Ask HN: How do you stay on top of everything you find interesting on the Web?
There is so much interesting content that I have a backlog of many articles I want to read but just can't find time to. That combined with RSS feeds, social network and news, it seems impossible to keep track of everything.
23 comments
Sort of GTD methodology applied to information found online. Accept that it's impossible read/to stay on top of everything. At every moment more information is being created than you'll be able to consume during your entire lifetime. You need to prioritise.
What about the GTD thing? When you stumble upon something spend no more than few seconds to decide whether you read it now, discard it, or put it into a sort of backlog. The important bit about the backlog is that it's not a "read it later" list of everything, instead you assign it a category. Eg this is related to a branch of biology, maths, computer science, algorithms, Linux io subsystem, etc.
Now don't try to go through the "read it later" list. It's hard to force yourself to do that, especially when it is full of things from a dozen of topics of interest. Instead, you make sure that when the time comes that you are interested in digging deeper on a specific topic you have these links/references readily available. I have a separate list of "topics of interest" and go through it from time to time. If I feel like I'm in the mood of digging deeper on distribution systems today then I open that category and see that there are some pending things I need to go through.
A system like roam research is very helpful at this. You can find free alternatives as well, like foam or obsidian. Check them out.
What about the GTD thing? When you stumble upon something spend no more than few seconds to decide whether you read it now, discard it, or put it into a sort of backlog. The important bit about the backlog is that it's not a "read it later" list of everything, instead you assign it a category. Eg this is related to a branch of biology, maths, computer science, algorithms, Linux io subsystem, etc.
Now don't try to go through the "read it later" list. It's hard to force yourself to do that, especially when it is full of things from a dozen of topics of interest. Instead, you make sure that when the time comes that you are interested in digging deeper on a specific topic you have these links/references readily available. I have a separate list of "topics of interest" and go through it from time to time. If I feel like I'm in the mood of digging deeper on distribution systems today then I open that category and see that there are some pending things I need to go through.
A system like roam research is very helpful at this. You can find free alternatives as well, like foam or obsidian. Check them out.
This is how I do it. I'm experimenting with using a TF-IDF
recommendation system to "categorize" everything so I can just think about what is interesting enough to not discard.
Then I can comeback to articles organized by keywords and take notes in obsidian when I'm digging deep.
Then I can comeback to articles organized by keywords and take notes in obsidian when I'm digging deep.
category and topic of interest, yea, I kind of do the same thing actively, but as you mention GTD, I should stop doing the categorizing already, it's taking too much of my time
I made a comment on tab overload post previously:
1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27163973
I made a comment on tab overload post previously:
1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27163973
This exactly! My sibling comment just tries to sketch how I try it. Thank you for expressing the underlying concepts so succinctly.
I think it's a wrong kind of goal (or at least wrongly-worded). Trying to consume all interesting content will leave you with no time to use acquired knowledge, and overloaded mind won't be able to produce anything on top of it. Also, as other commenters said the amount of information constantly grows disproportinally faster than you can read.
That said if you want to increase your ability to get more X-related data through your brain, you have to reduce consumption of non-X-related data - usually the first candidates to sequester are social platforms, and news websites.
That said if you want to increase your ability to get more X-related data through your brain, you have to reduce consumption of non-X-related data - usually the first candidates to sequester are social platforms, and news websites.
I think those of us who grew up without the internet have an easier time not getting caught up in trying to keep up. Because that is what it comes down to - you have your own life, and while certainly some information on the internet matters to that life, not all of it does. Being able to just read what matters, and let the rest slide is a talent worth cultivating.
I try to recognize whether what I'm looking at really matters to my goals, or if it is just idle curiosity driving me to read it. I still go down rabbit holes that aren't necessary, but I also simply shut the laptop off at some point and go do other things.
I try to recognize whether what I'm looking at really matters to my goals, or if it is just idle curiosity driving me to read it. I still go down rabbit holes that aren't necessary, but I also simply shut the laptop off at some point and go do other things.
I see this as an incredible opportunity at some unknown date in the future: make a brain / neural implant that will just allow you to consume anything you throw at it. Not Evernote, but Neuralnote. Book mark it and while you sleep over 8 hours it interfaces with your REM sleep to inject it into your brain. Or whatever works.
Ignore the subliminal advertising, btw. It just pays for the bandwidth /s
Ignore the subliminal advertising, btw. It just pays for the bandwidth /s
I try. I have a somewhat working method figured out organically over last 10-12 years:
- I have 2 browser windows full of tabs. One window contains tabs relevant to my current projects or activities. The other has tabs that are not so, but seem interesting enough to triage.
