[HN Gopher] My Notebook System
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My Notebook System
Author : ingve
Score : 76 points
Date : 2022-02-19 07:58 UTC (1 days ago)
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| rich_sasha wrote:
| The paper/portability/digitisation conundrum is one I can never
| break. I agree UX of paper is miles ahead of any app. But it's
| not indexable or searchable.
|
| So what?
|
| - scan paper notes... still don't have it searchable. Plus
| notebooks are not that easy to scan
|
| - pay someone to transcribe it: probably not cheap, plus privacy
| issues
|
| - something like remarkable: quite a lot more expensive than pen
| and paper
|
| Anyone have any suggestions on this front?
| ColinWright wrote:
| I started to write a reply to this, but realised it was turning
| into a full blog post in its own right, so I've copied it out
| for later, and will give a skeleton reply here.
|
| Some notes you can take while you're sitting at a machine. You
| can probably type as fast as you can write, possibly faster, so
| typed notes can go straight into whatever system[0] you use.
|
| Other notes occur when you're walking, or eating, or
| meditating, or exercising. For those I have two processes. One
| is simply use the "Notepad" app on my Android phone, hit the
| microphone, and dictate directly. The other is to write it on
| paper and mark it as "unfiled". These are unrefined notes.
| Later I revisit them and convert them into the first type of
| note, and, as above, insert them into my system, then mark them
| as "filed" (or just delete them).
|
| But _how_ do you insert them into your system? For some people
| it 's just a case of recording them in a searchable repository,
| and there they leave them until such a time as they perform the
| right search.
|
| However ...
|
| In my opinion, the value of a note-taking, note-preserving
| system is not in simply having lots of notes. For me, the value
| is in the "conversation" that I have with my repository. That
| conversation happens whenever I choose to interrogate the
| system, but it also happens as a part of the process of
| inserting notes.
|
| Inserting notes is an active process. I don't just "write and
| forget-until-searched". Inserting a note means finding a place
| to insert it, devising and using hashtags, connecting this note
| to other notes, creating backlinks, adding annotations to other
| notes, and generally enriching the whole system.
|
| It's working for me.
|
| [0] This is entirely another kettle of fish.
| mutedMint wrote:
| I used to use the same notebooks just to log things that I had
| accomplished throughout the day. It was neat to look back at, but
| ultimately I missed a few days that turned into missing even
| longer periods of time. It's neat to read about it in the
| extreme. I definitely understand the interest.
| ColinWright wrote:
| For many people, making notes is useful in and of itself. It
| forces you to bring ideas to the surface, and making a note of a
| thought helps to link it to other thoughts and other memories. As
| such, even if the notes are never referenced, the act of _taking_
| the note is of value.
|
| But having made these notes, and gained the benefit of actually
| taking the note, do you ever reference them again? Using digital
| note-taking systems means that notes can be cross-referenced,
| searched, and used again in the future. These are additional
| potential benefits _beyond_ the initial act of bringing it to the
| surface.
|
| Do you ever refer to the notes again?
|
| I ask this because I take notes, although not as comprehensively,
| and I'm intending to ramp up my efforts. But I'm converging to a
| system where I don't just take the notes, but have them migrate
| into a system where I can find them again, where I can pull them
| out and synthesise articles, papers, and other forms of output,
| so I'm interested to know about your context, and how you use
| your notebooks, beyond the initial creation.
| giraffe_lady wrote:
| Yes but not really in the way you're thinking.
|
| I take notes as I work, and if I write something down that I
| refer to often or modify and build on, it'll probably get
| migrated-and-refined to a later page so I can continue to
| reference it there.
|
| If it continues to be useful beyond that and outside of its
| original context, it gets moved into my digital, searchable
| notes. Which is more like a personal snippet
| library/documentation thing than notes.
|
| But anyway yes I reference them, but absolutely not in the way
| you would reference something that came up in a text search,
| and I don't go looking for them in a comparable way or expect
| them to behave like that. It's a different system with
| different uses I have a car but I still ride my bike most
| places you know?
| kiba wrote:
| I have a system that randomly show "cards" of notes that are
| less than 150 words. I don't reference them often, but I often
| end up doing deeper analysis of information behind the notes
| all the time.
|
| Or just linking them into big trees of cards like a wiki.
|
| There are time when I search for information only to realize
| that they are already in my notes already.
| opnac wrote:
| I think there's tremendous value in just offloading your
| thoughts from your brain to a notebook!
|
| I rarely refer to previous notes (digital or paper) even as a
| researcher.
| akselmo wrote:
| Thats interesting to me since i cant for the life of me write
| anything down while being so organized. Most of my notes are
| sporadic writings whenever i cant sleep because my brain is stuck
| chugging out ideas.
|
| If i had digital notebook that i could write by hand, and it all
| went to my nextcloud, i think i would use that more than typing
| things down with onscreen keyboard.
| joseph8th wrote:
| Dad? Are you on HN?
|
| ETA: I love my dad. He does this.
| ykevinator2 wrote:
| I actually chuckled
| sdoering wrote:
| > Only paper has been fast enough and flexible enough to work in
| every condition.
|
| I don't give much on the whole self optimization spiel. But I
| took the parts from Bullet Journal that worked for me. And added
| my own parts through trial and error.
|
| Nowadays I do task management with pen and paper as I can only
| agree with the quote above. I have yet to find something faster
| or with less friction.
| bfennema wrote:
| I liked reading this. For me emacs with orgmode works better.
| Went from evernote to onenote, to tiddlywiki, mediawiki...to
| emacs. My handwriting is so unreadable even I cant read it
| sometimes :-) Plus, I would fear losing the paper
| notebook..although how often have I irretrievably lost something?
| Never. Anyway, thanks for sharing.
