Powerful analog method to increase productivity

Zettelkasten—German for “slip box.” Luhmann claimed that his Zettelkasten became a conversational partner, constantly challenging him and prodding him on to greater productivity... original system ... numbered index cards... contained a single and complete idea ... “atomicity”... as short as a simple sentence... had to fit into ... half-sheet of paper...

by connecting related notes together... an outline of a project before he started ...

costs of jotting down just one well-formed note isn’t a deal-breaker. If an idea has value, it will rise to the surface as more related notes emerge... system’s power rested in the links between notes ... exponentially increase the value ...

each card had a unique index number ... based on a branching hierarchy... an idea... can always be positioned near other cards on the same topic ...

explicit reference links... the address of cards with related ideas ... under other topics ...

creativity and productivity took place ... in a dialogue between his first and second brains...

Roam does seem like a perfect fit... any chunk of text in any note ... can link and relate ... to parts of other notes... you can build a functional Zettelkasten using ... Google Drive or Dropbox and get 90 percent of the necessary features