5 ms·

Notetaking as a way to stay smart

79 points by milesf 16y ago

mkramlich 16y ago
vi ~/notes/category/what.txt next problem...
- koenigdavidmj 16y ago
  I like to keep pretty much everything about everything in one file and rely on search to find it.
  - albemuth 16y ago
    grep -R what ~/notes
    - melling 16y ago
      Funny, I do the same thing. Recently my notes moved to ~/Dropbox/Notes and I also use git.
petercooper 16y ago
FWIW, I didn't go into how my system works but it's just a nanoc powered site rendering to plain HTML from Markdown files. No serious structure.
pierrefar 16y ago
I agree so much that I'm building a startup around this and related ideas. Hoping to have the MVP in the next couple of months.
- samstokes 16y ago
  I'd be interested in using that. Got a mailing list I can sign up to?
  - Cmccann7 16y ago
    The importance of an email list!
- wazoox 16y ago
  Will you provide some sort of note taking web app we could use from anywhere? Want!
- pbjorklund 16y ago
  Please make it sync with notational velocity, simplenote etc. A clean lightweight (optional interface view of app?) would be to die for.
harscoat 16y ago
http://www.snaptic.com http://www.snaptic.com is also in this line of thinking even though one could think they are trying to emulate evernote
theprodigy 16y ago
I agree. I actually now take notes with my live scribe pen while reading books and record myself giving commentary around important poiints. I go over the notes when I have free time. It seems that I retain a lot more when I do this.
scruffy323 16y ago
I agree with that the consumption of knowledge helps us learn. But I am not sure just taking notes does the trick. I think in aiding us learn more the knowledge has to be work and thought out. I believe learning is hard and you have to do something more on the lines or writing articles on the subject or course work to really force your brain to absorb it all.
- wazoox 16y ago
  Re-read the article and take notes :) Taking notes helps in two ways: first, it forces you to think about what you read to extract the salient points; That thinking enhance your understanding and memorisation. Second, it allows you to remember more easily by quickly checking your notes; memory is a dynamic process, and the notes will help you remember the thoughts you had writing them down, therefore the material.
- petercooper 16y ago
  You're right but I don't quite aim to learn the material as I do to "remember" that I read it and that I can come back to it again in future. There's only so much space in my brain for specific facts, and I'm pretty poor at dealing with them, but I thrive on knowing where to find the answer to things. The notetaking method I use helps me remember what I've read and to "re-remember" the material rather than to learn it per se.
giu 16y ago
Excellent tip! I can recommend to apply this technique to lecture notes, too; it'll work wonders during the preparations for exams. Although in a slightly different context, take notes as a way to get better advice; see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=635064 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=635064 and http://lifehacker.com/5270397/get-better-advice-by-taking-notes http://lifehacker.com/5270397/get-better-advice-by-taking-no...
zzzmarcus 16y ago
Check out PersonalBrain [1] for a great way to keep all your notes organized and connected. It's like a mindmap, but every node can become a root node. As an example, if you're reading a dystopian novel you could create a node for "Dystopias" under æTypes of Literature" that has "Brave New World" and "1984: as sub-nodes with notes for each book in their node. Those could link to nodes for the authors with maybe writing advice from Orwell and/or Huxley. Then you could link from them to a node about a current event or article that seems to fulfill their somber predictions... etc. The same "Brain" could also have notes on topics as disparate as programming languages, biology or travel, all in one searchable, non-siloed place. You can create connections between nodes at will. I've used it for several years now and can't recommend it highly enough. I wouldn't, however, mind seeing competition in the area as they seem to be the only company that makes software like this. [1] http://www.thebrain.com/ http://www.thebrain.com/ Shameless plug for my blog post from several years ago about the software: http://marcusvorwaller.com/blog/archives/2007/09/04/personal-brain-4-review/ http://marcusvorwaller.com/blog/archives/2007/09/04/personal...
- briandarvell 16y ago
  I don't see what's so great about such a program other than it's a "shinier" version of the basic folder layout in any modern OS. I mean, you can do all the same stuff using files and folders from your C:\ and add shortcuts between them if you need to and it can be made instantly searchable and indexed without being locked into one program file. I'll admit you cannot easily make things look as nice and colorful as PB seems to do but if you're really that interested about learning and keeping notes, this just seems to be another of the countless procrastination-forming pseudo-notetaking programs which already exist. Furthermore, the amount of time it would take for me to reform my current notes and files into this program would be a huge kill to other things which I could already be doing. I'm curious to hear responses to this.
  - zzzmarcus 16y ago
    It's not for everyone. Watch the video in the blog post I linked to, or download it and give it a try if you like. Or don't. It may just be that it's not your thing. Personally, I've found it to be anything but a "procrastination-forming pseudo-notetaking program."
DTrejo 16y ago
I love Notational Velocity. Effortless note-taking and search. http://notational.net/ http://notational.net/ Edit: combine it with dropbox to keep your notes synced and backed-up 24/7
- jbrennan 16y ago
  Or combine it with a Simple Note account and have sync to all your nv installations as well as Simple Note on iOS and other platforms as well. It works rather flawlessly.
  - OrangeGuutan 16y ago
    Or, store your .txt files in Dropbox and sync with Simplenote. Double the backup / accessibility :)
gcv 16y ago
Just make sure you use org-mode to take your notes: it's both more powerful than your current note-taking app, and it stores files as readable plain text. No proprietary lock-in, and no fear of data corruption in case of bugs. :)
- nimrody 16y ago
  Except it does not handle graphics well. While researching a subject, I take notes intertwined with graphs and diagrams. Can emacs handle that type of data?
  - gwern 16y ago
    Diagrams could be done using artist-mode (http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ArtistMode http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ArtistMode). Images themselves can apparently be embedded/displayed: - http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/elisp/html_node/Images.html http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/elisp/html_node/Images.htm... - http://www.gnu.org/s/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Showing-Images.html http://www.gnu.org/s/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Showing-Im... - http://obsidianrook.com/codelife/emacs_image_mode.html http://obsidianrook.com/codelife/emacs_image_mode.html
vilya 16y ago
This is a great idea. The article just talks about taking notes on books, but it's just as worthwhile for movies, podcasts, lectures, presentations, etc. I've generally found that taking notes during something like a lecture or presentation (anything that I can't pause, in fact) actually hinders my understanding. I think it's because I have to divide my concentration between writing and listening/watching. But for these things, writing up notes immediately afterwards is tremendously helpful. Sometimes it's just the action of taking notes which provides the benefit, even if you never re-read them again.
atlei 16y ago
Taking notes is very important as it forces you to think twice about the information as you write it down using your own words ("copy-paste-and-dump" information does not have the same learning effect). In addition, you use different "senses" (writing in addition to reading) which enhances learning. And of course (unless you only write it down on paper) you will be able to search for it and find it again when you need it (because you will not be able to remember every detail). So, it isn't that important which tool you use, as long as you keep most notes in one place (so you know where to look for it later). (shameless plug) Of course, as the number of notes grow, many people will experience information overload and have trouble finding the forest for all the trees...this is where using specialized tools that are optimized for finding what you need will help you. My blog post regarding large amounts of information - http://www.ppcsoft.com/blog/iknow-efficiency-scalability.asp http://www.ppcsoft.com/blog/iknow-efficiency-scalability.asp (/shameless plug)
swah 16y ago
I was thinking about building something like Instapaper, only you would be able to add notes about pages you read and share with people...
- simonb 16y ago
  Have you seen Diigo [http://www.diigo.com/ http://www.diigo.com/]? Does more or less what you described.

