<small>December 1, 2024</small> I have tried every note-taking tool there is. I've run through all of the note-taking archetypes. I've made my own tools. I've tried the obscure tools, the up and coming tools, the default tools, the pen and paper tools. For a while, I used an Olympia SM9 typewriter as my main text editor. I thought it gave me the distraction-less feel of working with paper, but with the speed of typing on a computer. After all these year, all of these experiments and all of the tool switches, I think I'm at a point where I understand my relationship with note taking. The following is the current state of my note taking system. I use it to navigate the various states of my mind and to make my ideas real. ## Core Philosophy **The core philosophy of my note taking system is that it operates as a continuous flow rather than a storage based archive.** Its primary purpose is to facilitate different types of thinking that lead to creative clarity and action. All of the value in my system emerges from the act of capturing and processing information rather than from reviewing stored notes. This took me forever to figure out. I used to feel guilty that I was taking notes, but never looking back at them. ## Components ![[Gdu_N9wXUAAS4Hu.jpeg]] My system has 3 main components: 1. **CAPTURE**: Rapid externalization of thoughts and the collection of interesting information. 2. **PROCESSING**: Multiple reinforcing feedback loops to deepen understanding. 3. **CRYSTALLIZATION**: Transformation of processed insights into concrete creative outputs Each of these components has a purpose and a defined set of tools. The key for me is mostly never switching these tools once they work. All of the focus has to be on continuously moving through the process of capturing things and turning them into concrete creative outputs. ## Capture There's three ways I capture things: (1) audio dumps, (2) quickly saving things and (3) Futureland. ### Audio Dumps The most powerful way I capture is through audio dumps. Audio dumps are opened ended riffs that I record. They can be about ideas, patterns, insights or problem sets I'm working through. These audio dumps are the highest bandwidth method for getting thoughts out of my head. They allow for natural, unstructured thinking that can happen anywhere. I never actually listen back to these recordings. All of them are immediately transcribed and become the raw materials for deeper processing through LLM conversations. ![[Gdwu0DTXEAAd_hw.jpeg]] I use MacWhisper to record and transcribe audio while working on my MacBook Pro. I use the Voice Memos app to record my ideas on my iPhone, or in other instances I record audio directly into Claude or ChatGPT. ### Quickly saving things My tools for quickly capturing things are intentionally simple because capturing reduces my cognitive load. Once I've saved something, I don't have to keep holding it in my head. I use the camera on my iPhone if I see something interesting. Sometimes I use a personal research page to capture developing thoughts. I use Bookmarks on X a lot. I have folders for "visual references", "ideas to build on", "do not understand" or "read later". I have my reading list on Safari, which I add stuff to but never look back at it. And I use Google Keep for all quick notes and random information. I think its interface is ugly, but I find it very easy to use. ![[GdwxMgZWEAABKrK.jpeg]] Most of the things I quickly save, I never look back at again, but I have found that there's still value in categorizing information that I find interesting. When I marks something as read later, or if I make a note about something someone said, or if I save something as "do not understand" or as "visual reference", it helps me understand my relationship with that information, even if I never look at it again. ### Futureland The third way I capture is through tracking with Futureland. While audio dumps handle my thoughts and and I have Google Keep for handling incoming information, Futureland helps me track the quantitative and qualitative aspects of my daily life. I track things like the number of pomodoros I've completed, water intake, jiu jitsu hours or coffee consumption. I track my streak across all key activities to maintain consistency. ![[Gdwu-lDWUAAN--L.jpeg]] Each tracker has its own repository of progress data and related notes. For instance, my jiu jitsu tracker contains both my training hours and detailed notes from each session. The combination of numerical tracking and note-taking gives me a complete picture of my development in different areas. So while other methods help me handle information and ideas, Futureland helps me capture specific behavioural patterns in my life and whatever I'm trying to learn. ## Processing Processing takes up most of my time and energy. Its purpose is to develop a deeper understanding through multiple reinforcing feedback loops. I use three distinct but complementary approaches, (1) LLM Dialogue Loop, (2) Multimodal Processing, and (3) Notebook Practice. ### LLM Dialogue Loop These days Processing almost always starts when my transcribed audio recordings are passed to an LLM. The LLM's response generates new insights, which often prompt new audio recordings, creating a continuous dialogue. This back and forth can last days or weeks as I work to fully grasp complex ideas. I primarily do this with Claude, and I find it's extremely helpful to give it the context it asks for in each of its replies. I almost always do this through an audio transcription and I keep going until sufficient understanding emerges. ### Multimodal Processing I have found that engaging different cognitive faculties while I am working leads to fuller understanding, this can be a physical notebook, but it can also be specific tools that encourage me to think differently. The centre piece of this approach is Kinopio, where I map out the evolving dialogue between myself and the LLM. ![[Gdw0IcLWQAArSuV.jpeg]] The Kinopio space usually starts sparse and scattered, but gradually as I continue, concepts become clusters, themes and sections. Watching these maps develops is like watching my understanding take form. Throughout this process, I also sometimes save resonant sentences or images to [Are.na](https://are.na/) channels, which sometimes serve as reference materials. These are kind of loose fragments that feel meaningful but I don't know why yet. Often these loose fragments end up in Kinopio too. Whatever feels right at the time. But the critical component to all of this multi-modal processing is when I combine these tools with my physical notebook, which creates a kind of cognitive friction that deepens my comprehension. ### Notebook Practice I love computers because they can make things very quickly, especially with AI tools, and there's no material cost to making things, but I also find this speed can work against forming a deeper understanding. When I am doing my best work, I often have a physical notebook open in front of me, between me and my MacBook Pro. Doing this creates what I call, "a braking effect" on my thinking. The physical presence of my notebook serves as a visual trigger, reminding me to slow down and think critically rather than just clicking and responding. I work through ideas by hand, writing key sentences, sketching diagrams, noting questions, before engaging with the screen. Even just the increased physical distance that the notebook creates between me and my computer helps me maintain a higher level of intentionality in my work. Together, I feel like all of this creates a robust system for me to develop and internalize new concepts. ## Crystallization Crystallization happens when processed insights move from my internal world into external reality. This takes various forms and various scales. From tweets to essays to films to systems, from prototypes to companies. Crystallization works across two dimensions (1) Public Sharing and (2) Project Development. ### Public Sharing Public sharing is how I test ideas and get feedback, and Twitter is the my fastest method to do that. Sometimes just the act of posting (even if I delete the post) on Twitter can help me gauge how sharp my grasp of a concept really is. When I let a post ride out, I don't take all of the feedback as is, but process the parts of it that feel like signal relative to my developing understanding, and I ignore the noise. Sometimes I will try to predict parts of the feedback before posting and see if my prediction lines up with reality. I also share things via direct messages to friends. I have a circle of friends where I know how they think very well. Different people represent a different category of feedback to me. It's interesting to see how something I created bounces around their minds. All of this helps me capture feedback from the external world and then use that feedback to further develop my ideas. ### Project Development As my understanding deepens, it naturally precipitates into action. Projects start to emerge at various scales. The form follows the understanding. As confusion decreases, experimentation naturally increases. For collaborative projects, crystallization takes on another dimension. My role often becomes directional, translating insights and patterns into clear documentation or prototypes that guides team decisions. Each output, whether a tweet or a project, generates feedback that flows back into processing, potentially triggering new capture and deeper understanding. It's a continuous cycle of internal clarity leading to external creation. ※ And that is how I take notes in the west of toronto. [[AI]] [[Systems Thinking]]