6 ms·

Ask HN: How do you take notes of interesting ideas while podcasting

Does anyone frequently save information from podcasts or audiobooks? Curious about how you capture things you want to remember or reference later.

mraza007 6y ago
Hey there’s this website I use listennotes It’s pretty good as it transcribe the audio and I usually capture interesting links to resources shared in the podcast to my pocket app. Last but not least I have a README file on github as TIL where I put stuff I discover from podcasts or just in general
- sarvagyavaish 6y ago
  Ahh.. listennotes is so great! I use Google Keep to catalog my notes, similar to your readme workflow, but what i'm missing is being able to go back to the exact point in an episode. I am doing some market research on this problem and would love to talk to for 20 mins to get your advice on a few things. Based on your HN profile, it looks like you are a heavy podcast listener! It would be a great opportunity for me to learn from you.
  - mraza007 6y ago
    Yup please feel free to reach out to me I would love to help Nowadays i barely get time to listen to podcasts.
randomchars 6y ago
If you use an iPhone, and listen to podcasts with headphones that have buttons: https://apps.apple.com/hu/app/airr-highlight-podcasts/id1355926315 https://apps.apple.com/hu/app/airr-highlight-podcasts/id1355... A triple tap creates highlights at the current location. If the podcast has transcripts, even the surrounding text is saved. It integrates with readwise.io too, so you have export/reminder options there as well. Unfortunately nothing like this for audiobooks yet.
- atmosx 6y ago
  I'm in the process of creating a website to host a podcast after getting in contact with the producer. I wonder you know: - are there any open source software that couples transcript with the podcast? - do transcripts get crated through NLP or some other tech automatically for English podcast?
  - mickuehl 6y ago
    This is why I believe shownotes are so important. Include text, links, chapter marks/titles already in the podcast feed... transcripts via AWS/wit.ai or other cloud services...
    - sigjuice 6y ago
      Show notes are vital for podcasts. Often, I will just skip over a podcast if the show notes are lacking. I just know they will say something interesting that I would never be able to get back to unless I listen through it again. A lot of podcasts these days just add transcripts and leave it at that. Transcripts are better than nothing and probably good for the podcast producers for SEO or whatever but I don't find them all that useful. IMHO the show notes must have links for every broad topic, concept, person, book, project, conference talk mentioned. The folks at Oxide Computer get this https://oxide.computer/podcast/ https://oxide.computer/podcast/
      - sarvagyavaish 6y ago
        Hey sigjuice! I couldn't agree more about the importance of show notes for podcasts. I am actually doing some market research around power listeners that like to refer to show notes in podcasts. I would love to talk to you for 20 mins and ask you a few questions to learn from you. Happy to buy you a coffee in return (via paypal / venmo) :)
heymrli 6y ago
If I'm on the go, I'll just take screenshots of that point in time and if I remember, I'll go back to that moment and take notes on it, google search it, or something. If I can stop what I'm doing (if I'm on a walk), I will pause and take notes. With audiobooks, I can bookmark and take notes in Audible. I do wish I could see the transcription because I always worry Audible didn't capture the right portion of the audio so that when I go back to listen later it takes me a while to try to figure out what I bookmarked/clipped. Whereas in a physical book, I know exactly what I highlighted. Does that make sense?
- sarvagyavaish 6y ago
  Yeah makes a lot of sense! Thanks for describing your press. I am doing some market research on how power users solve this problem and would love to talk to for 20 mins to get your advice on a few things. Happy to buy you a coffee (via paypal / venmo) in return!
pizza 6y ago
Joplin + Johnny Decimal https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/ https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/ https://johnnydecimal.com/ https://johnnydecimal.com/ They go under 80-89: Inspiration & Notes > 81. Other Thinkers' Ideas Mentioned in Podcasts & Articles Title: {author or (podcast name & episode)} - {1 sentence description} Content: - blog post screenshot? - bullet point summary of ideas and context building up to ideas? - url link E.g. these 2 examples https://imgur.com/a/w3De47J https://imgur.com/a/w3De47J Worst part abt this system though is that I often listen to podcasts while doing the dishes. Inevitably I rush to write an idea down but my hands are sopping wet.. :^)
tmaly 6y ago
If it is really good, I will try to get the material in print if available. Otherwise, I just end up pausing and writing down key ideas.
Jugurtha 6y ago
I use TaskWarrior[0]. Low friction.. task add +read "Book title. Mentioned in interview [link for the resource] by X with Y. Useful because [reasons]. Then I annotate the task task 180 annotate (triple quotes)(multi line thoughts)(triple quotes)(return) I also add notes there. I also used markdown files and MKDocs [old link: https://jhadjar.gitlab.io/kbase/ https://jhadjar.gitlab.io/kbase/] This stuff served as the seed of our knowledge base where I work. - [0]: https://taskwarrior.org/ https://taskwarrior.org/
- sarvagyavaish 6y ago
  Wow! That is some dedication to building a 2nd brain :) I am doing some market research on folks that go above and beyond to take notes to document their learnings while podcasting. I would love to talk to you for 20 mins and ask you a few questions. As a thank you, i'd like to buy you a coffee (via paypal / venmo). Let me know if i can reach out to you.
