Developers do not usually suffer from a lack of information. We suffer from too much of it.
There are API docs, pull requests, production incidents, design discussions, meeting notes, architecture diagrams, code comments, Slack threads, research papers, experiments, bookmarks, and half-finished ideas sitting in five different tools. The hard part is not saving information. The hard part is turning it into reusable thinking.
That is where Zettelkasten becomes useful.
A Zettelkasten is often described as a note-taking system, but that undersells it. Used well, it is a personal knowledge system for developing ideas over time. For developers, it can become a practical bridge between code, architecture, debugging, learning, and writing.
The opinionated part is this: most developers should not use Zettelkasten as a romantic productivity hobby. Do not build a beautiful note museum. Build a working system that helps you solve problems, explain systems, and make better engineering decisions.
