Ask HN: Why the obsession with note taking?

Writing is faster than remembering. Reading is faster than recalling.

> what would you estimate as your rate of reference to prior notes?

For arbitrary links and bookmarks, probably quite low, so I rarely bother with that sort of noting (never managed to make pinboard an essential part of my life).

If I am specifically researching something deeply, like a personal project, I am much more likely to go back to a link I've noted, because I've usually gone to the trouble to describe that link in a searchable way.

For work-related notes, close to always. I _start_ by reopening the note relevant to the job (Apple Notes search is so fast this is easy), and I modify/append to it as I go along; those notes are "workbooks" effectively and they are essential to my process now.

It's not "note taking", it's "information organization". At least, that's how I think of it. There's a lot of data out there that I have to be able to "know" with only limited brain to store it in, and a lot of people have issues with ADHD or Executive Function Disorder. That compounds issues with recall and incorrect focus, and notes/wikis/orgmode/roam/jupyter can all at least feel like they're helping, if only to help calm the chaos in our heads a little.

As with anything, yak shaving can creep into what you do. Certainly I need to stop myself from further refining my Emacs init from time to time. People yak shave by trying lots of different note taking systems, sucked in by shiny promises. It's much easier to start something than to expand and refine what's already there, like deciding to refactor an entire codebase rather than tackle difficult bug fixes and feature requests.

There's also the feeling that we're not good enough, that others are better because we only see the end-product of their organization, not the struggles they went through.

If size was the only issue, there is also the Supernote A5X (and A6X for that matter) which I've been thinking about, but think I've decided against as it feels like a bit of a halfway house between real paper and an ipad

But for you, it might be perfect

People have written notes, sketches, essays, letters, journals and diaries for as long as there has been writing. Even mathematicians of Gauss's or Newton's stature wrote vastly more than they published. It helps to organize and clarify one's thought processes and if one is particularly well organized about it, boosts recall. Careful application can also boost WM, a key component of fluid intelligence. Modern Note taking seems to be about formalizing the process of getting the most out of one's writing and learnings. I have personally not found anything that clearly beats notepad level text editors or plain pencil and paper, however.

My thoughts on this is as tools for thought, there can never be a one size fits all solution for the reason that there are many thinking styles and personalities. Todo lists, project planning and time tracking, programming languages, note taking apps, UI frameworks, game engines all fit the pattern of tools meant to organize complex mental processes and artifacts and where everyone settles for what best matches them though never fully satisfied. Meanwhile those who can find the time and ability to make something better suited to their taste do so, also bringing something to those most aligned to their tastes.