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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?

#211

Post by hahahahhaah »

hahahahhaah wrote: post #210
item007 wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is super helpful, thanks. The “search as a context switch” point is real, and the 80/15/5 split (Jira/Slack/Confluence) matches what I’ve seen too. On the compliance point: totally fair. To clarify, I’m not assuming a company-wide deployment — I’m primarily thinking about a personal tool/workflow where you control what it can read (and for many people that means local-only or only non-sensitive sources). Your en…

I will answer then check the bio :). Mom test and all that. So with compliance even connecting a tool I download to an approved LLM is difficult. I need to get approval. If the tool is just a tool and doesn't use AI (and thus send out private data) it is easier. I think that is a problem they should solve i.e. give a safe LLM endpoint and let me choose my tools but alas. I think what saves me time is difficult to say…

Now read your profile link.

Something like this can be somewhat useful (not saying I would pay though!)

I would like to have 1000 or so vetted docs (can manually or AI vet). E.g. public API doc > internal API doc > Internal RFC > Some guys internal note they made public.

Take RFC and higher links and surface the ones I need for thw project. Chuck them in the Jira ticket.

That would be handy. But it isn't my biggest problem. So not sure how that squares up. With AI I can build this internally in a bespoke way (this is the general disruption AI has on any SaaS idea lol!) so not sure what sauce you would need.

The other AI problem is you are fighting the bitter lesson. By October CC might do this as a one sentence one shot.

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

#212

Post by item007 »

hahahahhaah wrote: post #211
hahahahhaah wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will answer then check the bio :). Mom test and all that. So with compliance even connecting a tool I download to an approved LLM is difficult. I need to get approval. If the tool is just a tool and doesn't use AI (and thus send out private data) it is easier. I think that is a problem they should solve i.e. give a safe LLM endpoint and let me choose my tools but alas. I think what saves me time is difficult to say…

Now read your profile link. Something like this can be somewhat useful (not saying I would pay though!) I would like to have 1000 or so vetted docs (can manually or AI vet). E.g. public API doc > internal API doc > Internal RFC > Some guys internal note they made public. Take RFC and higher links and surface the ones I need for thw project. Chuck them in the Jira ticket. That would be handy. But it isn't my biggest p…

Thanks for your support! And you’re right, what you described is very much the enterprise version of this problem (curated corpora + Jira/Confluence + compliance).

Just to clarify my scope: I’m starting with a personal, individual workflow (toC) where you control the sources end-to-end — local files, bookmarks, email, personal docs, etc. I’m not assuming company integrations, approval flows, or “drop into Jira” as the primary surface (those are a different product/compliance game).

That said, your “vetted docs + provenance + surface into the place you already work” framing is still useful in the personal setting too: a small trusted set of sources, always show citations/snippets, and a low-friction output surface (e.g. a task/project note you already use).

If you were applying the same idea personally, what would your “output surface” be — a todo app, calendar, a project doc, or just a weekly review note?

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

#213

Post by item007 »

nixonaddiction wrote: post #209

ive been using obsidian for about 4 years. my main obsidian is my diary. recaps of everything i did that day, and working through my thoughts. sometimes i draft emails in thre. i dont reread it unless i need to know what i was doing on a specific day 3 years ago. once a daily note is finished i do not touch it again. it is mainly there for historical purposes. i have a separate obsidian for work notes. code im workin…

That’s a really interesting split: daily “historical log” for recall (3 years later), plus a separate work vault where docs are essentially a living project index. That’s a very sane way to avoid turning everything into one giant, overfit system.

Two things I’m curious about:

1.When you say you “mainly slip up when I write something in the wrong document” — is that mostly a friction/UX issue (too many similar places), or a missing “active project” surface that tells you where you are right now?

2.In grad school mode, what changes fastest for you: the set of active projects, or the kinds of inputs (papers/notes/emails/reading list) you’re trying to connect?

I’m exploring a goal-first workflow where you keep a small number of active targets/projects and let that drive re-entry and resurfacing (details in my HN profile/bio if you’re curious).

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

#214

Post by item007 »

koakuma-chan wrote: post #208
item007 wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we might be talking past each other a bit. I’m not trying to build “a better personal library manager” or “AI search over your notes”. The core idea is goal-first: you set a small number of active targets/projects, and the system uses whatever sources you already have (even a small amount) to propose concrete options you can choose from: a plan, a checklist, tradeoffs, or a next experiment that moves that tar…

What I'm saying is that, if I need to know how to achieve X, I can go into, say, ChatGPT, and ask, "how to achieve X?"—I don't see why I would need a separate app for that. I don't see much value in an app that just inserts some notes or blog posts into the LLM's context for me. But it could just be that I don't collect that kind of notes or something. Maybe this would work for somebody else.

Understand and thanks again.

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

#215

Post by koakuma-chan »

item007 wrote: post #214
koakuma-chan wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I'm saying is that, if I need to know how to achieve X, I can go into, say, ChatGPT, and ask, "how to achieve X?"—I don't see why I would need a separate app for that. I don't see much value in an app that just inserts some notes or blog posts into the LLM's context for me. But it could just be that I don't collect that kind of notes or something. Maybe this would work for somebody else.

Understand and thanks again.

No problem

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

#216

Post by ge96 »

item007 wrote: post #93
ge96 wrote: post #63

For work I have a daily note (Apple Notes) and I just write my thoughts by time stamps eg. 10:30 AM ... Unfortunately I am a "write to remember" type person My phone color notes (Android) and 70% of my screen is a note widget. This is always in my face so stuff I want to get done is at the top. Then I write on top of it kind of pushing stuff/the stack downwards. I have a Twilio number I text to remind myself of stuff…

Thank you for sharing your excellent habit. May I ask, do you record all the information you receive—emails, articles, posts, etc.—that you find useful as notes? My current idea extends beyond just notes to encompass all the information you collect that you think might be useful. Wouldn't it be valuable if you didn't have to manually organize and summarize it?

No this is just stream of consciousness kind of thing, and for future look up/search.

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

#219

Post by jackson1994 »

pcardoso wrote: post #81

I tend to hoard things sometimes: links, notes, screenshots with useful tidbits, scraps of paper with notes… One of the things I keep is the list of stuff I did during the day for when the standup call comes. Sometimes I forgot of mention a lot of stuff. Then a few weeks ago I build the MVP of a note taking app specifically for this purpose: what did I do, what am I doing next, am I blocked by something? No backend,…

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