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I mostly abandonded keeping notes, bookmarks etc because I realised it became another "collecting" exercise and sucked up time far in excess of it's utility. I

I mostly abandonded keeping notes, bookmarks etc because I realised it became another "collecting" exercise and sucked up time far in excess of it's utility. I make specific exceptions (especially for things that may be of use to others) but I become too addicted to the act of collating and organising. Gmail with it's "search don't sort" was an eye opener back in the day. I stopped filing emails and realised with a decent search, I saved so much time.

stormdennis 5y ago
I agree. Emails (especially if you email yourself notes)and the internet automatically handle the vast majority of filing and search makes it the fastest retrieval system available.
TuringTest 5y ago
> I realised it became another "collecting" exercise and sucked up time far in excess of it's utility. That's because the tools to exploit that collection suck. If we had processes generating statistics on your data and organizing them in practical streams of attention, it would be worthwhile to take that extra step in compiling them.
albertzeyer 5y ago
I frequently also send notes to myself as mails. However, often when I actually search for sth in Gmail, I have trouble finding it because it is all unorganized. I only use tags very crudely so that often does not really help me.
leokennis 5y ago
I’m much the same. I only keep note of: - Stuff that has a lot of details that rarely change (all my insurance policies, what they cover, the policy numbers etc. - Details that are “hot” in my mind right now that I might need in the same detail later (the steps to refill my boiler, the exact type of door handle I bought for my bathroom door when it broke, so I can purchase the same one once my kitchen door handle breaks) With anything else (like, notes on books I read, notes on work I did) I either: - Make too detailed notes which take too long - Make too short notes that don’t hold any value - Never feel a need to recall them - Never remember to recall them if a situation arises Still interesting to read how other do it.
- lobocinza 5y ago
  For me note taking is to: - cognitively offload things for later and preserving work in progress; - archive things without processing (like a data lake); - build a corpus of knowledge to both improve my understanding of a subject and have a reference material that I can later look up. I have spent a significant share of my life organizing my notes in a mnemonic tree and also writing code to improve it's usability but the dividends are starting to pay off. It's good to have a functional 'external brain' to perform in a digital world that is filled by 'trash'. A decade ago you could find a good answer for 'everything' on Google. Today, besides a few islands of knowledge, you mostly find SEO optimized machine-generated stuff.
- tommodev 5y ago
  Same plan as this + parent comment. I struggle with the collection + curation eventually overtaking the utility of the thing, especially with "valuable information" captured in RSS feeders, bookmarks, etc. Feels more like FOMO at times. I have a paper notebook that lets me be more present in different scenarios and only capture stuff like actions or critical facts. Likewise key data around policy numbers, cost codes, etc. go into a markdown file. I used to be a voracious note-and-knowledge capture type between Standard Notes and Obsidian. I'd keep both a daily rolling log of everything I did + cross-ref and expand key items into broader knowledge capture. It probably has some intangible benefit I didn't pick up on but overall it just felt like a waste of energy compared to letting stuff go, sometimes having to google stuff again, and putting effort into building things and talking to people. I also started to wonder, what is the value? Documentation, code comments, communication all help to take an idea or understanding from Me -> People. Hoarding notes and digital content for myself really didn't accomplish much other than demanding attention.
dspillett 5y ago
I've started letting most notes “expire” (many are on paper that eventually gets forgotten or deliberately thrown away) rather than making any effort to reorganise them over time, but I still make them. I find the process of transcribing makes me think of side issues and other connections that I might otherwise miss, much like explaining something to another person does. Having made the notes and those connections, I'm more likely to remember enough so that I can easily rethink the rest of the details (or find them online if that was the original source) should I need to in future. > "search don't sort" ... stopped filing ... with a decent search, I saved so much time. Similarly, what notes I do keep long term are in a bunch of text files which I can search easily or Google Keep (more the former ATM, Keep I use mostly for short term lists & reminders now).
zild3d 5y ago
> search don't sort step 1 is have a bunch of stuff to be able to search (a la google). I hate organizing notes, but jotting down "throw away" notes into Roam in a daily note later serves the purpose of being able to search for, e.g. "#movie" and see all the movies I watched last year

stormdennis 5y ago

I agree. Emails (especially if you email yourself notes)and the internet automatically handle the vast majority of filing and search makes it the fastest retrieval system available.

