A note is a unit of thought
A note in this notebook holds one idea. Its title says what the idea is, as a short claim rather than a topic: not “Habits” but “small changes outlast big ones”. A title like that tells you what you’ll find before you open it, and it reads well in the middle of a sentence when another note links to it.
Keeping each note to one idea is what makes linking worth it. A long essay can only be linked as a whole, and the reader has to dig for the part that mattered. A small note can be linked exactly where it’s relevant, the way kaizen links to the habit research it builds on. Links between notes work as they do in Obsidian, as described in Links work the way they do in Obsidian.
Notes grow by being linked
A new note rarely arrives finished. It starts as a few lines, then picks up a second paragraph when another note needs it, then a counterexample a month later. The updated date on each note shows when it last changed.
Over time the links matter more than any single note. Following them is how you find connections you didn’t plan, which is the whole argument of building a second brain.
Where this comes from
The practice is old. Commonplace books, Niklas Luhmann’s slip box, and Andy Matuschak’s working notes all keep small, linked notes rather than finished essays. Luhmann kept about 90,000 index cards over four decades and credited them with most of his books.