  - Jugurtha 6y ago
    Here are some of my replies: - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19924100 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19924100 (understanding codebases, etc.) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22873103 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22873103 (making the most out of meetings, leveraging your presence) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22827841 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22827841 (product development) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20356222 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20356222 (giving a damn) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25008223 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25008223 (If I disappear, what will happen) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24972611 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24972611 (about consulting and clients, but you can abstract that as "stakeholders", and understanding the problem your "client", who can be your manager, has.) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24209518 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24209518 (on taking notes. When you're told something, or receive a remark, make sure to make a note and learn from it whether it's a mistake, or a colleague showing you something useful, or a task you must accomplish.. don't be told things twice or worse. Be on the ball and reliable). - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24503365 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24503365 (product, architecture, and impact on the team) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22860716 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22860716 (onboarding new hires to a codebase, what if it were you, improve code) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22710623 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22710623 (being efficient learning from video, hacks. Subsequent reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22723586 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22723586) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21598632 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21598632 (communication with the team, and subsequent reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21614372 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21614372) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21427886 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21427886 (template for taking minutes of meetings to dispatch to the team. Notes are in GitHub/GitLab so the team can access them, especially if they haven't attended). - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24177646 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24177646 (communication, alignment) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21808439 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21808439 (useful things for the team and product that add leverage) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20323660 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20323660 (more meeting notes. Reply to a person who had trouble talking in corporate meetings) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22715971 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22715971 (management involvement as a spectrum) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25922120 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25922120 (researching topics) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26147502 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26147502 (keeping up with a firehose of information) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26123017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26123017 (fractal communication: communication that can penetrate several layers of management and be relevant to people with different profiles and skillsets) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26179539 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26179539 (remote work, use existing tooling and build our own. Jitsi videos, record everything, give access to everyone so they can reference them and go back to them, meetings once a week or two weeks to align) Some of them may be more relevant to you, such as the one "keeping up with a firehose of information", and the ones dealing with taking notes, alignment, communication, etc. I don't really do "podcasts", but I use these strategies when I collect papers (or watch technical talks), cherry pick the relevant ones, read them, summarize them, and then send the notes to my colleagues.
emgo 6y ago
If I'm on the go on my phone and there's a cool idea in the podcast I'm listening, then I take a screenshot of my locked screen as it shows my audio player (with the button shortcuts). And then later on I go back to those screenshots and I know which podcasts and which moments had important ideas. If I'm doing active listening, i.e. listening to a podcast or watching a talk and actively taking notes, then I use https://sidenote.me https://sidenote.me For example: https://sidenote.me/note/0gcKho/nailing-your-first-launch-adam-wathan-microconf-starter-2018 https://sidenote.me/note/0gcKho/nailing-your-first-launch-ad...
gofreddygo 6y ago
I've actually begun using iOS voice memo app more often. I just add to a weekly recording whenever I come across something interesting. Recording can't get easier than this. Easy to passively listen and read. If i have a hard time summarizing it into a couple of lines, i know I dont know it well enough right there. I move the interesting ones into relevant google docs when I get the time and clean up the recordings.

