4 ms·

What's the point of Obsidian in this case, since all the useful information is already in Anki by definition of "useful" (see previous comment), thus eventually

by hiq 3y ago

What's the point of Obsidian in this case, since all the useful information is already in Anki by definition of "useful" (see previous comment), thus eventually (after a few reviews) in my brain?

machomaster 3y ago
Not all information needa to be remembered. Most of useful information should just be easily available. It's good to have a single place for all of that with the ability to easily move stuff from one place to another. It saves a lot of time and effort as well as makes everything work in the first place (you are making notes, actively thinking what to write, what is generally important and what is super important to be memorized; that process alone makes your thinking and memory clearer and better).
- hiq 3y ago
  > Not all information needs to be remembered. So that's where I'm experimenting with this stance: it's either useful and I'm better off remembering it, or it's useless and I don't even need to write that down (see my first comment in this thread). > It's good to have a single place for all of that with the ability to easily move stuff from one place to another. Why aren't our brains better places for this, provided we can retain the information? With SRS such as Anki, the cost of remembering the information on top of writing it down is negligible, and once I remember it, why would I write it down in some other system?
  - machomaster 3y ago
    >it's either useful and I'm better off remembering it, or it's useless and I don't even need to write that down No, that's obviously not how the universe and information work. Pareto principle here at play as well. > Why aren't our brains better places for this Because they aren't. That's a strange question. Reality is reality., Our brains are not made for remembering (rote memorization; a mere 3-7 items can be short-term remembered and juggled with at one time), but for thinking and making connections. Computers are amazing at storing information, but can't think. If one is smart, he utilizes the strengths of tools/opportunities that are available to him instead of using them inefficiently.
    - hiq 3y ago
      We're not talking about remembering whole Wikipedia articles though, and I'm guessing nobody puts entire encyclopedia articles in their Zettelkasten. Granted, we're not made to remember TBs of data, but the information I envision to find in somebody's Zettelkasten (well, mine, if I had one) is far more amenable to be remembered via SRS than TBs of random data. That was my conditional "provided we can retain the information": in my case, it'd be just as costly to enter it in my Zettelkasten as it'd be to remember it, so why not remember it instead? I guess I'd need to see somebody either solely using a Zettelkasten, or Zettelkasten and SRS, and see what's in the Zettelkasten that I couldn't put in an SRS just as conveniently. It must also be content-specific; maybe I'd see a benefit if I were a sociologist like Niklas Luhmann was, but I'm not. Another thing that changed since Luhmann's time is just how cheap it has become to retrieve most information. His Zettelkasten probably allowed him to quickly fetch information he remembered vaguely, faster than it'd be to open his books and see where it is. This benefit is mostly gone now that there are even faster options.

by hiq 3y ago

What's the point of Obsidian in this case, since all the useful information is already in Anki by definition of "useful" (see previous comment), thus eventually (after a few reviews) in my brain?

machomaster 3y ago

Not all information needa to be remembered. Most of useful information should just be easily available. It's good to have a single place for all of that with the ability to easily move stuff from one place to another. It saves a lot of time and effort as well as makes everything work in the first place (you are making notes, actively thinking what to write, what is generally important and what is super important to be memorized; that process alone makes your thinking and memory clearer and better).

hiq 3y ago
> Not all information needs to be remembered. So that's where I'm experimenting with this stance: it's either useful and I'm better off remembering it, or it's useless and I don't even need to write that down (see my first comment in this thread). > It's good to have a single place for all of that with the ability to easily move stuff from one place to another. Why aren't our brains better places for this, provided we can retain the information? With SRS such as Anki, the cost of remembering the information on top of writing it down is negligible, and once I remember it, why would I write it down in some other system?
- machomaster 3y ago
  >it's either useful and I'm better off remembering it, or it's useless and I don't even need to write that down No, that's obviously not how the universe and information work. Pareto principle here at play as well. > Why aren't our brains better places for this Because they aren't. That's a strange question. Reality is reality., Our brains are not made for remembering (rote memorization; a mere 3-7 items can be short-term remembered and juggled with at one time), but for thinking and making connections. Computers are amazing at storing information, but can't think. If one is smart, he utilizes the strengths of tools/opportunities that are available to him instead of using them inefficiently.
  - hiq 3y ago
    We're not talking about remembering whole Wikipedia articles though, and I'm guessing nobody puts entire encyclopedia articles in their Zettelkasten. Granted, we're not made to remember TBs of data, but the information I envision to find in somebody's Zettelkasten (well, mine, if I had one) is far more amenable to be remembered via SRS than TBs of random data. That was my conditional "provided we can retain the information": in my case, it'd be just as costly to enter it in my Zettelkasten as it'd be to remember it, so why not remember it instead? I guess I'd need to see somebody either solely using a Zettelkasten, or Zettelkasten and SRS, and see what's in the Zettelkasten that I couldn't put in an SRS just as conveniently. It must also be content-specific; maybe I'd see a benefit if I were a sociologist like Niklas Luhmann was, but I'm not. Another thing that changed since Luhmann's time is just how cheap it has become to retrieve most information. His Zettelkasten probably allowed him to quickly fetch information he remembered vaguely, faster than it'd be to open his books and see where it is. This benefit is mostly gone now that there are even faster options.