Philosophy of Indexing Zettelkasten 

Thank you for this thorough and encouraging response, Kathleen! It made my day. I found your characterization of content-rich (and creatively stimulating) index entries/taglines as 'card captures' especially helpful and clarifying. I apologize for some unclarity in my initial question: rather than using sparser taglines for each index entry (the disadvantages of which I see as you do), I was suggesting a practice of creating fewer index entries overall. Why not create an index that contains (stimulating, content-rich) entries, but only for those cards that serve as the most efficient entry points to particular discussions going on within the main box? That way, the index would be designed to plunge you (and your new main card) right into the thick of the most relevant discussion branch *in your main box* to which the new card might contribute, and un-indexed main cards in the vicinity of your landing zone might surprise you (and attract your main card) even more powerfully. In any case, I'm experimenting with your approach of indexing *every* main card and finding it stimulating and helpful in plenty of unexpected ways, so thank you once more for the window you've provided us into your practice. :)

Some of this felt like watching a livestream of using your system and hearing you make decisions was very helpful. Great video! Something that stuck with me from How to Take Smart Notes is to index by the context you want to stumble on the note in the future. Indexing by discussions is a very interesting play on that, nice one Alex!

Thank you Kathleen for another great video. It have of collection of notebooks that I have created through the years that I’m trying to figure out how to extract and add to my zettlekasten. You have given me some ideas to consider. Again thanks.