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Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#81

Post by pcardoso »

I tend to hoard things sometimes: links, notes, screenshots with useful tidbits, scraps of paper with notes…

One of the things I keep is the list of stuff I did during the day for when the standup call comes. Sometimes I forgot of mention a lot of stuff.

Then a few weeks ago I build the MVP of a note taking app specifically for this purpose: what did I do, what am I doing next, am I blocked by something?

No backend, data is stored in browser local storage, quick to load, a weekly summary and data export. No tracking whatsoever.

Not ready yet, which is why I didn’t do a Show HN feature yet, but has been useful to me even in its current state.

It lives at https://tinyleaps.app

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#82

Post by item007 »

rainonmoon wrote: post #28
ohyoutravel wrote: post #26

This doesn’t sound useful, speaking as an obsidian user. It doesn’t seem like it solves any problems at all. That being said, when I first switch to Obsidian from Evernote I noted that there is a giant community of users who use Obsidian to obsess over the perfect Obsidian setup. They don’t have any tasks to add because the only thing they “do” is micromanage Obsidian, as a hobby, to share with other hobbyists. I bet…

This isn’t an Obsidian thing, it’s just the next iteration of the GTD mania of the aughts or the Atomic Habits people or whatever other trend. There will always be people trying to optimise their organisational workflow to no end. Some of the least prolific coders I know have the most heavily customised vim. The problem with adding AI is these people are addicted to the brain crack of doing it themselves so AI is sor…

Absolutely right! The immediate feedback and sense of accomplishment from doing things yourself can be incredibly satisfying. But AI actually excels at providing instant positive reinforcement in this area—especially Vibe Coding. It's seriously addictive... hahaha

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#83

Post by item007 »

ohyoutravel wrote: post #26

This doesn’t sound useful, speaking as an obsidian user. It doesn’t seem like it solves any problems at all. That being said, when I first switch to Obsidian from Evernote I noted that there is a giant community of users who use Obsidian to obsess over the perfect Obsidian setup. They don’t have any tasks to add because the only thing they “do” is micromanage Obsidian, as a hobby, to share with other hobbyists. I bet…

Fair critique. I probably didn’t explain the wedge clearly. I’m not trying to optimize Obsidian setups — I’m testing whether “right-time recall → next action” is a real pain vs a non-problem for most users. For you personally, what’s the smallest concrete outcome that would make this useful (if any): better retrieval, fewer missed follow-ups, or something else? If the answer is “none”, that’s also valuable signal.

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#84

Post by item007 »

TZubiri wrote: post #40

I read the title and I thought "Maybe, but if this is a pitch for a product, then no, I do not struggle"

Totally understand the reaction. It’s not a product pitch (no product yet) — I’m validating whether the problem exists and what constraints matter before writing code. If you have 10 seconds: do you ever feel “saved info turns into a graveyard”, or is your current system already good enough?

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#85

Post by item007 »

sangkwun wrote: post #3

I quit hoarding. Collecting was the bottleneck, not organizing. Just get filtered digests now. Needed less input, not better retrieval.

That’s an important counterpoint: sometimes the fix is less intake, not better retrieval. What do your “filtered digests” look like (sources + cadence), and what makes them trustworthy enough to replace capture? This might be a better wedge than task-suggestions.

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#86

Post by item007 »

Barrin92 wrote: post #34

frankly all I have is a TODO.org file and I delete everything that's older than a month because I wasn't going to deal with it anyway. I also keep a bunch of notes in org files. Once a year I delete everything if I can't remember why I took it, most of what survives seem to be book reviews. I don't use any AI stuff, just grep. All the second brain stuff just sounds like digital hoarding

Respect — this is the most honest system: if it’s older than X, it wasn’t important enough.

Out of curiosity, what’s the category that still slips through that approach (if any): recurring obligations, long-horizon projects, or “someday maybe” research?

Or, is there anything that has never been deleted over the long term?

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#87

Post by item007 »

halb wrote: post #4

i feel that most of my problems in this space would be solved with better "fuzzy" search integration in obsidian. Some sort of local rag on my daily notes would be very effective. do you know if such a project already exists?

There are a few directions I know but not sure:

“semantic search via embeddings” plugins (Obsidian Semantic Search is one example)

local-first assistants via Ollama (e.g. obsidian-local-gpt)

full “RAG over your vault” projects (I’ve seen ObsidianRAG-style setups)

My takeaway so far is similar to what others said here: reliability + noise + UX are the hard parts, not just “having embeddings”. What would “good enough” look like for you: speed, recall quality, or tight integration into daily notes?

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#89

Post by item007 »

pcardoso wrote: post #81

I tend to hoard things sometimes: links, notes, screenshots with useful tidbits, scraps of paper with notes… One of the things I keep is the list of stuff I did during the day for when the standup call comes. Sometimes I forgot of mention a lot of stuff. Then a few weeks ago I build the MVP of a note taking app specifically for this purpose: what did I do, what am I doing next, am I blocked by something? No backend,…

Nice step!

If you are ok to help, check my bio for more.

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#90

Post by item007 »

johngossman wrote: post #52
aappleby wrote: post #43

So here's what's worked for me over the years - I collect interesting links/pages/stuff by emailing myself notes about them. I never actually _do_ anything with these notes, but from time to time I open the "Notes To Self" folder and skim through them. Anything that seems worthless I delete, anything that seems obvious I delete, the rest just sit there. And that's more useful than you'd think - by reviewing them semi…

I do something similar but also cooy the most interesting of these into Obsidian. Doesn't take long and the activity of sorting helps me remember. It's amazing how often when I skim these that I find something interesting/profound/useful that I've forgotten.

Cool! This just goes to show that old savings can sometimes come in handy.
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