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Ask HN: Why the obsession with note taking?

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Re: Ask HN: Why the obsession with note taking?

#31

Post by MattGaiser »

kkoncevicius wrote: post #28

My take - note taking is a symtom of ADHD. The fact these topics are popular on HN suggests there are quite a lot of ADHD people here. The counter intuitive thing is that these apps are thought of as something that helps with attention disorders. But wanting to "organize life", "track thoughts and ideas", "never forget what you learned", etc, are symptoms, not cures.

Do you not have a need to regularly record information in your life for later (genuine question)? I am curious how you avoid note taking without forgetting a ton of things.

Re: Ask HN: Why the obsession with note taking?

#32

Post by skymuse »

I like note taking because it augments my thinking. Specifically, it helps me store knowledge for later and organize my thoughts when I'm thinking.

I think what makes it obsessive for me is that I always want to improve my thinking, even if it's a tiny increase. That's why I always check out other people's note taking methods and software, in the hopes of finding a little nugget of optimization.

As for my method, I use plain text and vim to store my notes. If I need to think deeply about a problem, I use a paper notebook and pencil. This is because that combination is good for visualizing a problem.

Re: Ask HN: Why the obsession with note taking?

#33

Post by grncdr »

MattGaiser wrote: post #29
grncdr wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a counterpoint, one can view this as a feature and not a bug. An organization that fastidiously remembers everything might soon drown itself in memories, as it attempts to fit every new piece of information into the context of all memories. Much like a human savant could end up effectively paralyzed by frequently recollections of irrelevant trivia. Obviously there’s a middle ground between the above and the “amnes…

Well this is part of the unsolved problem. How can you take notes and organize themin a high density way that you don't drown yourself in them?

Fair, and it’s fun to imagine novel approaches to addressing it with tools. I guess I better start creating my own now…

Re: Ask HN: Why the obsession with note taking?

#34

Post by fredrikholm »

kkoncevicius wrote: post #28

My take - note taking is a symtom of ADHD. The fact these topics are popular on HN suggests there are quite a lot of ADHD people here. The counter intuitive thing is that these apps are thought of as something that helps with attention disorders. But wanting to "organize life", "track thoughts and ideas", "never forget what you learned", etc, are symptoms, not cures.

Having recently started medication for ADHD, this applied to me.

Now that my brain operates more closely to my neurotypical peers, I've found myself not needing to take constant notes and review my day in order to remember things.

Re: Ask HN: Why the obsession with note taking?

#35

Post by gherkinnn »

jb1991 wrote: post #14

As Stephen King has said, and Edgar Allen Poe as well, in a different way, writing something down is the perfect way to make sure you keep bad ideas around. I’m not against all notetaking, but I do believe that doing it by default does have some drawbacks.

In that vein, writing something down helps empty my head. And the process of writing things down is like rubber-ducking, whereby I might soon find the idea to be bad and away it goes.

Re: Ask HN: Why the obsession with note taking?

#36

Post by DiabloD3 »

Dude, I just take notes so I can remember stuff. I imagine everyone else is like me and was born human with a human brain, and let's face it, that piece of soggy bacon just doesn't work worth a damn.

There really isn't anything more to this, people enjoy being productive and meaningful in their lives, and it is one of the fundamental drives of the human condition.

Re: Ask HN: Why the obsession with note taking?

#38

Post by 1_player »

kkoncevicius wrote: post #28

My take - note taking is a symtom of ADHD. The fact these topics are popular on HN suggests there are quite a lot of ADHD people here. The counter intuitive thing is that these apps are thought of as something that helps with attention disorders. But wanting to "organize life", "track thoughts and ideas", "never forget what you learned", etc, are symptoms, not cures.

I have ADHD and for me note taking has always been a novelty; like todo lists. I get excited about it, I forget about it the next day. Most days I kept thinking "I should write this down", and then didn't. But now that I am _diagnosed_ with the thing, I will try and make more use of note taking, since I'm made aware my memory isn't great.

Re: Ask HN: Why the obsession with note taking?

#40

Post by WA »

kkoncevicius wrote: post #28

My take - note taking is a symtom of ADHD. The fact these topics are popular on HN suggests there are quite a lot of ADHD people here. The counter intuitive thing is that these apps are thought of as something that helps with attention disorders. But wanting to "organize life", "track thoughts and ideas", "never forget what you learned", etc, are symptoms, not cures.

Funny, but nah. Writing it down is a way to structure thoughts and get it out of your system. But I use a simple text editor (Sublime) for this and I write them in a braindump-kind-of-way.

There's really only one thing you gotta know about note-taking: you either optimize for fast writing or for fast information retrieval. Since I rarely read my notes, I optimize for fast dumping them.

All apps and organizational schemes like Zettelkasten try to optimize the information retrieval aspect, which imho, is probably not that important for many people.

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