Does anyone frequently save information from podcasts or audiobooks? Curious about how you capture things you want to remember or reference later.

mraza007 6y ago

Hey there’s this website I use listennotes It’s pretty good as it transcribe the audio and I usually capture interesting links to resources shared in the podcast to my pocket app. Last but not least I have a README file on github as TIL where I put stuff I discover from podcasts or just in general

sarvagyavaish 6y ago
Ahh.. listennotes is so great! I use Google Keep to catalog my notes, similar to your readme workflow, but what i'm missing is being able to go back to the exact point in an episode. I am doing some market research on this problem and would love to talk to for 20 mins to get your advice on a few things. Based on your HN profile, it looks like you are a heavy podcast listener! It would be a great opportunity for me to learn from you.
- mraza007 6y ago
  Yup please feel free to reach out to me I would love to help Nowadays i barely get time to listen to podcasts.

randomchars 6y ago

If you use an iPhone, and listen to podcasts with headphones that have buttons: https://apps.apple.com/hu/app/airr-highlight-podcasts/id1355926315 https://apps.apple.com/hu/app/airr-highlight-podcasts/id1355... A triple tap creates highlights at the current location. If the podcast has transcripts, even the surrounding text is saved. It integrates with readwise.io too, so you have export/reminder options there as well. Unfortunately nothing like this for audiobooks yet.

atmosx 6y ago
I'm in the process of creating a website to host a podcast after getting in contact with the producer. I wonder you know: - are there any open source software that couples transcript with the podcast? - do transcripts get crated through NLP or some other tech automatically for English podcast?
- mickuehl 6y ago
  This is why I believe shownotes are so important. Include text, links, chapter marks/titles already in the podcast feed... transcripts via AWS/wit.ai or other cloud services...
  - sigjuice 6y ago
    Show notes are vital for podcasts. Often, I will just skip over a podcast if the show notes are lacking. I just know they will say something interesting that I would never be able to get back to unless I listen through it again. A lot of podcasts these days just add transcripts and leave it at that. Transcripts are better than nothing and probably good for the podcast producers for SEO or whatever but I don't find them all that useful. IMHO the show notes must have links for every broad topic, concept, person, book, project, conference talk mentioned. The folks at Oxide Computer get this https://oxide.computer/podcast/ https://oxide.computer/podcast/
    - sarvagyavaish 6y ago
      Hey sigjuice! I couldn't agree more about the importance of show notes for podcasts. I am actually doing some market research around power listeners that like to refer to show notes in podcasts. I would love to talk to you for 20 mins and ask you a few questions to learn from you. Happy to buy you a coffee in return (via paypal / venmo) :)

heymrli 6y ago

If I'm on the go, I'll just take screenshots of that point in time and if I remember, I'll go back to that moment and take notes on it, google search it, or something. If I can stop what I'm doing (if I'm on a walk), I will pause and take notes. With audiobooks, I can bookmark and take notes in Audible. I do wish I could see the transcription because I always worry Audible didn't capture the right portion of the audio so that when I go back to listen later it takes me a while to try to figure out what I bookmarked/clipped. Whereas in a physical book, I know exactly what I highlighted. Does that make sense?

sarvagyavaish 6y ago
Yeah makes a lot of sense! Thanks for describing your press. I am doing some market research on how power users solve this problem and would love to talk to for 20 mins to get your advice on a few things. Happy to buy you a coffee (via paypal / venmo) in return!

pizza 6y ago

Joplin + Johnny Decimal https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/ https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/ https://johnnydecimal.com/ https://johnnydecimal.com/ They go under 80-89: Inspiration & Notes > 81. Other Thinkers' Ideas Mentioned in Podcasts & Articles Title: {author or (podcast name & episode)} - {1 sentence description} Content: - blog post screenshot? - bullet point summary of ideas and context building up to ideas? - url link E.g. these 2 examples https://imgur.com/a/w3De47J https://imgur.com/a/w3De47J Worst part abt this system though is that I often listen to podcasts while doing the dishes. Inevitably I rush to write an idea down but my hands are sopping wet.. :^)

tmaly 6y ago

If it is really good, I will try to get the material in print if available. Otherwise, I just end up pausing and writing down key ideas.

