Note taking

  • (Something about choosing good sources?)
  • First make it easy to Capture.
  • Progressive summarization. It’s actually good to wait a bit after you’ve read something. Maybe it’s never relevant again - that’s OK. But make sure it’s findable (at least a few keywords etc, as well as the date context, if you remember you read something at a certain time)
  • If you do come back and decide to use it, the time that has gone has helped you see what is truly important. Re-reading it in itself helps with the memory (repetition), and you might see new connections based on other things you’ve read/thought about in the meantime.
  • At this point, you might add hashtags to specific points, add your own questions or comments etc. Tiago Forte recommends highlighting, not sure how useful that is for Roam? I’m also wondering about deleting irrelevant notes - especially for Twitter threads etc?
  • If it’s an important source (ie. if you ever want to specifically remember what that book was about, as opposed to just using some of the ideas), you might do a formal writeup - create a page for the authors/the book, summarize the contents (chapters) etc.
  • When there are important ideas, you try to create a Permanent Notes (concept). Declarative name, full sentences etc. This can come from an argument in a book that you summarise, or from an assortment of snippets and your own thoughts that you have captured.
  • In the Permanent Note, you can also be more explicit about linking to sources and evidence.
  • You list the Permanent Notes on a TOC page, and tag them so that you can filter. You should also make links between Permanent Notes to create [[Zettelkasten]]-p