Ask HN: Are methods like zettelkasten / Roam a waste of time?

6 points by wizardofmysore 4 years ago | 2 comments

There seems like a lot of traction for this technique, is it any useful? I want to hear any criticism of it before I start using / trying it out.

Multicomp 4 years ago |

so this is a handwavy, ymmv answer to a broad question, but i will avoid saying 'it depends' and try for a concise 80% hot take answer.

if you use journalling as a 'write only' medium where you don't often review what you've written, you just want to get the thoughts to stop ping ponging in your brain, then yes these kind of systems tend to be a waste of time because you don't get good roi out of the effort required to link and crosslink verious notes over time. too much organization to content ratio. use paper, joplin, onenote or kjots and move on.

if however you already do something like the weekly getting things done review OR want to / have to keep a lab notebook to refer to what you previously learned and since forgot (which is what i want to try using onenote per https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28678449) then adding the additional complexity of roam (eww saas) or zetelkassen (no saas yay) then go for it.

ai_ia 4 years ago |

I like this quote by Bukowski:

>If you are you going to try, go all the way.

With regards to roam or any note taking tool, try to look up how power users are using it. Many users freely share their work flow. I wouldnt recommend buying a course or if you can afford, go ahead.

Try to set it as homepage. It should be the first thing that you should open. Learn to capture small tidbits of information. And mark a time of calender weekly to tidy up your notes.

Try this for four weeks, you will notice that it really helps in organizing thoughts in your brain. Ymmv though.