@tomp your experience of finding the book binding text while searching for something entirely else is often called "serendipity". The way books are shelved in libraries helps to increase the chance that even if you don't find the thing you're looking for, along the way you might find other things of potential interest. Modern digital search often decreases this effect which was more common in the analog spaces of card catalogs and library books on shelves.
This experience is some of the unseen or elusive "magic" that Luhmann was referencing in his card “Geist im Kasten?” ZKII 9/8,3. You have to have the experience of searching for things and either finding or not finding them and running into entirely different ideas along the way to appreciate this sort of serendipity which is facilitated by physical zettelkasten practice. Otherwise it all seems very mundane. It's hard to see or demonstrate serendipity, and so people only see the papers and boxes and leave disappointed.
See also:<br /> - https://boffosocko.com/2022/10/22/the-two-definitions-of-zettelkasten/#Does%20Spirit%20hide<br /> - https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/2408/on-note-9-8-3-ghost-in-the-box
reply to https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/3483/findability-searching-and-creativity