- I try to clear off the tabs by bookmarking them with relevant tags (I love Firefox for this). Initially, before tags, I had a huge bookmarks hierarchy that I have backed up somewhere, but tags it is now. I try to keep the tags simply single words, covering all keywords (in combinations) I would be looking them up with desperately.
- In case I still feel inclined to read after bookmarking because it seems relevant, I move it to the first window. I know I will read it there based on its priority wrt other tabs there. Else, I close the tab, feeling assured I can find it in my bookmarks when needed.
- Once read, if I feel inclined to read more on the site, I add its rss feed to my reader. I use Feedbro Firefox extention on the desktop as well as an android app called spaRSS, keeping the same feeds on both via OPML export/import. Plus I may have clicked on many more pages on the site impulsively - need to process them too.
- I try to minimize social network feeds, preferring links/forwards from one-to-one chats where I know the person at the other end. Additionally, limit the time for Linkedin scrolling to bare minimum, just enough to distract myself. Almost zero Facebook and yet to open an Instagram account!
- Set time aside for deep-dives. They are planned and somewhat old-school with a pen and paper! I try to port to notes to my soft-notebook (scattered everywhere, slowly migrating to self-hosted Joplin). I prefer books if I can find them as they are highly condensed.
Despite above, its a slow and uphill process. Need to keep reminding myself to read less news :-)
- I have 2 browser windows full of tabs. One window contains tabs relevant to my current projects or activities. The other has tabs that are not so, but seem interesting enough to triage.
- I try to clear off the tabs by bookmarking them with relevant tags (I love Firefox for this). Initially, before tags, I had a huge bookmarks hierarchy that I have backed up somewhere, but tags it is now. I try to keep the tags simply single words, covering all keywords (in combinations) I would be looking them up with desperately.
- In case I still feel inclined to read after bookmarking because it seems relevant, I move it to the first window. I know I will read it there based on its priority wrt other tabs there. Else, I close the tab, feeling assured I can find it in my bookmarks when needed.
- Once read, if I feel inclined to read more on the site, I add its rss feed to my reader. I use Feedbro Firefox extention on the desktop as well as an android app called spaRSS, keeping the same feeds on both via OPML export/import. Plus I may have clicked on many more pages on the site impulsively - need to process them too.
- I try to minimize social network feeds, preferring links/forwards from one-to-one chats where I know the person at the other end. Additionally, limit the time for Linkedin scrolling to bare minimum, just enough to distract myself. Almost zero Facebook and yet to open an Instagram account!
- Set time aside for deep-dives. They are planned and somewhat old-school with a pen and paper! I try to port to notes to my soft-notebook (scattered everywhere, slowly migrating to self-hosted Joplin). I prefer books if I can find them as they are highly condensed.
Despite above, its a slow and uphill process. Need to keep reminding myself to read less news :-)
What a frightening coincidence. I came to a similar conclusion an hour ago when I've been reworking my own system.
Mine is slightly different. I use two separate browsers, one (firefox) for project/hobby focus and the other (chrome) for anything not related to project/hobby. I'm using different twitter, youtube, gmail, reddit, etc. accounts for each browser so I can still have the benefits from cookies.
Example: Using separate youtube accounts keeps programming recommendations separate from 3D modeling recommendations.
My firefox bookmark hierarchy became too large so I now throw it in a huge text file and custom tag them with metadata (I'm faster with my editor). I'll also be dumping any firefox bookmarks into a one/two level hierarchy and rely entirely on tags and the search bar, and my big text file of bookmarks.
I too use pen and paper and port them to my digital notebook. I make sure the notes are properly time stamped and contains enough information to keyword search.
Example: 2021-06-26_Blender_BlenderGuru_01.md
I use drawing programs to draw out any ideas. Some benefits are resizable canvas (if I ran out of space on paper I couldn't just resize it) and layers to organize and modify. I'm using clip studio paint because I also draw, but any drawing program like Krita would suffice.
One thing I learned was to keep information individually identifiable at all cost. I'll try to shove as much information in one line like filename or text line to maximize my search potential.
Mine is slightly different. I use two separate browsers, one (firefox) for project/hobby focus and the other (chrome) for anything not related to project/hobby. I'm using different twitter, youtube, gmail, reddit, etc. accounts for each browser so I can still have the benefits from cookies.
Example: Using separate youtube accounts keeps programming recommendations separate from 3D modeling recommendations.
My firefox bookmark hierarchy became too large so I now throw it in a huge text file and custom tag them with metadata (I'm faster with my editor). I'll also be dumping any firefox bookmarks into a one/two level hierarchy and rely entirely on tags and the search bar, and my big text file of bookmarks.
I too use pen and paper and port them to my digital notebook. I make sure the notes are properly time stamped and contains enough information to keyword search.
