What does it mean that every note is a potential node?

Your externalized thoughts are the raw material for a knowledge graph.

Example: You have 400 notes in Obsidian. Most sit in folders you chose months ago, siloed by project or topic. One note says 'sunk cost fallacy drives bad retention decisions.' Another, in a completely different folder, says 'customers who stay out of inertia churn eventually anyway.' A third reads 'switching costs are not the same as loyalty.' No folder system would put these together. But the moment you treat each note as a node and ask 'what relates to what,' the three form a cluster that reframes your entire churn analysis. The insight was always there. The graph structure is what makes it visible.

Try this: Open your primary note system. Pick 10 notes at random — not your best ones, just 10. For each note, write one sentence answering: 'What single idea does this note contain?' If you can't answer in one sentence, the note contains multiple potential nodes and needs splitting. If the sentence is vague ('some thoughts about leadership'), the note needs sharpening before it can function as a node. Score yourself: how many of your 10 notes are graph-ready right now?