook (dired-mode . denote-dired-mode)
  :bind
  (("C-c n n" . denote)
   ("C-c n r" . denote-rename-file)
   ("C-c n l" . denote-link)
   ("C-c n c" . denote-link-after-creating)
   ("C-c n b" . denote-backlinks)
   ("C-c n d" . denote-dired)
   ("C-c n g" . denote-grep))
  :config
  (setq denote-directory (expand-file-name "./notes/"))

  ;; Automatically rename Denote buffers when opening them so that
  ;; instead of their long file name they have, for example, a literal
  ;; "[D]" followed by the file's title.  Read the doc string of
  ;; `denote-rename-buffer-format' for how to modify this.
  (denote-rename-buffer-mode 1))

;; For the demo, I forced notes to show in full screen by default.
(setopt display-buffer-alist nil)
(add-to-list 'display-buffer-alist
         '("^\\[D\\] " ;; Denote buffer name prefix
           (display-buffer-reuse-mode-window display-buffer-full-frame)
           ))

Notes created during the demo

These are the notes Christian created during the recording. The recording was sped up 3x--4x, so this could be nicer to read than having to squint at the video:

20251121T204827--mechanics-and-habits-to-use-a-zettelkasten__zettelkasten.org

#+title:      Mechanics and habits to use a Zettelkasten
#+date:       [2025-11-21 Fri 20:48]
#+filetags:   :zettelkasten:
#+identifier: 20251121T204827

Essential:
- Write: put in effort; [[denote:20251121T205045][GIGO]]
- Connect: Link notes to create trails
- Correct: Improve as you go

Additional:
- Design for use: give things a purpose, e.g. blog about it
- Create structure. [[denote:20251121T205312][Types of structures in a Zettelkasten]]: design new entry points and trails
- Start in the Zettelkasten: use the system to learn, make it grow, get better
- Start with a link: keeps your notes connected. [[denote:20251121T210416][Create notes as link first to avoid orphans]]

Tool doesn't matter as much. Small files are good. [[denote:20251121T210107][Use Denote in Emacs]]

(Christian Tietze: Zettelkasten for Regular Emacs Hackers, EmacsConf 2025)

20251121T205045--gigo__programming_quality.org

#+title:      Garbage in, garbage out
#+date:       [2025-11-21 Fri 20:50]
#+filetags:   :programming:quality:
#+identifier: 20251121T205045

The principle known as "Garbage In, Garbage Out" (GIGO) in computer
programming states that for any system, the quality of output is
directly depending on the quality of input.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbase_in,_garbage_out

20251121T205312--types-of-structures-in-a-zettelkasten__structure_zettelkasten.org

#+title:      Types of structures in a Zettelkasten
#+date:       [2025-11-21 Fri 20:53]
#+filetags:   :structure:zettelkasten:
#+identifier: 20251121T205312

Non-comprehensive list of structures that could be used in a Zettelkasten:

- Opposition pair: 1 note for the pair, 1 note per position/opposition each; pro/contra
- Table of contents: list of topics/headings
  - an outline for a writing project
  - recreation of a book's contents (so I can write in detail about the book);
- Argument: recreation of a distilled form to get to a conclusion;
  list premises and evidence, and how these support the conclusion
  - Counter-argument: address parts of the original argument to support another
    view and test the argument's strength
- Table of things
- Graphics, like a concept map, Mind-Map, diagram: visually bring
  elements into a relation, then write about the relation and the elements

Metaphors:
- Iceberg: visibile tip with hidden depth; someting that appears small
  but is large; good metaphor for obstacles
- Black box: focus on inputs and outputs, and ignore the 'how' in the middle
  - e.g. most Emacs Lisp functions (hoping the documentation is good)
- [[denote:20251121T205739][Atom, molecule, organism]]: how small parts compose to larger parts,
  which compose to even larger pieces


(Christian Tietze: Zettelkasten for Regular Emacs Hackers, EmacsConf 2025)

20251121T205739--atom-molecule-organism-metaphor__composition_recursion.org

#+title:      Atom, molecule, organism metaphor
#+date:       [2025-11-21 Fri 20:57]
#+filetags:   :composition:recursion:
#+identifier: 20251121T205739

Atom: smallest part, indivisible elements
Molecule: comprised of atoms; structure added to combine elements
Organism: comprised of molecules; different level of analysis, irreducible to molecules/atoms

This can be used e.g. for programming: functions compose into larger
functions which compose into packages.

Actual biological organisms also work in such a way. Organs are part
of bodily functions (high abstraction), but from a chemical or
physical perspective, you can decompose them into atoms. That doesn't
tell you anything about the organ's function.

20251121T210107--denoteel-for-zettelkasten-in-emacs__denote_emacs_zettelkasten.org

#+title:      Denote.el for Zettelkasten in Emacs
#+date:       [2025-11-21 Fri 21:01]
#+filetags:   :denote:emacs:zettelkasten:
#+identifier: 20251121T210107

While not shipping with Emacs out of the box, Denote is easy to install and a great start to manage notes:

- it comes with unified way to create new notes, and hides time-stamped ID's with "[D]" in buffer lists
- it can manage links, and show incoming links to notes ("backlinks")
- it supports quickly adding links, and creating links _first_ out of
  the box -- it just creates the note immediately, so you don't notice
  - [[denote:20251121T210416][Create notes as link first to avoid orphans]]

* Example configuration

#+BEGIN_SRC elisp
(use-package denote
  :ensure t
  :hook (dired-mode . denote-dired-mode)
  :bind
  (("C-c n n" . denote)
   ("C-c n r" . denote-rename-file)
   ("C-c n l" . denote-link)
   ("C-c n c" . denote-link-after-creating)
   ("C-c n b" . denote-backlinks)
   ("C-c n d" . denote-dired)
   ("C-c n g" . denote-grep))
  :config
  (setq denote-directory (expand-file-name "./notes/"))

  ;; Automatically rename Denote buffers when opening them so that
  ;; instead of their long file name they have, for example, a literal
  ;; "[D]" followed by the file's title.  Read the doc string of
  ;; `denote-rename-buffer-format' for how to modify this.
  (denote-rename-buffer-mode 1))
#+END_SRC

20251121T210416--create-notes-as-link-first-to-avoid-orphans__linking_zettelkasten.org

#+title:      Create notes as link first to avoid orphans
#+date:       [2025-11-21 Fri 21:04]
#+filetags:   :linking:zettelkasten:
#+identifier: 20251121T210416

Recommended practice by Christian Tietze: start a new note with a link
first from some place, any place, then create the file to match that
link (which would initially lead nowhere).

- Reduces orphans in the Zettelkasten by guaranteeing every note to
  have at least one link.
- Supposedly teaches you to think about possible connections early,
  which makes the network better.

A very loosey-goosey approach, when taken literally and used
liberally: it doesn't matter where you are, just leave a forward link
to something you wish existed. Even if it doesn't fit the current
note. After all, you came up with the idea just now -- so maybe
there's a connection that you just can't spell out, yet?

Questions or comments? Please e-mail hi@christiantietze.de