- Oct 2023
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Are links still better than search in the age of semantic search? .t3_175a6tr._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; } questionHi, I am a beginner Zettelkasten practitioner and also a software engineer, and I just read "Why You Should Set Links Manually and Not Rely on Search Alone" https://zettelkasten.de/posts/search-alone-is-not-enough/.Search capabilities have improved drastically since 2015 though. We can use text embeddings to find the most relevant other Zettels for any particular Zettel (see https://www.deepset.ai/blog/the-beginners-guide-to-text-embeddings)For example, even if you don't use the same keywords in your writing today as you did a year ago, you'll still find the relevant notes with semantic search, because semantic search handles synonyms with a breeze.Does this mean that with modern search tools, we can spend less time building "infrastructure" links, and rely more on (improved) search?Or am I wrong in my analysis here, does the advance in technology not matter?
reply to u/dotinvoke at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/175a6tr/are_links_still_better_than_search_in_the_age_of/
The value in the process is making a ratchet of ideas which is highly customized to building your own lines of thought or "associative trails" if you prefer Vannevar Bush's framing.
If your idea worked, then one could "simply" rely on Google's database and a variety of associated tools to act as your zettelkasten—Bob's your uncle and you're done! In practice, you'll find that this doesn't work well. You can experiment, but I think you'll find that your own limited choices of links will work far better than the infinite number of adjacent possible links that a digital system may create on your behalf. If you're already fighting information overload, you don't want to add link overload to your list of problems.
Put in a different light, it can be interesting to randomly flip a coin and go left on heads and right on tails to see where you might end up, particularly if you're unsure. But if you actively make your own choices, you're more likely to be happier with what you see along the way and where you end up.
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