Increasingly curious as to why the tools-for-thought folk talk a lot about note-taking tool features and plugins and not at all about the cognitive science of better externalised thinking.
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An example of why paying attention to the cognitive science is important:
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One of the basic ideas: bullet points make it easy to create the *facade* of order. You don't need to specify logical relations, like "A causes B" or "A explains B" - bullet format encourages jumbles without narrative or logical cohesiveness.
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Also relevant (though this one demands some understanding of cognitive flexibility theory, and why learning in ill-structured domains is markedly different from structured domains): citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/downlo
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For the record, I’m genuinely interested in thinkers who grapple with the underlying cognitive effects of their tools. The main point I’m making with the link out to the Tufte thread is this:
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Replying to @jithamithra
That wasn’t the point of linking to that thread 
Sure, TfTs don’t push you to summarise, but then what do they push you towards?
Are the forms of cognition they encourage better in some ways, or worse? What ways?
Where are the Tufte-style analyses?
Sure, TfTs don’t push you to summarise, but then what do they push you towards?
Are the forms of cognition they encourage better in some ways, or worse? What ways?
Where are the Tufte-style analyses?1
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If this is meant as a dig against outliner TfTs, I don't get it. Creating the "facade of order" is exactly _why_ I use them. I want to brain-dump as fast as possible while taking notes, not get bogged down in formalizing relationships. (That's what discourse graph ext is for)
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I haven’t read Tufte’s full argument yet, but it matches what we’ve observed about the difficulty of transmitting information in outliner form. (I’m fairly certain you’ve talked about this before). Outliners work in single player mode, but perhaps not multiplayer.
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Replying to
Great thread. Thank you for curating.
Only contra-point - yes many TfTs are outliners, but they're also not PowerPoint. They don't invisibly push you to summarize, summarize.
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That wasn’t the point of linking to that thread 😬
Sure, TfTs don’t push you to summarise, but then what do they push you towards?
Are the forms of cognition they encourage better in some ways, or worse? What ways?
Where are the Tufte-style analyses?
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I find the irritation of bullet points in outlines curious. I think they only get in the way as much as you let them. Sure they *can* restrict thought & mystify connections, yet they can also disappear & you can write however you want. I even fade their color to near invisible.