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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?

#71

Post by item007 »

mstump wrote: post #8

I attempted to handle some of what you're suggesting via the plugin ecosystem utilizing a vector database for RAG, and LLMs to auto-suggest tags or related docs. None of the plugins seem to get this quite right. The extensions were pretty brittle, and limited in terms of what they could do with the open doc. I now do most of my new note creation/editing and organization through cursor and custom built agent flows. Th…

Super helpful！Thank you for sharing your experience; it serves as a valuable reminder for me.

Could you tell me what the main and specific challenges or difficulties were during your implementation process?

If you could fix one limitation of the current Obsidian/PKM plugin approach, what would it be (UX, reliability, on-device, or integration with tasks)?

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

#72

Post by item007 »

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, combined with the evolution driven by new challenges!

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

#73

Post by item007 »

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…

"anti-memory system" Cool~！

When it comes to stimulating AI creativity, it may indeed be better to impose fewer constraints. However, in most scenarios, problems are likely still solved through simple information aggregation, refinement, analysis, and planning, right?

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

#76

Post by item007 »

rapjr9 wrote: post #19

While I do hoard notes I've realized over the years that the main reason I write notes is as a memory aid. If I write it down I remember it better, and I'm more likely to do it. Notes also act as a filter because I write stuff down, sometimes review the notes later, and decide what I wrote down isn't worth doing, so making a note of an idea essentially gives me a delay to review the idea and decide if it is worth doi…

Thank you for your feedback. That makes sense — for many people notes are primarily a memory/idea-filter, not a task generator.

Context, long-term memory, and storage issues are indeed challenges currently facing AI and large language models (LLMs), and they're not unique to the scenarios we're discussing. However, with technological advancements, I believe these issues will eventually be resolved.

Based on your requirements, it seems you need to grant the AI sufficiently broad access and privacy permissions. That said, leveraging what you've already stored, achieving the fuzzy retrieval functionality you mentioned should be feasible.

It's impressive that you can recall exactly where to find your notes! That said, active retrieval still requires you to remember what you're looking for. I think your fuzzy retrieval concept shares some similarities with what I'm aiming for—where the AI offers suggestions based on your intended actions, even when you haven't consciously decided what to search for. Wouldn't you welcome that kind of assistance?

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

#77

Post by item007 »

qwertox wrote: post #38

- task project (Todoist/Things/Reminders) - issues/boards (GitHub/Linear/Jira) - a doc/wiki page (Notion/Docs) - calendar - "in my head" Which one would you actually allow a tool to read? None. Unless self-hosted and open source.

Totally fair. If it isn’t self-hosted / open-source, many people will never allow it near their notes. If you imagine a local-first version: what would you actually want first — (a) local semantic search/RAG, (b) extracting action items on demand, or (c) proactive suggestions? I’m trying to understand what’s worth building even under strict constraints.

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

#79

Post by item007 »

input_sh wrote: post #22

I legitimately don't struggle with this. I have the "root" note which opens by default whenever I reset my Obsidian vault and it shows three lists: 1. most recently updated notes 2. most recently created notes 3. notes I've added to my favourites On top of a search bar that doesn't suck, this is pretty much all I ever need. As for "AI", it's never going anywhere near my notes. It's supposed to be my second brain fill…

Appreciate the clear boundary.

If we reframe it as non-generative assistance (pure local indexing + better retrieval, no writing), would that still be a “no”, or is the hard line specifically about model processing?

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

#80

Post by item007 »

inetknght wrote: post #9

> What I’m asking from you: > 1.Where does your “second brain” break down the most? First and foremost, remembering to write notes or to review them. What do I want? Is there a timeline that requires things to be done before it becomes invalid or increases liability? Secondly, remembering to do actions instead of sitting down and doing something that gives some dopamine. I decide I want to work on a project on my com…

Thank you for your free comments. That makes sense. Local-first seems like the only viable starting point for “important” notes. On pricing: would you prefer a one-time purchase, or “bring your own model” (Ollama etc.) so the ongoing cost is basically compute you already own? Also: what would be an acceptable failure mode — missing suggestions vs occasional wrong suggestions?
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