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My question, what program would one use to start his/her own personal knowledge base? Or do I have to be a software developer and create my own?
Low-friction access is important.
another benefit: writing something down burns it more into your brain, so u more likely will remember it without even looking it up
> writing something down burns it more into your brain Yes, and the recall effect is much stronger if you use handwriting vs typing[0] [0] see for example https://redbooth.com/blog/handwriting-and-memory/amp
That's a good thing, because I'd have to rely on my memory rather than trying to read my handwriting.
My question, what program would one use to start his/her own personal knowledge base? Or do I have to be a software developer and create my own?
The trick is organisation. This is the hard part, but it's also the hard part if you keep paper notes. I have some catch alls, '_inbox.md', '_work.md', '_til.md' (where I keep track of things I've learned today, I try my best to go back and re-read the previous weeks every once in a while) to keep track of random/non-catagorisable notes; but other things exist in 'administation/' (ie. 'administration/linux', 'administration/windows'), 'intersting-articles/', 'programming/*', 'work/meetings/__.md'.
If you use sublimetext and the above plugins, cmd/ctrl-r (navigate open doc by symbols) lets you move/search through headings quite easily. My '_work.md' file has a list of dates at the top for when things are due and uses '- [ ]' as checkboxes (which MarkdownPreview outputs as html checkboxes).
I find that as long as I write it down and watch what I'm writing (don't just copy without following your output) it helps to make it stick—or at least gives me a spatial memory of where it might be.
Flexibility is key. But what works for me, probably doesn't work for you. The important part is just to start doing it, write down all the things. Once you find something you'd like to be better about it, improve it. The nice thing about text files is that they are easy to parse and transform into something else.
[0]: To keep allow you to paste images into your markdown files. I've modified it so that it stores the files in a '.images' directory in the same location as the .md file. ImagePaste also has an image preview mode that lets you expand images directly inline in sublime-text.
It's kinda pricey, and I'm taking the course right now. But I find it's pretty effective overall. It uses evernote as the default platform for your PKM.
* Take notes throughout the day. I do this in a notebook.
* At the end of the day, collate those notes into long term storage with a link to the source material.
* When an idea or theme begins to arise, create a document to begin building on that idea, linking to the notes you've taken.
There's a little more regarding organization of notes and linking and so forth. I like the idea and in the short time that I've been practicing this approach I feel like I am getting a much deeper understanding of the texts that I read. Again, time will tell.
Although high general intelligence is common among hackers, it is not the sine qua non one might expect. Another trait is probably even more important: the ability to mentally absorb, retain, and reference large amounts of ‘meaningless’ detail, trusting to later experience to give it context and meaning. A person of merely average analytical intelligence who has this trait can become an effective hacker, but a creative genius who lacks it will swiftly find himself outdistanced by people who routinely upload the contents of thick reference manuals into their brains.
I'm a researcher. Absorbing data in a "blue sky" kind of way ("no idea if i'll need this, this doesn't serve any explicit purpose, but hey it seems interesting") is a survival trait.
another benefit: writing something down burns it more into your brain, so u more likely will remember it without even looking it up
> writing something down burns it more into your brain Yes, and the recall effect is much stronger if you use handwriting vs typing[0] [0] see for example https://redbooth.com/blog/handwriting-and-memory/amp
Hand writing forces you to rephrase in your own words because you can't write fast enough to keep up—but there's no reason you can't apply this same method to typing, AND get all the benefits of legible, searchable, organisable, easily expandable text documents.
Inside is mostly documentation, to-dos, recommendations of friends, notes, poems etc...
I've found with several groups of material that reconnecting your brain's old steps in logic is way easier. The same material in a different way can feel interestingly very foreign.