Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain” • Hacker News Board

Re: Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain”

#21

Post by joe8756438 » Sun, Jun 14, 2020, 2:21 PM UTC

I recently built a note-taking system [0] to capture ideas quickly. The notes are parsed as a DSL that understands different organizational techniques. It also picks up on symbols for tracking things over time, such as transactions and events.

What is great about the DSL is that once learned you can express a lot of information without disrupting flow. To me that is one of the biggest barriers for taking notes via phone or computer. Once a good note-taking habit is developed it's wonderful to have that reservoir of information and ideas to pull from.

0. https://www.tatatap.com/how-to

Re: Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain”

#22

Post by themodelplumber » Sun, Jun 14, 2020, 3:11 PM UTC

FakeRemore wrote: post #15

I've always found it a bit odd (and a bit frustrating) that many programs around knowledge-building/note-taking are Mac-only. Anybody know why that is? Devonthink sounds like such an interesting tool that I'd love to try, but it's Mac only. This article's author relies on two tools which, at first glance, are also Mac-only. That said, am I the only one finding it really hard to parse pages of illustrations? It feels…

Just a guess: Apple has been selling the big picture (via gentle philosophy, top-down design planning, and ads featuring what must be meta-planning data or it's way too simple) since the very beginning. This gave Apple an early lead in the idea space. Their white-space philosophy directly enabled the blank slate or greenfield thinking we associate with this kind of software.

I would add that Steve Jobs' own psychology seemed reduction-biased, for better or worse. His thought process was aimed at achieving impact through early/first principles, but the principles were those of concept, design, sensory experience, or interpersonal dynamics rather than information or engineering.

As a result, we get Think Different, and the first step in Thinking Different is thinking; I would add that due to the reduction it's more like thinking starkly. This is quite different from processing or manipulating, which were and still are very PC concepts, compared to Apple.

Anyway. A guess. And yeah, the unfortunate part of info-illustrations is that pages of them which reward different perceptual ordering/directions in each illustration are just harder to parse.

Re: Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain”

#23

Post by blackoil » Sun, Jun 14, 2020, 3:49 PM UTC

laingc wrote: post #5

Firstly, thanks to the author for taking such time and care with the illustrations. However, by way of contrast to many of the other comments on here, I found this particular explanation quite unhelpful, both in terms of the presentation communicating the idea as well as the parts of the idea that I was able to glean. It’s probably an individual thing, but I don’t want to combine things into projects, and I certainly…

What kind of work / notes are you taking, are they more academic in nature or operational?

Re: Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain”

#24

Post by deltron3030 » Sun, Jun 14, 2020, 3:51 PM UTC

FakeRemore wrote: post #15

I've always found it a bit odd (and a bit frustrating) that many programs around knowledge-building/note-taking are Mac-only. Anybody know why that is? Devonthink sounds like such an interesting tool that I'd love to try, but it's Mac only. This article's author relies on two tools which, at first glance, are also Mac-only. That said, am I the only one finding it really hard to parse pages of illustrations? It feels…

Font rendering is worse in Windows, if you write you usually care about that, or start to care at some point.

Re: Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain”

#25

Post by swyx » Sun, Jun 14, 2020, 4:10 PM UTC

AnonC wrote: post #6

A tangential point. I didn’t go through this article in detail, but I loved the illustrations so much that I ended up looking at a few other articles by her (Maggie Appleton). As someone who fails at Pictionary with very crude drawings, there’s something about those illustrations that’s simple, eye catching and admirable. I’m feeling envious.

i have a longstanding thesis that developers-who-can-draw always crush it in online content, haha. but with Maggie, beyond just artistic ability she also works really hard to come up with visual metaphor by understanding the developer on an anthropological level.

Re: Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain”

#26

Post by fizixer » Sun, Jun 14, 2020, 4:28 PM UTC

I have not taken this course. I do feel I have a second brain. I have constructed my own system of keeping my thoughts organized and making progress in better understanding in a cohesive manner.

By taking longer to finish grad school and ending up with mountains of debt.

