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I used GPT to build a search tool for my second brain note-taking system

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Re: I used GPT to build a search tool for my second brain note-taking system

#41

Post by trane_project »

throwaway675309 wrote: post #38
trane_project wrote: post #25

I've been thinking of using GPT or similar LLMs to extract flashcards to use with my spaced repetition project ( https://github.com/trane-project/trane/ ). As in you give it a book and it creates the flashcards for you and the dependencies between the lessons. I played around with chatgpt and it worked pretty well. I have a lot of other things in my plate to get around first (including starting a math curriculum) but…

I've seen a number of projects around using GPT to generate curriculum and also flashcards in the past three months, I think this is one of the most popular ones: https://autolearnify.com It's a very good idea in theory but takes almost as much work to verify that the flashcards and curriculum that it generates is accurate and not a hallucinogenic nightmare. The biggest danger is that the target audience are not expe…

When I played with it, I made it output a JSON file so that it would be easier to handle the output. And I specifically gave it the text to use. It did a pretty good job, but I ran into output size limits.

I agree that using the training data would probably generate more garbage. But it's the semantic analysis part that I think it's useful. In general, I think VCs and OpenAI are overhyping it by calling it "intelligent" and obscuring the very good use cases of the technology. AFAIK, no one involved has explained how a statistical model running on a Turing machine magically develops agency and awareness, which are requirements for actual intelligence (under my definition, at least).

Re: I used GPT to build a search tool for my second brain note-taking system

#43

Post by cratermoon »

leobg wrote: post #14

Slight overkill to use GPT, though it works for the author and I can see that it’s the low hanging fruit, being available as an API. But this can also be done locally, using SBERT, or even (faster, though less powerful) fastText. Also, it’s helpful not to cut paragraphs into separate pieces, but rather to use a sliding window approach, where each paragraph retains the context of what came before, and/or the breadcrum…

I just put my notes into ElasticSearch and use the TextAnalysis processor and get a lot of the same functionality.

Re: I used GPT to build a search tool for my second brain note-taking system

#44

Post by l33t233372 »

rlayton2 wrote: post #34
pessimist wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In chess we had a tiny window of a few years when humans could use the help of computers to play the world's best chess. By 2000, computers were far better than humans and the gap has increased. Chess players are now entertainers, like all us humans are destined to spend our time doing.

While reductive, isn't that true in many professional sports though? I have a wide variety of tools I can use to travel 100m faster than Usain Bolt, but its incredible to watch him do it on his own.

I agree that professional athletes are entertainers, but I’m not sure what you’re getting at with that point.

Re: I used GPT to build a search tool for my second brain note-taking system

#45

Post by alostpuppy »

senectus1 wrote: post #33
rolenthedeep wrote: post #31

One of my biggest dreams is a self-hosted AI that always listens through my phone and automatically takes notes, puts events in my calendar, set reminders, and template journal entries. A true personal assistant to keep my increasingly-complex life in order. I'd love a system where I can just point a search engine at my brain. I tried really hard for a while, but I just didn't have the discipline or memory to exhaust…

MS is very close to this. they have chatGPT listening to meetings and taking notes then adding tasks to attendee calendars...

Link? Because I’m gonna need this.

Re: I used GPT to build a search tool for my second brain note-taking system

#46

Post by alostpuppy »

cratermoon wrote: post #43
leobg wrote: post #14

Slight overkill to use GPT, though it works for the author and I can see that it’s the low hanging fruit, being available as an API. But this can also be done locally, using SBERT, or even (faster, though less powerful) fastText. Also, it’s helpful not to cut paragraphs into separate pieces, but rather to use a sliding window approach, where each paragraph retains the context of what came before, and/or the breadcrum…

I just put my notes into ElasticSearch and use the TextAnalysis processor and get a lot of the same functionality.

This is interesting. How effective was this?

Re: I used GPT to build a search tool for my second brain note-taking system

#47

Post by haswell »

l33t233372 wrote: post #44
rlayton2 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While reductive, isn't that true in many professional sports though? I have a wide variety of tools I can use to travel 100m faster than Usain Bolt, but its incredible to watch him do it on his own.

I agree that professional athletes are entertainers, but I’m not sure what you’re getting at with that point.

The way I read this, in a world with machines that can travel at high speeds, people still watch professional runners because they are interesting to watch, and we’re inspired by human achievement.

For similar reasons, it doesn’t really matter that computers are better at chess than us.

Re: I used GPT to build a search tool for my second brain note-taking system

#49

Post by tomjakubowski »

haswell wrote: post #47
l33t233372 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that professional athletes are entertainers, but I’m not sure what you’re getting at with that point.

The way I read this, in a world with machines that can travel at high speeds, people still watch professional runners because they are interesting to watch, and we’re inspired by human achievement. For similar reasons, it doesn’t really matter that computers are better at chess than us.

The cool thing I think is that we watch both, running and race cars.

Re: I used GPT to build a search tool for my second brain note-taking system

#50

Post by 110 »

In case folks are interested in trying it out, I just released the Obsidian plugin[1] for Khoj (https://github.com/debanjum/khoj#readme) last week.

It creates a natural language search assistant for your second brain. Search is incremental and fast. You notes stay local to your machine.

There's also a (beta) chat API that allows you to chat with your notes[2]. But that uses GPT, so notes are shared with OpenAI if you decide to try that.

It is not ready for prime time yet but maybe something to check out for folks who are willing to be beta testers. See the announcement on reddit for more details[3]

Edit: Forgot to add that khoj works with Emacs, Org-mode as well[4]

[1]: https://obsidian.md/plugins?id=khoj

[2]: https://github.com/debanjum/khoj#chat-with-notes

[3]: https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/10thrpl/khoj_an...

[4]: https://github.com/debanjum/khoj/tree/master/src/interface/e...

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