Main idea

Faced with a note practice, setup easily comes before use: buying three boxes, defining a taxonomy, picking a color code, building a graph in Obsidian. Each of those decisions looks preparatory; together, they take the place of the practice they prepare.

Starting takes far less: a pack of about fifty index cards and a pen, left visible on a desk. Then waiting for an idea that really strikes — not a well-turned sentence you'll have forgotten the next day, but an idea that unsettles you or organizes something.

The rest is decided afterward, and only if the practice pays off: the box, the digital mirror, spaced repetition. The order matters, because a system well designed before the first card is built for a use nobody has observed yet.

Why it matters

It holds for any personal knowledge method: the entry cost you impose on yourself is the leading reason for giving up, and it is entirely voluntary.

It also indicates what to observe before tooling up: do the first cards actually bring something back when you reread them?

Nuances and limits

A minimum of form is necessary from the first card — a single format, a number, a title — without which the deck becomes unusable later.

Open questions

After how many cards is the feedback clear enough to decide on the tooling?