79 points by milesf 16y ago

mkramlich 16y ago

vi ~/notes/category/what.txt next problem...

koenigdavidmj 16y ago
I like to keep pretty much everything about everything in one file and rely on search to find it.
- albemuth 16y ago
  grep -R what ~/notes
  - melling 16y ago
    Funny, I do the same thing. Recently my notes moved to ~/Dropbox/Notes and I also use git.

petercooper 16y ago

FWIW, I didn't go into how my system works but it's just a nanoc powered site rendering to plain HTML from Markdown files. No serious structure.

pierrefar 16y ago

I agree so much that I'm building a startup around this and related ideas. Hoping to have the MVP in the next couple of months.

samstokes 16y ago
I'd be interested in using that. Got a mailing list I can sign up to?
- Cmccann7 16y ago
  The importance of an email list!
wazoox 16y ago
Will you provide some sort of note taking web app we could use from anywhere? Want!
pbjorklund 16y ago
Please make it sync with notational velocity, simplenote etc. A clean lightweight (optional interface view of app?) would be to die for.

harscoat 16y ago

http://www.snaptic.com http://www.snaptic.com is also in this line of thinking even though one could think they are trying to emulate evernote

theprodigy 16y ago

I agree. I actually now take notes with my live scribe pen while reading books and record myself giving commentary around important poiints. I go over the notes when I have free time. It seems that I retain a lot more when I do this.

scruffy323 16y ago

I agree with that the consumption of knowledge helps us learn. But I am not sure just taking notes does the trick. I think in aiding us learn more the knowledge has to be work and thought out. I believe learning is hard and you have to do something more on the lines or writing articles on the subject or course work to really force your brain to absorb it all.

wazoox 16y ago
Re-read the article and take notes :) Taking notes helps in two ways: first, it forces you to think about what you read to extract the salient points; That thinking enhance your understanding and memorisation. Second, it allows you to remember more easily by quickly checking your notes; memory is a dynamic process, and the notes will help you remember the thoughts you had writing them down, therefore the material.
petercooper 16y ago
You're right but I don't quite aim to learn the material as I do to "remember" that I read it and that I can come back to it again in future. There's only so much space in my brain for specific facts, and I'm pretty poor at dealing with them, but I thrive on knowing where to find the answer to things. The notetaking method I use helps me remember what I've read and to "re-remember" the material rather than to learn it per se.

