Welcome to my notes!

The subjects I spend the most time reading include technology, programming, security, language, business, and self-improvement. But, I will learn anything and everything that interests me. My interests shift from time to time. When I feel that I've run out of steam in pursuing a particular subject, I often end a note with three dots (...) to indicate that there's more to take note of and so I can revisit it later (which I sometimes do). Although, it's not a bad thing to stop a note if you genuinely don't want to continue.

Obsidian is a popular note-taking program used by people who like to thoroughly connect their notes together using links. It's one of the unique features of the program. Personally, however, every time I have tried to create a system of linked notes it has ended up confusing me more than it has helped me. What I like the most about Obsidian is the markdown formatting, themes, plugins, and the subscription syncing service.

I've pursued creating the perfect system of note-taking for more than two years at this point. What you're seeing right now is probably the 13th iteration of my personal notes since I first started getting serious about my personal knowledge management. I feel this is a very common issue with anybody who overthinks about creating a perfect system.

So, how did my notes eventually turn into this? As you read my notes, you may notice that all of them are organized in a question-answer format. My style of note-taking was inspired by this article from Dr. Piotr Wozniak about the effective rules for formulating knowledge. What I've noticed in with this style of note-taking is that distilling information down into a series of simple questions and answers has made it not only easier to learn, but easier to study if I have to revisit my notes.

Part of why I believe this style of notetaking is so effective is because you have to break down the concepts into manageable and discrete pieces of information. Not all of my questions and not all of my answers are simple. But, the beauty of this formatting is I can always go back and break down a question into a series of more simple questions. Here is an example taken from Dr. Wozniak's article:

Don't try to answer a question like, "What are the characteristics of the Dead Sea?" Why? Because the answer is going to be long, complex, and difficult to remember. There are many characteristics of the Dead Sea. How do you even remember which characteristics are included in the response? Instead of this question, ask yourself a series of questions like the above!

Do you see how breaking down a question into a series of more simple questions can aid in comprehension and memory? I've tried other note-taking methods, from Cornell notes to outlines to mind maps. So far, no other method of taking notes has been as appealing to me as this one. I encourage you to give it a try. I also encourage you to read the article by Dr. Wozniak in its entirety.

It also makes it incredibly easy to create flashcards. They're already in flashcard format, so all you'd have to do is pick which questions you need to focus on and create a deck. I recommend the Obsidian Spaced Repetition plugin.

The other side effect of writing notes this way is it forces you to slow down. Intentionally slowing down ensures you're actually thinking about what you're writing and not just copying the information word for word from the source.