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I think one difficulty in understanding the nature of Folgezettel and Structure Zettel stems from the fact that one does not detach oneself from the technical implementation of principles. That sounds quite complicated, but it isn’t.

If you use the Folgezettel technique, you achieve two things:

1. You assign each Zettel a place in a hierarchy.
2. You automatically create a connection to the Zettel you create.

Those two achievements refer to specific principles that are part of the Zettelkasten: Hierarchy and hyper-textuality. But it is very obvious that both principles can be realized with different techniques.

1. Structure Zettel are hierarchies that are made explicit on dedicated Zettels.
2. Direct links are … well, direct links. If you always create a link to your new Zettel, you also get hyper-textuality, just as if you used Folgezettel.

Let’s put aside the second aspect and concentrate on hierarchy. Luhmann implemented the Folgezettel technique by making use of a certain method to assign unique identifiers (IDs). This results in a hierarchy that consists of the entirety of his Zettelkasten. If we want a hierarchy that covers all of our Zettelkasten we’d just create a Master Structure Zettel. By implementing Luhmann’s Folgezettel technique, you create an enumerated, nested list. Nothing more and nothing less. It can be done by assigning each Zettel the Luhmann Identifier, and it can be done by creating a master Structure Zettel.

Luhmann said the following, emphasis mine:

Given this technique, it is less important where we place a new note. If there are several possibilities, we can solve the problem as we wish and just record the connection by a link [or reference].

There are some difficulties when translating the German original’s “weniger wichtig”: It does not simply mean “less important”, but in many cases is used as an understatement. If you read his article with that interpretation, you’d rather translate this phrase as “not important” instead of “less important”. The open question is: How important is the position really?

If you use Structure Zettel, the answer is: it is of minimal importance. You can create as much Structure Zettel as you want and let each Zettel have any position in any hierarchy you want. If you use the Luhmann-ID, the answer is the same: the position is of minimal importance. The whole point of the Folgezettel technique was to rob hierarchy from its meaning. Al, who is @improveism on the forum, got this aspect right (emphasis mine):