If you want to take notes of what you are reading, no matter what method you choose you need to synthesize your ideas. You need to make them your own. That takes time. Personally, I found that for the time I was taking notes* I had to first discipline myself in how I consumed material. This lessened how much I read and made me focus on quality which in turn made me focus more on what I was reading which then turned into a positive feedback loop.
This answer may feel like a cop out, but I add it only because too many people try to find a note taking methodology to support an unsustainable consumption habit and then they think the note taking method was the issue when it really wasn’t.
* - I ultimately stopped taking notes on most things when I decided one day that I didn’t want to do it anymore. I narrowed my areas of interest to ones where mostly practical experience mattered much than theoretical knowledge (eg: illustrating). The only areas I take notes in still is security research and even that is far more practical
Andy Matuschak has written about his techniques for keeping notes. https://notes.andymatuschak.org/About_these_notes
Molecular notes is another take on keeping notes https://reasonabledeviations.com/2022/04/18/molecular-notes-...
You need to very clearly define what you want and you should know how your brain works. Some people want loose links to job memories, some people think slower but more deeply. Some people get math better than biology, and so on and so on.
You should have a good idea how you learn and what you are good/bad at. Then develop a system that works with YOUR brain. Also you must emotionally accept you aren't going to get it right the first couple times.
The general idea is this.
1. Take "Literature Notes" in your own words as you consume content. These are little summaries of ideas in the text that are usually 1-3 lines. For paper books, I do this in a little Muji notebook. For digital resources, these go straight in Roam. 2. When you have finished the resource, copy your notes to one page and summarise them in "Permanent Notes". 3. Keep your Permanent Notes in one Permanent Note page and link everything together.
The best guide I found for getting this kind of system set up was https://www.nateliason.com/blog/smart-notes. The original "How to Take Smart Notes" book is also good, but much less concrete.
Really, I found step 1 to be the most valuable. I was previously processing highlights from articles and books and that weirdly took more time. Writing little notes as you go along saves only what is relevant and it's much more direct for your use cases.
As a word of warning though, I really haven't gotten this stuff to work very well for programming (or disciplines where you need to exercise knowledge rather than archive it in a system). I either find I need to memorise the stuff more directly with Anki, or having to practice skills in a real world context.
Also, you activate more of your capabilities as a thinking creature that way. Why just approach a problem with your fingertips on a keyboard when you can activate your visual, spatial, and temporal processing capabilities?
Personally, I’ve recently fallen in love with Leuchtturm notebooks. I bought the great big 83+ one, a nice Japanese mechanical pencil, and I’ve been going to town on problems ever since.
I encourage you to abandon this pursuit and let your human mind perform it’s most wonderful magic: synthesizing, compressing and expanding mental inputs.
Don’t get in the way of this magic:
throw everything you can into the input chute and marvel at the connections that result.
Unfortunately, Commonmark and Markdown have a widespread ecosystem and are recognized everywhere. There are commonmark preview tools available even for the terminal (glow, mdcat). Its ecosystem makes Commonmark a necessary evil, at least for me. You can also find literate programming tools for Commonmark. You can edit Commonmark in lots of different editors and many static site generators work primarily on Commonmark (Mkdocs Material, Hugo, Zola).
The only other viable alternative I know of is Emacs Org Mode. However, OrgMode is tied to Emacs and you'll have to be comfortable with Emacs to use OrgMode. There are some addons for editors like Neovim but they're not at feature parity and probably never will be because of the inherent limitations of a terminal (showing multiple different monospace fonts, for example). Emacs can generate HTML using Org documents. There's ox-hugo for the Hugo static site generator.
File format not going away. Sync on onedrive. Outlining. Formatting. Integration with referencing software. Already installed on any windows machine I use. And when I want to write a paper I'm in the right app already.
Crazy huh.
Equation editing is horrible if there are lots of them but in the plus side word mostly understands latex math these days.
