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Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain”

maggieappleton.com

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Re: Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain”

#31

Post by laingc »

blackoil wrote: post #23
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?

Everything in my intellectual life that I find interesting. I am an Applied Mathematician by education running an AI unit in industry, so there is a bit on that, but personally my intellectual life has always been defined by breadth, and my Zettelkasten is as broad, weird, and eclectic as I am.

And that, to my mind, is rather the point :-).

Re: Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain”

#32

Post by laingc »

AnonC wrote: post #7
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 tools do you use for your workflow? Is there a write up that you have done on it (or you have followed)?

I don't have a writeup, but I posted the following in a sibling comment [0].

> 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.

0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23522098

Re: Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain”

#33

Post by juvoni »

hairofadog wrote: post #27

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.…

Check out https://obsidian.md/, I believe it has a good foundation to get to the features you're asking for.

Re: Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain”

#34

Post by jmiskovic »

laingc wrote: post #30
FakeRemore wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 bui…

Can you mention how you organize files themselves? Things like subdirectories, naming, solving name clashes, and how do you decide when to split content into two or more files.

I've always struggled with mapping any note organization mapping into strict directory structure with ascii file names being the only meta-data. I'm currently using Trilium Notes which solves most of these by using SQLite instead of filesystem.

Re: Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain”

#35

Post by laingc »

jmiskovic wrote: post #34
laingc wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 bui…

Can you mention how you organize files themselves? Things like subdirectories, naming, solving name clashes, and how do you decide when to split content into two or more files. I've always struggled with mapping any note organization mapping into strict directory structure with ascii file names being the only meta-data. I'm currently using Trilium Notes which solves most of these by using SQLite instead of filesystem…

No subdirectories for notes, everything is flat. I have three directories: zettel for the Zettel, Daten for the data, and Kasten for software/scripts.

Zettel are named as follows: z{%Y%m%d%H%M%S}_{slugified title}.md

Tags are formatted as +{hyphenated tag name}.

Scripts parse all the Zettel, construct a bipartite graph of tags and Zettel, and populate tables in the index with lists of Zettel under each tag, a visualisation of the graph, various other meta statistics etc.

The point (for me) of my Zettelkasten is that through links and tags, the structure of the notes is emergent rather than dictated a priori.

Re: Illustrated Notes for “Building a Second Brain”

#36

Post by raindropm »

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…

To quote John Gruber — "Mac is the platform that attracts people who care."

Honestly, Apple did a great jobs. They did care about their product(well, until recent buggy OS fiasco) and that attract people who value the same thing. Doesn't mean Windows people don't care, of course, but Windows always give the utilitarian vibes, the OS for everyone (especially in the old day)

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