TuringTest 5y ago

> I realised it became another "collecting" exercise and sucked up time far in excess of it's utility. That's because the tools to exploit that collection suck. If we had processes generating statistics on your data and organizing them in practical streams of attention, it would be worthwhile to take that extra step in compiling them.

albertzeyer 5y ago

I frequently also send notes to myself as mails. However, often when I actually search for sth in Gmail, I have trouble finding it because it is all unorganized. I only use tags very crudely so that often does not really help me.

leokennis 5y ago

I’m much the same. I only keep note of: - Stuff that has a lot of details that rarely change (all my insurance policies, what they cover, the policy numbers etc. - Details that are “hot” in my mind right now that I might need in the same detail later (the steps to refill my boiler, the exact type of door handle I bought for my bathroom door when it broke, so I can purchase the same one once my kitchen door handle breaks) With anything else (like, notes on books I read, notes on work I did) I either: - Make too detailed notes which take too long - Make too short notes that don’t hold any value - Never feel a need to recall them - Never remember to recall them if a situation arises Still interesting to read how other do it.

lobocinza 5y ago
For me note taking is to: - cognitively offload things for later and preserving work in progress; - archive things without processing (like a data lake); - build a corpus of knowledge to both improve my understanding of a subject and have a reference material that I can later look up. I have spent a significant share of my life organizing my notes in a mnemonic tree and also writing code to improve it's usability but the dividends are starting to pay off. It's good to have a functional 'external brain' to perform in a digital world that is filled by 'trash'. A decade ago you could find a good answer for 'everything' on Google. Today, besides a few islands of knowledge, you mostly find SEO optimized machine-generated stuff.
tommodev 5y ago
Same plan as this + parent comment. I struggle with the collection + curation eventually overtaking the utility of the thing, especially with "valuable information" captured in RSS feeders, bookmarks, etc. Feels more like FOMO at times. I have a paper notebook that lets me be more present in different scenarios and only capture stuff like actions or critical facts. Likewise key data around policy numbers, cost codes, etc. go into a markdown file. I used to be a voracious note-and-knowledge capture type between Standard Notes and Obsidian. I'd keep both a daily rolling log of everything I did + cross-ref and expand key items into broader knowledge capture. It probably has some intangible benefit I didn't pick up on but overall it just felt like a waste of energy compared to letting stuff go, sometimes having to google stuff again, and putting effort into building things and talking to people. I also started to wonder, what is the value? Documentation, code comments, communication all help to take an idea or understanding from Me -> People. Hoarding notes and digital content for myself really didn't accomplish much other than demanding attention.

dspillett 5y ago

I've started letting most notes “expire” (many are on paper that eventually gets forgotten or deliberately thrown away) rather than making any effort to reorganise them over time, but I still make them. I find the process of transcribing makes me think of side issues and other connections that I might otherwise miss, much like explaining something to another person does. Having made the notes and those connections, I'm more likely to remember enough so that I can easily rethink the rest of the details (or find them online if that was the original source) should I need to in future. > "search don't sort" ... stopped filing ... with a decent search, I saved so much time. Similarly, what notes I do keep long term are in a bunch of text files which I can search easily or Google Keep (more the former ATM, Keep I use mostly for short term lists & reminders now).

zild3d 5y ago

> search don't sort step 1 is have a bunch of stuff to be able to search (a la google). I hate organizing notes, but jotting down "throw away" notes into Roam in a daily note later serves the purpose of being able to search for, e.g. "#movie" and see all the movies I watched last year