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Personally, I haven't implemented this though I know I should... but I came across this idea in Robert Heinleins Double Star as a reference to Farley Files. In

Personally, I haven't implemented this though I know I should... but I came across this idea in Robert Heinleins Double Star as a reference to Farley Files. In essence, Farley was Roosevelts aid and kept files on everyone he met so before meeting them again Roosevelt could cram study and "recall everything about them" like they were a close personal friend. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farley_file https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farley_file For some reason this is how I think of Google/FB/et al keeping info on people.

funkymike 6y ago
This reminds me of a video I recently watched comparing Sherlock Holmes to a software developer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUZZKtypink https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUZZKtypink Holmes apparently kept detailed notes on every case but would otherwise forget the details until he needed to go back to them later.
- jholman 6y ago
  "Apparently" makes it sound a bit like Holmes was something other than a fictional character, composed only of Doyle's beliefs about what would make an entertainingly eccentric genius. It's not even what Doyle thought would work!
cnasc 6y ago
A while back someone posted to HN a tool for creating things just like this. In some places it was derided as “single player Facebook” but I could see it being very helpful for a person who sticks with it
- _carbyau_ 6y ago
  Well, if it's good enough for politicians, the FBI and CIA, every HR department since the 60's, FAANG... Why not for individuals too? I like the notion of "single player facebook". It casts Facebook as being an MMO and then that yields clan raids imagery of identity politics and so on. It's damn near perfect!
- Fogest 6y ago
  I'd be curious if anyone knows what this tool may be or if it still exists?
  - desas 6y ago
    https://www.monicahq.com/ https://www.monicahq.com/ is the one I recall, I bet searching for personal CRM will turn up others in the space
joshstrange 6y ago
This is very interesting and something I've been playing around with in my head. I keep "chasing the dragon" when it comes to note taking apps/approaches. I've played with everything from NvAlt+SimpleNote (for iOS), Evernote, Notion, Drafts, Editorial, Obsidian, and more. Most recently when I was experimenting with the Zettelkasten notes system (in Obsidian) I got the idea that I would want to do exactly what you talk about and have a "note" per person where I could store trivia, gift ideas, birthdates, etc. Unfortunately I either don't fully understand Zettelkasten or I am paralyzed by indecision on where I split my notes and how I organize them. I guess I'll just continue using Drafts as my "brain dump"/"all text starts here" until I can find something better that is lightweight and works across iOS/macOS.
- varrock 6y ago
  I was playing the note chasing app game, too. I eventually settled on the native iOS/macOS notes. I like it because I don't get paralyzed by trying to perfect the organization of my notes, and it syncs across my devices as expected.
- strokirk 6y ago
  You sound like me. Have you found any note taking mobile apps that can also sync with Dropbox to be edited as plain text files? I do most of my note taking in vim on my laptop, but when I only have my phone I'm reduced to use simplenote and Google Keep and can't easily access my normal notes. After 15 years of searching I haven't found that seemingly simple combination of features.
- stehn 6y ago
  I have the same issue with organizing my notes. On the mac, I have recently started using agenda (https://www.agenda.com/ https://www.agenda.com/) and am really liking it. You can easily link notes to dates, events, and other notes. You can export notes and sync through iCloud or Dropbox. The free version already gives a lot of useful functionality and they have an interesting payment model in which you unlock all current features (and updates over the next year) with a single payment. Hence you could use it as a subscription or simply pay once if the new features are not yet worth it to you.
fouc 6y ago
Reminds me of the story about David Rockefeller. https://clay.earth/story https://clay.earth/story p.s. AFAIK the Clay app is just vaporware

funkymike 6y ago

This reminds me of a video I recently watched comparing Sherlock Holmes to a software developer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUZZKtypink https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUZZKtypink Holmes apparently kept detailed notes on every case but would otherwise forget the details until he needed to go back to them later.

jholman 6y ago
"Apparently" makes it sound a bit like Holmes was something other than a fictional character, composed only of Doyle's beliefs about what would make an entertainingly eccentric genius. It's not even what Doyle thought would work!

cnasc 6y ago

A while back someone posted to HN a tool for creating things just like this. In some places it was derided as “single player Facebook” but I could see it being very helpful for a person who sticks with it

_carbyau_ 6y ago
Well, if it's good enough for politicians, the FBI and CIA, every HR department since the 60's, FAANG... Why not for individuals too? I like the notion of "single player facebook". It casts Facebook as being an MMO and then that yields clan raids imagery of identity politics and so on. It's damn near perfect!
Fogest 6y ago
I'd be curious if anyone knows what this tool may be or if it still exists?
- desas 6y ago
  https://www.monicahq.com/ https://www.monicahq.com/ is the one I recall, I bet searching for personal CRM will turn up others in the space

joshstrange 6y ago

This is very interesting and something I've been playing around with in my head. I keep "chasing the dragon" when it comes to note taking apps/approaches. I've played with everything from NvAlt+SimpleNote (for iOS), Evernote, Notion, Drafts, Editorial, Obsidian, and more. Most recently when I was experimenting with the Zettelkasten notes system (in Obsidian) I got the idea that I would want to do exactly what you talk about and have a "note" per person where I could store trivia, gift ideas, birthdates, etc. Unfortunately I either don't fully understand Zettelkasten or I am paralyzed by indecision on where I split my notes and how I organize them. I guess I'll just continue using Drafts as my "brain dump"/"all text starts here" until I can find something better that is lightweight and works across iOS/macOS.

varrock 6y ago
I was playing the note chasing app game, too. I eventually settled on the native iOS/macOS notes. I like it because I don't get paralyzed by trying to perfect the organization of my notes, and it syncs across my devices as expected.
strokirk 6y ago
You sound like me. Have you found any note taking mobile apps that can also sync with Dropbox to be edited as plain text files? I do most of my note taking in vim on my laptop, but when I only have my phone I'm reduced to use simplenote and Google Keep and can't easily access my normal notes. After 15 years of searching I haven't found that seemingly simple combination of features.
stehn 6y ago
I have the same issue with organizing my notes. On the mac, I have recently started using agenda (https://www.agenda.com/ https://www.agenda.com/) and am really liking it. You can easily link notes to dates, events, and other notes. You can export notes and sync through iCloud or Dropbox. The free version already gives a lot of useful functionality and they have an interesting payment model in which you unlock all current features (and updates over the next year) with a single payment. Hence you could use it as a subscription or simply pay once if the new features are not yet worth it to you.

fouc 6y ago

Reminds me of the story about David Rockefeller. https://clay.earth/story https://clay.earth/story p.s. AFAIK the Clay app is just vaporware