Jugurtha 6y ago

I use TaskWarrior[0]. Low friction.. task add +read "Book title. Mentioned in interview [link for the resource] by X with Y. Useful because [reasons]. Then I annotate the task task 180 annotate (triple quotes)(multi line thoughts)(triple quotes)(return) I also add notes there. I also used markdown files and MKDocs [old link: https://jhadjar.gitlab.io/kbase/ https://jhadjar.gitlab.io/kbase/] This stuff served as the seed of our knowledge base where I work. - [0]: https://taskwarrior.org/ https://taskwarrior.org/

sarvagyavaish 6y ago
Wow! That is some dedication to building a 2nd brain :) I am doing some market research on folks that go above and beyond to take notes to document their learnings while podcasting. I would love to talk to you for 20 mins and ask you a few questions. As a thank you, i'd like to buy you a coffee (via paypal / venmo). Let me know if i can reach out to you.
- Jugurtha 6y ago
  Here are some of my replies: - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19924100 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19924100 (understanding codebases, etc.) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22873103 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22873103 (making the most out of meetings, leveraging your presence) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22827841 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22827841 (product development) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20356222 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20356222 (giving a damn) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25008223 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25008223 (If I disappear, what will happen) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24972611 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24972611 (about consulting and clients, but you can abstract that as "stakeholders", and understanding the problem your "client", who can be your manager, has.) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24209518 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24209518 (on taking notes. When you're told something, or receive a remark, make sure to make a note and learn from it whether it's a mistake, or a colleague showing you something useful, or a task you must accomplish.. don't be told things twice or worse. Be on the ball and reliable). - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24503365 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24503365 (product, architecture, and impact on the team) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22860716 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22860716 (onboarding new hires to a codebase, what if it were you, improve code) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22710623 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22710623 (being efficient learning from video, hacks. Subsequent reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22723586 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22723586) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21598632 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21598632 (communication with the team, and subsequent reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21614372 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21614372) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21427886 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21427886 (template for taking minutes of meetings to dispatch to the team. Notes are in GitHub/GitLab so the team can access them, especially if they haven't attended). - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24177646 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24177646 (communication, alignment) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21808439 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21808439 (useful things for the team and product that add leverage) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20323660 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20323660 (more meeting notes. Reply to a person who had trouble talking in corporate meetings) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22715971 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22715971 (management involvement as a spectrum) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25922120 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25922120 (researching topics) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26147502 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26147502 (keeping up with a firehose of information) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26123017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26123017 (fractal communication: communication that can penetrate several layers of management and be relevant to people with different profiles and skillsets) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26179539 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26179539 (remote work, use existing tooling and build our own. Jitsi videos, record everything, give access to everyone so they can reference them and go back to them, meetings once a week or two weeks to align) Some of them may be more relevant to you, such as the one "keeping up with a firehose of information", and the ones dealing with taking notes, alignment, communication, etc. I don't really do "podcasts", but I use these strategies when I collect papers (or watch technical talks), cherry pick the relevant ones, read them, summarize them, and then send the notes to my colleagues.

emgo 6y ago

If I'm on the go on my phone and there's a cool idea in the podcast I'm listening, then I take a screenshot of my locked screen as it shows my audio player (with the button shortcuts). And then later on I go back to those screenshots and I know which podcasts and which moments had important ideas. If I'm doing active listening, i.e. listening to a podcast or watching a talk and actively taking notes, then I use https://sidenote.me https://sidenote.me For example: https://sidenote.me/note/0gcKho/nailing-your-first-launch-adam-wathan-microconf-starter-2018 https://sidenote.me/note/0gcKho/nailing-your-first-launch-ad...

gofreddygo 6y ago

I've actually begun using iOS voice memo app more often. I just add to a weekly recording whenever I come across something interesting. Recording can't get easier than this. Easy to passively listen and read. If i have a hard time summarizing it into a couple of lines, i know I dont know it well enough right there. I move the interesting ones into relevant google docs when I get the time and clean up the recordings.