After about a month of following my GitHub version of Luhmann’s
Zettelkasten method I have realized that the GitHub search functionality
combined with simple grep and git grep -i makes keeping a registry
(for me) a waste of time. I simply to a quick search to see if I have
already covered the topic and add to that zet rather than making a new
one. But usually, I create a new one that is some slightly tangential
part of that one. This prevents redundancy, as the registry was designed
to do. It also puts me in a state of constant review of my overall
ZK repo, the other cognitive goal of a registry. When I need to create a
published work (which is very rare) then I can easily create an outline
from a series of consecutive searches. But, even more, if I am careful
to use the same keywords in a natural way, or potentially in a See
Also section my content is automatically linked through my own person
SEO optimizations. No need for complicated tagging or categorization,
stuff just emerges. In fact, ZK repos are just my little personal search
engine of my own thinking. That’s all it really is. People following the
GitHub repo are immediately informed of every single addition and can
search on their own. Plus, the entire thing is indexed with Google,
DuckDuckGo, and broader GitHub community itself. There simply is no
single method of knowledge capture that is as searchable and accessible
for this level of minimal effort. It is clearly the best bang for the
buck, and it’s all free.