Hacker News Reader

Comment by dmingod666 | Hacker News Reader

I don't know about most people but devs should have their own personal knowledge management system ( do it on any tool, notion, evernote..) but it's an absolute must. These facts you talk about are fleeting and in the moment the revelations of the learnings seem so clear, but 4 weeks and all the little details go out the window. Save all your little Linux command pipe chains. Config values that worked and few sentences of caution to your future self of what to do and not to do. Otherwise you're just going to make the same mistakes in an years time...

View on HN

Can I get a raise of hands for folks who think "Dream Machines" is the #1 book on software? How about for those who believe that Engelbart's Augmenting Human Intellect is a driving force for humanity? And that software is a radical embodiment of that all? I think we can get a modest show of hands; I've seen enough confirming points of view from about. (Would that I have a memex to highlight all the mentions I've seen, all the other endorsements!)

Elsewhere I've talked a bit about whether we are romantically engaged in software development. Or whether we are justifying ourselves, merely up to fun.

And I think this comment hones in a lot on what the real chase of this all is, on where we can be radically romantic & hopeful & builders of enduring meaning. It's good advice, for just trying to get better. But this act of enhancing ourselves, learning, cobbling together pools of wisdom: it's the meta-act, it's what software development enables, for software & for other areas. A push for excellence. Software both requires us to improve ourselves, to learn, but it's also a tool for learning, for augmenting ourselves, for becoming more than what limited things we might otherwise be constrained to develop into.

Working not just with but on personal information systems, is, in my view, a nearly sacrosanct act. I see developers like Karli Coss[1] as vanguards of humanity, a bringer about of higher orders & new ranks of human development, via software. Don't merely just use a knowledge management system, develop them! This is the core point, the core enablement of software, and it's not automation or products or ai that has ultimate relevance: it's this human development, this getting better at getting better. Invest yourself into knowledge management systems, build them to further reaches. Pick up really good open source tools like Foam (built as a vscode extension!) & build plugins, expand, grow! Excel! Keep expanding the reach that your mind can travel, by actively engaging yourself in building better bicycles of the mind.

[1] https://github.com/karlicoss

[2] https://github.com/foambubble/foam

Reply on news.ycombinator.com