Ask HN: How do you organize notes, ideas, knowledge?
Let's say I have an idea and write it down. Then I read something insightful on HN and copy it as a quotation. Then I make some notes about something I recently learned. Is there a good way to organize this?
4 comments
You should definitely check out Obsidian and the Zettelkasten community.
[1] https://obsidian.md
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten
Personally, I save all my interesting links to a plain text file. If I want to process something I learned, I write an "essay" about it. I end up publishing ~15% of these essays to my personal website, so that others can benefit and critique my understanding.
[3] https://taylor.town
[1] https://obsidian.md
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten
Personally, I save all my interesting links to a plain text file. If I want to process something I learned, I write an "essay" about it. I end up publishing ~15% of these essays to my personal website, so that others can benefit and critique my understanding.
[3] https://taylor.town
I've learned that for me, there isn't really an optimal way. All systems I've dabbled with ultimately depend on me making an effort and taking the time to think about where this piece of information would fit best.
However, there is no system I was able to consistently stick with and most of the time I don't want to think about where to put something, I just want to put it somewhere. I have come full circle now and just use a DIN A6 notebook where I draw a line for each day with the current date under which I jot down whatever comes to mind that day. It's got page numbers, so whenever I want to reference something on another page I can just make a note of the page number.
Additionally, I used to write into a inbox file in Obsidian but noticed that it got quite slow especially on my phone, so I went back to Apple Notes.
However, there is no system I was able to consistently stick with and most of the time I don't want to think about where to put something, I just want to put it somewhere. I have come full circle now and just use a DIN A6 notebook where I draw a line for each day with the current date under which I jot down whatever comes to mind that day. It's got page numbers, so whenever I want to reference something on another page I can just make a note of the page number.
Additionally, I used to write into a inbox file in Obsidian but noticed that it got quite slow especially on my phone, so I went back to Apple Notes.
[Old man yelling at the surf]
Notes:
I toss my notes in a shoebox and stick the shoebox in a cupboard. [1]
Eventually, I stumble on the shoebox, look at the notes and throw them out.
Ideas:
"Idea" is a four letter word.
I start on the thing I am thinking about or I let it go.
Ideas that I am not acting on aren't worth holding onto.
Knowledge:
I remember where to look should it be useful.
Or I Google it again.
---
None of this was true when I was younger.
Back then, I behaved as though my notes and papers would go to an archive in a prestigious museum. As though ideas were valuable and rare. As if there was a multiple choice test on the-material on Tuesday, the 25th.
I made these things ends in themselves.
Now I just make stuff instead of taking notes.
This makes it clear whether or not an intellectual interest is an entertaining rabbit hole or something I can act upon.
The hard part is to accept that there are many many interesting things that I can't participate in. Like compiler internals, space exploration, and DIY sawmills.
Good luck.
[1]: Boxes are better than notebooks and file folders. Each of which is better than bits.
Notes:
I toss my notes in a shoebox and stick the shoebox in a cupboard. [1]
Eventually, I stumble on the shoebox, look at the notes and throw them out.
Ideas:
"Idea" is a four letter word.
I start on the thing I am thinking about or I let it go.
Ideas that I am not acting on aren't worth holding onto.
Knowledge:
I remember where to look should it be useful.
Or I Google it again.
---
None of this was true when I was younger.
Back then, I behaved as though my notes and papers would go to an archive in a prestigious museum. As though ideas were valuable and rare. As if there was a multiple choice test on the-material on Tuesday, the 25th.
I made these things ends in themselves.
Now I just make stuff instead of taking notes.
This makes it clear whether or not an intellectual interest is an entertaining rabbit hole or something I can act upon.
The hard part is to accept that there are many many interesting things that I can't participate in. Like compiler internals, space exploration, and DIY sawmills.
Good luck.
[1]: Boxes are better than notebooks and file folders. Each of which is better than bits.
Notion