giu 16y ago

Excellent tip! I can recommend to apply this technique to lecture notes, too; it'll work wonders during the preparations for exams. Although in a slightly different context, take notes as a way to get better advice; see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=635064 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=635064 and http://lifehacker.com/5270397/get-better-advice-by-taking-notes http://lifehacker.com/5270397/get-better-advice-by-taking-no...

zzzmarcus 16y ago

Check out PersonalBrain [1] for a great way to keep all your notes organized and connected. It's like a mindmap, but every node can become a root node. As an example, if you're reading a dystopian novel you could create a node for "Dystopias" under æTypes of Literature" that has "Brave New World" and "1984: as sub-nodes with notes for each book in their node. Those could link to nodes for the authors with maybe writing advice from Orwell and/or Huxley. Then you could link from them to a node about a current event or article that seems to fulfill their somber predictions... etc. The same "Brain" could also have notes on topics as disparate as programming languages, biology or travel, all in one searchable, non-siloed place. You can create connections between nodes at will. I've used it for several years now and can't recommend it highly enough. I wouldn't, however, mind seeing competition in the area as they seem to be the only company that makes software like this. [1] http://www.thebrain.com/ http://www.thebrain.com/ Shameless plug for my blog post from several years ago about the software: http://marcusvorwaller.com/blog/archives/2007/09/04/personal-brain-4-review/ http://marcusvorwaller.com/blog/archives/2007/09/04/personal...

briandarvell 16y ago
I don't see what's so great about such a program other than it's a "shinier" version of the basic folder layout in any modern OS. I mean, you can do all the same stuff using files and folders from your C:\ and add shortcuts between them if you need to and it can be made instantly searchable and indexed without being locked into one program file. I'll admit you cannot easily make things look as nice and colorful as PB seems to do but if you're really that interested about learning and keeping notes, this just seems to be another of the countless procrastination-forming pseudo-notetaking programs which already exist. Furthermore, the amount of time it would take for me to reform my current notes and files into this program would be a huge kill to other things which I could already be doing. I'm curious to hear responses to this.
- zzzmarcus 16y ago
  It's not for everyone. Watch the video in the blog post I linked to, or download it and give it a try if you like. Or don't. It may just be that it's not your thing. Personally, I've found it to be anything but a "procrastination-forming pseudo-notetaking program."

DTrejo 16y ago

I love Notational Velocity. Effortless note-taking and search. http://notational.net/ http://notational.net/ Edit: combine it with dropbox to keep your notes synced and backed-up 24/7

jbrennan 16y ago
Or combine it with a Simple Note account and have sync to all your nv installations as well as Simple Note on iOS and other platforms as well. It works rather flawlessly.
- OrangeGuutan 16y ago
  Or, store your .txt files in Dropbox and sync with Simplenote. Double the backup / accessibility :)

gcv 16y ago

Just make sure you use org-mode to take your notes: it's both more powerful than your current note-taking app, and it stores files as readable plain text. No proprietary lock-in, and no fear of data corruption in case of bugs. :)

nimrody 16y ago
Except it does not handle graphics well. While researching a subject, I take notes intertwined with graphs and diagrams. Can emacs handle that type of data?
- gwern 16y ago
  Diagrams could be done using artist-mode (http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ArtistMode http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ArtistMode). Images themselves can apparently be embedded/displayed: - http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/elisp/html_node/Images.html http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/elisp/html_node/Images.htm... - http://www.gnu.org/s/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Showing-Images.html http://www.gnu.org/s/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Showing-Im... - http://obsidianrook.com/codelife/emacs_image_mode.html http://obsidianrook.com/codelife/emacs_image_mode.html

vilya 16y ago

This is a great idea. The article just talks about taking notes on books, but it's just as worthwhile for movies, podcasts, lectures, presentations, etc. I've generally found that taking notes during something like a lecture or presentation (anything that I can't pause, in fact) actually hinders my understanding. I think it's because I have to divide my concentration between writing and listening/watching. But for these things, writing up notes immediately afterwards is tremendously helpful. Sometimes it's just the action of taking notes which provides the benefit, even if you never re-read them again.

atlei 16y ago

Taking notes is very important as it forces you to think twice about the information as you write it down using your own words ("copy-paste-and-dump" information does not have the same learning effect). In addition, you use different "senses" (writing in addition to reading) which enhances learning. And of course (unless you only write it down on paper) you will be able to search for it and find it again when you need it (because you will not be able to remember every detail). So, it isn't that important which tool you use, as long as you keep most notes in one place (so you know where to look for it later). (shameless plug) Of course, as the number of notes grow, many people will experience information overload and have trouble finding the forest for all the trees...this is where using specialized tools that are optimized for finding what you need will help you. My blog post regarding large amounts of information - http://www.ppcsoft.com/blog/iknow-efficiency-scalability.asp http://www.ppcsoft.com/blog/iknow-efficiency-scalability.asp (/shameless plug)

swah 16y ago

I was thinking about building something like Instapaper, only you would be able to add notes about pages you read and share with people...

simonb 16y ago
Have you seen Diigo [http://www.diigo.com/ http://www.diigo.com/]? Does more or less what you described.