Ask HN: What do you use to organize your knowledge?

What a good question.

Personally I curate a directory structure served off an old linux box in my house. Items created on other machines get synced in by hand. Data is stored in whatever source format it was created in, and obscure formats get a pdf version stored alongside.

The thing is, it's absolutely stone age - not automatically synced with my laptop or phone, not available remotely, and not conveniently set up to be able to share files or offer use of the server to my partner or family. It also only has 'files', there's no calendar-type data and things like mail and contacts only get placed in by hand as backups. I could totally cobble things together to provide extra features but I am thinking of starting again with a server 'in the cloud'. I would love to know what people do, with a longer term view than just stashing stuff in the popular note-taking app of the moment.

Pretty simple - I try to put them on my Blog. It's public, I know I'm backing it up always, and it helps others.

Did you have a look at org-mode?

I can attest to this, having gone through pretty much the same cycle of apps and wikis. Finally settled on plain text files with cloud sync. Except I use a bit of YAML to give the material some structure.

But I use this to write down things I would consider more 'information' than 'knowledge'. If it's a new cloud app I found on HN that I might need later, I write it down. If I learned something new (for example, I recently learned about phage therapy as an alternative to antibiotics), I resist the temptation and try to integrate it into my existing body of knowledge. In my opinion, if you have a 'fact' that needs to be memorized, then it is either a bit of arbitrary information or it is not yet tethered to the rest of your knowledge and is therefore banging around in your head. I usually find a link to nail it down. I wouldn't exactly call it a 'memory palace' but it's sort of like that.

Four parts:

== Emacs Org Mode ==

  - all capture

  - all notes in general that I take while working (live) on a computer

  - all meeting notes

  - all drafts - usually via org-babel

  - planning

Also, a type of code analysis where I make the code column 1 in a table and use columns 2+ for notes

This is sync'd via git across machines. Version Control + diff's are useful, but multiple branches for this hasn't been worth the additional complexity.

I've got a specific emacs daemon just for org. It's got a special -name argument that tells my window manager (xmonad) to bring up each window as a pop-up. That integrates with chrome and org capture to capture web bookmarks right from the chrome bookmarks bar.

== A paper notebook (leuchtturm 1918) and a grossly expensive fountain pen (MB) for all deep analysis. ==

  - Good thinking is a lot easier when you look at paper instead of a screen.

The tactile feel of that pen on that paper feels so smooth and free that I write substantially more, and faster. I can only explain it like typing on your favorite mechanical keyboard vs using a blackberry to write long essays.

== MindJet for brainstorming. ==

So far, awkwardly on a Nexus 7 and a BT keyboard. I'm still looking for a better mind-mapping setup.

== GTasks (android app) ==

With Google's "Tasks" list for my to-do lists and random thought capture on topics I'm still not ready to properly sit-down and mind-map.