Example: 2021-06-26_Blender_BlenderGuru_01.md
I use drawing programs to draw out any ideas. Some benefits are resizable canvas (if I ran out of space on paper I couldn't just resize it) and layers to organize and modify. I'm using clip studio paint because I also draw, but any drawing program like Krita would suffice.
One thing I learned was to keep information individually identifiable at all cost. I'll try to shove as much information in one line like filename or text line to maximize my search potential.
The problem often is how to separate wheat from chaff. With literally zillions of online content points, how do you find something is good + valuable to you.
I haven’t solved the problem, but I find Twitter search very very valuable. I use it two ways:
1. Reverse search an article/topic and see how many believable people found it useful.
2. Build Twitter lists for topics and find people who are believable in the field and follow their recommendations.
Of course as I said, it doesn’t solve the problem but keeps me sane.
I find Twitter search an amazing tool.
I haven’t solved the problem, but I find Twitter search very very valuable. I use it two ways:
1. Reverse search an article/topic and see how many believable people found it useful.
2. Build Twitter lists for topics and find people who are believable in the field and follow their recommendations.
Of course as I said, it doesn’t solve the problem but keeps me sane.
I find Twitter search an amazing tool.
Every month or so I just bookmark all the tabs that I have open and never got around to getting back to, and place them in a folder which I'll probably never look at again. I tell myself that one day when I have the time, I'll go through them all and organize them. It's a little lie that I tell myself and it makes me feel okay with the bookmarks.
I have been suffering for the same issue for years. I found a methodology works for me:
Target a clear output -> define functions -> find the valuable inputs
(Ex: Become a top engineer (output) -> what's the core functions of the top engineering minds -> read great books, awesome tech blogs, talk/work with top minds...)
Target a clear output -> define functions -> find the valuable inputs
(Ex: Become a top engineer (output) -> what's the core functions of the top engineering minds -> read great books, awesome tech blogs, talk/work with top minds...)
Same here. I think is one of my personal biggest problem. To find and reserve some time to read the backlog instead on continuously open new links.
I've 2 browsers unusable (full of tabs), Instapaper queue full, plus around 30 or more tabs of Safari mobile.
The biggest problem is to filter good stuff from the rubbish. Sometimes I read interesting stuff. Sometimes I waste my time reading stuff that reveals a rubbish.
I think the collaborative collection system implemented by awsomelist works pretty well. I'm asking myself if could exists something better, between the dopamine-injection-algorithm like HN and a static collections on links in markdown maintained with a version system.
The biggest problem is to filter good stuff from the rubbish. Sometimes I read interesting stuff. Sometimes I waste my time reading stuff that reveals a rubbish.
I think the collaborative collection system implemented by awsomelist works pretty well. I'm asking myself if could exists something better, between the dopamine-injection-algorithm like HN and a static collections on links in markdown maintained with a version system.
For a few years I used Pocket (getpocket.com) - as a single-click way to save articles for the web. Then, many months later (or even years later) I'd go on a batch reading spree.
The biggest benefit is to see this: if 1 year later I'm still interested in something, it's worth reading, if not, I can skip it with likely no loss.
The biggest benefit is to see this: if 1 year later I'm still interested in something, it's worth reading, if not, I can skip it with likely no loss.
I have a Trello board with a "To read" column (along with various other columns for items in my TODO list). If I find an interesting page that I don't have time to read right now, it goes into that column.
The crucial thing for me is to recognise that I won't read everything that goes into that column and that's ok.
The crucial thing for me is to recognise that I won't read everything that goes into that column and that's ok.
I don’t. When reading an interesting article and have to do something else. I convince myself I will get around to it some other time. But deep down I know it’s a lie. If it is important. I will find it when I need it.
If I find any article online that I want to read, but don’t have time to right away, I click the “Add to Home Screen” button on iPhone.
The icon is saved there for quick & easy access to read & delete later
The icon is saved there for quick & easy access to read & delete later
> it seems impossible to keep track of everything
It is. Someone who knows more about thermodynamics, information theory, or neurology than I could probably prove this rigorously.
It is. Someone who knows more about thermodynamics, information theory, or neurology than I could probably prove this rigorously.
send the link to an email i made for the purpose of news articles.
Sometime I will go into the email and click on the links.
Some I will just read the title, some skim, some read the first few paragraphs and then skim.
some full read. Not trying to spend over 2 hours.
Sometime I will go into the email and click on the links.
Some I will just read the title, some skim, some read the first few paragraphs and then skim.
some full read. Not trying to spend over 2 hours.
I remind myself it doesn't matter. If it doesn't, it frees me. If it does, then I'll refuse to believe myself.