Whatever you do consider its got to last 40+ years of a career and if it becomes too difficult to maintain you will likely stop.
Obsidian, logseq, roam, foam, org mode, notion, remnote, evernote, dendron, zettlr, tiddlywiki, joplin, devonthink, thebrain, heptabase, scrintal, ...
My advice would be:
1. pick something that works outside the browser
2. pick something that you can sync, and that has a mobile solution for quick notes on-the-go
3. pick something that works on a "future-proof" plain-text format, e.g. .txt files or .md
4. some tools offer spaced repetition integration, either as core functionality, as plugin, or by syncing to a dedicated SRS app like Anki. If you find a way to frictionlessly create SR cards in your notes, that can be a nice way of keeping some knowledge "cached"
5. keep it simple in general, don't rely too much on specific tools or workflows. they will all cease to work/go out of business at some point.
6. If you are going with any solution that operates on a local folder of .md/.txt/.org files, a nice goodie is that you can actually version your notes with git.
Note: Do something Read later: some url and description Bug: whatever
Then I'll just grep on a particular term and keyword and rank by filename to get the most recent.
This can only be an individual question. Try things.
My notes are essentially books in markdown format, which I can open with the editor/IDE I use when working on any project.
My opinions are:
- the vast majority of the effort is spent on cataloguing knowledge when adding new notes (that is, keeping each book consistently structured); this is something that no tool can do, and as a consequence, any tool will probably do equal.
- a consequence of the cataloguing effort is that the brain better remembers the topics stored.
- searching is where the other effort goes; I've found that as long as the books are consistently structured, and one puts a bit of effort to make concepts easily findable, a textual search does well. probably, a tool to do fulltext search may help in some cases, but I rarely find the need
- there are interesting differences between doing a google search and searching a stored concept: 1. the stored concept is processed 2. the search follows my brain organization, not a search engine's
- I do only very basic cross-referencing; my method will probably be inadequate if this is a requirement
For things that require rote memorization (say, System-V x64 calling conventions), I use Anki.
I take notes almost only for computer/science related stuff. If I had to catalogue diverse topics, I'd probably just use subdirectories.
(1) https://github.com/64kramsystem/personal_notes/tree/master/t...
Kitchen sink is yet to be implemented[1], but for everything else you are covered:
- Executable blocks
- Footnotes
- Inline charts/images
- TODOs tracking
- Multi-device support (there are mobile apps)
It's not going away any time soon, and you can always add-on stuff yourself if you familiarize yourself with emacs-lisp.
Which is to say, rereading and multiple sources spread over time is much much more effective...and rereading and repetition from multiple sources is what note taking is.
But only if you go back and read your notes. And I didn't. So I stopped taking them.
What I realize now, writing this, is my note taking was driven by fear of missing out. That's how we are taught in school. If you don't take notes during the lecture, you will miss what you need to know for the test.
Life after school isn't that way. There's no final exams every sixteen weeks, no pop quiz on Tuesday, and no problem set tonight...or at least it's all optional.
And on the bright side, to a first approximation life entails missing out on almost everything. Time on Physics is time away from poetry, geology, and the pub.
Good luck.
[1]: I still make actionable notes. And I still make notes of my potentially actionable ideas.
1. Capture: every interesting idea that I think up or read is immediately stored in Google Keep (on mobile or laptop). It can be very rough at this point, the goal is simply to not forget.
2. Transcribe & Organize: every weekend, I go through the notes I accumulated during the week. It tends to be between 10 and 30 notes. Sometimes the note is "read this article" or "catch up on all newsletters", so understanding a single note can take over an hour. On some tough weekends the process takes an entire day, but that is invariably a day where I feel like I learned a ton. Once the note is cleaned up (transcribed), I feel like I understand it. At this point I rarely forget it - it has been absorbed into my brain. The final step here is "categorizing" the note. I classify it using OneNote with tabs like "Clinical psychology" (nested under "Psychology") or "Investment management" (nested under "Finance") or "Math" or "Physics". This way, in the future, I don't have a million notes scattered around, but one clear place I know where to look. On average, this process takes 2-4 hours per weekend. I never accumulate bookmarks, Google Keep notes or unread emails more than a week to prevent existential dread.
