(2) notes to organize internal thought: a canvas for generating/synthesizing/connecting/etc ideas. Things like personal commentary on topics, weighing pros/cons of different future actions, drafts of song lyrics, research ideas, etc. I think your comment is mostly based on thinking of notes as (1). A lot of people that constantly review notes are talking about category (2). 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. 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. > During undergrad, I found I rarely reviewed my class notes, and when I did they weren’t very helpful. That's interesting, because I almost wanted to make the exact opposite point. I'm actually right now in the process of revisiting my notes, and I think it helps me a lot. 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) That does in no way make it easier to read them, but it helps in actually reading them. Then, reading notes and really understanding something will always be hard. 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. 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. To be honest, though, that is just a guess.

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