Find a way to collect contextual backlinks in your notes

When keeping permanent zettelkasten-style notes this lets you see other notes which link to this note and, importantly, the context in which they link.

On top of making your collection of notes easier to understand (Understanding requires ideas to have context), it enables some useful habits such as letting 'noun' notes collect backlinks for a while.

For this notes site I use a quick hack of Andy Matuschak's note-link-janitor to support 'traditional' markdown links.

Backlinks

• Prefer notes that describe a relationship
  • The 'nodes' on the knowledge graph should still exist as notes - but try to let 'noun' notes collect backlinks for a while before expanding on them (you should find a way to collect contextual backlinks in your notes first)
• Let 'noun' notes collect backlinks for a while
  • When you first define a permanent zettelkasten-style note for a noun (usually a 'thing' or a concept in isolation) try to write about it Prefering notes which explore a relationship. This lets the new noun note act as a hub for not only the ideas about it but also a hub for connections to other concepts. You'll need to find a way to collect contextual backlinks for maximum impact.
• Notes should be densely linked
  • One way to make this go easier is to find a way to collect contextual backlinks automatically.