3. Revisit: generally, people recommend you revisit your notes from time to time. I almost never do this. But if I ever am thinking about "Marketing" or "Sociology", I have an immense, high SNR repository of everything I've ever found valuable on the topic. I've done this for software interviews and it's been incredibly helpful.
Overall, I attribute this system to making me much smarter. It has been an invaluable investment.
Karl Voit did a dissertation on using tags, and developed some software to help...
How to Use Tags https://karl-voit.at/2022/01/29/How-to-Use-Tags/ (and there are several other posts on the subject)
Tagstore: https://karl-voit.at/tagstore/en/papers.shtml
Personally, me still be try to find system to work in own small head. Many head acheings yet.
...in slightly more recent related discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32252957
...where I said, before updating it: "I have a very structured proces that has grown up over time, using OneModel (aka OM) software I wrote (AGPL; link and some more info in my profile). I often capture thoughts using voice notes on my phone, then roughly daily I commit those to the OM notes in the right place so that I will come across them again at the most convenient time for me -- they go in the calendar, topic notes, long-term planning, todo list, in-progress-ideas notes, staging of tasks I haven't prioritized yet, etc. Then daily, I review eac of those areas and update the plan for the day before starting on it. My daily routine of processing those things, then using them, has been very helpful to me, not just for staying organized, but deciding & remembering what to focus on in my practicing/improving of habits next, periodic reviews (some of which are also in Anki), etc."
I have been using this about daily for over 10 years and it is extremely helpful to me in a variety of ways, in daily use. Helps me keep track of long-term purpose, short-term todos, everything in between, and more.
https://www.jetpens.com/Apica-Premium-C.D.-Notebook-B5-7-mm-...
+
Pilot Vanishing Point Fountain Pen (Or Lamy Safari 2000)
After using Remarkable tablet (and iPad with pencil) for nearly 2 years, and various notes tech (mem.ai, roam, logseq), for “serious” notes (I.e learning a new topic) I went back to my handwriting days and realized what I was missing. Key features:
1. You can flip through pages really fast and find your notes from visual cues. Ah yes I remember how the page looked, here it is.
2. You can create an index page to quickly find topics you’ve written about. No need to build an exhaustive index right away. When you find yourself hunting for “where did I write about this equation”, then make an entry after finding it.
3. You can freely make diagrams, link things on a page with arrows, circle portions of text or equations and write side notes in different color pens (stabilo pens are good for this)
4. No shoulder/wrist strain issues from computer typing.
5. You really do find yourself revisiting your notes often. Even if you don’t, remember Feynman:
>”A visitor came to Richard Feynman's office. When he saw Fenyman's notebooks, he was excited to see "records of Feynman's thinking." Feynman replied, "They aren't a record of my thinking process. They are my thinking process." Writing is thinking. Plenty of people think, then write.”
Of course “write” can be interpreted as writing on computer, but Especially for “mathy” notes, I believe writing with pen + paper makes a huge difference in learning, thinking, retention, recall.
I’m no Luddite but I’d like to focus on what really matters (my learning and recall, and yes the quality of my experience) and avoid contributing to some startup’s ARR and a VC’s returns.
I still use logseq (and Apple notes) for less serious things like quick meeting notes or pasting receipts etc.
In the end, I went back to pencil and paper. Not pen, but pencil. I buy good quality notebooks like the Midori MD Paper A5, and good quality pencils like the Mars Lumograph.
I use the most minimal "system" possible which is a pared-back version of Bullet Journaling with all the dumb stuff removed.
Because I can't write nearly as fast as I can type it forces me to paraphrase, and I feel like the cognitive processing therein increases retention.
