Re:Ask HN: Why the obsession with note taking?
by unfocussed_mike on Thursday January 27, 2022 @06:53AM
(#30099383)
For me, note-taking is:
1) a symptom of being a freelancer with multiple clients who revisits projects sometimes a decade after doing them. It is the only way to proceed -- even if you were to assert that persistent "documentation" of a project is distinct from "notes" about it, those notes are still essential.
2) a route towards making that documentation; it's easier to assemble documentation from things you've noted than to start with a blank page.
3) a way to know, deeply, what it is I actually think about something. Not just what I think right now in that moment, but why. What facts I took into account; what facts I disregarded, why I disregarded them, and why I might need to revisit that next time.
1) a symptom of being a freelancer with multiple clients who revisits projects sometimes a decade after doing them. It is the only way to proceed -- even if you were to assert that persistent "documentation" of a project is distinct from "notes" about it, those notes are still essential.
2) a route towards making that documentation; it's easier to assemble documentation from things you've noted than to start with a blank page.
3) a way to know, deeply, what it is I actually think about something. Not just what I think right now in that moment, but why. What facts I took into account; what facts I disregarded, why I disregarded them, and why I might need to revisit that next time.