Note Taking

These are my opinions after failing to take notes for the past 4 years.

When I use the pronoun "you", know that I mean "I" or "me".

Rules

1. Write down every thought and idea you ever have, and everything you ever learn
2. Give these thoughts nice names
3. Link between them using their nice names
4. Stop here and go no further. Do not organize.

Organization does not scale.

Any amount of organization will fail you.

The best kind of organization will fail you quickly. The worst kind of organization will appear to work for a long time, and then fail.

You may think that without organization, your thoughts and ideas will become a huge, unmaintainable mess.

That is not true. Your thoughts and ideas are already a huge, unmaintainable mess.

Good luck trying to come up with a system to model your thoughts and ideas that will last forever on your first try. I don't fancy your odds.

Even if organization did scale, you simply cannot re-organize years worth of thoughts and ideas, you can only keep going or throw them out.

Throwing out ideas is the worst thing you could ever do.

I could talk about how your notes are a part of your brain or whatever, but I know that would drive me away, so instead I'll just say that throwing out your notes is like beating yourself in the head with a club.

Never ever put yourself in a position to throw out your ideas.

I wish you luck in your journey of avoiding organization.

I hope this helps you come to the realization that you're doing things wrong just a little bit sooner :)