I wrote the following in 2021 but can’t find where I posted it, and I’m feeling it again, so I’m recording it here
It feels like everyone (or at least those in my bubble) is consumed by the “how” of note-taking. Tools, workflows, processes, backlinks, and on and on. Obsidian? Roam? Paper? It’s fun to explore and interesting to read about and there is no end of things to distract myself with.
None if it really matters, though. We endlessly split hairs and wring our hands and gaze at our navels over irrelevant minutiae around taking notes. It’s exhausting.
As an attempt to extract myself from this loop, I think I’ll stop taking notes for a while. This doesn’t mean I’m going to stop writing/blogging. Blogging isn’t note-taking. Nor is journaling. I’ll still do that. What I won’t be doing is jotting down my recent thoughts about minimalism or digital record-keeping or the details of a conversation I had with a colleague or how much I paid for the printer paper I just ordered. Who cares?
No more Org vs Obsidian vs Tinderbox vs The Archive or what-have-you until I stop obsessing over which is better or more private or more open source or if it uses the right flavor of Markdown. No more worrying about whether I’m taking “smart” enough notes or if this note should be “evergreen” or not. How long should a zettel be, anyway?
There are lots of smart, productive, happy people around who take very few notes and aren’t missing anything. I’d like to be one of those people for a minute.