Ask HN: How to take notes? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How to take notes?

#51

Post by kevinslin » Wed, Jul 15, 2020, 8:52 PM UTC

I take notes by finding common concepts among different topics and constructing a hierarchical mental model of the domain i'm taking notes on. for example, for programming languages, while there might be many dozens of languages, they all share similar components:

- data structures

    - boolean
    - array
    - hash
    - ...

- control flow

    - for
    - if
    - ...

- io

    - read/write
    - ...

I use https://dendron.so to actually take my notes. Its a markdown based, hierarchical note-taking application built on top of VSCode (disclaimer - i'm the author)

Re: Ask HN: How to take notes?

#52

Post by spaceisballer » Wed, Jul 15, 2020, 10:19 PM UTC

hprotagonist wrote: post #6

I try very hard not to get caught in bikeshedding the perfect note system over actually writing things down. This is very much in the “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of doing literally anything at all” territory. Features i find are actually helpful: - keep a link to the source where you found the information summarized in the note. A url, a DOI and an equation number, whatever. - when you can, physically recopy…

I had to look up rubber ducking, appreciate it. It seems to be related to debugging but it sure seems to be applicable to other items like writing out an email or before starting a task.

Re: Ask HN: How to take notes?

#53

Post by specialist » Wed, Jul 15, 2020, 10:28 PM UTC

psahgal wrote: post #30

I made it a point to take detailed notes for all of my lectures in college, and I did pretty well in my courses as a result! So here's some advice. Consider taking notes by hand instead of using a computer. I found one study from some time ago that suggested handwritten notes are better: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/095679761452458... I personally find taking notes by hand better for me. Since I can't…

Taking notes for study, I have to use pen & paper. I just don't retain anything I don't write down. (I have a very terrible shorthand, basically illegible to anyone else.)

Taking minutes for meetings, I have to use a computer. I'm able to kind of get into a stenographer flow state. I capture a lot but remember Little.

I have no idea how or why these strategies work.

Re: Ask HN: How to take notes?

#54

Post by specialist » Wed, Jul 15, 2020, 10:33 PM UTC

D13Fd wrote: post #41

Since 2012, I've used a single folder of text files organized by date. The titles follow this format: [Creation date] [Subject] So if I'm taking notes on, for example, Regex use in Python, the text file is titled: 2020-07-15 Python Regex The notes themselves are loosely formatted with markdown, including code blocks for code. I have about 3k of these files at this point, all in one folder and easily searchable. I've…

That's a great system.

I will often remember when I was thinking about something. Using your system, I'd be able to better retrieve stuff.

I will also remember where. In a future perfect world where you and I create the ultimate notes app, we'll have to also add geolocation to each note's metadata.

Re: Ask HN: How to take notes?

#55

Post by hprotagonist » Thu, Jul 16, 2020, 12:08 AM UTC

spaceisballer wrote: post #52

hprotagonist wrote: post #6

I try very hard not to get caught in bikeshedding the perfect note system over actually writing things down. This is very much in the “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of doing literally anything at all” territory. Features i find are actually helpful: - keep a link to the source where you found the information summarized in the note. A url, a DOI and an equation number, whatever. - when you can, physically recopy…

I had to look up rubber ducking, appreciate it. It seems to be related to debugging but it sure seems to be applicable to other items like writing out an email or before starting a task.

In this case, the MO is "take some notes and then explain what they are to your rubber duck". Just like debugging, you'll stop at least once halfway through when you say "waaaait that's not right at all!"

Re: Ask HN: How to take notes?

#56

Post by icedchai » Thu, Jul 16, 2020, 1:04 AM UTC

I used to take notes on a pad, old school. Then I realized I never looked at them again. If it's important, I send myself an email. Or keep a draft around for a few days.

Re: Ask HN: How to take notes?

#57

Post by laurieg » Thu, Jul 16, 2020, 1:28 AM UTC

When I was in college I more or less tried a different note-taking system every semester.

I tried just writing things down free-form, making flashcards while I was in the lecture, drawing mind maps, drawing one continuous mind map that would be compressed over the weeks of the class.

They all had benefits and draw backs. Flash cards were kind of fiddly and distracting to make. Freeform notes were slightly disorganised.

Whatever I did, I found it helps. For note taking, the act of taking notes is more important than what remains at the end. Be honest, how often do you really go over your notes?

For things you absolutely have to know, I really do recommend flashcards. That said, I think they are quite difficult to produce when you are are learning something new. Flashcards aren't really for learning, they are for not forgetting.

Re: Ask HN: How to take notes?

#58

Post by bananamerica » Thu, Jul 16, 2020, 1:31 AM UTC

I don’t.

Re: Ask HN: How to take notes?

#59

Post by eindiran » Thu, Jul 16, 2020, 2:38 AM UTC

The system I have personally settled on is tracking todo/task related information in a paper notebook, copying the relevant info for each day to a new section each morning. For personal knowledge, lab notebooks, etc I keep them in dated markdown files in a single notes directory, which makes them easily searchable. If you want a good markdown editor, checkout Remarkable (https://remarkableapp.github.io/).

As other commenters have pointed out, don't worry too much about sticking obsessively to one system. Just try one out, and if it works well (enough) for you stick to it.

There are several old threads that are pretty helpful covering this topic as well:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20101911

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21419478

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22473209

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

Re: Ask HN: How to take notes?

#60

Post by Spooky23 » Thu, Jul 16, 2020, 2:44 AM UTC

There is no right answer. For what I do, I use a paper bound notebook, and take notes using mindmaps with annotations as necessary on the right margin.

Writing things down doesn’t aid my recall and distracts me from whatever is going on.

My goal is to memorialize important items and provide anchor points so that I can reconstruct memory or effectively use a reference source. It’s a system that works for me, but I’m not an attorney or someone who is pulling information from a person or some source that is gone forever once the conversation is over.

I would recommend not futzing around with apps. Come up with something that works on paper with pencil. Then if you need to, find an app. Productivity porn is a huge time suck.