## Metadata - Author:: [[fernando-borretti|Fernando Borretti]] - Full Title:: Unbundling Tools for Thought - Category:: #🗞️Articles - URL:: https://borretti.me/article/unbundling-tools-for-thought - Finished date:: [[2022-12-28]] ## Highlights - At first I thought the problem was friction: the higher the activation energy to using a tool, the less likely you are to use it ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gn7fjy9q4d8r1mtqc86b88dc)) - **Todo Lists:** I used to write todo lists in the daily entries in my personal wiki. But this is very spartan: what about recurring tasks, due dates, reminders, etc.? Now I am a very happy user of [Todoist](https://todoist.com/) (which has increased my productivity at least 150%) and I’m not looking back. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gn7fm3mtm5fv6fzdgmtmkzxp)) - It takes practice and discipline to write good spaced repetition flashcards, but once you do, the long-form prose notes are themselves redundant. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gn7fn32kzvdyk2wbzy0xykfx)) - I also tried writing notes to ensure I understand something first, and then translating them to flash cards. I’ve found that, usually, all this does is add an extra layer of friction with no benefit.[3](https://borretti.me/article/unbundling-tools-for-thought#fn:notes) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gn7fnfg8k5xc3hbdz6wfc97m)) - [RemNote](https://www.remnote.com/) combines long-form prose notes and flashcards in the same interface. The result is that both look like a mess ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gn7fpfpxq2r1vwjnkk68m5t4)) - People have this aspirational idea of building a vast, oppressively colossal, deeply interlinked knowledge graph to the point that it almost mirrors every discrete concept and memory in their brain. And I get the appeal of maximalism. But they’re counting [on the wrong side of the ledger](https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD10xx/EWD1036.html#:~:text=wrong%20side%20of%20the%20ledger). Every node in your knowledge graph is a *debt*. Every link doubly so. The more you have, the more in the red you are. Every node that has utility—an interesting excerpt from a book, a pithy quote, a poem, a fiction fragment, a few sentences that are the seed of a future essay, a list of links that are the launching-off point of a project—is drowned in an ocean of banality. Most of our thoughts appear and pass away instantly, for good reason. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gn7ftgt1hnqp5eek9h36ea7j)) - the main drawback is: *you don’t need it* ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gn7nmbx8xbms4ht2t8n0wd74)) - How often, truly, do you find yourself wanting to link a task in your todo list app to a file in Dropbox? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gn7fvh51e3w6ct75n3849vap))  ## Metadata - Author: [[fernando-borretti|Fernando Borretti]] - Full Title:: Unbundling Tools for Thought - Category:: #🗞️Articles - URL:: https://borretti.me/article/unbundling-tools-for-thought - Finished date:: [[2023-01-25]] ## Highlights - At first I thought the problem was friction: the higher the activation energy to using a tool, the less likely you are to use it ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gn7fjy9q4d8r1mtqc86b88dc)) - **Todo Lists:** I used to write todo lists in the daily entries in my personal wiki. But this is very spartan: what about recurring tasks, due dates, reminders, etc.? Now I am a very happy user of [Todoist](https://todoist.com/) (which has increased my productivity at least 150%) and I’m not looking back. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gn7fm3mtm5fv6fzdgmtmkzxp)) - It takes practice and discipline to write good spaced repetition flashcards, but once you do, the long-form prose notes are themselves redundant. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gn7fn32kzvdyk2wbzy0xykfx)) - I also tried writing notes to ensure I understand something first, and then translating them to flash cards. I’ve found that, usually, all this does is add an extra layer of friction with no benefit.[3](https://borretti.me/article/unbundling-tools-for-thought#fn:notes) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gn7fnfg8k5xc3hbdz6wfc97m)) - [RemNote](https://www.remnote.com/) combines long-form prose notes and flashcards in the same interface. The result is that both look like a mess ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gn7fpfpxq2r1vwjnkk68m5t4)) - People have this aspirational idea of building a vast, oppressively colossal, deeply interlinked knowledge graph to the point that it almost mirrors every discrete concept and memory in their brain. And I get the appeal of maximalism. But they’re counting [on the wrong side of the ledger](https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD10xx/EWD1036.html#:~:text=wrong%20side%20of%20the%20ledger). Every node in your knowledge graph is a *debt*. Every link doubly so. The more you have, the more in the red you are. Every node that has utility—an interesting excerpt from a book, a pithy quote, a poem, a fiction fragment, a few sentences that are the seed of a future essay, a list of links that are the launching-off point of a project—is drowned in an ocean of banality. Most of our thoughts appear and pass away instantly, for good reason. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gn7ftgt1hnqp5eek9h36ea7j)) - the main drawback is: *you don’t need it* ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gn7nmbx8xbms4ht2t8n0wd74)) - How often, truly, do you find yourself wanting to link a task in your todo list app to a file in Dropbox? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gn7fvh51e3w6ct75n3849vap))