Conversation

Open challenge for a live "notes tool utilization" contest. I'll represent

, someone can represent

Audience chooses a topic we agree on, then we have 30 minutes to put together the best outline possible on the topic using only our tool.

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Robert Haisfield

@RobertHaisfield

Apr 7, 2020

@andy_matuschak

representing yourself and whatever it is you're using :)

Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Apr 7, 2020

Sorry: mu. I'm not interested in using my notes this way. This fitness function isn't uncorrelated with my goals, but it's a poor basis vector. I really don't identify with the goals of almost anyone who writes about notes. More and more I feel I need to abandon the term "note."

Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Apr 7, 2020

(This sounds a touch uncharitable, but please interpret it charitably) The most common goal for note systems (particularly e.g. BASB) seems to be "I want to be able to rapidly write a short Medium essay from excerpts and jottings." That's fine! It's not my goal.

Nat Eliason

@nateliason

Apr 7, 2020

I totally get that argument, I think it only applies though if you're mainly collecting other peoples ideas vs. making your own ideas more navigable.

Replying to

At the margin, and at least for me, the bottleneck to producing powerful ideas does not appear to be the navigability of my prior ideas. Maybe once I write evergreen notes for a few years, that will become true. It'll be interesting to see.

7:22 PM · Apr 7, 2020Twitter Web App

Replying to

What do you think is the bottleneck?

Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Apr 7, 2020

I wish I knew. Without a writing practice of any kind, an important bottleneck is a lack of consistent pressure on one's developing ideas. Marginal to my current practices, I can't yet characterize them.