On researching taking notes, speciffically the Zekkelkasten method, I learned The Collector’s Fallacy.

In its essenses:

• Saving links, copying or just reading a material does not mean that you have consumed the knowledge.
• You may have increased the knowlege for a short time, but it will fade away very soon after that.

By taking notes, or making a Zettel, to summarize again what you understood, you then actually can reaffirm the newly acquired knowledge.

The gist here is to make notes as soon as possible. The article suggested a cycle:

• Set a limit, like an hour, for research.
• You could find, search, read until the time runs out.
• Stop and start rewind the stack, making notes.
• Review how it goes, whether the time limit is good enough.

One key is that the taken note should contain enough information that the original copy is no longer mandatory.

This post is itself a zettel.