![]() ![]() To be honest, though, that is just a guess. That leads me then back to the extrinsic motivation: If for example you're a researcher and use Roam (or whatever) exclusively for that (that means restraining also from putting notes in there that have little to do with your actual research), I think the benefits would be much more clear. This is why I don't think these personal wikis / note -taking tools help too much, especially if one is, like me (and probably most people), more a person who in their downtime maybe likes to read something new and interesting, but better keep that on the light side - it's supposed to be downtime anyways, no? I think there is also quite some research ouf there that finds just this: If you really want to understand stuff, you need to put in the effort. Then, reading notes and really understanding something will always be hard. That does in no way make it easier to read them, but it helps in actually reading them. Not because they are super useful in and of itself (After 1-3 months have passed now, I understand the stuff deeper now, obviously) but because they help me piece the stuff together.Īnyways, the reason why they then get useful is because I have an extrinsic motivation to read them! (Exams are coming up) ![]() I'm actually right now in the process of revisiting my notes, and I think it helps me a lot. That's interesting, because I almost wanted to make the exact opposite point. > During undergrad, I found I rarely reviewed my class notes, and when I did they weren’t very helpful. I mentioned in a previous comment that such a search engine still wouldn't handle type (2) notes: Those feel like a combination of (1) and (2).Īlso, if the mental model of "notes" is dominated by (1), it would seem like having a hypothetical universal recording tool combined with a more complete search engine would make note-taking obsolete. Sometimes when I spend an hour trying to figure out the right ffmpeg command line options or Linux "find" syntax that works correctly, I'll copy paste those as "notes" in my "tipsandtricks.txt" file. A lot of people that constantly review notes are talking about category (2). I think your comment is mostly based on thinking of notes as (1). Things like personal commentary on topics, weighing pros/cons of different future actions, drafts of song lyrics, research ideas, etc. (2) notes to organize internal thought: a canvas for generating/synthesizing/connecting/etc ideas. Or one comes across a fact and makes a note of it. a professor might say something and a student writes that down. (1) notes as transcription of an external source or memorization aid: e.g. >do folks review their notes at all? I suspect back links aren’t the actual problem.ĭuring undergrad, I found I rarely reviewed my class notes,ĭiscussing the word "notes" is not easy because it encompasses a bunch of different uses. It's for keeping your own thoughts and observations, not for bookmarking random blatherings. keeping bookmarks to such stuff is hardly the use-case for a personal-note tool. Music/video is much more challenging in that regard: our computers' capabilities for searching those is pitiful, but then. (Edit to add: the "Backlinks" plugin is vital for using Zim for this purpose.) If I do want to do that I can (and do) just copy the relevant material over to my (static) blog, `git push` and the job's done. Roam, Notion and other web-based tools are just a fucking annoyance to me, being clunky to use and offering little since I have no need to access my notes across multiple devices, nor any use for publishing/"sharing" my personal notebook or pages with others. Over several years of doing this I've tried quite a few other tools, but none manages to hit the sweet-spot of simplicity and affordance I find in Zim. ![]() I use Zim Desktop for my notes because it's simple and (precisely) because it stays the hell out of my way and lets me focus on my own writing. Given the search capabilities of a decent personal-wiki-like there's not really much call to arrange, file, tag, classify notes. I just make notes tied in to one or other index page, all of which (there are only a few more than a dozen or so) tie into a higher-level index page. As someone quite deeply into the "tools for thought" thing. ![]()
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