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Unbundling Tools for Thought

borretti.me

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Re: Unbundling Tools for Thought

#21

Post by Ruq »

This fellow's system seems overcomplicated?

For me, the benefit of linked knowledge is just that I tend to forget a LOT of things, including many details of things I've learned in the past. For me, the principles and concepts remain, but all the steps and "how to do X" vanish rather quickly. So having essentially a personal documentation database (using Obsidian) that I can quickly jump into to recall lost knowledge is very important.

My "Second Brain" is not so much about making my brain better, as it is filling in the missing gaps of where my brain struggles at.

Re: Unbundling Tools for Thought

#22

Post by pattt »

I tried taking notes for learning and brainstorming over the years but found it incredibly difficult, not because of a lack of note taking frameworks, apps or technologies but because _sustaining_ this process is hard. Reading posts like these makes me quite envious of author’s dedication. Recently I was contemplating about a possible lightweight middle ground solution where I think a more polished software would certainly help - _highlighting_. Imagine if you could simply highlight/select any text/image on the screen of any app (ok, let’s start with the few), optionally assign different colors, tags and have those highlights automatically synchronized in a sort of a searchable personal diary format. The main feature of such tool would be cropping and indexing what’s already read and seen as opposed to having to summarize/rephrase or enrich it with your own notes. Why I think software in this case reducing friction to a minimum would help? As opposed to taking notes, identifying illuminating corner-stone paragraphs and sentences mostly feels like an implicit process that happens naturally at least in my experience.

Re: Unbundling Tools for Thought

#23

Post by s3000 »

>How often, truly, do you find yourself wanting to link a task in your todo list app to a file in Dropbox

Links are much more useful once notes and todo lists are shared and published. I am surprised that not all tools for thought have standardized on ActivityPub to enable their users to connect each other's notes. People with an account could correct mistakes or link to crucial knowledge that was overlooked.

Like Wikipedia, information would grow "on its own". Important ideas could be identified, information could be collected until it is enough for further steps.

Zettelkasten is great for one person but that's for prolific people who process a massive amount of information. With the internet, a group of average people can turn into a genius by collectively collecting information and turning it into a useful form.

Re: Unbundling Tools for Thought

#25

Post by __jambo »

eternityforest wrote: post #10

I'm still not 100% happy with the existing tools for thought. So far, Google Keep is by far my favorite in terms of experience, because it's blazing fast, plus it has Android widget and Google Assistant integration.. But I don't fully trust it to always be around, so I don't use it for anything long term, just shopping and to do lists, and quick notes to be copied somewhere safer later. For calendar-like stuff, I use…

Google keep sometimes randomly slows down/notes disappear for me.

Re: Unbundling Tools for Thought

#27

Post by marniewebb »

pattt wrote: post #22

I tried taking notes for learning and brainstorming over the years but found it incredibly difficult, not because of a lack of note taking frameworks, apps or technologies but because _sustaining_ this process is hard. Reading posts like these makes me quite envious of author’s dedication. Recently I was contemplating about a possible lightweight middle ground solution where I think a more polished software would cer…

Readwise or similar?

Re: Unbundling Tools for Thought

#28

Post by dangom »

Kinrany wrote: post #20
dangom wrote: post #18

Part of the appeal for "Tools for Thought" is that by using them we feel we are taking action towards being productive, regardless of whether that turns out to be true of not. The falacy comes, I believe, from the combination of two facts: 1. much of the intellectual work we do these days simply takes time. No amount of writing can accelerate that beyond our biological limit of learning, so we might as well just sit…

Thinking with paper is very obviously better than keeping all the thoughts in your head.

Sure, just like working out continously is better than rest. There is no better or worse, you need both. Ideas take time to materialize.

Re: Unbundling Tools for Thought

#29

Post by marniewebb »

dangom wrote: post #18

Part of the appeal for "Tools for Thought" is that by using them we feel we are taking action towards being productive, regardless of whether that turns out to be true of not. The falacy comes, I believe, from the combination of two facts: 1. much of the intellectual work we do these days simply takes time. No amount of writing can accelerate that beyond our biological limit of learning, so we might as well just sit…

For me, what makes these tools useful is the time I spend in review. Which often feels like the opposite of productivity.

Re: Unbundling Tools for Thought

#30

Post by theCrowing »

thewarrior wrote: post #19
dangom wrote: post #18

Part of the appeal for "Tools for Thought" is that by using them we feel we are taking action towards being productive, regardless of whether that turns out to be true of not. The falacy comes, I believe, from the combination of two facts: 1. much of the intellectual work we do these days simply takes time. No amount of writing can accelerate that beyond our biological limit of learning, so we might as well just sit…

Sorry to be cliched but do you think AI could make a difference here by thinking for us ?

I believe that a fine-tuned autoregressive language model such as GPT, enhanced with your personal notes, has the potential to serve as a highly effective cognitive aid, potentially even fulfilling the role of a "second brain" that many of us are looking for.
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