Zettelkasten's value comes from complex conclusions emerging from atomic claims

My usual take on taking notes would produce something like a Wikipedia entry (topic at the top, systematic structure, definitions → properties → examples), but starting from the topic itself. I’d have a topic-named note I wanted to explore (like. “standard deviation”) and I’d build on that.

It turns out that Zettelkasten allows building right from the bottom (assuming the “top” would be exhausting a subject entirely, which we know is not the point of the system) and linking related notes together. That way, we can focus on specific aspects of any concept and achieve a comprehensive landscape of the subject, leading to conclusions it would be hard to come across otherwise.

The Zettelkasten looks like it’s a catch-all bucket at first, until at some point, the links form a graph view on connected subjects.