I recently read the bullet journal book. I think it is an uneven book, but the method is solid. The author emphasises using a pen and paper as it helps to form memories, and it matches both studies and my personal experience.

At the same time I have been rolling back some of the automation aids I had for my notes. In particular I had a zettelkasten style directory generation that would emulate the tree hierarchy by checking links and dates.

The problem was that I wasn’t using the generated index at all. It helped to get the last few topics if I missed context, but not to find old notes.

I was using search as a crutch, which is also an impediment to learn the paths to get to the notes or the notes themselves.

So some time ago I started to use a manual index similar to Luhmann’s method as described in How to Take Smart Notes, and use the daily notes as an index similar to the bullet journal.

I think the ownership of the index is the important part. The path to remember how to get to a note. Even the automated timestamp is too hard to use.

While this change has been an improvement in my overall system, it also made me realised how many iterations of my notes I have done. And the big gap in them caused by relying on google search, or email search, or task search.

In all of these cases I gave up on my ownership of the index, even for my own files. Which in my experience is the starting point of getting distracted. Literally the ownership of that entry point.

AI Art

Why would anyone use LLMs for personal notes? The goal is to remember, to sharpen thought. I can understand its use when it is to write for others though (just about).

Recently I read https://theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art by Matthew Inman. It is good and also raises an interesting idea. It seems that there is a distinction between what is meaningful to each of us and deserves our attention versus what we think as chores.

The argument being that it can be acceptable to use LLMs for chores.

I agree with this line of thought: In an ideal world I would rather create a network of people that exchange valuable things that other think of as chores.

With LLMs we are automating them away destroying the network itself, but maybe opening new networks by changing what is chore and isn’t and making us more efficient.

Like modern industrial farming.

While also increasing the extent the structures of power, which is a net negative.

Art is more than art

Inman’s cartoon includes the idea that the purpose of his art is to communicate an emotion, and that the LLM takes that emotion away.

I do not know if the more narrow definition of art as a creation aside usefulness would consider his comics more than art.

Certainly note indexes are not for external consumption, although they do evoke an emotion. The clarity of ownership of the path of the ideas, the retelling of the memories, the classification imposed by our sense making of the world.

The active choice of what is ours vs what is not.

We could have a copy of our thoughts recorded and classified by a machine. An entity separate of us, animated by a external power that decides its actions.

Or simply keep the index, notes, work, skill as part of ourselves.

*#notesystem

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