| qihqi wrote:
| One issue I found with computer based setup when working is
| that... there are 2 of them.
|
| When I was in college I had folders of notes and it's read and
| updated regularly. Once I got issued a work laptop; the
| personal one sometimes don't get turned on in days... and
| rapidly became outdated.
| solraph wrote:
| I use syncthing to keep notes from Boostnote (as well as
| other things) in sync across multiple computers. I imagine
| the same would work well with emacs org mode.
| wtf77 wrote:
| Okay, but now tell us what is the most important thing you wrote
| in these 100 notebooks.
| ColinWright wrote:
| It's hard to tell if this is a genuine question ... it comes
| across as dismissive, and pretty much pure snark, and I suspect
| that's why you're being downvoted.
|
| If you really do have a genuine question then we'd all benefit
| from seeing it asked and answered. If you're simply saying that
| in your opinion this is all a waste of time, then either have
| the courage to recognise that that's what you're saying and say
| it out loud, or don't say it.
|
| I'm disappointed that you're not being constructive. I'm sure
| you don't really care about my opinion, but since you felt free
| to express yours, even if only in this coded form, then so I'm
| feeling free to express mine.
| wtf77 wrote:
| Is a genuine question. I wanted to know what he collected
| that was important in 100 notebooks. He links the Wikipedia
| article on 'quantified self' where it says that "[...]with
| the goal of improving physical, mental, and emotional
| performance. "
|
| I just wanted to know if there was one thing that was worth
| doing all this for, because my opinion is that logging your
| data -quantitative data- doesn't make you better. That's all.
| ColinWright wrote:
| Then I'd ask that you read my comment and take it on board
| as personal feedback. Asking a rich question can be
| valuable for all of us, but what you said comes across as
| largely dismissive snark. Since you say you didn't intend
| it that way then I hope this feedback is useful for you.
|
| As an example, I've tried to take my own advice and asked
| the rich question here:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30409278
| wtf77 wrote:
| I have argued my question and told you my opinion on self
| logging and quantified self. I don't understand what else
| I should be asking. I personally am a strong advocate of
| note-taking and agree with your post above. I myself have
| collected notebooks, and now they rest on a shelf
| gathering dust since I don't do anything with them except
| flip through them for nostalgia and look at my
| drawings/sketches. I use Obsidian to collect the
| information I'm interested in and try to connect them
| together and I can research and connect the dots to form
| new ideas and I find the value in just connecting the
| ideas. Collecting and not using notes can be as
| therapeutic as those notebooks with mandalas to color.
| ColinWright wrote:
| Based on what you say here:
|
| > _I have argued my question and told you my opinion on
| self logging and quantified self. I don 't understand
| what else I should be asking._
|
| I feel like I've explained clearly why your initial reply
| has been down-voted, why people have asked you for
| clarification, and how that could all have been avoided.
| So I guess I have nothing further to add on that issue.
|
| I find your comments about your note-taking interesting
| ... I wish you had given them in your initial reply,
| because then it would have been a top-level, information-
| rich comment. But I assume you had your reasons for
| replying as you did.
|
| Thank you for the clarifications ... I think this
| discussion is complete.
| wtf77 wrote:
| Thanks, and BTW I never asked about why I was downvoted.
| People downvote just because they don't like my question
| because it sounds controversial? It's fine. This
| obsession with quantifying everything - life,likes,
| views, karma, upvotes, downvotes, page view, fitness
| data,health data - is typical of the mentality of the
| Lords of Silicon Valley. Thank you Morozov for
| enlightening me.
| damontal wrote:
| What point are you trying to make?
| klysm wrote:
| That a lot of the time, notes aren't used
| ykevinator2 wrote:
| I think it's a lot of landill but whatever floats your
| boat.
| wtf77 wrote:
| I'm wondering if OP is able to make good use of all this
| 'self-logging' and find something interesting in these 100
| notebooks. Is there anything worth having written ~1 page a
| day for, or not?
| blippage wrote:
| I think there are actually two different purposes to notebooks:
| technical, and "emotional".
|
| I now keep notebooks for technical purposes. A note will
| typically take a page or two. I have a contents page, too, where
| I list the headings of each page. Contents pages are useful where
| you have structured information, like in a book. I haven't found
| them particularly useful in a notebook format, as topics jump
| around, so you have little idea as to where to look in a table of
| contents. I do keep an index, though. I'm finding this
| increasingly important. One twist I've begun adding is to write
| discursive posts on Wordpress. The notebook contains crucial
| summarising information, and dates to a blog post where some of
| the nuances are fleshed out.
|
| There's also value in the more "emotional" aspect of notetaking:
| basically a diary. I remember that I used to keep a dream diary.
| Looking back, I realised just how violent my dreams were! They
| are also fun to look back on, and you can gain insights into your
| own personality through the broader sweep of time, rather than up
| close and personal. It can actually be quite interesting.
|
| Less useful, though, is logging the time you brush your teeth.
|
| On the more flippant side ... when I was at university I used to
| mark on the calendar whenever I took a dump. Being a student, I
| of course lived in none-too-salubrious circumstances. So I used
| to like to see if I could stretch things out a little, as it
| were. Brings a whole new meaning to keeping a log book. Oh, the
| foibles of human nature.
|
| You should probably forget that I said that.
| jll29 wrote:
| Excellent read.
|
| Looking at these notebooks, I'm amazed and appreciate the self-
| discipline that the author has exercised.
|
| But a question one should always ask: what could I have done with
| all that time if I hadn't put it in taking notes? (Write a whole
| novel?) That's the dreaded question of _opportunity cost_. You
| can spend your time only once!
|
| EDIT: I also strongly agree with the utility of paper note-taking
| as frictionless system and with the author's choice of pen & ISO
| based date/time formats.
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