The is a place to grow my own ideas. It is one part of my digital brain, which also contains my ‣ (scrapbook) as well as other resources such as my (forming part of ‣ (Readwise)).
In terms of hierarchy of input, and following a sort of larger Progressive Summarization system using Resurfacing notes , my main system is:
1 - Scrapbook (general purpose, collection of interesting resources)
2 - Highlight library (identification of the best or most important elements of the work of others that I want to retain and use to grow my own ideas)
3 - Mind Forest (ideas formed by my own ideas (inspired by other resources) and a record of concepts relevant to my notes)
I do have a lot of things that have slipped into the Mind Forest over time that probably don't strictly belong there. But I'd rather it was messy than spend hours trying to organise everything into neatness. The beauty of digital systems is that it is just so easy to hide the mess.
A zettelkasten can often be used as a way to store information for reference later. The key difference between this and the Mind Forest is that the forest has Resurfacing notes in order to grow ideas.
The Mind Forest is not for storage or memorization; it is for growth.
Search is a support to a digital filing system, not a replacement for it.
The Mind Forest has evolved over time so that it is now very similar to the zettelkasten system, albeit with a system of Resurfacing notes baked in.