Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Your brain is good at remembering stuff the same way your legs are good at lifting stuff -- a well designed system that can't in any way compare to a purpose-built machine. My brain can barely remember that I have even taken notes about many topics, much less the topics themselves.

People learn to take notes in school as a way to summarize things so they can reread to memorize them. This is largely useless over time periods greater than a semester, because of the limits of memory and the time burden of rereading. Notes that give you an accumulating knowledge advantage over a lifetime have to be taken with a mindset of "when I need this information, how am I going to find out I knew it?" Keywords taking you to an outline view that reminds you of related topics, or Obsidian's linking system.




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: