Last two weeks from my Zettelkasten

I keep a Zettelkasten, a personal knowledge base where I write notes and connect them over time. I’m trying out writing about what’s happening there, we’ll see if it sticks.

It started with a video

I watched a video about M-shaped careers. People with too many interests (“scanners”) building deep expertise in multiple areas instead of forcing specialization. The Zettelkasten fits here as external memory that lets you switch topics without losing everything.

Three connected notes

My job is thinking, then AI executes. I don’t write code anymore, I review it while Claude writes and I direct. My work runs on two tracks: notes and feature plans for AI to implement, and infrastructure that makes AI execution reliable.

Clarify by prototyping, not planning. My old core value was “Measure twice, cut once”, which assumed execution was expensive. These days prototyping is cheaper than planning, so I just build stuff and figure it out as I go.

AI reframes depth from execution to directing. The M-shaped career model assumes depth means doing the work, but with AI handling execution, depth becomes about understanding enough to see patterns and direct the AI.

These three became permanent notes in my outline, and they’re all connected to each other.

PKM audit

As I use more AI tools these days, my old PKM setup started to feel off, so I ran an audit. The result was Each PKM tool should have one role. Tools work better when they do one thing, and my old setup had overlap everywhere.

Current pipeline:

Capture: Drafts on mobile, Bike on desktop

Process: Tinderbox or Claude Code

Destination: Zettelkasten for knowledge, OmniFocus for action, DEVONthink for reference

Output: Craft for project plans, iA Writer for polished posts

I also wrote about GTD having a gap. Refinement is a missing stage between Process and Organize. GTD assumes everything captured can be immediately classified as actionable, reference, or trash, but some ideas don’t fit any of these. They’re not procrastinated or blocked, they’re just unformed and still searching for shape. Someday/Maybe gets treated as a parking lot, but refinement is active, not passive. It needs systems for repeated contact with incomplete ideas until they’re ready to become either a Zettelkasten note or a project plan.

Most of these notes come back to the same thing: AI made execution cheap, so I’m rethinking how I work and how my tools support that. Three notes became permanent zettels, two are about my PKM setup, and one came from a video. That’s the last two weeks.