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Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#141

Post by item007 »

WilcoKruijer wrote: post #139

I’ve recently started using a similar process to what you’re describing. It basically involves writing/speaking to AI in an unstructured manner, and having it extract entries for my knowledge base based on a certain schema. I built a tool to validate the entries to the schema, giving the AI a feedback loop so it can automatically fix/improve the entries. It also supports linking. I use agentic search in both entering…

I read the post — the plain-text accounting analogy is a great fit. The “unit test for knowledge” idea (a checker like bean-check, but for schema + links) feels like the missing feedback loop for most AI-assisted note workflows, and using git/history as the trust layer makes it much more auditable.

I also like the idempotency/provenance angle (unique IDs/links, checkpointing) and the “commit processing” workflow — that’s a concrete example of turning ongoing work into structured, queryable knowledge without a ton of manual ceremony.

Curious: in practice, what improved your quality the most — schema validation catching broken links/types, or constraining the entity set so the agent can’t invent structure? Also, do you find yourself actually using the query language day-to-day, or is it mostly agent-driven retrieval?

I’m exploring a similar closed-loop (context → retrieval → suggestion → human review → write-back) and summarized my angle in my HN profile/bio if you want to compare approaches.

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#142

Post by item007 »

phippsytech wrote: post #137

I hoard information that I find interesting but cannot act on right now, mostly because engaging with it immediately would derail me. The problem is that I almost never come back to what I have saved. A simple example is YouTube. I save videos to watch later because I am not in the right headspace at the time. Then I avoid them completely. I think part of the resistance is that I know watching them properly will dema…

This resonates a lot. “Save now so I don’t derail myself” is rational in the moment, but it creates a pile that later feels like a commitment (attention + follow-up work), so you avoid it.

I think you’re pointing at two separate problems that get tangled:

1. Re-entry: how to resurface the right item when you’re actually in the right mode

2. Filtering: deciding what’s worth keeping so the backlog doesn’t become guilt

The “radio-style passive feed” is interesting because it changes the contract: you’re not promising yourself you’ll do deep work, you’re just letting the system replay what you captured at a low cognitive cost. If it worked, it could also become a filter: only the stuff that still feels valuable on playback deserves a second pass.

One question: if you had a “listen/read later” mode, would you prefer it to be time-based (10 minutes a day) or context-based (only when you mark yourself as in a “curious/exploration” headspace)?

Details in my HN profile/bio if you want to compare this to the “active projects + pull-based resurfacing” angle I’m validating.

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#144

Post by item007 »

mrklol wrote: post #143

My main problem always was that I hoard these links and never read again. Now I am trying to get a short summary (via llm‘s) and it works quite well.

Summaries are a great first step — they reduce the friction of “re-reading”, and they can help you decide what’s actually worth keeping.

The question I’m curious about is what happens after the summary: do you want it to end as “good to know”, or do you sometimes want it to turn into something concrete (a bookmark tagged to an active topic, a short brief, or a next action)?

If you’re open to one more detail: how do you consume the summaries today — a daily digest you pull when you have time, or do you generate them only when you’re searching for something?

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#145

Post by nicbou »

visarga wrote: post #59
nicbou wrote: post #21

At some point, organisation can become a form of procrastination. Building a second brain is not Doing The Thing.[0] A note is not an intention. It commits to memory, not to action. I really don't care about having a whole searchable, tagged database; I hardly ever look at those notes again. At work I have topic-based Markdown notes. Sometimes I collect information about a topic for a few weeks or months, and eventua…

Me too, I already exported my data from all platforms including HN and indexed them in a RAG database but I don't feel like using them much. They are past oriented and I need present oriented stuff. With LLMs I noticed I don't like when they use chat history search or memory functions, it makes them fall into a rut and become less creative. I even got to a point where I made an "anti-memory system" - a MCP tool that…

I put my data on a timeline because I find it interesting, but I rarely check it.

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#146

Post by nicbou »

item007 wrote: post #72
nicbou wrote: post #21

At some point, organisation can become a form of procrastination. Building a second brain is not Doing The Thing.[0] A note is not an intention. It commits to memory, not to action. I really don't care about having a whole searchable, tagged database; I hardly ever look at those notes again. At work I have topic-based Markdown notes. Sometimes I collect information about a topic for a few weeks or months, and eventua…

+1 to “organization as procrastination”. I’m trying to avoid making the archive more “beautiful” and instead make it more actionable. It seems you're more accustomed to treating stored information as memories rather than a knowledge base. That's perfectly fine. However, I personally believe that the progress humans and AI have made to reach our current stage likely stems largely from the accumulation of knowledge, co…

It's just information. Even calling it knowledge is a stress because it more closely reflects my emotional state than actual truth.

It's only useful in the context of understanding myself.

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#147

Post by nicbou »

tolerance wrote: post #107
nicbou wrote: post #21

At some point, organisation can become a form of procrastination. Building a second brain is not Doing The Thing.[0] A note is not an intention. It commits to memory, not to action. I really don't care about having a whole searchable, tagged database; I hardly ever look at those notes again. At work I have topic-based Markdown notes. Sometimes I collect information about a topic for a few weeks or months, and eventua…

> Building a second brain is not Doing The Thing. I hate the concept of a “second brain” but this isn’t necessarily true. Those guides you make at work seemingly precede the action of someone else, right? And even if the notes you write for yourself aren’t needed afterwards, don’t they contribute to “doing the thing”?

These notes are explicitly part of the process, but they're just markdown files in a folder.

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#148

Post by item007 »

nicbou wrote: post #146
item007 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 to “organization as procrastination”. I’m trying to avoid making the archive more “beautiful” and instead make it more actionable. It seems you're more accustomed to treating stored information as memories rather than a knowledge base. That's perfectly fine. However, I personally believe that the progress humans and AI have made to reach our current stage likely stems largely from the accumulation of knowledge, co…

It's just information. Even calling it knowledge is a stress because it more closely reflects my emotional state than actual truth. It's only useful in the context of understanding myself.

I get that, and I think that distinction is healthy.

“Knowledge base” can imply objective truth and completeness, which creates pressure. For a lot of us, what we store is really a snapshot of attention, curiosity, anxiety, and identity at a moment in time — more like a personal log than a database.

One framing that helps me is: the archive isn’t “truth”, it’s “evidence of what I cared about”, and it’s only useful when it reduces friction for a real moment (re-entry, reflection, or a concrete next step). Otherwise it’s just noise.

Do you find it more useful as a mirror (patterns about yourself), or as a tool (helping you make decisions / take action)?

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#150

Post by 41d »

item007 wrote: post #121
41d wrote: post #65

I completely agree, and I've been thinking about how to utilize the knowledge I've accumulated recently. In the end, I settled on the mundane solution of saving it locally in YAML or JSON, and now I'm considering how to get the AI to suggest and utilize it, and where and when to execute it. I think this is a great idea, and I'd love to be on the waitlist when the landing page is ready, so please let me know. 1. searc…

Thanks — this is extremely helpful, especially the constraints: you want semantic search + “where/when to execute”, calendar as a key context source, and migration cost as a hard friction point. YAML/JSON as a local knowledge store is a nice wedge too: it keeps things portable and makes “AI suggestions” easier to reason about. Re the waitlist: the landing page is up now ( https://concerns.vercel.app ), and you can le…

Thank you for your quick work! I've registered right away.

Of those two, I'd choose A.

I'm looking forward to hearing more.

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