Notes on Notetaking

There are times when people stumble upon a brilliant idea. Be it in a shower or a random walk outside, a brilliant idea rattles their mind. Yet people continue their day without taking note of it. People say they will not forget the idea. Which could be true—if it were a brilliant idea, we would not ever forget it—or so many thought.

The problem with keeping too much brilliant ideas solely in the head is that given enough time, the brain will forget it. And the more ideas the brain carries, the more ideas slip away.

The importance of notetaking reveals itself: you can offload your memory to something incapable of forgetting. That could be a piece of paper. Or a document on your computer. I do both.

Some doubt that taking note of something is better than burning it into memory. Paper burns and computers break some say. They get lost, forever gone. The solution is simple: make copies of notes. Treat your ideas and notes the way dooms-day preppers treat their supplies: with backups upon backups upon backups.

Some say that reading and notetaking is a waste of time…

…But the real waste of time is reading and NOT learning and NOT taking notes at all. Reading and not learning and not taking notes is no different than not reading at all; it is simply mindless consumption.

Even reading and taking notes on something you already know about is not a waste of time. The reason is simple: memory is fallible. And although memory degrades over time, notes can be copied over and over again. If a note is lost, there are backups. If a memory is lost, is there any backup? (This question hits deeper when you begin to forget what dead relatives look and sound like. Luckily, recordings and photographs can bring those senses back.)

Elaboration and connecting notes is a good substitute for memory.

Elaboration and connecting notes allow people to pull from other different important notes. When one note requires an understanding of a different note, those two notes entwine. And the more the number of notes entwine, the firmer the base of knowledge becomes. Mentally, the more elaborations and connections one makes, the more mental surface area one’s mind can hook onto—without the need of remembering isolated pieces of knowledge.

For every piece of isolated knowledge, it is an opportunity to elaborate and make connections to other notes. Take, for example, the number 1929. Is there anything special about the number, isolated on its lonesome? No. But when I elaborate: On October 29, 1929, millions of investors In America collectively lost billions of dollars… things begin to click and spin in the head that, yes, I am writing about Black Tuesday and the Great Depression.

As one could see, elaborations and connecting notes allow people to build upon a context of another note, thus entwining the notes together. When notes entwine, the results are simple: when one note arises in thought, so does the other, thus the two notes become inseparable.

Of course, one should not connect random notes together, but instead connect meaningful notes. And the more notes one meaningfully connects, the harder it is to forget because each note tugs from all the different notes. Thus, elaborating and connecting notes increase the mental surface area of understanding. And the larger the connections, the larger the surface area, the more the mind has a knowledge base to latch itself.

You can take notes at anytime, anywhere you live.

The ease of notetaking continues to be easier throughout the decades. Phones allow people to take notes as ideas arise. Pen and paper is cheap and can be found at your nearest supply store; even drug stores have pen and paper. Even keeping an idea in the head has become easier because of the growth of better educational methods (such as chunking or mind palaces. Though, I say write your ideas down somewhere). As long as tools are cheap and abundant, there is no excuse to not take notes of brilliant ideas.

Notetaking when combined with the internet can help scale amazing teachers.

It is important to combine notetaking with internet access. With internet access, students can learn on the internet and take notes. These students can learn and take notes from the best teachers.

One problem with education in America no one brings attention toward is that public and private education is geographically locked in one place. Meaning, a student in a crappy learning environment will most likely not receive quality education compared to peers who are in quality learning environments. Regions with poorer standard of living generally do not have better learning environments than those with higher standards of living.

That is not to say that higher standards of living mean better education because one could have higher standards of living and foster un-dedicated, under-educated children through pampering.

In either case, there are students who are not sufficiently learning and taking notes because they lack access, at least geographically, to great schools. This is easier to see when comparing universities: not every student has access to Harvard or Stanford education, only a select few.

That is why it is important for every student to have access to the internet and to have the ability to take notes. With the internet, students from any location can choose their teachers. Many of these teachers are not teachers in an educational-system sense. These teachers are world-class people, not a random professor. Any student, whether the age of 10 to 20 and beyond, could learn investing advice from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger or how to approach life from philosophers like Seneca or Lao Tzu online in the internet is a great superpower.

Notetaking helps here because one could write down the lessons these world-class people offer to the world, then and apply these lessons to their own life. And such notes are easily shareable, such as Blake Master’s notes on Peter Thiel’s lectures in Stanford, allows great teachers to scale beyond geographical restraints.

Contradictions and paradoxes become easier to see and easier to dissect when comparing notes.

Gather enough notes, and one will eventually find contradictions and paradoxes. Each contradiction and paradox is an indicator of unresolved problems or unexplained insight. Meaning, there is an opportunity for a solution or an explanation for the contradiction and paradox. Simultaneously, it means that there are more ideas to discover and more notes to take. And when there are contradicting notes—all with logical conclusions and strong arguments and strong counterarguments—what is there to believe?

As an easy example, proverbs—both ancient and modern—are full of contradictions. Haste makes waste; Time waits for no man. You’re never too old to learn; Can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Knowledge is power; Ignorance is bliss. Money talks; Talk is cheap.
(As a side note, mentioning contradictory proverbs when people mention proverbs bends their brain a little. We all heard them, even the contradictory ones, yet it makes us think about what is true and what is not; what is the correct answer and what is not) As one could see, there are plenty of contradictions here. I am sure you already are familiar other contradictions from other proverbs.

Obviously, these proverbs are highly contextual. But it highlights that life is full of contradictions and paradoxes—or is it?

It may be difficult discerning the truth, especially when brilliant authors offer brilliant ideas for how the world works, notetaking allows one to see where in particular these brilliant authors missed or overlooked (and it does happen).