Comment by wenc | Hacker News Reader

Comment by wenc | Hacker News Reader

(copy-pasted with modifications from my comment on a similar thread posted earlier)

I used to have an elaborate system, but I converged on a simple solution: I stash everything in a single Google Docs document.

I made the conscious decision to optimize for ease of use, so that the friction/effort to write something down is minimized.

At the same time, I also made a decision to not to adopt any organization system -- anything that increases the friction of use is eschewed. Search was all I needed. I've been using this system for the past 5 years or so, and it's been very productive.

To extract ideas from it, I routinely re-read stuff (it's in log format, so it's very easy to read) and use the Fieldstone approach (Weinberg)[1] to coalesce similar and interesting thoughts and rewrite into larger thoughts. I've gotten a lot of actionable ideas this way (that I actually go on to execute on).

So it's a system optimized for postprocessing rather than pre-processing. (The Fieldstone approach is a method from writing, rather than knowledge management.) I find that pre-processing systems are unsustainable over the long term unless you're exceptionally disciplined (also, it's hard to know how to structure knowledge until you've processed it -- most interesting ideas are a garbled mess when first encountered). I try to build systems that don't rely on sustained human discipline or the necessity of shoehorning into known organization units.

[1] https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2016/05/04/weinberg-on-writing...

"I try to build systems that don't rely on sustained human discipline or the necessity of shoehorning into known organization units." +1 I completely agree on this.

The doc should have grown over time. Do you just append to the doc as you learn something new or do you organise learnings within the doc. I am asking this because if there is no structure there wouldn't there be too much of context switches when you go over them ?

Yes I keep appending and rewriting. The doc keeps growing, but smaller thoughts that form part of a bigger idea get coalesced and rewritten. This is a constant process.

Rewriting is a process of refining. Most ideas get rewritten and iterated on several times before anything coalesces. Also, it's common to have duplicate ideas at different times so coalescing them simultaneously consolidates them.

For instance, when re-reading my doc, when I see multiple ideas related to say topic A, I put all topic A items together (just copy-and-paste into adjacent paragraphs -- nothing more), try to see the bigger picture and then try to rephrase them more succinctly. I constant rewrite and synthesize the disparate ideas into something more cohesive, kind of like snowballs clumping with some getting bigger over time. Some ideas do die in the process (you can copy-and-paste these into another Docs document), while others grow bigger and become more precise in their expression.

The one idea behind the Fieldstone approach, often not considered in other methods, is engagement of the emotions. Of 100 ideas, I may only feel passionate about 5 at any given time because they resonate in my situation. For instance, some ideas/arguments/metanarratives which were meh to me pre-COVID now feel urgent, and with my current perspective, I've an emotional investment in pursuing and expanding them.

You can have 100 ideas but you really on need to work on the few that you really care about, ie. those whose time has come. Only pursuing ideas that you're emotional about helps you focus and not be overwhelmed by the myriad ideas that are in the document.

Inspiration is lumpy, but with a store of constantly refining/evolving potential ideas in the greenhouse -- which you cultivate over time -- you are better positioned to take advantage of those on the verge of blooming.

It reminds me of what Richard Feynman said about convincing others that you're a genius: "always have 6 important problems percolating in your head; when you come across a new idea, test it against the 6. Once in a while you will hit jackpot and find a good match between problem and solution. Everybody will then think you're a genius for seeing the connection so quickly, when in reality you may have been thinking about the problem for years." (paraphrased)

How long is your document currently, out of interest?

75 pages, 31k words.

I think your approach sounds interesting.

When you say you write things down in log format, do you use a field as a tag?

Any chance you can paste an example entry?

I don't usually tag my entries though I could. Here are two interesting ideas (by other people) that I came across, which I jotted down in order to process later. As I come across other related ideas, I cluster and rewrite when I feel like it, if they pique my interest.

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Tobi Luetke: use systems thinking as a shared language. Drawing diagrams elucidates an idea and exposes assumptions.

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