Dotfiles VS Joplin

For describing my workflow very briefly (not as well as Sonke Ahrens in the aforementioned book, but I will try), I try to follow the main points of Zettelkasten. Whenever you learn something, take notes about it. Make the notes brief, but very descriptive. Give it a large title describing everything contained in it so you can find it easier later. If its too large, split it into multiple files, so the note is atomic (meaning it can no longer be separated into multiple files). If you don't have time to write a note correctly, make a fleeting note about it to remind you and write it later. Densely link your notes with one another. Thinking about the connections between notes is sometimes half the work of writing it. This way, I never lose information. If I need something later down the line, I can always search with org-roam-node-find, as I use very descriptive titles as I mentioned. If not, there is also grep, which if you are not aware is a text editing utility that allows for searching all your notes. There are many grep tools in Emacs (i.e. counsel-rg being the one I use personally). For more explanation, you can check my literate org-mode config.

There is definitely a way to do this in Citar which should be mentioned in the wiki if you read through it (and if there is not the author of the package is very helpful in general) but I do not know what that is. This way, when you select a bibtex entry it will automatically create a note with the title being the title of the article, automatically associate the entry with its pdf and ready org-noter for use to annotate it. Its a very streamlined and automated way to work with this system of packages that I highly recommend. For more info on this, you can also look at my literate config for notetaking which naturally has a lot as I take tons of notes. Link to it is here.

For more info on my workflow, you can check my config over on github. This part is specific to my org roam, references and general note taking workflow, so you won't have to look for the relevant parts. Its a literate config and I explain some things more than I do here. If this all interests you I suggest giving it a check. I also couldn't recommend Ahrens' book more. Its an incredible read for academics of every science as its really applicable everywhere imo.

Also if something is not clear here you can check out my full i3 config over on github.

I've had great success with using Joplin for this, with Syncthing as a sync backend. Works well across OSes; I use it on Linux, macOS, Windows and Android.

https://joplinapp.org/

The tools to manipulate SQL aren't that bad, no.

But rather than having a self explanatory markdown & flat file, now I have to start learning about the schema & making specific tools (in my preferred language) for manipulating Joplin's schema.

Suddenly I'm digging through 20 different technic specs to decode what data is where, how it works, and what I can do to it. Want to edit history? This is the best help you'll get, pray it's adequately technical to expedite you to your purpose: https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/blob/dev/readme/dev/spec...

As I began with, I struggle to imagine anything that generates anywhere near as much user agency as flat files and markdown. Having boring common data & systems lets me apply portable skills I already have, rather than having to skill up in some particular product's own ecosystem.

Joplin is a good open source option too, feels more like the original Evernote in terms of UI/UX https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/

Joplin, an open source, extendable, Markdown-based hierarchical note-taking app: https://joplinapp.org/

It lets you choose a synchronization backend, offers applications for every major desktop and mobile OS (also has a terminal version). You can create notebooks and subnotebooks to organize your notes. You can also add tags for better search experience. I created notebooks for specific domains (work-related, home improvement, etc.) and also keep a "temp" for quick notes and W.I.P. snippets.

Its only con that it uses Electron on desktop which causes relatively slow start of the application.

done