As an added benefit, it's trivial to incorporate diagrams, arrows and stuff to show logical links, etc.
More generally, this topic has come to be referred to as PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) and TFT (Tools For Thought). IME Obsidian.md stands out for its power and flexibility and community, though Roam Research (and Athens, its OSS counterpart), logseq, and Notion have their merits.
HTH!
2) and 4) make any kind of third-party service/SaaS a no go. Otherwise, you'll have to set up periodic export to a preservable format, which acts as a speed bump. If the service becomes popular, it may attempt lock-in by throttling export features.
For now, I'm using Obsidian. It's accessible from all my devices. Because it uses markdown, the notes will remain accessible even if the software dies. It supports searching but I can also search using any search tool.
Additionally, I use Anki flash cards and its spaced repetition features to recall key info. I link them to my notes in case I feel like delving deeper into a topic. Unfortunately, because Anki uses SQLite locally and its own closed-source server for syncing, it doesn't satisfy many of my criteria. For now, I've set up periodic exports until I can find a sustainable alternative to Anki.
After University, I wanted to approach the same rigor to the topics I care about. Becoming the next Humboldt, Goethe and alike but all note-taking systems I have used over the past couple of years (PARA, Cornell Notes, Zettelkasten, Obsidian, Anki, recording audio files, simply writing in a text file, physical Journal, hope of simply remembering information etc.) always seemed promising first but eventually, I ran into the following problems:
1. Too time-consuming to maintain 2. Too detailed or too extensive to be useful to future me 3. Too constraining (Learning for me is a mix of organic accumulation [coming across same/similar topics over time] and guided thinking) and foreign to the way my brain operates 4. Not enough time for revision (big one)
... and probably many more problems I haven't discovered yet.
Since then, I've created my own system:
1. Using any text editor or pen and paper 2. I jot down my dominant feeling or dominant feelings after reading a piece of information (for example, I feel X after I've read Y) 3. Writing down answers to a couple of Why questions until I have found the root of feeling X 4. Writing out a thought experiment (if variable Z of [causes or root of feeling X] changes, how would it effect feeling X?)
A note-taking system should help you reflect on the information you take in and since we reflect in different ways, designing your own system will help you understand and remember information better. Occasionally wondering about the same topics over and over again and then remembering that you have already written about it a couple of times already, will start an inner dialogue that will get you further into a topic than you would have expected.
Learning for life and studying for a profession, is vastly different. It depends on whether you want to just know or to apply, and then throw as much time at it as you possibly can, in a way that enables you to differentiate between the important and irrelevant bits. Any note-taking system is just a platform for this process.
Here is an example of what I did for Stanford CS 230 notes: https://github.com/fagan2888/CS230_notes/blob/main/section1/...
I used to write things down. But I am very OCD about the page yellowing or creasing. Also if I made a mistake I usually trash the sheet and rewrite it. For me notes are a way for regurgitating digested information in good details. I do not ever want to look through the book or course, once I have already covered it. So, yes its a bit tedious, but I save time on the long run
You don't technically need anything more complicated than this.
The important thing is you take notes and actually use them.
I even blog and journal on GitHub.
In most cases, make sure each note are self-contained and can be reviewed without the original text or other notes. Referencing is okay, but usually, you don't want to keep an idea contained in a million places.
If needed, add a diagram or tree or nested tags to show where each note fits in the scheme of a grander picture on a topic.
Looking for a set of notes in a helpful sequence is usually not going to be as effective, aside from chronologic notes of what happened in what sequence.
2. When you produce content, consider (A) what you want to achieve by producing the content, and (B) how you want to find the content later.
3. Use one global namespace for named concepts. Category / taxonomy / tags belongs in metadata.
Why the goals? If your system supports your goals, you will continue to use it and get value from it. If your system doesn't support your goals, it becomes tedious to use, and you'll abandon your notes.
I encourage you to put your notes publicly on the web. Public notes have URLs, and there's no easier way to read content. You're going to remember notes.yourname.com/THING, or just go via notes.yourname.com to list / search.
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My information architecture consists of named concepts, journals and metadata.
Named concepts is the top level. Wikipedia uses this structure. There's one global namespace with sufficiently qualified names. You are going to remember your note by this name. Disambiguate in your global names.
Journals are organized by date. The advantage of journals is that you don't have to name anything. In general, it's nice to start with a journal, and collect named concepts on demand. Journals don't have to be discoverable.
Metadata helps you discover and index your notes. Categories and tags go here. But don't go nuts on categorization, think about what those categories should achieve. Remember the fact boxes on Wikipedia? Those are driven by concept metadata. Sometimes it's better to embed a table or a nested list on a concept page than introduce metadata. "Is this helpful to understand the concept?" - put it on the page. "Is this helpful to find/index your content?" - it's metadata.
Let's say you want to learn FUSE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_in_Userspace). Create a journal page for learning FUSE, and tag it as "open problem". Make sure you can list open problems. Each time you've got some time, open your FUSE journal, and work to understand something. Read the man page. Read wikipedia. Read the source. But annotate! Take notes in your journal as you go. When you revisit your FUSE journal, you can easily rediscover where you were last time, and decide where you want to go next.
You need a master index of what you do where.
Then use sub indices until you reach your concrete notes. Don't expect these to be tidy or simple. They are living documents.
https://medium.com/@stoicminimalist/getting-things-done-with...
Ill likely end up where I always do, hoping i saved a gist of something i keep coming back to, but never take notes on, then i look for note taking stuff again
Congratulations, now you’ve developed a solution to your question while learning some CS along the way.
Anything I finish gets deleted or delegated, anything I can’t use gets posted or integrated into future writings.
I also use OneNote as a temporary place for holding relevant information (screenshots, text or pdf printouts) about a bug or a feature I'm developing.
You will almost never revisit them in a meaningful way. It is better to just focus on using note-taking to pay attention.
You see, the way in which I've taken up the anatomy study is simply to copy every drawing in "Morpho" (a 300-plus page volume full of anatomical reference material, different perspectives and poses). This takes months, even with the relatively brief treatments I've giving to each drawing. No school class sits you down at the start and says "your assignment for the class is to copy every page in the textbook".
But the results speak for themselves. My understanding of figures and faces has improved a ton by simply going through the book and drawing what I see over and over. Where it's lacking the most is in the places where I haven't yet finished my study.
And it makes sense. We don't teach sports by quizzing athletes with lengthy descriptions of the situation, but by drilling the muscle memory in small chunks and then putting it together. There's no reason why learning of other topics wouldn't be the same.
But it's also high effort to put in that degree of drill. Most people searching for an ultimate knowledge system aren't willing to forsake that much and want to focus on the tools and the data collection process. But this isn't a good adaptation to an info-saturated world. Collection and organization is a professional field all its own: that's the type of thing a library scientist does. If you collect in an overly general way, you compete with the librarians. To do better than them you have to filter and apply the more intensive method to a smaller number of topics.
For example, a mediocre way to keep up with news is to consume predigested news products. The headline usually says about as much as is necessary; the rest is formulaic and designed for engagement. Looking to an expert is also misleading because they'll make a statement from within their own self-interest(e.g. medical professionals with disease) and build up an echo chamber around their seniority. To go deep on any one news subject you have to start compiling your own data, ask your own questions, pursue your own leads. But you can't do all of them.
What you can feasibly do(and which I do from time to time) is look at statements coming from within corporations and public institutions about data: earnings reports, surveys, and so on. While occasionally misleading, these modes of information are usually designed to clear up confusion and present credible explanations for stakeholders. They are not as exciting as gossip journalism, but they often signal underlying trends, and you can summarize those into small-p principles that you'll filter future data through. So then you become more efficient without changing any of your habits around consumption.