And this second brain would be lost to the wind as soon as I take up a 9-to-5 Monday-through-Friday tech/STEM job where I have to do mainly what my boss tells me to do.

Go figure.

Re: Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain”

#27

Post by hairofadog » Sun, Jun 14, 2020, 4:37 PM UTC

These illustrations are great!

Regarding software, one thing I’ve long wanted and/or dreamed of making is an app that can be pointed at any directory of markdown files and images that would then use some kind of AI to analyze the data, look for patterns, present statistics, automatically tag things, etc. I want to be able to dump things in without much organization, but then to be able to view it in an organized way. One small example is the way that the Bear app finds to-do items in any of the notes and presents them in a separate list. That, but with all kinds of data.

Re: Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain”

#28

Post by criddell » Sun, Jun 14, 2020, 4:51 PM UTC

FakeRemore wrote: post #15

I've always found it a bit odd (and a bit frustrating) that many programs around knowledge-building/note-taking are Mac-only. Anybody know why that is? Devonthink sounds like such an interesting tool that I'd love to try, but it's Mac only. This article's author relies on two tools which, at first glance, are also Mac-only. That said, am I the only one finding it really hard to parse pages of illustrations? It feels…

If there are several Mac apps that you want to run, maybe getting a Mac wouldn't be a terrible idea.

Re: Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain”

#29

Post by alexashka » Sun, Jun 14, 2020, 9:16 PM UTC

afarrell wrote: post #13

alexashka wrote: post #11

The graphic design is stunning. I did find it to be a massive distraction after the second or third page however. There is a time and a place for an artistic touch and in this case, I found it distracting. I find hand-written text difficult to read past 24pt and when done in gray, even more so. Ultimately however, I think the greatest disagreement I have comes from the content itself - it reminds me of all the little…

> Life is about strategy, the long haul, not tactics. Life is about both . Strategy and tactics. Words and action. For some people, if they make a bunch of grand strategic plans but don't follow through, then they repeatedly disappoint those around them. They find themselves lonely and stressed as they lose jobs and relationships with people who are sick and tired of them "making excuses". > is lack of organization b…

> They look arbitrary to you because the author doesn't explain the "Why" behind her system -- likely because it is very personal.

Well, when something becomes a course, it is no longer about the author, it is about the people the author offers the course to.

I don't want to discourage people from trying new things and developing their own systems, courses, whatever. I do feel the need to point out that we live in an age of immense amounts of information and one needs to be very careful not to engage in information pollution. If there is a system similar to yours, there is no need to create your own that you think is slightly better. We really don't need another flavor of candy, at some point we need less 'stuff' and less people engaging in trying to sell us something, not more.

I think we've been at that point for a few decades.

Re: Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain”

#30

Post by laingc » Sun, Jun 14, 2020, 10:53 PM UTC

FakeRemore wrote: post #14

laingc wrote: post #5

Firstly, thanks to the author for taking such time and care with the illustrations. However, by way of contrast to many of the other comments on here, I found this particular explanation quite unhelpful, both in terms of the presentation communicating the idea as well as the parts of the idea that I was able to glean. It’s probably an individual thing, but I don’t want to combine things into projects, and I certainly…

I'm also interested in what software you're using for this. I've looked into tools that support Zettelkasten and they all seem to have made inexplicable changes to the system. The most significant to me is the change from using a hierarchical, meaningful numbering scheme to using timestamps that lack all form of context/hierarchy. Context in the sense that unless you're the Rain Man, there's no way to fit timestamps…

The software I use is, at its most basic, a text editor. In my case, Sublime text.

Everything else is a Python package with a CLI, dockerised for portability, and written entirely by me to support my workflow.

I am absolutely sympathetic to the "I want a tool not a hobby" idea of using prebuilt software, and indeed I have tried many of them (including every one I have seen linked on HN), however I have found that building my own automation has really helped me to think carefully about how I use my Zettelkasten and what it implies for my own thought process.

This reply probably falls into the category of "unhelpfully helpful advice", but that's what has worked for me personally.