The box is not a substitute for creating. The box doesn’t compose or write apoem or create a dance step. The box is the raw index of your preparation. It is therepository of your creative potential, but it is not that potential realized.
Great quote about what a zettelkasten isn't. This is also one of the reasons why I've underlined the amount of work that one must put into the box to get productive material back out the other end.
The Card Index as Creativity Machine
Rowan Wilken admits that Cornelia Vismann's use of files for transmission, storage, cancellation, manipulation, and destruction are remarkable, but that the key feature of the card index as a file type is its use for creative production.
Creative work is not complete until it is disseminated
This is an interesting perspective, but are there cases where it's false?
Link to the idea at CAA that you haven't really read a script unless you've actively acted upon what you've read.
Whether in music (Bach, Lennon), art (Picasso, Bernini), film (Tarantino, Anderson), games (Blow, Lantz), fiction (Kundera, Tolstoy), the most eminent work is usually the result of a single person’s creative efforts. Occasionally it’s a very small group (Eames, Wrights).
Great creative work is usually the product of a single person.