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> This means our tool has to be fast, and can’t burden you with questions like “In what folder should I put this?” that aren’t relevant in the moment.
This is so important. I feel most note taking apps approach note taking the wrong way: organization first, ideas later. Most of our notes are random and the only real organization they can fit into is time.
I have recently launched a note taking app [0] that keeps this in focus. In my opinion, "organizing notes" is often done after "writing notes" and that is how the app is built.
1. Note taking is a fast activity - you can take notes from any where in your phone, opening the app is fast, the steps to actually writing a note are frew, the note editor is uncluttered and stays out of the way.
2. Time is a first class citizen: all notes are sorted by date created, grouped by modifiers like year, week, month & alphabetical.
3. The app doesn't force you to organize your notes i.e., there's no special distinction between organized and unorganized notes. Some apps put unorganized notes in a specific folder or tag. Not so with my app. The focus is on writing notes; organization comes later.
4. Recalling notes is currently not the most amazing thing. There is full text search, however I feel like that's not enough. Things like similarity search (based on tags) or advanced filtering are yet to be implemented.
I think all these fit well into the incremental note taking system. However, that's a coincidence really.
[0] https://notesnook.com/
Interesting text. But by the end of the day I think it is quite subjective how people optimally capture their thoughts and ideas. I spent many years doing research to find an optimal tool. Netmanage Ecco worked very well for me, but had some limitations - interestingly some which also the referenced article considers important. Other people were fan of completely different tools which I couldn't get much out of (and vice versa). Finally I implemented my own tool (not for the first time) ten years ago which I'm successfully using since then (https://github.com/rochus-keller/crossline/). It looks certainly old fashioned to younger people, but I'm very efficient with it because I can talk to people and record/organize the discussion at the same time without moving my hands away from the keyboard (what helps me to focus on the topic and counterparts and not to be distracted by handling the tool). If I assess my approach with the "Principles of incremental notes" it looks like a good match. Point 1 is met by efficient shortcuts and capturing information in context due to outlining approach. Point 4 is met in that each outline is automatically added to a history list; of course I can organize outlines in that some outlines are used as directories, and there is also a full text search; I agree that I very often rediscover notes from the history context. Point 2 is met in that I can consolidate notes from old ones without copying, i.e. I just take the items from different outlines I want and put them together in a new outline without losing the link to the original context; much more to say. And yes, I carry a small laptop with me wherever I go; it has a good keyboard on which I can type faster than people usually talk. Doesn't work with a smartphone.
I recommand an amazing cross-platform note-taking tool: Trilium(https://github.com/zadam/trilium) made by zadam.
I use a pretty interesting technique to learn my electrical engineering coursework, known as closed-loop Targeted Memory Reactivation (see: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6843748/). In other words, I basically learn my notes when I am sleeping!
Targeted Memory Reactivation is a technique used when an individual is sleeping, and a tone of a certain frequency is first played to synchronize your brainwaves to make sure that you will learn the work. Then the audio (to the corresponding notes) is played. You have to use an EEG cap, known as the OpenBCI device. Anyways, here is the repo I use to learn my coursework in my sleep, but good luck compiling it: https://github.com/Frederik-D-Weber/cosleep
Basically, I create my notes and I dump them into Anki flashcards. I basically describe the problem as "things are in terms of X and you are solving for Y, what do you do next?". I create both a written and audio version of my notes.
Anyways, I "recreate" (copy/paste) my notes in Anki, as LaTeX is supported there. I make each flashcard short "like sending a text message to a friend". Anyways, for verbalizing the math I use:
1. https://02522-cua.github.io/lecturenotes/pdf/Chang_1983_Hand...
2. https://people.engr.ncsu.edu/jwilson/files/mathsigns.pdf
My original notes (particularly electrical engineering coursework--which I recreate as Anki cards), I use:
1. How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim: https://castel.dev/post/lecture-notes-1/
2. How I draw figures for my mathematical lecture notes using Inkscape: https://castel.dev/post/lecture-notes-2/
3. How I manage my LaTeX lecture notes: https://castel.dev/post/lecture-notes-3/
The repos for this are here: https://github.com/gillescastel
Completely agree. There's a myriad of note-taking apps looking for the holy grail of note-taking. AFAIK none has found it so the answer may be within us: keep it simple and steady.
I like to control so I dump everything in a plain text file. That's it. One long file is easier to manage than many short files. See it as a flat wiki and use built-in search for navigation.
This file is not write-only: progressively summarize and tree-shake it each time you iterate your notes. You'll leverage your excitement instead of forcing discipline. Ideally, notes are organized by project, not by category. It can be a catalyst for action and reviews. After several years I still think (personal) notes history is irrelevant. YMMV.
My take: https://github.com/slowernews/hamster-system
For math symbols I use Unicode characters, I have XCompose shortcuts [0] to easily insert them. I'm currently using WinCompose to use the same shortcuts on Windows. This works fairly well for my use cases (programming language theory and undergrad math), but doesn't support the fancy layouts that LaTeX does (fractions, large sub/superscripts).
I don't have a good solution for graphs/pictures/drawings. I don't think I've ever needed to, if I did I think I would just put the image in a folder alongside the note (`YYYY-MM-DD-ext`).
[0] https://github.com/CoderPuppy/.files/blob/master/XCompose